Invasion of Quebec (1775)

Invasion of Quebec, 1775
Part of the American Revolutionary War
The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, a 1786 portrait by John Trumbull
Date June 1775 – October 1776 Location Primarily Lake Champlain and St. Lawrence River valleys Result British victory[1]
Belligerents
United Colonies Canadian auxiliaries Green Mountain Boys	Great Britain Quebec  Loyalists Hessian troops
Commanders and leaders
Philip Schuyler Richard Montgomery † John Thomas † William Thompson  John Sullivan Benedict Arnold David Wooster James Livingston Ethan Allen	Sir Guy Carleton John Burgoyne
Strength
10,000[2]	700–10,000+[3]
Casualties and losses
400 killed 650 wounded 1,500 captured 5,000 infected by smallpox[citation needed]	100 killed about 230 wounded 600 captured[citation needed]

The Invasion of Quebec (June 1775 – October 1776, French: Invasion du Québec) was the first major military initiative by the newly formed Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The objective of the campaign was to seize the Province of Quebec (part of modern-day Canada) from Great Britain, and persuade French-speaking Canadiens to join the revolution on the side of the Thirteen Colonies. One expedition left Fort Ticonderoga under Richard Montgomery, besieged and captured Fort St. Johns, and very nearly captured British General Guy Carleton when taking Montreal. The other expedition, under Benedict Arnold, left Cambridge, Massachusetts, and traveled with great difficulty through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec City. The two forces joined there, but they were defeated at the Battle of Quebec in December 1775.

Montgomery's expedition set out from Fort Ticonderoga in late August, and in mid-September began besieging Fort St. Johns, the main defensive point south of Montreal. After the fort was captured in November, Carleton abandoned Montreal, fleeing to Quebec City, and Montgomery took control of Montreal before heading for Quebec with an army much reduced in size by expiring enlistments. There he joined Arnold, who had left Cambridge in early September on an arduous trek through the wilderness that left his surviving troops starving and lacking in many supplies and equipment.

These forces joined before Quebec City in December, and they assaulted the city in a snowstorm on the last day of the year. The battle was a disastrous defeat for the Continental Army; Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded, while the city's defenders suffered few casualties. Arnold then conducted an ineffectual siege on the city, during which successful propaganda campaigns boosted Loyalist sentiments, and General David Wooster's blunt administration of Montreal served to annoy both supporters and detractors of the Americans.

The British sent several thousand troops under General John Burgoyne, including Hessian mercenaries, to reinforce the province in May 1776. General Carleton then launched a counter-offensive, ultimately driving the smallpox-weakened and disorganized Continental forces back to Fort Ticonderoga. The Continental Army, under Arnold's command, hindered the British advance sufficiently that an attack could not be mounted on Fort Ticonderoga in 1776. The end of the campaign set the stage for Burgoyne's 1777 campaign in the Hudson River valley.