Death of Montgomery

In order to recognize each other, the republican soldiers were ordered to fasten a piece of white paper to the front of their caps. On some of them they wrote the words of Henry, "Liberty or Death." The narrow path along which Montgomery led his men at the foot of the acclivity, was blocked with ice and snow, and a strong wind blew blinding sleet and cutting hail in the faces of the patriots. They pressed on, and passing a deserted barrier, they approached a block-house, at the foot of Cape Diamond, pierced for musketry and cannon. All was silent there. Believing the garrison not to be on the alert, Montgomery, burning with impatience to win success, shouted to his immediate followers--the companies of Captains Cheeseman and Mott--"Men of New York, you will not fear to follow where your general leads; push on, my brave boys, and Quebec is ours!" and rushed forward to surprise the garrison and take the battery. There were vigilant eyes and ears in the block-house. In the dim light of a winter's dawn, through the thick snow-vail, forty men watched the coming republicans; and when Montgomery shouted to his followers, and was within fifty yards of the works, they opened a deadly fire of grape-shot from their cannon. Montgomery, his aid McPherson, Captain Cheeseman and ten others were instantly killed. The remainder retreated to Wolfe's Cove, where the senior officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, rallied them, but did not renew the effort to reach Prescott Gate.

While these sad events were occurring on the St. Lawrence side of the town, Arnold was making his way near the St. Charles, along a narrow way filled with snow-drifts. The town was in an uproar. The bells were ringing; the drums were beating a general alarm; and cannon were beginning to thunder. The storm was raging violently, and Arnold was compelled to march in single file. Lamb had to leave his cannon behind in the drifts, and join the fighters with small arms. At a narrow pass Arnold was wounded in the leg, and was carried to the General Hospital, when the command devolved on Morgan. The troops pressed forward under their new leader, captured a battery, and fought fiercely for three hours to capture another, and succeeded. Then Lamb was severely wounded. Morgan was about to push on to attack Prescott Gate, when the sad news came that troops under Dearborn, stationed near Palace Gate, had been captured by a party who had sallied out of the city, and had then cut off the retreat of Arnold's division in front. At ten o'clock, after he had lost full one hundred men, Morgan was compelled to surrender with more than four hundred followers. A reserve force of Arnold's division had retreated, and were soon joined to those under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell. So ended the siege of Quebec.

When the contest was over, and it was known in the city that General Montgomery was slain, Governor Carleton, who had been his companion in arms under Wolfe, sent out a detachment to search for his body. It was found, with those of Cheeseman and McPherson, shrouded in snow-drifts. They were carried into the city and buried within the walls. There Montgomery's remains rested forty years, when they were taken to New York and deposited beneath a beautiful mural monument erected by order of Congress on the exterior of the wall of St. Paul's Church that fronts on Broadway.

The Continental Congress, in the meantime, had been working industriously in perfecting a national organization and in supporting the armies in the field, at the same time taking pains not to give mortal offence to the British government until an answer to their petition should come from the king. They had tremendous difficulties before them, and heavy responsibilities to bear. The first reports from Washington and Schuyler, concerning the troops, were very discouraging, and they continued to be so for several months--the spirit of democracy everywhere producing insubordination and consequent weakness. The inefficiency of the executive powers of the Congress was keenly felt. These were delegated to a single committee of that body. The sagacious Franklin saw the futility of attempting to carry on the inevitable war with such a feeble instrument, and late in July he submitted the basis of a form of confederation, similar in some respects to the one he proposed in the Convention at Albany twenty-one years before, but generally more like our present national constitution. The plan was a virtual declaration of independence; the government it proposed was to be perpetual unless the British rulers should accede to the claims of the colonies. It was not then acted upon.