General Richard Montgomery and the American Revolution. Hal T. Shelton
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a moment after the men are landed.” A raging surf capsized some boats, drowning a number of soldiers before they could reach shore. Montgomery and his troops managed to land amid the pounding waves and incoming fire. As fast as the men got out of the boat, Montgomery deployed them into formation and marched forward to secure the landing area. Having failed to thwart the amphibious assault, the French outer defense fought a withdrawal action back to the safety of the Louisbourg fortress. Montgomery’s unit and the rest of the British force pursued the retreating troops until they reached a point just outside the range of the fort’s cannons. There, they prepared for a siege of the city.14
Because of continuing bad weather and heavy swells, it was June 16 before provisions for the besieging troops could be landed. Although it was possible to get some artillery ashore on June 18, intermittent bad weather continued for an extended period and hampered the siege buildup. As weather conditions improved, the British were able to bring up and emplace guns to bombard the fortress city. Under this fire cover, Montgomery urged his men on in the back-breaking task of digging trenches and building breastworks, as the British troops pushed forward a series of entrenchments in an ever-tightening ring around the city. At the same time, Montgomery had to keep his soldiers vigilant of French troops attempting to escape the encirclement.15
On July 9, a French force of about six hundred troops attempted a desperate breakout through the siege lines. The sortie struck at the grenadier company of the 17th Regiment, killing its captain and wounding a lieutenant. Raiders killed or wounded several other grenadiers before they were driven back to the city, leaving twenty French troops killed and about eighty wounded or captured. The enemy sent out a flag of truce so that they could claim their dead. After this was accomplished, the cannonading resumed. The vigor with which the British repulsed their bid for relief dampened any further plans by the French to force the siege. In addition, the British fleet stationed in the bay prevented any possibility of the besieged fortress receiving reinforcements from the sea. From the French point of view, the situation was hopeless. On July 26, 1758, the French governor agreed to an unconditional surrender of Louisbourg.16
Casualties during the entire campaign were small. Final British army losses amounted to three officers and forty-seven other ranks killed (all but twelve drowned), five lieutenants and fifty-five men wounded. Of these figures, the 17th Regiment had one captain, one corporal, and ten privates killed; one captain, one lieutenant, one sergeant, one drummer, and thirty-one privates wounded. British navy losses added eleven men killed, four officers and forty-eight men wounded. The French claimed their total casualties to be 114 killed or wounded.17
Although annalists would record the assault and siege as a relatively limited affair in terms of casualty statistics, it had a more personal meaning to the participants. The conflict presented a life or death struggle for the soldiers who suffered through it, whatever its scope. Montgomery’s first taste of combat was a gut-wrenching experience. He witnessed the sickening sight of men being maimed and slaughtered. He felt the cold fear of his own life being placed in imminent peril. Yet, he sensed that he had been entrusted with a noble mission of serving king and country, and he carried out his duties in the midst of danger.
Montgomery also learned that soldiers would normally carry out their orders and perform functions for which they had been trained, even under fire and exposure to injury or death, if properly motivated. An officer on the battlefield had to lead the troops, not merely direct them, to earn their confidence and willingness to follow. As a junior officer, he personally influenced a small number of men that represented only a fraction of the overall operation. Still, he understood that if he accomplished his assignment well, this segment combined with other integral parts of the whole effort completed in like manner could ultimately add up to a total success.
The effectiveness with which Montgomery discharged his duties at Louisbourg caught the attention of General Amherst. Rather than resorting to showy battlefield heroics to call attention to his actions, the young ensign demonstrated a quiet but unmistakable competence during combat. Thus, he proved himself to be a solid officer who could be depended upon to carry out his assigned tasks. As a result, Montgomery received a promotion to lieutenant, effective July 10, 1758.
The protracted siege of Louisbourg had occupied too much time for the expedition to continue against Quebec that summer. Nevertheless, Montgomery and his fellow British soldiers had gained some valuable combat experience. Montgomery also acquired some practical knowledge of conducting siege warfare that he would draw upon at a later date.
While the British army enjoyed a successful 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