The  first year of the American Revolution against British oppression had gotten off to an unexpectedly positive start. The American “Minute Men’s” effective resistance at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 had been followed both by a surprise Connectican-led takeover of the strategically important British Fort Ticonderoga in early May and an impressive American showing at the Battle of Bunker Hill a month later. But a poorly planned and under-supported American expedition to “liberate” Canada from the British that autumn had produced a decidedly mixed bag of results.

   Led by French-and-Indian-War-hero Brigadier General David Wooster of New Haven, Connecticut militia had joined the 1200- man expedition of General Richard Montgomery of New York, marching north from Fort Ticonderoga in late August.

Montgomery hoped to move quickly into Canada, seize the commercial center of Montreal, and concentrate his forces outside the citadel of Quebec before first snowfall. But lack of organization and critical supply problems stalled the American advance at two small forts along the Richelieu river long before they reached Montreal. Taking them required a six-week long siege. During that seige, Litchfield native Ethan Allan ignored orders from Montgomery and tried to take Montreal by surprise on his own initiative, only to find himself  captured, put in chains, and on his way to an English prison in Cornwall.

When Montgomery’s army finally reached Montreal on November 13, the city fathers surrendered the city without firing a shot. British commander Sir Guy Carleton had abandoned the lightly defended city,  retreatting to the much more defensible stronghold  at Quebec.

In the effort to bring Canada into the American union in 1775, two American armies converged on the fortress at Quebec City.

Initially, the capture of Montreal was hailed as a major American victory.That victory soon became a vexing problem,though, as General David Wooster, given command of the occupied city, sought to impose martial law. The Americans’ repeated failure to pay for provisions purchased on credit from Canadians sympathetic to the American cause –  caused by the American Congress’s inability to provide funds for its troops – completely alienated a large group of potential American allies whose support had been seen as crucial. Their resistance compelled Wooster to rule with an increasingly heavy hand, further exacerbating anti-American feelings among a once supportive Montreal citizenry.

By the time Montgomery reached Quebec city on December 2nd, the Canadian winter had arrived in earnest. There he found another American force, led by Benedict Arnold, who had reached Quebec in mid November after a horrifically challenging march from Massachusetts across Northern New England. The soldiers of the newly combined American army – cold and poorly provisioned, with many sick and most  nearing the end of their enlistment commitments – were more than eager to wrap up the campaign and head home.

Within Quebec’s city walls, the British were determined to put up a fierce resistance. Refusing to even entertain American negotiators seeking their surrender, the French Canadian and British forces worked tirelessly to shore up the city’s crumbling defenses against attack.

Ultimately, Montgomery’s and Arnold’s  fears that American troops would simply decide to leave their posts and go home, f forced the Americans hand. In the predawn darkness of December 31, 1775, amid a howling blizzard and knee-deep snow, two American columns—one led by Montgomery, the other by Arnold of Connecticut—advanced through the storm toward the walled city of Quebec. Their aim was to capture it by surprise, and close the American Revolution’s first year with victory.

The storm became their enemy. Montgomery’s men, struggling along the icy banks of the St. Lawrence River, walked straight into a blast of British grapeshot that killed their general instantly. Arnold’s Connecticut troops, identifiable by sprigs of hemlock in their hats, fought their way through narrow streets under musket fire. A musket ball shattered Arnold’s leg, and command passed to Captain Daniel Morgan, who pressed forward until he and his men were surrounded and forced to surrender.

Knee shattered by an enemy bulet, Arnold was carried from the field moments after the battle began.

By sunrise, the Battle of Quebec was over. Montgomery lay dead in the snow, Arnold wounded and carried from the field, and nearly four hundred Americans—many of them Connecticut men from Captain Oliver Hanchett’s Suffield company—were prisoners of war.

The dream of welcoming Canada as the “fourteenth colony” was buried beneath the snow that New Year’s Eve. Yet out of the defeat came endurance. The survivors—ragged, frostbitten, and half-starved—would lay siege to Quebec through the winter, finally conceding full defeat when British reinforcements arrived by sea the following spring. .

The first year of the American Revolution had ended in disaster.
The “times that try men’s souls,” truly began—Today in Connecticut History.

 

Col. John Trumbull, “The Death of Montgomery at Quebec,” Yale University Art Gallery

 

Further Reading

“Invasion of Quebec, 1775”  RevolutionaryWar.us

Tom Hand, “The Continental Army’s Largely Forgotten Invasion of Quebec, ” Americana Corner

“Quebec City QC December 31, 1775” American Battlefield Trust