. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. the rock and the banks of the tworivers. This citadel of British power was provisioned for eight months,was armed with two hundred pieces of heavy artillery, had a garrison of1,800 regulars, militia and marines, and was commanded by the brave,cautious and accomplished General Guy Carleton, afterward Lord Dor-chester, who, as Governor of Canada, possessed almost absolute authority. Investment of the place was out of the question, with only 800 Ameri-cans to guard the numerous avenues leading to the enemys extensiveworks. Siege was equal
. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. the rock and the banks of the tworivers. This citadel of British power was provisioned for eight months,was armed with two hundred pieces of heavy artillery, had a garrison of1,800 regulars, militia and marines, and was commanded by the brave,cautious and accomplished General Guy Carleton, afterward Lord Dor-chester, who, as Governor of Canada, possessed almost absolute authority. Investment of the place was out of the question, with only 800 Ameri-cans to guard the numerous avenues leading to the enemys extensiveworks. Siege was equally impracticable, as there could be no sapping and * In the early part of the Revolution part of the troops assumed the dress recommended byWashington—a hunting shirt and long gaifer breeches—made of tow-cloth steeped in a tan vatuntil it reached the color of a dry leaf. This was called the srfirt uniform, or rifle dress, and wassupposed to carry no small terror to the enemy as the insignia of a thorough marksman. MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY 287. 288 MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY mining in the hard frozen soil, covered with deep snow-drifts ; besides,Montgomery had no skilled engineer, nor any breaching artillery. He hadcontemplated storming the fortifications from the first, for, writing to theHon. R. R. Livingston, from Montreal, Montgomery says : If my forcebe small, Carletons is not great. The extensiveness of his works, which, incase of investment, would favor him, will, in the other case, favor of our secret, we may select a particular time and place to attack,and to repel this the garrison must be prepared at all times and places—acircumstance which will impose upon it incessant watching and labor byday and by night; which, in its undisciplined state, must breed discontentsthat may compel Carleton to capitulate, or perhaps make an attempt todrive us off. In this last idea there is a glimmering of hope. Wolfes suc-cess was a lucky hit, or rather a
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