General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution. Hal T. Shelton

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СКАЧАТЬ investment of Louisbourg, Abercromby’s campaign met with dashed hopes. Gen. George Howe was killed on July 6, 1758, in a preliminary skirmish near Fort Ticonderoga (called Fort Carillon by the French who occupied it). Two days later, Abercromby with fifteen thousand men mounted his main attack on the fort defended by Gen. Louis Montcalm and thirty-six hundred troops. The ill-planned frontal assault resulted in the British soldiers being cut to pieces before they could breach the fort’s perimeter. Abercromby lost 1,944 men while inflicting only 377 casualties on the French.¹⁸

      In August 1758, the 17th and several other regiments embarked from Louisbourg and sailed to Boston. After arriving there, the regiment marched to join and bolster Abercromby’s expeditionary force in upper New York. The soldiers, awaiting deployment the next year, occupied winter quarters near Lake George. Morale of the surviving troops that fought under Abercromby had plummeted. This feeling of bitter disappointment, however, mingled with the optimistic outlook of the 17th Regiment fresh from victory, and overall esprit improved.¹⁹

      On November 9, 1758, the British government recalled Abercromby and replaced him with Amherst as commander in chief. The capture of Fort Duquesne by Forbes’s expedition on November 25, 1758, dissipated some of the disgrace inflicted on the British army by Abercromby’s ineptitude. British authorities renamed this strategic location Pittsburgh in honor of the prime minister, William Pitt. Forbes, who had been ill for some time, died in the spring of 1759.²⁰

      Military authorities now devised a three-pronged offensive to force a French capitulation in Canada. Gen. James Wolfe, who had distinguished himself at Louisbourg and assumed command of that expedition upon the departure of Amherst, would take Quebec by leading nine thousand soldiers up the St. Lawrence River; a second column of two thousand British regulars would seal off a French retreat westward by a thrust through Niagara; and Amherst with seven thousand men would capture Ticonderoga and Crown Point.²¹

      Montgomery and the 17th Regiment were attached to Amherst’s expedition under the reorganization. On May 6, 1759, the regiment combined with the other expeditionary units then assembling near Albany. After extensive preparations, the troops advanced up the Hudson River toward Ticonderoga. Montgomery exhorted his troops to be watchful for an ambush during the treacherous march through the New York wilderness. His concern was confirmed three days after their departure when a band of thirty Indians surprised a hapless party of twelve men of the 17th, killing one lieutenant, one sergeant, and two men, and wounding three others. Arriving at Lake George, the soldiers erected a fort and procured boats to convey them through the waterway. When the British approached Ticonderoga on July 24, they were met by initial stiff resistance from the French. Yet a short time later, the enemy withdrew its main body of twenty-five hundred men to concentrate its defense at Crown Point, leaving a four-hundred-troop rear garrison. After reaching Ticonderoga, the British expedition laid siege to the fort.²²

      While conducting normal siege operations, Montgomery noticed an uneasiness in his men that all soldiers in combat experience from time to time, particularly at night when diminished visibility stimulates the imagination. So, he took precautions to ensure that his men followed the general order specifying no firing at night, but receiving any enemy with the bayonet. The significance of this practice became evident one evening when a false alarm occurred and a British company of light-infantry began indiscriminate firing into the dark. Other soldiers in the siege line joined the errant shooting, resulting in the death of an officer and the wounding of several men from the 17th Regiment.²³

      On July 26, the French garrison at Ticonderoga blew up the fort and retreated to Crown Point. The total British loss at the taking of Ticonderoga was one colonel, one lieutenant, and fifteen privates killed, and about fifty wounded. Of this number, the 17th had two killed and eight wounded. The expedition resumed its advancement northward. However, the French destroyed and abandoned Crown Point before the British could reach it. Montgomery and other members of the expedition spent the next two months reconstructing the works at Crown Point, establishing control of Lake Champlain, and building a road to the Connecticut River. The next objective was Isle aux Noix, some 120 miles down the lake where the French had retired, but the late season interrupted this operation. When cold weather arrived in October, the troops at Crown Point went into winter quarters. Gen. Robert Monckton assumed command of the 17th Regiment in October 1759, officially replacing the deceased Forbes.²⁴

      In the meantime, the other two expeditions were progressing as planned. Fort Niagara surrendered to the British on July 24, 1759. Troops under Wolfe were closing on the French stronghold at Quebec. Montgomery’s oldest brother, Capt. Alexander Montgomery, served in the 43d Regiment, which was included in Wolfe’s expedition. Unfortunately, some researchers have confused Richard Montgomery with Alexander Montgomery in an incident during the Quebec campaign. Lt. Malcolm Fraser of the 78th Regiment asserted that on August 23, 1759, his detachment was brought under the command of Captain Montgomery for an attack on a village in the vicinity of St. Joachim. In his journal, Fraser stated: “There were several of the enemy killed and wounded, and a few prisoners taken, all of whom the barbarous Captain Montgomery, who commanded us, ordered to be butchered in a most inhuman and cruel manner . . . one shot and the other knocked down with a tomahawk and both scalped in my absence.”²⁵

      Fraser’s outrage over the event is curious in one respect: scalping was not an uncommon practice during the war. One of the earlier instances of its usage was when Col. George Washington sent the scalp of a French officer taken by Indians to Virginia’s Governor Dinwiddie in March or April 1756. Because the French had greater Indian allies, they probably were more involved in this practice than the British. However, both sides condoned this savage behavior and encouraged their Indian confederates in the brutality by offering them scalp bounties. The guerrilla or irregular nature of the war contributed to the general acceptance of this atrocious form of combat. Wolfe addressed the issue by signing an order on July 27, 1759, stating that “the general strictly forbids the inhuman practice of scalping, except when the enemy are Indians or Canadians dressed like Indians.” Warranted or not, Montgomery’s brother gained the name of “Black” Montgomery because of the wartime affair.²⁶

      Wolfe’s force continued to descend upon Quebec and on September 18, 1759, overcame the French defenders there. Both Wolfe and Montcalm, who was in command at the fortress-like city, lost their lives during the contest.

      Montgomery continued to rise steadily through the officer ranks. On May 15, 1760, the commanding officer appointed him regimental adjutant, an assignment reserved for the most promising lieutenant in the unit.

      Success of the British offensive triad cleared the way for the final stage in the conquest of Canada. The major French opposition that persisted was concentrated in Montreal, which subsequently became the target for a climactic strike by the three British expeditions poised at Quebec, Lake Ontario, and Lake Champlain. The 17th Regiment formed part of the Lake Champlain division. It set out from Crown Point on August 11, 1760, and captured the intermediate objectives of Isle aux Noix and Fort Chambly before arriving at Montreal. There it merged with the other two divisions in a fine example of strategic concentration to threaten the last French bastion of resistance. As the British troops enveloped the vicinity, refugees crowded into the city, Canadian militiamen deserted, and the twenty-four hundred French regulars found themselves greatly outnumbered. The French commander, realizing that he was unable to withstand the opposing forces, unconditionally surrendered Montreal on September 8, 1760. With this capitulation, all of Canada passed to the British.²⁷

      From Montreal, Montgomery and his regiment marched to New York during the summer of 1761, and encamped on Staten Island. After conquering Canada, the British government formulated a plan to subdue the French in the West Indies. Plans called for an expedition to be assembled in Barbados and placed under the command of Monckton, who had received a promotion to major general on February 20, 1761. Having been designated as part of the operation, the 17th Regiment, mustering 488 men, sailed from New York on November 19, 1761. After arriving at Barbados on December 24, the regiment joined other units from North СКАЧАТЬ