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Royal Proclamation
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American Revolution
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Attack on Quebec
With the festering of
politic agendas in the 13 colonies coming to a head with
the meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia,
those delegates naturally looked to the absent British
American colonies such as Quebec, Nova Scotia, and other
potential allies. The Continental Congress must have
felt that to bring these additional colonies into the
revolutionary circle would not only increase their voice
in England, increase resources to draw upon and hence chances of
success, but would also take away potential bases of
support and attack that the British could use against
the member colonies of the revolution. A large British
naval base existed at Halifax in Nova Scotia and Quebec
City, and as in the time of the 7 years war, were
looked upon as a dagger pointed at heart of New England
and the mid-Atlantic colonies.
Washington was appointed the commander of
the continental army in the autumn of 1775 and was
ordered to turn this group of state militia's and other
volunteers into a real army. One of the first decisions
that Washington and the Continental Congress made was
that Quebec needed to be brought into the revolution as
allies. It was felt that the French Canadians would be
more then willing to break away from Britain and either
join the other colonies or establish it's independence.
Om June 27, 1775 the decision was made to send an army
of liberation to Quebec to force the British out.
The attack was to be a
double pronged approach with Richard Montgomery leading
a force from New York to take Montreal and Benedict
Arnold taking his canoe army up along the river routes
to Quebec City. Arnold departed Massachusetts on
September 13th and heading into the wilderness towards
Quebec. Montgomery also so out and by November 2nd had
taken St Johns.
When Montgomery arrived at Montreal he attacked and
occupied the city on November 13th. The British
commander General Carleton had abandoned the city and
set out for Quebec City with his army. Arnold had
arrived at Quebec City on November 8th but decided to
wait for Montgomery and his army before attacking. When
Montgomery arrived on December 5th, the Americans
started a siege of Quebec and demanded that Carleton
surrender which he refused to do. Time was against the
Americans due to expiration of most of their soldiers
enlistments on January 1, 1776. They attacked on
December 27th and nearly took the city but were
rebuffed. They decided to gamble all on an all out
attack on December 31st, the night before their army
might well dissolve with ending enlistments. A terrible
snowstorm hit Quebec City on December 30th but they
decided to proceed with the attack anyway.
The attack began a 2 in the morning of
December 31st when Montgomery brought his 300 troops
around to the west side of the city and Arnold prepared
his 600 soldiers to attack form the eats side. They had
planned to charge into the lower area of the city and
then make their way through the streets and to the upper
area where they could force Carleton out of the city or
defeat him in detail. Carleton however, had been
informed by an American deserted that the attack was
coming and quickly rushed his men down to the lower part
of the city and threw up a defensive barrier to meet
Montgomery and planned an ambush on the east side to
rebuff Arnold.
When Montgomery's men reached the barrier on the west
side, the English opened fire with rifles and one canon.
They killed three men immediately, including Montgomery,
and the rest fled in panic and did not return. Arnold
men attacked from the eats but Arnold was wounded almost
immediately. Captain Morgan took the command of the rest
of Arnold's men and they rushed through the lower city
brushing aside all resistance. They then stopped before
finishing Carleton's men off to wait for Montgomery, He
did not come and by morning they decided to finish the
attack without him. Carleton had used the precious time
to bring more men into the lower town and they had
re-occupied the barriers and taken positions in many of
the buildings throughout the area. When Morgan started
the final push he and his men found that they were being
shot at form almost every house, angle and hidden
position. They were slowly killed or captured and
finally Morgan capitulated the remnants of his force.
Arnold managed to escape and collect the
remains of the American troops and tried to continue the
siege. He was eventually forced to retreat to Montreal
and in May when British General Burgoyne arrived with
over 4,000 soldiers, Arnold began the retreat from
Canada. The Americans would not invade or threaten
Canada again during the war.
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