Montreal Campaign: Index

Below is a listing of blog posts I’ve written concerned with the operations of Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery’s operations in Canada in 1775 – especially the siege of Fort Saint-Jean and the subsequent capture of Montreal.

General:

• Brief Overview of the Invasion of Canada
• Carleton Defends Canada
• Fort Saint-Jean
• On Maps

The Invasion Begins:

• First American Advance (An aside on research)
• Second American Advance
• Third American Advance
• Skirmish at Rivière Saint-Jean (An aside on research)


• Livingston's War (includes the capture of Fort Chambly)

Battle of Longue-Pointe (September 25, 1775)

• Guy Carleton vs. Ethan Allen
• In Their Own Words
• In Search of a Lost Battlefield
• The Battle of Longue-Pointe
• Update: Finding the Longue-Pointe Battlefield

Battle of Longueuil (October 30, 1775)

• Operations on the St. Lawrence
• The Longueuil Battlefield
• The Battle of Longueuil

The Siege of Fort Saint-Jean (September 17-November 3, 1775)

• The Siege of Fort Saint-Jean
• Final Bombardment of Fort Saint-Jean
• Fruits of Victory

Fight at Sorel (November 8 & 15, 1775)

• Struggle for Sorel
• Surrender at Lavaltrie

Epilogue: Triumph & Tragedy

• To the Gates of Quebec
• Battle of Quebec

Some Military Units:

• Canadian Volunteers (1775)
• Green Mountain Boys
• New York Regiments of 1775

Livingston's War

An American army commanded by Major-General Philip Schuyler crossed into southern Canada on September 4, 1775, and established a base at L’Île-aux-Noix. The next day, Schuyler wrote an address to the people of Canada, informing them of his intentions and requesting their support. He also sent north Colonel Ethan Allen of Vermont and Major John Brown of Massachusetts.

Allen and Brown soon linked up with a body of pro-American Canadians organized by James Livingston. These men kept watch on the British garrisons at Fort Saint-Jean and Fort Chambly, and awaited the advance of Schuyler’s army. On or about September 11, Allen, however, couldn’t resist the temptation to capture five royal artillerymen [1] travelling between the two forts.

At the time, Livingston was operating with a small party of men on Île Sainte-Thérèse, between Fort Chambly and Fort Saint-Jean. He lamented to Schuyler, “I have begun a war,” because of Allen’s action. Livingston could scarcely provide his volunteers with provisions, arms, or ammunition. No matter. The next day, the British sent out two bateaux from Fort Chambly, one of which allegedly contained 20 armed men, and the other stores for Fort Saint-Jean. As the British neared Île Sainte-Thérèse, Livingston’s men blasted them with musket fire, killing or wounding as many as a dozen men, and sending the dazed survivors fleeing to neighboring Île Sainte-Marie. Both boats were captured.

Not long after, Livingston retired to Pointe-Olivier, downriver from Fort Chambly, and Allen and Brown returned to Schuyler’s camp. Schuyler sent out Allen and Brown a second time in preparation for the Americans final push against Fort Saint-Jean. On September 17, Brown, acting with some Canadian volunteers, intercepted supplies heading for Fort Saint-Jean. The next day, Allen and Livingston captured two British agents at Saint-Denis. Soon after, Allen and Brown occupied key towns on the Saint-Lawrence. Brown took up post at La Prairie, and Allen advanced to Sorel.

Meanwhile, the American army, now led by Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery, lay siege to Fort Saint-Jean. While this occurred, Livingston, with a force hovering around 300 men, continued operations on the Richelieu. Livingston’s chief responsibilities were to protect Montgomery’s northern flank and to help stop any breakout attempt from Fort Saint-Jean. The poorly-armed Canadians demanded, and eventually received, two 4-pounder field pieces.

Livingston’s War (click to enlarge). The part of the Richelieu in which Livingston’s Canadians operated during September and October, 1775, is indicated by the blue line (i.e., from Fort Saint-Jean to the parish of Saint-Denis). In mid-September, at least, Livingston’s headquarters was at Pointe-Olivier, near Fort Chambly. The British garrisons at Fort Saint-Jean, Fort Chambly, and Montreal are indicated (cf. Carleton Defends Canada), as is Montgomery’s American army besieging Fort Saint-Jean and Brown’s and Allen’s late September advances to the Saint-Lawrence.

Mostly the Canadians were allowed to act with impunity along the Richelieu. One known exception appears in a letter by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Mott of Connecticut (Montgomery’s chief engineer). He wrote that:

“On the 3d instant there was a severe engagement between the French Whigs on one side, and the French Tories and Regulars on the other side, at Chambly, about thirteen miles from this place. The Tory party had the advantage, as they fired about fifty cannon-shot on our Whigs, when they had only small arms to defend with. They lost several men on each side. The Whigs maintained their ground.”

In the absence of significant threats, Livingston’s men were able to contribute to the siege of Fort Saint-Jean, and attack Fort Chambly.

First, Livingston’s men erected a breastwork northeast of Fort Saint-Jean on the estate of Moses Hazen. The British attacked this force on October 4 with a heavily armed row galley [2]. The Canadians responded with musket fire and their little 4-pounders. The British eventually withdrew after failing to make any impression on Livingston’s men (according to Mott, they lost “only one man, slightly wounded with a grape-shot”).

Soon thereafter, the Canadians moved their cannon closer to Fort Saint-Jean, and on the 13th they were joined by an American gun section consisting of two 12 pounders. The combined battery sank the British schooner the Royal Savage and inflicted a number of casualties among the garrison.

Canadian artillery.

In mid-October, Livingston was granted permission to attack Fort Chambly. The attack was begun by his men, Major John Brown and around 50 Provincials, a 9-pounder cannon, and Lieutenant Johnston and two privates from Lamb’s Artillery company. The bombardment began on October 17. The next morning, a second 9-pounder joined in the firing. After a day and a half of cannonading (i.e., by midday on the 18th), a small breach was made in the fort’s outer wall. At that point, the 88-man British garrison, consisting chiefly of men from the 7th Foot, agreed to surrender. [3]

Notes:

1. They were Thomas Goone, gunner, and Matthew Bell, John Boetle, Osburn Frederick, and Robert Knox, matrosses, of Captain Jones' s Company, 4th battalion, Royal Artillery

2. According to Major Henry Livingston of the 3rd New York, the galley had one 24-pounder in the bow, and 1 four pounder and some swivel guns on each side.

3. The complete list of men can be found here.

Canadian Volunteers (1775)

Canadian volunteers participated in every skirmish and battle of the American invasion of Canada. Some fought for the British, others for the Americans. Inevitably, Canadians were sometimes on opposite sides of the same fight.

The British and Americans tended to obtain their support from somewhat different groups.

The British generally had the support of the principal persons in French Canadian society, including the seigneurs. This segment of society furnished for the British a number of experienced veterans of the French and Indian War (e.g., Joseph-Dominique-Emmanuel Le Moyne de Longueuil, François-Marie Picoté de Belestre, Luc de La Corne), as well as some talented, junior officers (e.g., Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier, David Monin).

Ironically, British Canadian elites were more divided in their loyalties, and some became prominent figures in the American cause (e.g., James Livingston, Moses Hazen).

The Canadian habitants were broadly sympathetic to the American cause, and the British had only mixed success bringing the Canadian militia into the field. The Americans could not provide the pro-American Canadians with arms, ammunition, or pay; nevertheless several hundred habitants took the field on the Americans' behalf in the Richelieu River valley.

The principal military actions at which Canadian volunteers were present are listed below:

• Siege of Fort Saint-Jean (fought on both sides)
• Bombardment of Fort Chambly (fought with the Americans)
• Battle of Longue-Pointe (fought on both sides)
• Battle of Longueuil (fought with the British)
• Capture of a British Flotilla at Sorel (fought with the Americans)
• Siege of Quebec (fought on both sides)

The image below, by von Germann, shows a Canadian habitant wearing a hooded capote (or blanket coat), tied up with ribbons, and with a brightly-colored sash worn about the waist

This image was one source of inspiration for the 15mm miniatures I painted below. These figures are made by Minifigs for the French and Indian War, but the dress is more-or-less appropriate for the Revolutionary War. The hoods are not visible on these miniatures; rather, each is wearing a woolen tuque.

Without a lot of guidance on the dress of the Canadian habitant, I let my imagination run free a bit with these figures. Guiding principles were that the figures should be colorful in appearance, yet also warlike and grim.

Carleton Defends Canada

At the time that Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga and raided Saint-Jean in the province of Quebec [cf. Allen and Arnold: 30 Days to Glory], the only British regulars in Quebec were the 7th and 26th regiments of Foot and two companies of the Royal Artillery. These forces, like all British forces in North America, fell under the command of Lieutenant-General Thomas Gage. Gage, however, was preoccupied by events in and around Boston and he issued few orders to Canada. The important local commanders were the governor of the province of Quebec, Guy Carleton, and Lieutenant-Colonel (and acting brigadier-general), Richard Prescott [1].

The British were aware that the Americans were amassing thousands of men and that they might try to invade Canada and make it a “fourteenth colony.” The British could have sent additional regiments to Canada to turn back the American invasion in the early summer, but this did not occur due to the crisis in Boston and the false hope that thousands of Canadians and Native Americans would fight alongside the British regulars. By the time the American invasion got underway, and the British fully realized their peril, it was impossible to send reinforcements due to the slowness of communications and the worsening weather on the North Atlantic and in the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence.

Carleton knew little about American intentions, but he reasoned there were four routes by which the Americans plausibly could gain entry into Canada. The most likely route, he determined, was via the Richelieu River, which flowed north from American-controlled Lake Champlain in the province of New York. Also possible, though considerably more difficult, was that the Americans would attempt to invade via the Saint-François or Chaudière river valleys, or even along the upper Saint-Lawrence via the western frontier. Carleton therefore placed the greater part of his regulars in the Richelieu valley, kept watch over the other routes, and maintained garrisons in the key towns of Montréal and Québec.

Strategic Situation (click to enlarge).

Key:

British forces are in red, Americans in blue. Totals include all ranks. The French language is used for places in the province of Québec.

A: Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu: 390 men of the 7th and 26th Foot (Major Charles Preston commanding), and 44 men of the Royal Artillery

B: Fort Chambly on the Richelieu: 114 men of the 7th Foot (Major Joseph Stopford commanding), and 5 men of the Royal Artillery

C: Rivière Saint-François: 35 men of the 7th and 26th Foot The placement of this force on the map is quite approximate.

D: Rivière Chaudière: 26 men of the 7th Foot. The placement of this force on the map is quite approximate.

E: Oswegatchie: 28 men of the 8th Foot, and 1 man of the Royal Artillery. This post was on the upper Saint Lawrence, to the west of the area shown on the map. The remainder of the 8th was divided among several posts further west.

F: Lachine: 14 men of the 26th Foot. These men guarded a store of gunpowder and other supplies.

G: Montréal: 110 men of the 26th Foot (plus Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Prescott), and 4 men of the Royal Artillery.

H: Québec (ville): 59 men of the 7th Foot, and 6 men of the Royal Artillery.

In addition to these numbers, 11 of the regulars were on furlough and 69 men of the 26th Foot and 4 men of the Royal Artillery were prisoners of the Americans.

In September, American forces advanced along two of the four possible invasion routes:

A: The American army commanded by Major-General Philip Schuyler and Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery that invaded Canada via the Richelieu.

B: American force commanded by Colonel Benedict Arnold that invaded Canada via the Chaudière (shown here first advancing along the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine).

Note:

1. At the time of the Saint-Jean raid, and before Prescott’s arrival, the senior officer was Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Templer of the 26th; he was no longer with the army at the time of the above dispositions.

Sources:

I'm working from a number of sources, but the above information on troop totals and location comes primarily from the following document:

Touring the Revolution with Google Earth

I never ceased to be amazed at how many Revolution-related resources are on the Internet. As I don't live near the battlefields of the Revolution, I've enjoyed using Google Earth to "tour" sites not readily accessible to me. Below I describe a couple of basic features of this software, illustrated with screenshots (in all cases you can click to enlarge).

First, finding sites of historical interest is generally quite easy. Use the Search feature to find the place that you're looking for. Below I searched for "Fort Stanwix" and the program instantly transported me to the reconstructed Fort Stanwix in Rome, New York. I then zoomed in somewhat to obtain the view below.

I turn off most of the options in the Layers menu, but one that I keep on are the links to Panoramio pictures in the Geographic Web menu. These are user-submitted images that provide a ground-level view of the area. More often than not, the images are frankly beautiful as in the picture below of the Old North Bridge at Concord. On the right side of the image you can see the controls for zooming, panning, and rotating the image.

Unfortunately, many battlefields of the Revolution have not been well preserved. Two of the better exceptions among northern battles are Freeman's Farm/Bemis Heights and Monmouth. At present, there are only a handful of Panoramio pictures for these battlefields, but that is sure to change over time. A great user-submitted image of Monmouth appears below.

Some of the best places to see -- both in person and online -- are the sites of 18th-Century forts. Below is one of several images of handsome Fort Chambly in Canada, the site of an obscure, but historically important, action early in the war.

Yorktown, Virginia, is particularly worth visiting with Google Earth, as the extant fortifications are easily visible from the air, and the many visitors to the battlefield have generated some fantastic images, such as that of the recreated 1st Virginia Regiment, taken near the site of Redoubt #9.

One other feature worth exploring is the "Street View" option (in the Layers menu). By entering Street View, you can have a 360-degree view of a particular spot on a roadway. Barring the slight fuzziness of the images, this is almost as good as being there. Generally, only major roads have been imaged this way, which limits the usefulness of this feature, but for some battlefields this is useful. The screenshot below shows a Street View image taken on Flat Rock Road, revealing a portion of the Hanging Rock battlefield. Each camera icon is the location of another available view. Although not clear from this image, one can travel for miles along this road using Street View.

Yorktown is the rare locale where the normal aerial view, the links to Panoramio pictures, and the Street View option all can be used to study the battlefield. Below is an aerial view of the "Hornwork," a key position in the British defenses that was heavily pounded by the French and American artillery. The cars in the foreground provide a good sense of the enormity of this work.

Below is a Street Level view of the Hornwork, taken from the road visible in the image above.

7th Regiment of Foot

The 7th Foot, or Royal Fusileers, were garrisoned in Quebec at the start of the war. The greater part of the regiment was captured in the at Fort Saint-Jean (1775) and Fort Chambly (1775) in the first American offensive. The remainder of the regiment (63 men), served with distinction during the defense of Quebec (1775). The regiment was reconstituted at New York in the winter of 1776-1777 following prisoner exchanges. The 7th was present for the attacks on Fort Clinton (1777) and Fort Montgomery (1777) and was stationed in Philadelphia for the winter of 1777-1778. Over the following 2 years, the regiment participated in the battle of Monmouth (1778) and William Tyron's Connecticut raid (1779). The following year, the 7th accompanied Henry Clinton's expedition to South Carolina, and participated in the siege of Charleston (1780). At the conclusion of the siege, the 7th was placed in garrison at Charleston, joining Charles Cornwallis' field army after the battle of Camden (1780). The 7th was later intended to be garrisoned at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, but was instead diverted to assist Banastre Tarleton's pursuit of Daniel Morgan. Subsequently, the regiment was captured at Cowpens (1781). It is believed that some men of the 7th continued to serve with Cornwallis after Cowpens; these men would have been captured at Yorktown (1781). The regiment was reformed in later years and was stationed in Charleston and Savannah before those towns were evacuated. According to Johann Ewald, it was one of the last four British regiments to depart New York in November, 1783 (the others were the 22nd, 23rd, and 40th regiments).

According to Tarleton, the regiment was made up of "chiefly recruits," at the time of Cowpens, which caused problems on the battlefield (early in the fight, he reported, it was necessary to put a stop to "a fire from some of the recruits of the 7th regiment"). Lieutenant Roderick Mackenzie of the 71st Foot, however, extolled the Fusileers for having "attained the summit of military discipline." Neither description is wholly reliable. Tarleton's narrative was written at a time after the war when his reputation was under attack; Mackenzie accused Tarleton of slighting the men under his command to mitigate his own culpability. Mackenzie, however, loathed Tarleton, and was not above stretching the truth if it would do his former commander injury.

In a dramatic painting, Don Troiani portrayed the moment at which Lieutenant-Colonel John Eager Howard’s Continentals captured the colors of the 7th Foot at the battle of Cowpens. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the only instance of a British regiment losing its colors on a battlefield during the Revolution (if only because flags were sometimes left behind).

The website of the recreated 7th Foot has a transcription of a letter from Brigadier-General Daniel Morgan to Samuel Huntington, president of the Continental Congress, that seems to confirm that the flags were taken during the battle itself. It states, in part, that he is sending to Huntington, "the standard of the 7th British Regt, which fell into my hands in the action of the 17th Jany – the other that was taken at the same time, I believe fell into the hands of some of the Militia." This suggests that one of the flags was taken by, or surrendered to, the Continentals, while the other was captured in some manner by the militia. At the time of the letter, Morgan didn't know what had become of the flag that the militia captured, because when the battle ended he was so caught up with other matters that "a proper inquiry could not be made after it."

Sources:

Philip R. N. Katcher (1973). Encyclopedia of British, Provincial, and German Army Units 1775-1783. Stackpole Books.

There are two recreated versions of the 7th Foot: here and here. Both have informative websites.

This website is a wonderful resource for all things related to Banastre Tarleton, and includes transcriptions of Tarleton's memoir and Mackenzie's Strictures.