40 Fun Facts About Battle of Quebec (1775)

Opposing generals Richard Montgomery and Guy Carleton at Quebec in 1775 were both born in which country?

Ireland produced both men: Montgomery was born near Dublin and Carleton in County Tyrone. Both treated the Canadiens with a tact their subordinates often lacked.

Which future US vice president was among the few to escape unhurt when Montgomery fell at Quebec in 1775?

Aaron Burr was a 19-year-old aide to the general, and is said to have tried to carry the body from the field before giving up.

What motto did American soldiers wear on paper slips pinned to their hats while storming Quebec in 1775?

Liberty or Death was what the defenders read on the paper strips when they recovered the fallen attackers after the fighting stopped.

The capital of which US state is named for Richard Montgomery, the American general killed at Quebec in 1775?

Alabama's future capital took his name in 1819, and towns in New York, Vermont and Minnesota carry the fallen general's name too.

Which disease swept through the American camp outside Quebec in early 1776 and helped break the siege?

Smallpox killed the American commander John Thomas during the retreat, and some soldiers tried to protect themselves by scratching infected matter under their fingernails.

Which Founding Father did Congress send to occupied Montreal in spring 1776 to win over the Canadiens?

Benjamin Franklin's mission was backed by a French printer sent north with a press to spread the American case. The mission failed, but the printer stayed and founded the paper that became the Montreal Gazette.

Benedict Arnold, wounded leading the 1775 attack on Quebec, later plotted to hand which fortress to the British?

West Point was the prize in his 1780 treason plot. Five years earlier he had brought 600 starving survivors out of the wilderness to the gates of Quebec.

Richard Montgomery waited for what kind of weather to hide his army's final assault on Quebec City?

A snowstorm was the cover he wanted for men crossing open ground beneath the walls, and he had already called off one attempt when the sky cleared.

The 1775 Battle of Quebec was fought before dawn and into the morning on which day of the holiday season?

New Year's Eve had barely begun when it was over: the fighting ended by 10 am, with about two-thirds of one American column taken prisoner.

Congress voted in 1778 for a second invasion of Canada, to be led by which famous European general?

Lafayette reached Albany, found neither the supplies nor the horses the plan needed, and advised calling it off. Congress dropped the idea that March.

Which commander, then besieging Boston, approved Benedict Arnold's march through the wilderness to Quebec?

George Washington thought the wilderness could be crossed in about 20 days. The route turned out to be twice as long as anyone had expected.

Benedict Arnold's 1775 march on Quebec crossed the wilderness of which present-day US state?

Maine was then a frontier district of Massachusetts, and the path his column took is now on the National Register of Historic Places as the Arnold Trail to Quebec.

Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec began by hauling its boats up which New England river?

Kennebec River portages wore the column down, and the hastily built boats leaked so badly that gunpowder and food were ruined before the hardest country began.

Starving on the wilderness march to Quebec, Benedict Arnold's men ended up eating which part of their own kit?

Their leather shoes and belts were eaten along with candle tallow, and one captain's dog went the same way, its bones pounded up for broth.

Benedict Arnold was carried from the fight at Quebec after a musket ball hit which part of his body?

His leg took the ball early in the attack. The same left leg was wounded again at Ridgefield and once more at Saratoga.

Which American rifle captain, trapped inside Quebec, handed his sword to a priest, not a British officer?

Daniel Morgan had taken over the column when its commander was wounded, climbed the first barricade himself, and was the last man to give up. He later won the Battle of Cowpens.

Which future Secretary of War, captured at Quebec in 1775, kept a journal of Arnold's wilderness march?

Henry Dearborn surrendered when his men's damp powder would not fire, then spent months as a prisoner. He ran the War Department for all eight years of Jefferson's presidency.

Which Vermont folk hero was captured in September 1775 after a botched attempt to seize Montreal?

Ethan Allen had been promised that a sympathiser would open the city gates. Instead a scratch force met him outside the town, and he stayed a prisoner until 1778.

Which New York general was meant to lead the 1775 invasion of Canada until illness forced him to step aside?

Philip Schuyler gave up the command to Richard Montgomery in mid-September 1775, two weeks into the campaign. He later became the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton.

The American army driven out of Quebec in 1776 retreated all the way back to which New York fort?

Fort Ticonderoga was where the invasion had set out from ten months earlier, so the campaign ended exactly where it began.

After the retreat from Quebec, Benedict Arnold built a small fleet to delay the British on which body of water?

Lake Champlain cost him most of his ships at Valcour Island in October 1776, yet the delay kept the British from pushing south until the following year.

Which British general, later beaten at Saratoga, reached Quebec in 1776 with thousands of fresh troops?

John Burgoyne's reinforcements included about 4,000 German auxiliaries, and their winter billets strained a province of only some 80,000 people.

Which American painter, known for his Declaration of Independence scene, depicted Montgomery's death at Quebec?

John Trumbull painted the scene in a London studio in 1786 and got one detail wrong: the officer shown cradling the general was actually fighting elsewhere in the city.

Richard Montgomery's remains were moved from Quebec in 1818 and reburied at which Manhattan church?

St. Paul's Chapel already held the memorial Congress had ordered within weeks of his death. When the remains arrived, 5,000 people joined the procession.

How did Richard Montgomery's advance party get past the wooden palisades guarding the shore path into Quebec?

Sawed through them: carpenters cut the first barrier and the general himself helped saw the second, moments before he was killed.

What killed General Richard Montgomery instantly as he led his men toward a blockhouse in Quebec's Lower Town?

A burst of grapeshot from the blockhouse hit him at close range and killed his next two senior officers too. The survivors turned back, leaving his body behind.

Why did Richard Montgomery have to scrap his first plan for storming Quebec only days before the assault?

A deserter revealed it: a Rhode Island sergeant crossed to the British with the details, so the replacement plan was shared only with senior officers.

Benedict Arnold drew up his ragged troops in November 1775 on which famous battlefield outside Quebec's walls?

Plains of Abraham was where Britain had won the city from France in 1759. Arnold demanded a surrender from there with no artillery and five cartridges a man.

Guy Carleton had fought at Quebec in 1759 under which British general, who died capturing the city?

James Wolfe had made him quartermaster general for that campaign. Sixteen years later Carleton stayed behind the walls rather than repeat the French error of marching out to fight.

What name was given to Quebec's French-speaking tenant farmers, most of whom stayed neutral in 1775?

Habitants disappointed both sides: the British expected them to obey their landlords, the Americans expected a rising, and most simply wanted to be left alone.

Which American general, left in command at Montreal, angered Canadiens by closing their Catholic churches?

David Wooster shut them just before Christmas and also taxed the locals in Congress's name, which let Canadien leaders throw the no-taxation argument back at the Americans.

Which Scottish officer, once a Jacobite rebel, took charge of Quebec's defences before Guy Carleton arrived?

Allan Maclean rushed 200 of his Royal Highland Emigrants into the city days ahead of the Americans, then argued at a council of war for holding out.

Which river, frozen during the winter siege of Quebec, thawed in spring 1776 to let British relief ships arrive?

St. Lawrence River ice had kept reinforcements away since autumn. The first two frigates arrived on May 6, and the besiegers' retreat became a near rout.

Richard Montgomery felt he could not wait out the siege of Quebec because what was about to shrink his army?

Expiring enlistments and the battle's losses left the Americans only about 600 men to keep the siege going, against a garrison three times that size.

Which founding American document included a clause pre-approving Canada's admission to the United States?

Articles of Confederation let Canada join simply by agreeing to, while any other colony needed the consent of nine states.

The 1775 Battle of Quebec holds what unwelcome distinction in the history of the Continental Army?

Its first major defeat cost the Americans more than 400 prisoners in a single morning, while the garrison reported only five dead.

Richard Montgomery died at Quebec never knowing that Congress had done what for him three weeks earlier?

Promoted him to major general, in thanks for his victories on the road to Montreal. The news had not reached him when he was killed.

Which fort on the Richelieu River held up Richard Montgomery's army for nearly seven weeks on the road to Montreal?

Fort St. Jean held out until its defenders learned a relief attempt had failed. The long siege meant the Americans reached Quebec City with winter setting in.

Who watched from her porch in 1818 as a boat carried Richard Montgomery's remains home from Quebec?

His widow, Janet Livingston Montgomery, fainted at the sight. They had been married barely two years when he marched north.

Before joining the American cause, Richard Montgomery fought as a British officer in which earlier war?

French and Indian War service began a 16-year career in British uniform. He sold his commission in 1772, settled in New York and married into the Livingston family.