Invasion of Quebec (1775)

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Invasion of Canada, 1775
Part of the American Revolutionary War

Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec (John Trumbull, 1786)
Date1775–1776
Location
Primarily the Lake Champlain and St. Lawrence River valleys
Result Defeat of American invasion;
British counter-offensive
Belligerents
American Revolutionaries British Empire
Commanders and leaders
Richard Montgomery †
Benedict Arnold		 Guy Carleton

The Invasion of Canada in 1775 was the first major military initiative by the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Two separate expeditions were launched, which joined forces but were defeated at the Battle of Quebec in December 1775. The British then launched a counter-offensive in 1776, driving the Americans back to Fort Ticonderoga. The end of the campaign set the stage for the Saratoga campaign of 1777.

Background

In the spring of 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Soon after, the conflict was at a standstill, with the British Army held up in a siege of Boston. During this long standoff, the American Continental Congress sought a way to seize the initiative elsewhere.

Congress had previously invited French-Canadians to join the American Revolution as the fourteenth colony, but this failed to happen. Therefore, a plan was devised to drive the British Empire from the primarily francophone colony of Quebec (comprising present-day Quebec and Ontario). Two expeditions were undertaken.

Congress authorized General Philip Schuyler, commander of the Northern Department, to mount an invasion to drive British forces from Canada. He sent General Richard Montgomery north with an invasion force. General George Washington also sent Benedict Arnold towards Quebec City with a supporting force.

Montgomery's expedition

On September 16, 1775, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery marched north from Fort Ticonderoga with about 1,700 militiamen, defeating the British at the Battle of Fort St. Jean on November 3, and then entering Montreal unopposed on November 13. General Guy Carleton, the governor of Canada, escaped to Quebec City. Montgomery then moved towards Quebec City.

American attack on Quebec: routes of the Arnold and Montgomery expeditions.

Arnold's expedition

The second expedition was led by Benedict Arnold. In 1775, the Continental Congress generally adopted Arnold's plan for the invasion of Canada, but Arnold was not included in the command structure for the effort. Thus rebuffed, Arnold returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and approached George Washington with the idea of a supporting eastern invasion force aimed at Quebec City. Because there had been little direct action at Boston after the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, many units were bored with garrison life and eager for action. Washington agreed with Arnold's proposal. He appointed Arnold a colonel, and together they visited each line unit to ask for volunteers.

Arnold eventually selected a force of 750 men. Washington added Daniel Morgan's company and some other riflemen. The frontiersmen, from the Virginia and Pennsylvania wilderness, were better suited to wilderness combat than to a siege.

The plan called for the men to cover the 180 miles (290 km) from the Kennebec River to Quebec in 20 days. They expected to find relatively light defenses since British Commander Carleton would be busy handling Schuyler's forces at Montreal. Arnold sent ahead to Fort Western (in present day Maine) to have supplies and bateaux readied for his force. The expedition moved by sea and spent five days at Fort Western organizing supplies and preparing the boats.

The men expected to go up the Kennebec River and then descend the Chaudière River to Quebec. After staying for three days at Colburn's Shipyard in Gardinerston, where Reuben Colburn built the bateaux at Washington's request in just 15 days, they set out from Fort Western on September 25. Their troubles began almost immediately.

The bateaux were built from green, split pine planks because of a lack of dried lumber at that time of year and were basically flat bottom rafts that could not be rowed but had to be poled against the stream. Colburn traveled with the army, repairing the bateaux as they went, but in hauling them upstream and lowering them down the Chaudiere, many supplies and some men were lost. Rain and violent storms ruined more. Lieutenant Colonel Roger Enos turned back with his division, taking 300 men and some of the supplies with him.

The maps the expedition had started with were faulty, since the British frequently allowed publication of incorrect maps to deceive future enemies. The journey turned out to be 350 miles (560 km), not 180. After the expedition ran out of supplies, the men began to eat anything, including their dogs, their shoes, cartridge boxes, leather, moss, and tree bark. On November 6, the expedition reached the south shore of the St. Lawrence River; Arnold had 600 of his original 1,100 men.

However, Arnold thought they could still take the city. The defenders were only about 100 British regulars under Lieutenant Colonel Allen Maclean, supported by several hundred poorly organized local militia. If the Americans could scatter the militia with accurate fire, they could overwhelm the outnumbered regulars. When they finally reached the Plains of Abraham on November 14, Arnold sent a negotiator with a white flag to demand their surrender, but to no avail. The Americans, with no cannons, faced a fortified city. When the frigate Lizard moved into the river to cut off their rear, they were forced to withdraw to Pointe aux Trembles.

Finally, on December 2, Montgomery came down river from Montreal with 300 troops and bringing captured British supplies and winter clothing. The two forces united, and plans were made for an attack on the city.

Battle of Quebec

Main article: Battle of Quebec (1775)

Montgomery joined Arnold in an assault on Quebec City on December 31, 1775, but they were soundly defeated by Carleton. Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, and many men were taken prisoner, including Daniel Morgan and Ethan Allen. When General John Thomas arrived to take command, he found the army severely weakened by the march north, smallpox, and the harsh Canadian winter. He immediately began a withdrawal.

Carleton's counteroffensive

In 1776, British forces in Canada were strengthened by troops under General John Burgoyne and Hessian mercenaries. Another attempt was made by the Revolutionaries to push back towards Quebec, but it failed at Trois-Rivières on June 8, 1776. The new American commander, General Thomas, died of smallpox.

Carleton then launched his own invasion and defeated Arnold in the Battle of Valcour Island in October. Arnold fell back to Fort Ticonderoga, where the invasion of Canada had begun. The invasion of Canada ended as a disaster for the Americans, but Arnold's improvised navy on Lake Champlain had the effect of delaying a full-scale British counter thrust until the Saratoga campaign of 1777. Carleton was heavily criticized in London for not pursuing the American retreat from Canada more aggressively, and so command of the 1777 offensive was given to General Burgoyne instead.

Casualties

Returns of the Continental Army troops from Canada in May 1776, which show how hard the campaign was on the soldiers:

  • Total: 5,040 soldiers fit for duty and 1,253 sick

Further reading

  • Bird, Harrison. Attack on Quebec. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
  • Codman, John. Arnold's Expedition to Quebec. New York, 1902.
  • Desjardin, Thomas A. Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006. ISBN 0-312-33904-6.
  • Hatch, Robert McConnell. Thrust for Canada: The American Attempt on Quebec in 1775–1776. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. ISBN 0-395-27612-8.
  • Roberts, Kenneth. March to Quebec. New York, 1938; revised 1940.
  • Shelton, Hal T. General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution: From Redcoat to Rebel. New York: New York University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-7975-1.
  • Smith, Justin H. Arnold's March to Quebec. New York, 1903.
  • Smith, Justin H. Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony. 2 volumes. New York, 1907.

External links


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