powder was in the stores of the traders, and sailed for Quebec.*

I have somewhat anticipated the events which took place at Saint John's after the surrender of Chambly. I now return to the narrative of them.

The surrender of Chambly, which supplied Montgomery with the mortars and ammunition of which he was deficient, proved the turning point of the siege, and was the source of the woe and disaster that fell upon Canada during the winter of 1775-1776. Montgomery's position had become desperate. Every day it was more difficult to bring up provisions and men. In 1759, when Amherst had driven the French ships from lake Champlain by the end of October, the advance of the season made it impossible for him to proceed against île-aux-Noix. + Montgomery's men, without proper winter clothing, suffered from the excessive cold experienced at night, and the operations of the siege could not have been continued without painfully telling on those engaged, to the extent of rendering them unfit for duty. The position in which Stopford was placed as commandant of Chambly must have made him well acquainted with the condition of Saint John's, which was but twelve miles distant from Chảmbly. He knew, moreover, that the besiegers were at a great distance from the base of their supplies, and that every hour gained was an increased hope towards their abandonment of the siege. It was impossible for Stopford not to know that the safety of the province depended on Saint John's being held. A soldier of courage and honour, placed in Stopford's position would have felt how much depended on his fortitude and determination; and that it was his duty to protect the interests confided to him, so long as there were men to discharge a gun, and ammunition to load it. He preferred to surrender to a handful of assailants, after a few hours' attack, and then failed to destroy the ammunition and food, which he abandoned to the enemy. By this deplorable misconduct, he exposed his

*

Journal de Badeaux, Verreault's Invasion I., pp. 172-4.

+ Ante, Vol. IV., p. 345.

1775]

THE FORT SUMMONED.

457

comrades in arms in the adjoining post to be captured, and sent away prisoners on their surrender. Under Frederick the Great or Napoleon he would have been shot. Nevertheless, there is no record to shew that Stopford was even censured, or his advancement interfered with. One result certainly followed, that in the military opinion of the day in Canada, his want of conduct received contemptuous condemnation. Montgomery now erected batteries on the north of the fort with the Chambly guns. On the 1st of November they were unmasked, and a violent cannonade commenced. Several were wounded in the fort. In the evening of that day Montgomery sent a flag with the usual drum, the officer bearing a letter informing Preston, that Carleton had been driven back at Longueuil in his attempt to relieve the garrison. Lacoste, one of the prisoners taken, accompanied the party and bore testimony to the truth. Montgomery added that it was with much regret he saw brave men shedding their blood to defend a place no longer tenable; that relief was now impossible; and if Preston persevered in his attempts, Montgomery would not be responsible for the extremities which might follow. He called upon Preston to consider well the responsibility he was incurring. Captain Strong of the 26th returned with the messenger, asking a suspension of arms until noon of the following day, when an answer would be given.

On the 2nd, captain Williams of the artillery, with captain Strong, appeared at Montgomery's camp to ask for a delay of four days, and if no relief came within that period, proposals would be then made for a capitulation. Montgomery replied, that from the lateness of the season no such condition could be entertained, and he invited Preston to send an officer to confer with the other prisoner, Despins, present on board the sloop, to learn the truth of Carleton's failure to relieve the place.

A subaltern of the 7th was accordingly ordered with a drum, to make the enquiry. He saw Despins, and the statement was confirmed.

Ante, p. 445.

Preston consequently submitted the terms on which he would capitulate.. He claimed the honours of war for the garrison, and that the troops, with their baggage and effects, should proceed to the next port and embark for Great Britain; the Canadians to return to their homes; the sick and wounded to be cared for, and, on their recovery, to join. their regiments.

Montgomery allowed no such conditions. The entire garrison, including the Canadians, must unconditionally surrender, and as prisoners of war be transferred to the locality the Connecticut government or congress would direct. The troops were, however, permitted to march out with the full honours of war, the officers to retain their side arms. Messengers were allowed to be despatched to Montreal, on parole, for clothing and other necessaries. The troops were to give over the fort at 8 o'clock on the following morning, and commissaries would receive the stores from the proper persons.

Preston had no alternative but to accept these conditions. There was one exception he felt called upon to take. Montgomery, after speaking of the fortitude and perseverance of the garrison, had insolently and unnecessarily introduced the phrase: "I wish they had been in a better cause." Preston insisted upon its being entirely erased, "the garrison being determined rather to die with their arms in their hands than submit to the indignity of such reflection." The firm attitude of Preston had its full influence upon Montgomery.* He felt the danger of meeting six hundred desperate men, who, on a point of honour, set aside all regard for their own safety, and who were prepared to face death in its sternest form, rather than become accessories to their own disgrace and humiliation. No thought of quarter, either given or taken, would have been the result. The offensive words were entirely expunged. +

* The articles of capitulation, in full, are given at the end of the chapter. + The conduct of Preston is particularly worthy of remembrance, as it formed the precedent on which Burgoyne acted two years later in the convention of

1775]

SURRENDER OF SAINT JOHN'S.

459

On the morning of the 3rd of November, at 10 o'clock, the surrender was made. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, grounded their arms, and surrendered as prisoners. Some officers of the garrison, with Messrs. Hervieux and Magdelaine on the part of the Canadians, left for Montreal to obtain clothes and necessaries to be carried by the men into captivity. Two companies of congress troops took possession of the fort, which, with its slight fortifications, for forty-five days had been so gallantly defended. The total number of those who surrendered was 688.* During the siege, sixteen were killed or died of their wounds, about eighteen were so seriously wounded as to be disabled or to lose their limbs, sixty were otherwise wounded. Thus every eighth man had been killed or wounded. The prisoners were immediately sent up lake Champlain to be forwarded to their destination, in the first instance to Albany and afterwards to New Jersey. †

Montgomery was now free to act to carry out the purpose for which he was present in Canada; the occupation of the province, in order to commit it to the cause of independence of the whole American continent, freed from British control. Saratoga, on the 12th of October, in answer to the demand of Gates that the British force should ground arms. Burgoyne replied that sooner than consent to this act, 66 they will rush on the enemy determined to take no quarter." The speech has been remembered to Burgoyne's benefit. One half of its charm, however, disappears when it is known he was not the first to express the sentiment. Burgoyne was at Saint John's in 1776; it was the spot from which he started in his unfortunate campaign of 1777, and Preston's conduct must have been well known to him.

* The state is given at the end of this chapter.

+ There are letters from Juchereau Duchesnay, Seigneur of Beauport, to his connection, Hon. Frs. Baby, establishing the fact [Verreault, p. 320-321]: "Fort Jean, ce 2 Novembre, 1775. Après avoir été blagués [sic] le 14 septembre au soir, nous avons été obligés, pour comble de malheur, de rendre ce jour la place, après avoir essuyé la plus grande misère, que j'ai eue dans toutes mes campagnes. Les blessés et morts se montent à soixante et quelques personnes. Notre resistance nous à fait obtenir les honneurs de la guerre et la douce satisfaction d'être traînés à Connecticut un coup de fusil au travers du corps à Montreal me ferait beaucoup moins de peine et de tort. .. Nous partons à huit heures

du matin, demain." And again from Albany on the 8th of February, he says: "Tous nos messieurs sont partis pour la Nouvelle Jersey."

Saint John's had literally been the portal of Canada; so long as it was held by a British garrison, it could not be passed by. and left unnoticed behind. The impediment had been removed, and the province was now thrown open to him. His parties had for some time held possession of the country south of the Saint Lawrence; he was now to extend his authority, as he believed and expected, over the whole of Canada. It was all important that he should not delay his movements, for the expedition of Arnold by the Kennebec, in connection with his own, had started from Casco bay, and had at this date been six weeks on its journey. Both the expeditions of Montgomery and Arnold had been undertaken from the reliance placed on the co-operation of the Canadians. Indeed, without it neither would have succeeded. The extrication of Montgomery at the last hour, when success was possible, by the capitulation of Chambly, from the difficulties which threatened him, is a proof how narrowly he escaped destruction. Both expeditions must be regarded as having been recklessly undertaken, even when all the favourable circumstances connected with them are kept in prominence. Both were successful in different degrees; Montgomery's eminently so, and, it is but justice to him to add, in a large degree owing to his ability and judgment.

Without delay, and the season was a stern counsellor that such should be the case, he took steps to assure his conquest. Two hundred men were placed in the forts of Saint John's and Chambly; one hundred men were sent across the country to seize Laprairie. Colonel Easton and major Brown descended the Richelieu to Sorel, with three hundred provincials and six hundred Canadians, with cannon, to drive back any vessels attempting to descend the river. The design was also to attack Maclean, but he had already passed down lake Saint Peter. Warren was ordered with three hundred men to take post at Longueuil. Messages were despatched to Caughnawaga, the Indian reserve, to demand that the Indians should remain neutral in their village. They had already, some weeks previously, retired from an active part in the contest at