US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0014/00144.txt

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$Unique_ID{USH00144}
$Pretitle{11}
$Title{Our Country:  Volume 3
Chapter LXIV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{boston
general
washington
british
congress
troops
army
montgomery
upon
new}
$Volume{Vol. 3}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Book:        Our Country:  Volume 3
Author:      Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume:      Vol. 3
Date:        1905

Chapter LXIV

     Quebec Assailed - Death of Montgomery - Arnold and Lamb Wounded -
Americans Repulsed - Montgomery's Remains - Condition of the Republican Armies
- Franklin's Plan for a Civil Government - General Post-Office Established - A
General Hospital - The Army Before Boston - Committee of Congress -
Insubordination - Events Near Boston - A Continental Navy - A Changing Army -
Officer's Wives in Camp - Union Flag - British Troops in Boston - Artillery
Procured - Dorchester Heights Fortified - Boston Closely Besieged.

     THE little army of republicans under Montgomery, less than a thousand in
number, with two hundred Canadian volunteers led by Colonel James Livingston,
pressed on toward Quebec from Point aux Trembles, and arrived before the town
on the evening of the 5th of December.  The general made his quarters at
Holland House, two or three miles from the city, and on the following morning
he sent a flag with a message to Governor Carleton, demanding an instant
surrender of the post.  The flag was fired upon.  Montgomery, indignant at
such treatment - such violation of the rules of war among civilized nations -
sent a threatening letter to Carleton, and another to the inhabitants.  These
were taken into the city by a woman, and a copy of the latter was shot over
the walls, into the town, on an arrow from an Indian bow.  Carleton refused to
have any intercourse with the "rebel general," and the latter prepared to
assail the walled town with his handful of men, ill-clad, ill-fed, and exposed
to storms and intense cold on the open Plains of Abraham.

     The ground was too hard frozen to be penetrated with pick or spade, and
the snow covered it in huge drifts; so Montgomery filled gabions (a sort of
wicker-work baskets) with snow, poured water over the mass, which instantly
congealed, and soon raised a huge ice-mound.  Upon this glittering embankment
Lamb placed in battery six 12-pound cannon and two howitzers.  In the Lower
Town he placed four or five mortars, from which he sent bombshells into the
city and set a few buildings on fire.  Montgomery made further unsuccessful
efforts to communicate with the governor and continued to throw shells into
the city.  At length some heavy round shot from the citadel shivered Lamb's
crystal battery into fragments, and compelled him to withdraw.  The cannon of
the Americans made no impression on the heavy walls, and Montgomery was
compelled to resort to other measures for taking the city.  It was now
determined to wait for expected reinforcements, but for a fortnight they
waited in vain.  The Congress were tardy in their actions and for want of hard
money Schuyler was almost powerless to procure men or supplies.  He used his
own personal credit largely, but he could not send on men.  A friend in
Montreal had helped Montgomery to the extent of his ability, and, the general
was left to his own resources.  The terms of the enlistment of many of his men
had almost expired, and the deadly small-pox had appeared among them. A web of
fearful difficulty was thus gathering around the general but worse than all
was a quarrel between Arnold and some of his officers, which caused the latter
and their men to threaten to leave the service unless they were placed under
another commander.  Montgomery, by the exercise of wisdom and justice, healed
the dissensions and at Christmas time a plan was arranged by a council of
officers to assail the town at two points simultaneously; one division of the
troops to be under the immediate command of the general, and another under
Arnold.  The latter was to make a night attack upon the Lower Town, setting
fire to houses in the suburb St. Roque so as to consume the British stockade
in that quarter, while the main body should attempt to take Cape Diamond
Bastion, a strong part of the city walls on the highest point of the rocky
promontory.  It was determined to make the assault on the first stormy night.

          At length the serene, cold days and nights were ended, and on the
evening of the 30th of December (1775) a snow-storm set in.  Montgomery's
force was now reduced by sickness and desertion to seven hundred and fifty
men, but the brave soldier was determined to assail the town with this
handful.  He gave orders for his troops to be ready to move at two o'clock in
the morning of the 31st.  Colonel Livingston was directed to make a feigned
attack on St. Louis Gate and set it on fire, while Major Brown should menace
Cape Diamond Bastion. Arnold was directed to lead three hundred and fifty men,
with Lamb's artillery and Morgan's riflemen, to assail and fire the works in
St. Roque, while Montgomery should lead the remainder below Cape Diamond along
the narrow space between the declivity and the St. Lawrence, carry the
defenses at the foot of the rocks, and endeavor to press forward and join
Arnold.  Being thus in possession of the whole Lower Town, the combined forces
were to destroy Prescott Gate, at the foot of Mountain street, and rush into
the city.  No doubt full success would have rewarded their efforts had not a
Canadian deserter revealed the plot to Carleton, who caused his troops to
sleep on their arms and to be ready for action at all points.

     In order to recognize each other, the republican soldiers were ordered to
fasten a piece of white paper to the front of their caps.  On some of them
they wrote the words of Henry, "Liberty or Death." The narrow path along which
Montgomery led his men at the foot of the acclivity, was blocked with ice and
snow, and a strong wind blew blinding sleet and cutting hail in the faces of
the patriots.  They pressed on, and passing a deserted barrier, they
approached a block-house, at the foot of Cape Diamond, pierced for musketry
and cannon.  All was silent there.  Believing the garrison not to be on the
alert, Montgomery, burning with impatience to win success, shouted to his
immediate followers - the companies of Captains Cheeseman and Mott - "Men of
New York, you will not fear to follow where your general leads; push on, my
brave boys, and Quebec is ours!" and rushed forward to surprise the garrison
and take the battery.  There were vigilant eyes and ears in the block-house.
In the dim light of a winter's dawn, through the thick snow-veil, forty men
watched the coming republicans; and when Montgomery shouted to his followers,
and was within fifty yards of the works, they opened a deadly fire of grape-
shot from their cannon.  Montgomery, his aid McPherson, Captain Cheeseman and
ten others were instantly killed.  The remainder retreated to Wolfe's Cove,
where the senior officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, rallied them, but did
not renew the effort to reach Prescott Gate.

     While these sad events were occurring on the St. Lawrence side of the
town, Arnold was making his way near the St. Charles, along a narrow way
filled with snow-drifts.  The town was in an uproar.  The bells were ringing;
the drums were beating a general alarm and cannon were beginning to thunder.
The storm was raging violently, and Arnold was compelled to march in single
file. Lamb had to leave his cannon behind in the drifts, and join the fighters
with small arms.  At a narrow pass Arnold was wounded in the leg, and was
carried to the General Hospital, when the command devolved on Morgan.  The
troops pressed forward under their new leader, captured a battery, and fought
fiercely for three hours to capture another, and succeeded.  Then Lamb was
severely wounded.  Morgan was about to push on to attack Prescott Gate, when
the sad news came that troops under Dearborn, stationed near Palace Gate, had
been captured by a party who had sallied out of the city, and had then cut off
the retreat of Arnold's division in front.  At ten o'clock, after he had lost
full one hundred men, Morgan was compelled to surrender with more than four
hundred followers.  A reserve force of Arnold's division had retreated, and
were soon joined to those under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell.  So ended the
siege of Quebec.

     When the contest was over, and it was known in the city that General
Montgomery was slain, Governor Carleton, who had been his companion in arms
under Wolfe, sent out a detachment to search for his body.  It was found, with
those of Cheeseman and McPherson, shrouded in snow-drifts.  They were carried
into the city and buried within the walls.  There Montgomery's remains rested
forty years, when they were taken to New York and deposited beneath a
beautiful mural monument erected by order of Congress on the exterior of the
wall of St. Paul's Church that fronts on Broadway.

     The Continental Congress, in the meantime, had been working industriously
in perfecting a national organization and in supporting the armies in the
field, at the same time taking pains not to give mortal offence to the British
government until an answer to their petition should come from the king.  They
had tremendous difficulties before them, and heavy responsibilities to bear.
The first reports from Washington and Schuyler, concerning the troops, were
very discouraging, and they continued to be so for several months - the spirit
of democracy everywhere producing insubordination and consequent weakness. The
inefficiency of the executive powers of the Congress was keenly felt. These
were delegated to a single committee of that body.  The sagacious Franklin saw
the futility of attempting to carry on the inevitable war with such a feeble
instrument, and late in July he submitted the basis of a form of
confederation, similar in some respects to the one he proposed in the
Convention at Albany twenty-one years before, but generally more like our
present national constitution.  The plan was a virtual declaration of
independence; the government it proposed was to be perpetual unless the
British rulers should accede to the claims of the colonies.  It was not then
acted upon.

     The colonial post office system had been broken up by the public did
orders, and on the 26th of July (1775) the Congress made provision for a new
one, and appointed Dr. Franklin postmaster-general.  From that office he had
been dismissed by the British government the year before, as we have observed.
Very little else was done during the year toward organizing civil government,
for military affairs occupied almost the whole attention of the Congress. They
established a general hospital, and appointed the unworthy Dr. Benjamin Church
as chief director.  Soon after his appointment, he was detected in holding
secret correspondence with General Gage.  He was immediately expelled from
every position of trust which he held, and by order of the Continental
Congress was lodged in the Norwich (Connecticut) jail.  His health failing, he
was allowed to leave the country for the West Indies.  The vessel in which he
sailed was never heard of afterward.  So perished the first traitor to the
American cause.  Dr. John Morgan took his place at the head of the hospital.

     The army before Boston received the special attention of the Congress.
The term of enlistment of all the troops would expire with the year, and
Washington foresaw the dissolution of his forces then.  He asked the Congress
to assist him in providing plans for preventing such a fatal disaster.  They
sent a committee composed of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin Harrison
to the camp at Cambridge for the purpose, and at the headquarters of
Washington they opened their conference with the commander-in-chief on the
18th of October.  There they were joined by delegates from the several New
England colonies, and in the course of a few days they matured a plan that was
satisfactory to Washington, and was effectual.

     For a long time the army was not only weak in numbers, but feeble in
moral strength and material supplies.  In August it was discovered that the
supply of gunpowder was not sufficient for nine rounds to each man, and other
munitions were lacking in the same proportion.  For months the American army
was compelled to play the part of jailer to the British troops in Boston. It
was even difficult to sustain that part; and had the royal forces known the
real impotence of their jailers, they might have burst their prison doors with
impunity, and scattered the republican army to the winds.  In the
individuality - the self-assertion of each soldier - to which allusion has
been made, was found moral weakness as regarded the strength of discipline.
Each man had left his home to fight for freedom, and was disposed to first
assert it in his own behalf.  The consequence was general insubordination,
which had to be humored until the common sense and experience of the soldier
taught him the value and necessity of discipline.  Washington managed this
matter with great tact, and accomplished, by argument and persuasion, that
which he could not have gained by force.

     Comparative inaction marked the siege of Boston for several months.
There was some cannonading in August when General Sullivan, in imitation of
Prescott, cast up a redoubt in a single night upon an eminence within
cannon-shot of Bunker's Hill.  Three hundred shells were thrown upon this
redoubt from Bunker's Hill and British shipping with very little effect.
There were occasional skirmishes between republican detachments and royal
foragers on the islands in Boston harbor and the shores of the main, but there
was no serious engagement.  Washington tried to bring on one by various
challenges. He did not feel strong enough to attack his foe, but he was ready
to meet any sortie or sallying-out the British troops might make.  But Gage
was too prudent to attempt another excursion into the country.  He contented
himself with threats; in the sending out of alarming stories about Russian and
German troops coming to help the British, and in treating the few whigs who
remained in Boston in a barbarous manner.  Gage was called to England, in
October, to answer for his inefficiency, when General Howe assumed the chief
command of the British army in America.  Howe strengthened his defenses, and
increased the number of British cruisers sent out to harass the coast towns of
New England, hoping thereby to cause Washington to weaken his besieging army
by sending detachments for the relief of the distressed regions.  Falmouth
(now Portland, Maine,) was burned in October, and other towns were sorely
smitten by the marauders.  These acts failed to draw a regiment away from
Cambridge, but caused a swarm of American privateers to appear upon the
waters.  Captain Manly, in a vessel sent out by Washington to intercept
supply-vessels bound for Boston, maintained a position off the harbor of the
New England capital for some time, and made three important captures.  One of
his prizes contained heavy guns, mortars, and entrenching tools; the very
things most needed by the Americans at that time.

     Howe imitated Gage in treating the open whigs and suspected persons in
Boston with harshness.  His excuse was that they were active, though secret,
enemies, keeping up a communication with the "rebels" either by personal
intercourse, or by signals from church steeples and other high places.  He
forbade all persons leaving the city without permission, under pain of
military execution and he ordered all of the inhabitants to associate
themselves into military companies.

     At about this time the Congress was putting forth its energies for the
establishment of a Continental Navy.  The separate colonies were doing the
same thing.  A Marine Committee was appointed, and in December (1775) the
Congress ordered the construction of thirteen armed vessels.  Meanwhile
Washington, under instructions, had caused floating batteries to be built in
the Charles River, from one of which shells were thrown into Boston late in
October, producing much alarm and some injury.

     Six months had passed away since the battle of Bunker's Hill, and yet the
relative position of the belligerent troops had changed very little.  The
people murmured; Congress fretted, and Washington was impatient to begin a
vigorous siege.  But he was almost powerless.  At the beginning of December
his old army began to dissolve, and not more than five thousand new recruits
were enrolled.  There seemed to be a fatal flagging of spirits.  The cold was
increasing; many of the soldiers lacked comfortable clothing it was difficult
to procure wood for fuel, and whole regiments were compelled to eat their
provisions raw for the want of it to cook them.  Fences and fruit trees around
the camp were seized for use, and groups of shivering soldiers were often seen
hovering around smoldering embers.  The Connecticut troops demanded a bounty,
and when it was refused, because Congress had not authorized it, they resolved
to leave camp in a body on the 6th of December. Many did go and never came
back.  These untoward circumstances filled the mind of Washington with the
keenest anxiety; when suddenly a salutary change was visible.  Within the
space of a fortnight new hopes and renewed patriotism seemed to fill the
bosoms of the people, and at the close of the year the regiments were nearly
all full, and ten thousand Minute-men, chiefly in Massachusetts, were ready to
swell the ranks when called upon.  The camp was well supplied with provisions;
order was generally preserved; the commander-in-chief was more hopeful than at
any time since his arrival, and general cheerfulness prevailed.  The wives of
several of the officers had arrived in camp.  Mrs. Washington, with her son
John Parke Custis and his young spouse, came on the 11th of December, and the
Christmas holidays were spent at Cambridge quite agreeably.

     The new Continental army was organized on the first of January, 1776,
when it consisted of almost ten thousand men, of whom more than a thousand
were absent on furlough which it had been necessary to grant as a condition of
re-enlistment.  The event was signalled by the raising of a new flag composed
of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, emblematic of the union of the
thirteen colonies (for Georgia had lately sent delegates to the Congress), and
in the dexter corner, the British Union - the combined crosses of St. George
and St. Andrew on a blue ground as indicative of the loyalty of the colonies
to the British crown.  As it fluttered in the keen winter wind on that clear
morning, shouts from a thousand voices greeted it, and in token of their
feelings many of the soldiers threw their hats high in air.  This incident
produced erroneous impressions upon the British officers in Boston. On that
day printed copies of the king's speech on the opening of Parliament late in
October were received by General Howe, and he sent a package of them to
General Washington.  The king, after declaring his intention to enforce
obedience in the colonies, proposed the appointment of Commissioners to offer
the olive branch of peace and pardon to all individual offenders in America,
as well as whole communities or provinces that might sue for forgiveness. The
hoisting of the Union flag - the flag with the British Union - was regarded
with joy in Boston as a token of the deep impression the gracious speech had
made upon the Americans, and as a signal of submission The Union flag had been
raised before the speech was received, and the latter was burned with contempt
by a party of Massachusetts soldiers.

     The British troops in Boston, at this time, numbered about eight
thousand, exclusive of marines on the ships-of-war in the harbor.  They were
well supplied with provisions from Barbadoes and Great Britain, and having
been promised ample reinforcements the coming season, they were prepared to
sit quietly in Boston and wait for them.  They had converted the Old South
Meeting-house into a riding-school, and Faneuil Hall into a theatre, and were
whiling away the winter quite pleasantly, while Washington was chafing with
impatience to break up the nest." He had received a temporary reinforcement of
five thousand militia, and he waited for the ice in the rivers to become
strong enough to bear his troops to make an assault upon the town.  But the
winter was exceedingly mild and no opportunity of that kind offered until
February, when a council of his officers deemed the undertaking too hazardous.
The temporary militia had retired, and Washington was compelled to call upon
the New England colonies to furnish thirteen regiments more.

     Just at that time news came from the north of the death of Montgomery and
the repulse at Quebec, with an urgent request from General Schuyler for the
commander-in-chief to send three thousand soldiers immediately to reinforce
the little army in Canada to retrieve its losses, and to maintain the
republican cause in that province.  The necessity for strength at Boston was
as great as at Quebec, yet Washington, ever ready to act for the general good,
asked Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut to furnish a regiment
each, enlisted for a year, and send them to Canada.  To relieve these colonies
of an increased burden, he allowed three regiments to be taken from his last
requisition, reserving ten for the main army.  They were raised and sent to
Canada during the winter.

     In small arms and ammunition the army at Cambridge was yet sadly
deficient. Powder was very scarce, and it was difficult to get a supply.
General Putnam was specially charged with the procuring of it.  Colonel Moylan
wrote from the camp in January: The bay is open - everything thaws here except
Old Put. He is still as hard as ever, crying out for powder - powder - ye
gods, give us powder!  Colonel Knox, who had been sent to the Champlain forts,
had, with great enterprise and perseverance, brought, upon forty sledges drawn
by oxen, more than fifty cannon, mortars, and howitzers.  The strange
procession of cattle and sledges, and rough teamsters carrying their guns
slung over their knapsacks on their backs, had made their way over frozen
lakes and rivers, wild morasses and rugged hills covered with almost
impassable snows; and a supply of bomb-shells came from New York.  Late in
February powder began to arrive.  The ten militia regiments came in to
strengthen the lines.  Heavy pieces of ordnance were placed in position before
Boston, and Washington, who had been urged by the Congress to attack the city
as soon as possible, before expected reinforcements should arrive, now
prepared to do so.  General Howe, meanwhile, felt perfectly secure.  He wrote
to Dartmouth that he had not the least apprehension of an attack from the
rebels, and wished they would "attempt so rash a step, and quit their strong
entrenchments," to which they might attribute their safety.

     From this dream of security Howe was suddenly awakened, and his wish was
gratified.  His young officers had got up a farce entitled "Boston Blockaded,"
in which Washington was burlesqued as an uncouth figure with a large wig and
wearing a rusty sword, accompanied with a country servant with a rusty gun.
They were now called to perform in the serio-comic drama of Boston Bombarded,
with appropriate costume and scenery, and Washington and Howe as the principal
characters.  The American commander determined to occupy and fortify
Dorchester Heights which overlooked Boston, and which Howe had strangely
neglected to secure.  The design was kept a profound secret.  To divert the
attention of the British, a severe cannonade and bombardment was opened upon
the town from Lechmere's Point, Roxbury, Cobble Hill, Ploughed Hill and Lamb's
Dam, on Saturday night, the 2nd of March.  This was repeated on Sunday and
Monday nights, the latter the eve of the anniversary of the Boston Massacre.
At seven o'clock that evening, General Thomas, with two thousand men provided
with entrenching tools, proceeded to take possession of Dorchester Heights.  A
train of three hundred carts and wagons, laden with fascines and screwed hay,
followed.  They all moved in perfect silence and within an hour they were on
the Heights, undiscovered by the British sentinels in the city, where every
ear was filled with the incessant noise of cannon on the American batteries,
and which was kept up all night - from seven o'clock till daylight.  The
working force were divided, one-half of them taking post on an eminence
nearest Boston the other on a hill opposite the castle.  The bundles of hay
were placed on the Boston side of Dorchester Neck as a covering for the teams
and troops passing over it, from a raking fire that might be opened from the
town.  The weather was moderately cold. The ground was frozen to the depth of
eighteen inches.  The full moon was shining in splendor; and through that long
winter night - several hours longer than the summer night when the redoubt on
Breed's Hill was erected - worked on under the direction of the veteran
Gridley, the same engineer, and the eye of Washington, who perceived with joy
that his movement was unsuspected by his enemy.  At about three o'clock in the
morning, a relief party appeared; and at dawn on the 5th of March, 1776, the
astonished Britons saw two redoubts on Dorchester Heights skillfully planned,
strong enough to protect their inmates from grape-shot and musketry, armed
with cannon that seriously menaced all Boston, and manned with resolute
patriots.  On the summits of the steep hills were barrels filled with stones
to be rolled down upon ascending assailants, and strong abatis formed of the
trees of adjacent orchards, protected the foot of the Heights.  Perhaps there
never was so much work done in so short a space of time," wrote General Heath.
Howe was overwhelmed with astonishment, and exclaimed "I know not what I shall
do !  The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have
done in a month."  A Loyalist of the time wrote:

     "Like Titans of old the Rebels had piled Huge stone-heaps on Dorchester
Hill, And with murderous plan like savages wild, So prepared our poor soldiers
to kill, Who might he compelled to scale the rough Height To drive the bold
Yankees away in affright."