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As the siege of Boston advanced without decisive result, orders from England suddenly relieved Gage from command, and assigned General Sir William Howe as his successor. That officer promulgated a characteristic order “assuming command over all the Atlantic Colonies from Nova Scotia to the West Indies.” He made his advent thus public, and equally notorious. Offensive proclamations, bad in policy, fruitless for good, and involving the immediate crushing out of all sympathy from those who were still loyal to the Crown, were the types of his character, both as governor and soldier. He threatened with military execution any who might leave the city without his consent, and enjoined upon all citizens, irrespective of personal opinion, to “arm for the defence of Boston.”

This action imposed upon Washington the issue of a reciprocal order against “all who were suffered to stalk at large, doing all the mischief in their power.” Hence, between the two orders, it happened that the royalists in the city had no opportunity to visit their friends and see to their own property outside the British lines, and the royalists of the country who sought to smuggle themselves between the lines, to communicate with those in the city, were compelled to remain outside the American lines, or be shot as “spies.”

Up to this time, the British officers and neutral citizens had not been interfered with in the prosecution of their business or social engagements; and the operations of the siege had been mainly those of silencing British action and wearing out the garrison by constant surveillance and provocations to a fight.

Supplies became more and more scarce within the British lines. Acting under the peremptory orders of General Howe, Admiral Graves resolved to make his small fleet more effective, and under rigid instructions to “burn all towns and cities that fitted out or sheltered privateers,” Lieutenant Mowatt began his work of desolation by the destruction of Falmouth, now Portland, Me.

In contrast with this proceeding was the action of Washington. When an American privateer, which had been sent by him to the St. Lawrence river, to cut off two brigantines which had left England with supplies for Quebec, exceeded instructions, and plundered St. John’s Island, he promptly sent back the citizen-prisoners, restored their private effects, and denounced the action of the officer in command and his crew, as “a violation of the principles of civilized warfare.”

Crowded by these immediate demands upon his resources, and equally confident that there soon would be neither army, nor supplies, adequate for the emergency, Washington made an independent appeal to Congress, covering the entire ground of his complaint, and stating his absolute requirements. He wanted money. He demanded a thoroughly organized commissariat, and a permanent artillery establishment. He asked for more adequate control of all troops, from whatever Colony they might come; a longer term of enlistment; enlargement of the Rules and Articles of War, and power to enforce his own will. He also demanded a separate organization of the navy, in place of scattered, irresponsible privateers, and that it be placed upon a sound footing, as to both men and vessels.

Congress acted promptly upon these suggestions. On the fourth of October, a committee, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin Harrison, started for Washington’s headquarters with three hundred thousand dollars in Continental money, and after a patient consideration of his views, advised the adoption of all his recommendations.

A council of all the New England Governors was also called to meet this committee. As the result of the conference a new organization of the army was determined upon, fixing the force to be employed about Boston at twenty-three thousand three hundred and seventy-two officers and men. Washington also submitted to this committee his plan for attacking Boston. It was approved; and soon after, Congress authorized him to burn the city if he should deem that necessary in the prosecution of his designs against the British army. In all subsequent military operations the same principle of strategic action was controlling and absolute with him.

On the thirteenth day of October, Congress authorized the building of two small cruisers, and on the thirtieth, two additional vessels, of small tonnage. A naval committee was also appointed, consisting of Silas Dean, John Langdon, Joseph Hewes, Richard Henry Lee, and John Adams. On the twenty-eighth of November, a naval code was adopted; and on the thirteenth of December, the construction of thirteen frigates was authorized. Among the officers commissioned, were Nicholas Biddle as captain and John Paul Jones as lieutenant. Thus the American Navy was fully established.^[1]

1. See Appendix, “American Navy.”

On the twenty-ninth day of November, Captain John Manly, who was the most prominent officer of this improvised navy, captured a British store-ship, containing a large mortar, several brass cannon, two thousand muskets, one hundred thousand flints, eleven mortar-beds, thirty thousand shot, and all necessary implements for artillery and intrenching service.

As the year drew to its close, the British levelled all their advanced works on Charlestown Neck, and concentrated their right wing in a strong redoubt on Bunker Hill, while their left wing at Boston Neck was more thoroughly fortified against attack.

Congress now intimated to Washington that it might be well to attack the city upon the first favorable occasion, before the arrival of reënforcements from Great Britain. The laconic reply of the Commander-in-Chief was, that he “must keep his powder for closer work than cannon distance.”

On the nineteenth of November, Henry Knox was commissioned as Colonel, vice Gridley, too old for active service. Two lieutenant-colonels, two majors, and twelve companies of artillery were authorized, and thus the American regular Artillery, as well as the navy, was put upon a substantial basis, with Knox as Chief of Artillery.

The closing months of 1775 also developed the progress of the expeditions for the conquest of Canada. The reënforcements required for the actual rescue of the detached forces from destruction, increased the burdens of the Commander-in-Chief. This period of Washington’s military responsibility cannot be rightly judged from the general opinion that Montgomery’s nominal force of three thousand men represented an effective army of that strength: in fact, it was less than half that number.

Montgomery reached Ticonderoga on the seventeenth of August. Schuyler, then negotiating a treaty with the Six Nations, at Albany, received a despatch from Washington, “Not a moment of time is to be lost,” and at once joined Montgomery. They pushed for the capture of St. John’s, under the spur of Washington’s warning; but on the sixth of September and again on the tenth, were compelled to suspend operations for want of artillery, having at the time a force of but one thousand men present, instead of the three thousand promised. Schuyler’s ill-health compelled him to return to Ticonderoga; but with infinite industry, system, and courage he was able to forward additional troops, increasing Montgomery’s force to two thousand men.

Ethan Allen, who had been succeeded in command of the “Green Mountain Boys” by Seth Warner, was across the line, endeavoring to recruit a regiment of Canadians. After partial success, regardless of order, he dashed forward, hoping to capture Montreal, as he had captured Ticonderoga. He was captured, and sent to England to be tried on the charge of treason. In a letter to Schuyler, Washington thus notices the event:

“Colonel Allen’s misfortune will, I hope, teach a lesson of prudence and subordination in others who may be too ambitious to outshine their general officer, and regardless of order and duty, rush into enterprises which have unfavorable effects on the public, and are destructive to themselves.”

On the third of November, after a siege of fifty days, St. John’s was captured, with one hundred Canadians and nearly five hundred British regulars, more than half the force in Canada. John André was among the number. General Carleton, who attempted to cross the St. Lawrence river, and come to the aid of St. John’s, was thrust back by the “Green Mountain Boys” and a part of the 2d New York Regiment.

The treatment of prisoners illustrates the condition of this army. It was not a part of the Cambridge army, as was Arnold’s, but the contributions promised largely by New York, and directly forwarded by Congress. One regiment mutinied because Montgomery allowed the prisoners to retain their extra suit of clothing, instead of treating it as plunder. Schuyler’s and Montgomery’s Orderly Books and letters show that even officers refused to take clothing and food to suffering prisoners until peremptorily forced to do it. Washington was constantly advised of the existing conditions; and when both Schuyler and Montgomery regarded the prosecution of their expeditions as hopeless, with such troops, and proposed to resign, the Commander-in-Chief thus feelingly, almost tenderly, wrote: “God knows there is not a difficulty you both complain of which I have not in an eminent degree experienced; that I am not, every day, experiencing; but we must bear up against them, and make the best of mankind as they are, since we cannot have them as we wish. Let me therefore conjure you both, to lay aside such thoughts; thoughts injurious to yourselves, and extremely so to your country, which calls aloud for gentlemen of your abilities.”

On the twelfth of November, Montgomery reached the open city of Montreal; and the larger of the two Canadian expeditions reached its proposed destination. But before the month of November closed, the American force “wasted away,” until only about eight hundred men remained. Expiration of enlistments was at hand. Men refused to re-enlist. Even the “Green Mountain Boys” returned home. This was not the total loss to Montgomery. Officers and men were all alike fractious, dictatorial, and self-willed. They claimed the right to do just as they pleased, and to obey such orders only as their judgment approved. General Carleton escaped from the city in disguise, and reached Quebec on the nineteenth. There was no possibility of following him; and the work laid but for Montgomery, had been done, although at great cost and delay.

Prof. Charles G. D. Roberts, of King’s College, Nova Scotia, in his “History of Canada” (1897),^[2] uses this language: “General Carleton fled in disguise to Quebec, narrowly escaping capture, and there made ready for his last stand. In Quebec he weeded out all those citizens who sympathized with the rebels, expelling them from the city. With sixteen hundred men at his back, a small force indeed, but to be trusted, he awaited the struggle.”

2. Lamson, Wolfe & Co., Publishers, Boston.

Meanwhile Arnold, after unexampled sufferings and equal heroism, had reached Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the ninth of November, only to find that the garrison had been strengthened, and that he was stranded, in the midst of a severe winter, upon an inhospitable, barren bluff. The strongest fortress in America, defended by two hundred heavy cannon, and the capture of which had been the inspiration of his adventurous campaign, was in full sight. Every condition which Washington had declared to be essential to success had failed of realization. On the fifth of October Washington wrote to Schuyler: “If Carleton is not driven from St. John’s, so as to be obliged to throw himself into Quebec, it must fall into our hands, as it is left without a regular soldier, as the captain of a brig from Quebec to Boston says. Many of the inhabitants are most favorably disposed to the American cause, and that there is there the largest stock of ammunition ever collected in America.” On the same day he also writes “Arnold expected to reach Quebec in twenty days from September twenty-sixth, and that Montgomery must keep up such appearances as to fix Carleton, and prevent the force in Canada from being turned on Arnold; but if penetration into Canada be given up, Arnold must also know it, in time for retreat.” And again: “This detachment (Arnold’s) was to take possession of Quebec, if possible; but at any rate, to make a diversion in favor of Schuyler.”

But Arnold, on the sixteenth day of October, when, as he advised Washington, he expected to advance upon Quebec, was struggling with quagmires, swamps, fallen trees, rain and mud, snow and ice, about Deer river, and had not even reached Lake Megantic. Men waded in icy water to their armpits; some froze to death: others deserted. Enos, short of provisions, as he claimed, marched three hundred men back to Cambridge. And Arnold, himself, twenty-five days too late, stood upon Point Levi, in the midst of a furious tempest of wind, rain, and sleet, only to realize the substantial failure of his vaunted expedition. Most of his muskets were ruined, and but five rounds of ammunition remained for the few men that were with him in this hour of starvation and distress. Two vessels-of-war lay at anchor in the stream. And yet, such was his indomitable energy, with thirty birch-bark canoes he crossed the river, gained a position on the Heights of Abraham, and sent to the fortress an unnoticed demand for surrender. Then, retiring to Point Aux Trembles, he sent a messenger to Montgomery asking for artillery and two thousand men, for prosecution of a siege. Montgomery, leaving in command General Wooster, who arrived at Montreal late in November, started down the river with about three hundred men and a few pieces of artillery, and clothing for Arnold’s men; landing at Point Aux Trembles about December first, making the total American force only one thousand men. On the sixth day of December, a demand for surrender having been again unanswered, the little army advanced to its fate. Four assaulting columns were organized. All failed, and Montgomery fell in a gallant but desperate attempt to storm the citadel itself. Morgan and four hundred and twenty-six men, nearly half of the entire command, were taken prisoners. Only the grand nerve of Montgomery brought the army to the assault in this forlorn-hope affair,—for such it was. Three of Arnold’s captains refused to serve under him any longer; and mutiny, or the entire ruin of the army, was the alternative to the risks of ruin in battle. Arnold had a knee shattered by a bullet, and the remnants of the army fell back, harmless, to the garrison, and amid snow, ice, and proximate starvation, awaited future events.

The treatment of the prisoners by General Carleton, and the burial, with honors of war, of his old comrade under Wolfe, the brave Montgomery, savors of the knightly chivalry of mediæval times. When his officers protested at such treatment of rebels, his response, lofty in tone and magnanimous in action, was simply this: “Since we have in vain tried to make them acknowledge us as brothers, let us at least send them away disposed to regard us as cousins.”

Almost at the same hour of the day when Carleton passed through Point Aux Trembles, on his escape to Quebec, Washington having heard of Montgomery’s arrival at Montreal, was writing to Congress, as follows: “It is likely that General Carleton will, with what force he can collect after the surrender of the rest of Canada, throw himself into Quebec, and there make his last effort.”

With Arnold three miles from Quebec, intrenched as well as he was able to intrench, confining his operations to cutting off supplies to the city and keeping his five hundred survivors from starving or freezing, and Carleton preparing for reënforcements as soon as the ice might break up in the spring, the invasion of Canada for conquest came to a dead halt. The invasion of the American Colonies was to follow its final failure.

There were heroes who bore part in those expeditions, and their experience was to crown many of Washington’s later campaigns with the honors of victory. Meanwhile, about Boston, enlistments were rapidly expiring, to be again replaced with fresh material for the master’s handling into army shape and use; and the American Commander-in-Chief was beginning to illustrate his qualities as Soldier.