George Canning Hill

“ It was snowing furiously at the time they set out, and it was so dark as to render it difficult for them to find their way. At the foot of the high precipice called Cape Diamond, was a strong block-house, forty or fifty feet square, which only left a cart-path, on each side, for the travel along the road; and within this block-house was mounted a battery of three-pounders, charged with grape and canister shot, which raked the entire avenue. In the face of this appalling obstacle went Montgomery with his division, the precipice on the one side, and the river on the other. ”

“ Not a sound was to be heard within the building, and they concluded that the men who served the guns must have fallen asleep on their watch. Montgomery stepped forth in the gray of this winter's morning, with the snow sifting down all around them, and cried out, in a loud voice, "Men of New York ! you will not fear to follow where your General leads! march on !" and at once rushed forward to charge the battery. ”

“ The British were safely and snugly entrenched within a strongly walled town, with an abundance both of defences and provisions; while the little American force were shivering and half starved upon an elevated plain, with the wintry winds howling around them from every quarter, and the sullen skies promising them no more welcome visitants than the icy sleets and snows that were to blow out of them. ”

“ Arnold stopped short, therefore, where he was, and examined into the condition of his force. He was astounded to learn that a great number of his men were invalids, that more were entirely destitute of needed clothing, that nearly a hundred of their muskets were good for nothing as weapons to fight with, and that nearly all the cartridges for the balance of the guns were spoiled by the water, there being not more than five rounds left to each man. ”

“ The garrison within the massive walls of the castle and fort had been strengthened by fresh accessions of troops from Sorel and Newfoundland, and was now quite eighteen hundred strong. These were made up of regulars, militia, and marines. Many have wondered that so superior a force did not at once saUy out and destroy the weaker one; but it is to be remembered that a majority of the militia were ready to desert to the Americans, in case an opportunity was offered them, and it was not deemed safe to run the risk of giving them the opportunity. ”

“ He likewise tried to make Carleton think he had a great many more men than he had. But the Governor was not so easily frightened. No doubt he believed the assailing force of Americans was stronger than it was, yet he chose to take his own course.
It still continued to be a favorite idea of Montgomery and Arnold that the inhabitants of the city felt friendly towards them, and would turn out in their support as soon as a good chance offered; but they were afraid of the troops that composed the garrison ”

“ He certainly did cut off supplies from the garrison and the inhabitants, but Carleton was sure of receiving reinforcements from England as soon as the ice started out of the St. Lawrence in the Spring, and so waited quietly for that time to come round. General Wooster, who was a townsman of Arnold in New Haven, was his superior officer, and had command in Montreal; on the first of April he moved down to Arnold's position and superseded him altogether. What with the added force of Wooster and the new troops from New England, the entire army now counted some twenty-eight hundred men ”

“ Arnold wrote on to Washington, while at Point aux Trembles, that it would take fully twenty-five hundred men to storm Quebec with any hope of success; and still they found it necessary to advance to their perilous work with but a trifle more than a third of that number. Montgomery's first device was, what Arnold had vainly tried before, to send a summons to Carleton to surrender ”