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| Major General Philip Schuyler by John Trumbull, circa 1792 |
It was November of 1775, and Major General Philip Schuyler had had enough. A persistent attack of an illness he described as a “violent flux” kept him stuck at Fort Ticonderoga for most of October and all of November. Instead of leading the Northern Department to begin an invasion of Canada, he was confined to a sick bed. The expedition, which he had planned, was intended to weaken the British strongholds in the area and gain support of the French Canadians, taking advantage of their tense relations with the British following the French and Indian War. The invasion of Canada was an undertaking George Washington would call "of unmeasurable Importance to the Cause we are engaged in.” Due to Schuyler’s ill health, command over the invasion was instead given to Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had previously been passed over for appointment as Major General in favor of Schuyler. Montgomery was in many ways an ideal replacement for Schuyler; he had more experience in combat, and, vitally, he had participated in a successful invasion of Canada over the same route for the British during the French and Indian War.
Included
in the plans to invade Canada, the New York colony was tasked by Congress to determine
whether or not the Canadians would be amenable to the Continental Army coming
to “liberate” them from the British. Washington expressed concern there was “some
Danger” that the assault on Canada would alarm the inhabitants so much that
they would break their neutrality and side with the British. He assured
Schuyler if they acted with discernment, the Canadians would welcome the Continental
Army as their liberators. Congress officially authorized the
invasion of Canada on June 21st. Due to significant delays,
however, Montgomery would not leave for Canada until August 31st;
these delays ultimately proved fatal.
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| Map of the routes taken by Montgomery and Arnold in their two-pronged assault on Quebec |
Two expeditions into Canada launched in the late summer and early fall: one under the command of General Montgomery coming at Quebec from southwesterly Fort Ticonderoga, the other under the command of Benedict Arnold launching from Cambridge, Massachusetts and traveling northwest through Maine. Montgomery and his troops encountered several early successes on the road to Quebec. The Continental Army, led by Montgomery successfully took Fort Chambly, Fort St. Jean, and Montreal, clearing a path for the army to reach Quebec unimpeded. Colonel Arnold’s half of the expedition was significantly more problematic from the outset. Even though the route to Quebec through Maine was technically shorter, the terrain was considerably more difficult to traverse, and subsequently letters from Arnold were few and far between. Many letters from Washington and Schuyler note with concern that they were unsure of Where Arnold and his troops were. In late October, the commander of Colonel Arnold’s Rear Division, Colonel Roger Enos, deserted the expedition, returning with his troops to Cambridge when they found provisions to be significantly wanting. Enos wrote to George Washington informing him of his intentions to return to Cambridge, “When we took the Situation of our Divisions into Consideration & upon the whole for Several Reasons it was thot best for my Whole Division to Return & furnish those that proceeded with all our provisions”. Washington was waiting for Enos in Cambridge and had him arrested for “leaving his Commanding Officer without permission, or orders”. Enos was court martialed but was cleared by the court of all charges. This event was further confirmation that the state of the Continental Army was growing increasingly dire. Additionally, several officers under Arnold told Montgomery that they would only continue their service if they were allowed to do so under another officer. These perpetual personnel issues were characterized by Washington as an “egregious want of publick Spirit.”
Despite
his optimism after the taking of Montreal, Washington remained pragmatic,
understanding that the quick surrender at Montreal would leave the British more
time and more supplies to fortify Quebec. He wrote to John Hancock on November
19th, “as it is Likely the Governor Carlton will with what forces he Can
Collect after the Surrender of the rest of
Canada, throw himself into Quebec, & there make his last effort.” General
Carleton did exactly this, letting Montreal fall with little expenditure of
forces, which allowed him to make a quick escape by boat to Quebec to prepare
for attack. After the surrender, the British garrison at Montreal dumped the
entirety of their supply of powder into the river so it could not be used by
the Americans.
Meanwhile,
at Fort Ticonderoga, Schuyler was still inhibited by his illness and now
dismayed at what he perceived as the lack of discipline amongst the American
forces. He wrote to George Washington in November, “Habituated to Order, I
cannot without the most extreme Pain, see that Disregard of Discipline,
Confusion & Inattention which reigns so General in this Quarter, & am
therefore determined to retire…” Schuyler was not the only one suffering
fatigue from command; General Montgomery also expressed his desire to be done
with military life, writing to Schuyler that he was “weary of Power.”.
This was a sentiment Schuyler empathized with greatly and lamented to
Washington that both he and Montgomery had been “drove to the Necessity of
Wheedling, Coaxing & Even Lying… in Order to carry on the Service.”
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| General Richard Montgomery by Alonzo Chappel, circa 1840 |
Prior to the outbreak of fighting during the Revolutionary War, Montgomery had left military service and planned to live the rest of his life as a gentleman farmer on his farm in Westchester, and he desired greatly to return to that life. Montgomery had little of the optimism about success in Canada that was seemingly so abundant in General Washington. He worried about the dangerous mix of low morale and the impending expiration of the enlisted men's commissions. In Washington’s opinion, however, “No Troops were ever better provided or higher paid,” an observation not supported by the myriad testimonies from enlisted men and officers in the field. Montgomery wrote frequently to both Schuyler and Washington requesting badly needed supplies, noting that the men were in much want of money, clothes, and food. Schuyler also had concerns about the lack of specie and frequently wrote to Congress asking for hard currency.
“The
Urgent Necessity of an immediate supply of Gold or Silver, strikes me so
forcibly, that Congress will pardon me, if I seem importunate, & intreat
them to send me what can be got at Philadelphia by Express, as none is to be
had at Albany.” He understood the issues the Canadians had with taking the
Continental Army’s paper money, saying that they had “suffered much by paper
Currency, and a burnt Child dreads the fire.”
The
siege of Quebec started on December 6th, and General Carleton
resolutely refused to surrender. The impending expiration of the enlisted men’s
enrollment forced Montgomery to act quickly, and a full-frontal attack was
planned for December 31st. This sped up timeline left no
room to account for the weather conditions, and the attack on the 31st
took place in the midst of a blizzard. The Continental Army was also
outnumbered, with Schuyler’s repeated requests for reinforcements to be sent to
Canada having been declined by Congress. The American forces that attacked
Quebec were mentally weakened by the lack of morale and physically weakened by
the lack of food and proper clothing. Montgomery had refused to allow his men
to take the clothes from captured British soldiers as he was a strict observer
of military code and would not allow even enemy soldiers to be stripped of
their belongings, a viewpoint that garnered him significant ire from the men
whose clothes were almost entirely threadbare in the harsh Canadian winter.
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| The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, John Trumbull, 1786 |
During the battle, the British had been firing at the Americans intensely to keep them away from the city walls, and Montgomery incorrectly assumed that the British must be out of artillery at that point, vastly underestimating their strength. Montgomery was killed instantly, never learning that on December 9th Congress had resolved to promote him to the rank of Major General. On the day he died, Philip Schuyler wrote Montgomery a letter congratulating him on his promotion. The battle was a decisive victory for the British, reporting only 5 causalities, in comparison to the 50 American soldiers killed and the 400 taken prisoner. Philip Schuyler would not learn of Montgomery’s death until nearly two weeks later, on January 13th. It seems, however, that either mounting fears about the desperate condition of the army in Canada, or the lack of any good news about the outcome of the battle, were starting to plague Schuyler’s thoughts, and on January 8th he wrote to the already deceased Montgomery, “Your Force at Quebec is so small that I feel a most distressing Anxiety lest an accident should happen to you and Colo. Arnold, which might be attended with the most fatal Consequences…”.
By
January of 1776, Montgomery was dead, and Schuyler was left to reassess his
dedication to the cause of American independence. For much of 1775, Schuyler
had still been hopeful for a reconciliation between England and her colonies,
but he reached a turning point during that winter. Perhaps the death of his
good friend Montgomery by the British had alienated him from the mother country,
or perhaps the success of the Canadian campaign up until Quebec had proved to
him that the Continental Army had the ability to stand up to the British. Whatever the reason, in January
of 1776 he wrote to Washington of his commitment to “sink or swim” with his
country. Following news of Montgomery’s death, he rescinded his request to
retire, admitting that the weakened state of the American forces reinvigorated
him, in spite of his weak health, to do what he could for the cause of liberty.
