headed by General Washington found the former Surgeon General guilty of holding criminal correspondence with the enemy. Though General Washington urged the death penalty, the court relinquished the terms of Church’s punishment to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Church has been taken to a prison in Connecticut, where he is expected to serve a moderate sentence.
REBELS OCCUPY MONTREAL
Carlton Flees Toward Quebec
The generals marched into the city just at evening. The citizens before their entrance proposed terms of capitulation, but the generals observed ... that the troops came not as enemies but as friends to protect them, and as they pretended to be afraid that the troops would plunder them,(the generals) assured them that they should ... be safe in their persons and estates.
Benjamin Trumbull, Chaplain
November 13, 1775
Montreal, Canada: Nov.13, 1775. British General Sir Guy Carlton narrowly escaped capture when rebel artillery shelled the Gaspe, a British ship that he was fleeing on, outside Montreal. Carlton had evacuated his garrison of 150 men at Montreal and he was sailing toward Quebec when rebel troops overtook his small fleet. The British general disguised himself as a local farmer and was rowed to shore shortly before rebel troops boarded the ship and took his men prisoner.
Rebel forces under General Montgomery now occupy nearly all formerly held British garrisons in Canada. They are reportedly pushing toward the heavily fortified town of Quebec, Britain’s most northern and only foothold in Canada. Since it is doubtful Montgomery’s force can maintain a winter siege of Quebec without additional troops and supplies, victory for the rebels will depend on their ability to capture Quebec before the winter sets in.
The indifference of local settlers has been puzzling and disappointing to both British and rebel camps. Neither adversary has had success in raising troops in Canada. Rebels acknowledge historic conflicts between Protestant majorities in the colonies and predominantly Catholic settlers in Canada have not helped their cause. General Carlton became a popular governor when he helped author the Quebec Act which, among other things, recognizes the Catholic Church.
The Quebec Act extends the northern and western boundaries of Canada which elates the Canadians and infuriates the colonists. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia are expanding their own territories into what is now considered by Parliament to be Canadian land. The colonists feel betrayed because they fought alongside British troops to drive the French from their western and northern borders only to relinquish their territories to Carlton, the governor of Canada.
Anti-British feeling has been strong among the wealthy in Canada whose land was confiscated after the French and Indian War. The war also stripped Catholic priests of their almost unlimited political power. But neither the former landowners nor the Catholic priesthood has been quick to embrace the colonial invasion.
In related news, rebel command celebrated the capture of HMT Nancy, a British ordinance ship, commandeered by the American schooner U.S.S. Lee in the Boston harbor. The Nancy yielded 2,000 muskets, 100,000 flints, and 30,000 round shots, 31 ton of musket shot and a 13-inch, 2,700-pound brass mortar.
REBELS DEFEATED AT QUEBEC!
Montgomery Killed, Arnold Wounded in Unsuccessful Attack
Montgomery
Arnold
Morgan
We had now arrived, as we thought, to almost the zenith of distress. Several had been entirely destitute of either meat or bread for many days ... In the company was a poor dog, (who had) hitherto lived through all the tribulation, became a prey for the sustenance of the assassinators. This poor animal was instantly devoured, without leaving a vestige of the sacrifice. Nor did shaving soap, pomatum and even lip salve, leather of their shoes, cartridge boxes, etc., share any better fare...
Dr. Issac Senter, Rhode Island Militia
On Arnold’s March to Quebec
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Jan. 5, 1775. Rebel hopes of conquering Canada were shattered this week when British General Sir Guy Carlton’s marines, with support from 500 British and French Canadian militia, turned back a rebel attack on the city of Quebec, December 30. Eight hundred rebel troops under command of General Montgomery were thrown back and forced to retreat after an abortive attack on the fortress city, under cover of a violent snowstorm.
General Montgomery and 300 rebel troops marched from Montreal to Quebec in late November, and joined Colonel Benedict Arnold and the 500 survivors of Arnold’s ill-fated expedition through the Maine wilderness.
Colonel Arnold, who lost half his original 1,000 volunteers to sickness, starvation and exposure, was about to withdraw from the outskirts of Quebec after a failed attempt to lay siege on the city’s population.
The rebels staged a two-pronged attack against Carlton’s 1,800 defenders. Arnold, with Captain Daniel Morgan and his Virginia riflemen, managed to breach the first round of barricades at the northern perimeter of lower Quebec. Arnold received a bullet in his leg and was forced to withdraw, giving Captain Morgan command of his troops. The rebel advance slowed when it was discovered that melting snow had soaked most of their flint and gunpowder.
Montgomery’s New York militia struck the western side of lower Quebec, which borders on the Charles River. The rebel general was killed while leading the first assault on a blockhouse erected outside the city’s walls. For some inexplicable reason, Montgomery’s second in command, Colonel Donald Campbell, ordered a retreat, which allowed Carlton to move the majority of his troops against Captain Morgan’s men who were advancing up the streets of lower Quebec.
Carlton’s men surrounded the rebels and Morgan, outgunned and outnumbered, was forced to surrender. The Virginian handed his sword to a local priest, rather than yield it to a British officer.
Rebel losses are estimated at 60 killed and over 400 captured. British casualties were five killed and 13 wounded.
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