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Chapter 11 To Winter in Canada “Free” Montréal and Fortress Québec The inhabitants are very friendly and give all the assistance they dare to do at present. | Colonel Benedict Arnold to General Richard Montgomery, Pointe-aux-Trembles, 20 November 1775 The Enemy without, however, are not to be dreaded as much as their numerous Friends in the Town. | Lieutenant-Governor Hector Cramahé to Secretary of State Dartmouth, Québec City, 19 November 1775 Montgomery’s Northern Army rapidly departed from the St-Jean area within days of the fort’s surrender, and the general joined his men at Laprairie on 6 November.The haggard Continentals quickly erected a camp, but the frosty November air made it “very uncomfortable living in tents.” Spying over the St. Lawrence, they could discern their next objective, Montréal, with its inviting accommodations.1 As the main army arrived on the St. Lawrence, detachments spread out to expand the patriot presence in the district. Colonel Warner’s men moved from Longueuil to Boucherville, a half dozen miles northeast. At the mouth of the Richelieu, Colonel Easton’s Continentals established themselves at Point Sorel, having cleared the valley of loyalists. Always a trailblazer, John Brown led a party over to the north shore and roved from Lachenaie down to the defiant parish of Berthier.It was this detachment that intercepted His Majesty’s mail there on 6 November. The noose was rapidly tightening on the King’s forces.2 Militarily,Montréal offered Governor Carleton little hope for defense.The city’s fortifications were “an apology for a wall,” and would be “little more than an Egg Shell”to even light cannon fire.The only reliable defenders were eighty British regular troops in the city, plus a detachment at Lachine; the To Winter in Canada 155 habitant militia and Indian auxiliary force had dwindled to insignificance. Assessing the city militia, the governor believed that “the greatest part of the lower people will not act,” and there were plenty of suspected “Traytors within.” On 6 November, a merchant committee approached the governor to divine his intentions; he confessed that he would leave in a couple days, at which point “they might take care of themselves.”Yet Carleton held on as long as possible, demonstrating his determination while hoping for a fortuitous change of circumstances—he would be disappointed.3 Montréal merchants reacted to Carleton’s statements by sending a letter to Montgomery, inquiring about Continental plans. On the seventh, the general responded with a letter “to the Inhabitants of Montreal,”endorsed to Pierre du Calvet,calling on patriot citizens to encourage fellow inhabitants or “bourgeoisie”to dissuade Carleton from a “futile Resistance,”preventing the unnecessary suffering that would result from a bombardment.The letter’s tone implied that Montgomery would soon enter the town,one way or another.The general added a postscript addressing rumors that Continentals intended “to give up the town to plunder”; proudly referring to the Northern Army’s record, he asked the Montrealers,“Have you heard any one complain of such an act on our part since our Entrance into your Province?” The citizens, however, did not immediately respond, as Carleton and his troops lingered in town.4 On 11 November, after a few cold, cloudy days at Laprairie, Montgomery ordered about two hundred Continentals to cross the St. Lawrence.The previous night’s snow melted, leaving muddy sludge on the riverbanks as soldiers loaded bateaux and pushed off for Ile-St-Paul (Ile-des-Soeurs).That island, about two miles long, was separated from the main Island of Montr éal by a narrow channel three hundred yards wide.Once on Ile-St-Paul,the troops consolidated their position and pitched tents.That evening,two patriot Montrealers, George Measam and James Price’s business partner William Haywood, crept over Montréal’s walls, rambled two miles to the island, and conferred with General Montgomery,sharing the city’s latest developments.5 It was clearly time for Governor Carleton to leave Montréal. Seeing the rebel’s south-shore buildup,he had already directed his men to load the King’s stores,as well as any known merchants’gunpowder,on eight transports “night and day.” Any military stores that could not be removed were to be dumped into the river. With the air of “the saddest funeral,” Carleton bade farewell to several prominent Montréal loyalists and boarded the last ship. The little flotilla, escorted by a Royal Navy brig and...

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