CHAPTER LXVII.

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA.

JANUARY--JUNE, 1776.

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THE death of Montgomery dispelled the illusion CHAP. that hovered round the invasion of Canada. The soldiers whose time expired on the last day of Decem- 1776. ber insisted on their discharge; some went off with- to out leave, taking with them their arms; the rest were Mar. dejected and anxious to be at home. There remained encamped near Quebec rather than besieging it, about four hundred Americans and as many wavering Canadians. The force commanded by Carleton was twice as numerous as both, and was concentrated in the well provisioned and strongly fortified town. Yet in the face of disasters and a superior enemy, Arnold preserved his fortitude; "I have no thought," he said, "of leaving this proud town until I enter it in tri umph." Montgomery had required an army of ten thousand men; Arnold declared that a less number would not suffice.

The chief command devolved on Wooster, who

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CHAP was at Montreal; and he wrote in every direction for LXVII. aid. To Warner and the Green Mountain Boys he sent 1776. word that they must come down as fast as parties could be collected, by fifties or even by tens; of Washington, who had no artillery for his own use, he asked not men only, but heavy cannon and mortars; to the president of congress and to Schuyler he said plainly: "We shall want every thing," men, heavy cannon, mortars, shot, shells, powder, and hard money. Bills of credit had no currency; "money," he reiterated, "we must have or give up every thing;" "if we are not immediately supplied with hard cash, we must starve, quit the country, or lay it under contribution."

Wherever among the colonies the news spread of Montgomery's fall, there was one general burst of sorrow, and a burning desire to retrieve his defeat. Washington overcame his scruples about initiating measures, and without waiting to consult congress, recommended to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, each to raise and send forward a regiment on behalf of the continent; and the three colonies eagerly met his call, for the annexation of Canada was then their passion. The continental congress specially encouraged western New Hampshire to complete a regiment for the service; and ordered one regiment from Philadelphia, another from New Jersey to march for the St. Lawrence without delay. These were to be soon followed by four or five more.

In the first moments of the excitement the summons was obeyed; citizens became soldiers, left the comforts of home with alacrity, and undertook a march of many hundred miles, to a country in that rigor

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ous season almost uninhabitable, through snow and CHAP. over frozen lakes, without tents, or any shelter from ~ the inclemency of the weather. Their unanimity, 1776. their zeal for liberty, their steady perseverance, called forth the most confident predictions of their success; but reflection showed insurmountable obstacles. Since congress for eight months had not been able to furnish Washington, who was encamped in the most thickly peopled part of the country, with the men, clothes, blankets, money, and powder required for the recovery of Boston, how could they hope to keep up the siege of Quebec?

To maintain a foothold in Canada, there was need, in the first place, of the good-will and confidence of its people. Montgomery had from his birth been familiar with Catholics; but Wooster, a New England Calvinist from a country town in Connecticut, cradled in the hatred of popery, irritated the jealousies of the Canadian clergy, who refused absolution to the friends of the Americans, and threatened them from the pulpit with eternal woe. Nor were his manners and frugal style of living suited to win the friendship of the Canadian nobility. But without the support of their priests or their feudal superiors, the fickle and uncertain common people were incapable of being solidly organized, unless the Americans should prove themselves to be the strongest party.

It would therefore be necessary to send into Canada a numerous, well disciplined, and well appointed army, with trains of artillery for a siege. But congress, in its dread of a standing force, had no troops at all except on short enlistments; among the New England men who were the first to move, there was little apt

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CHAP. ness for military subordination; and if Washington LXVII. found it difficult to reduce them to order, if Schuyler 1776. almost threw up the attempt, if Montgomery suffered from their querulousness even while leading them to victory, what was to be expected from fresh levies of imperfectly armed villagers who for the most part had never seen war, and, alike officers and men, could never have acquired the sentiment of soldierly obedience, or the habit of courage in danger? Moreover, the distance was an obstacle in respect to which England had the advantage; the path across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence was more easily traversed than the road by land from the colonies to Quebec. A real American army of ten thousand men was wanted, and by the middle of March no more than fifteen hundred had reached Montreal. The royalists in Canada began to cry victory, and were bolder than

ever.

The relations with the Indians became alarming; yet Schuyler dissuaded from any attempt at employing them; and congress voted not to suffer them to serve in its armies without the previous consent of the tribes in a national council, nor then without its own express approval. But to guard against dangers from the Five Nations, James Deane was sent with the returning deputations from the Oneidas and the seven tribes in Canada. On the journey they marched in Indian file, and at sunset encamped in a grove of hemlocks, of which the boughs furnished beds. The council, in which the nations were much divided, began on the twenty eighth of March with the usual ceremonies to wipe away tears, to cleanse from blood, to lighten the grief which choked speech. The next day was

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given to acts of condolence, when new trees, as they CHAP. expressed it, were raised in the place of chiefs who had fallen, and their names published to the Six Na- 1776. tions. On the thirty first the confederated tribes gave each other pledges to observe a strict neutrality in the present quarrel. Nothing amazed them more than the flight of the British from Boston.

For four months Wooster remained the highest officer in Canada. All accounts agree that he was "unfit, totally unfit" for so important a station, which he had never sought, and which he desired to surrender to an officer of higher rank. Yet he did some things well; in the early part of his command he arrested Campbell, the Indian agent of the British, and La Corne St. Luc, and sent them out of the province. Like a true New England man, he allowed each parish to choose its own officers, thus introducing the system of self-government in towns. He also intended to employ committees of safety and committees of correspondence, and thus lead the way to a Canadian convention, which might send delegates to the general congress. When a friend wished he might enter Quebec through its gates, "Not so, but over its walls," was his reply; and they were not mere words of rodomontade, for the aged man was brave. He was too old to unlearn his partiality for Connecticut, and sometimes paid his men in hard money, when those round Quebec got only paper; and sometimes granted a furlough which carried pay, instead of a discharge. With Schuyler, who was far the more testy of the two, he had constant bickerings, which attracted the attention and divided the opinion of congress.

On the first day of April Wooster took command Apr.