BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 195 left flank of the Americans, was received by the defenders of that pass, where they sheltered themselves with hay, and the rails of a fence, hastily thrown together during the early part of the conflict, with equal coolness, firmness, and precision of fire. There, too, the British troops staggered beneath the well-directed aim of the provincials, who retired only from their post of danger when they saw the works on the hill abandoned by the main body. Then they joined the retreat, and the British remained masters of the field of battle. But though the victory was theirs, the retreat of their enemy was unmolested, and they were allowed time to form, for crossing at their own convenience the terrible passage of the Neck, exposed to the double fire of the batteries and the Glasgow man-of-war. The British halted on Bunker Hill, where they hastily threw up defences; and the Americans took their position immediately opposite them, on Prospect Hill, and began that line of fortifications which was never more approached by the attacking army. The British encamped that evening about a mile in advance of their position in the morning; but dearly did they pay for the advantage. Nineteen of their bravest officers, and two hundred and twenty-six men lay dead in the disputed way, while eight hundred and twenty-eight of the remainder were wounded. Of the Americans, two hundred and seventy-eight were wounded, thirty-six missing, and one hundred and thirty-nine slain. Among the latter was Doctor Warren, a man whom his country deeply loved, and long mourned. He commanded that day for the first time, with the rank of major-general, a rank which he only held four days, and which was conferred on him for the purity of his patriotism, and his eminent abilities. The disproportion of killed and wounded will appear still more strange, on a comparison of the numbers actually engaged. Almost all accounts agree in stating these numbers thus:-British, three thousand; Americans, one thousand five hundred. Although the ground was lost, the Americans claimed the victory. Their confidence in themselves was greatly increased, and it was universally asked, "How many more such triumphs the British army could afford?" This battle was, in fact, one of the most bloody and destructive which we find recorded in the annals of war. FTER the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by Colonels Allen and Arnold, the former returned home, leaving Arnold in garrison at Ticonderoga. His impetuous spirit, however, ill brooked inactivity, and early in June he proposed the bolder design of invading the Canadas, which he promised to reduce with four thousand men. To this proposal Congress re fused then to accede. But the governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, engaging in active preparations for retaking the forts, and the military spirit of the colonies rising with each successive event, the invasion of Canada was, two months afterward, voted to be practicable, just, and necessary. Its practicability was based upon the courage and success of the provincials; its justice, on the preparations of Sir Guy Carleton, which, in the eyes of Congress, amounted to indications of INVASION OF CANADA. 197 aggressive war, and invasion; and its necessity, on the overruling law of self-preservation. The responsibility of the northern expedition devolved on General Montgomery, who with a thousand men effected a landing at St. John's, to which he laid siege. His want of ammunition forbade the hope of speedy success, but succeeding in an attack on a small fort, called Chamble, about six miles off, he obtained six tons of gunpowder, which enabled him to prosecute the siege with vigor. The garrison maintained themselves with great bravery; but learning that the governor, who was marching to their aid from Montreal, with eight hundred men, was attacked and routed by Colonel Allen, the victor of Crown Point, they surrendered on terms of honourable capitulation. Montgomery here obtained thirty-nine pieces of cannon, nine mortars, two howitzers, and eight hundred stand of arms. During the siege of St. John's, Colonel Allen was taken prisoner, on an expedition planned by his general, and sent to England, loaded with irons. Montgomery hastened from St. John's to Montreal, which was evacuated, on his approach, by the few troops stationed there, who, with General Prescott, the governor of St. John's, attempted to escape down the river, but were captured by some troops and an armed gondola, at the junction of the Sorel. One hundred and twenty prisoners here surrendered themselves on terms of capitulation. Montgomery, scarcely delaying to count the immense advantages, in food, clothing, and necessaries of all kinds, placed in his hands by the evacuation of this rich commercial town, pushed rapidly on, and with his small, but victorious army, set down before the capital of the province. And here, for the first time, the full extent of his difficulties and perils arose upon his hopes, and checked them. He was a soldier by profession, accustomed to strict obedience. His troops were, for the most part, the champions of liberty, who carried into armed service the spirit which animated them to undertake their country's defence. To them the charm of that service was, that honour and courage were its only obligations; nor would they brook the idea, that, undertaken on those terms, it should be prolonged by other authority than their own will. Many a time of danger, as well as this, saw the cause for which the colonists took up arms, reduced to the verge of ruin by a similar spirit; nor was it until after many perilous escapes from a final overthrow, that sanguine men, in Congress and out of it, admitted the stern necessity of maintaining a regular army for the defence of the country. Some, who were engaged for no term, and some whose term had nearly expired, when unsustained by military movements, and exposed to unaccustomed severity of weather, united in claiming their dismissal from the service; and the situation of their general was rendered precarious and most difficult; but the genius of Montgomery prevailed over greater obstacles. During his brief but bright career, he endeavoured to maintain himself without once sinking the humanity and honour of the man, in the sternness of the hard-set commander. And a daring ally hastening to his relief by a route hitherto unattempted by the steps of civilized man, was now approaching the colony, from a quarter, in whose depths the inhabitants thought that not even the savages shared the solitude of the bear and the wolf. About the time of Montgomery's invasion, Arnold, at the head of one thousand men, left the camp at Cambridge, by the order of General Washington, with the design of penetrating Canada by the streams of the Kennebec and Chaudière, and through the intervening wilderness. In the ascent of the former, they had often to land and haul their boats up rocks down which roared the precipitous river. And when this weary task was done, they but exchanged the labours of the waters for greater labours on the land. They had to carve their slow way through forests at the rate of five miles a day, to cross deep swamps, and creep over rough crags, which it seemed that neither man nor beast ever before clambered. Their numbers were daily thinned by sickness and hunger, many of them consuming their dogs, shoes, leathern breeches, and cartouches. When yet one hundred miles from a human habitation, they divided their last remaining stores, which amounted to four pints of meal to each man. With thirty miles of yet untrodden pathway to march over, they had eaten their last morsel. But in this trying journey, they were sustained by the hope of completing an enterprise unrivalled, save by the most dazzling achievements of the heroes of antiquity. After a march of nearly two months of unexampled hardships and difficulty, the Hannibal of the New World reached the first inhabited settlement on the borders of the Chaudière, which emptied itself into the St. Lawrence, a few miles above Quebec. Here his delay was shorter than required by the broken spirits and worn-out energies of his feeble but unshrinking band. With the rapidity of ambition did he speed, leaving the inhabitants to conjecture whether he had issued from the wilderness or descended from the clouds. His welcome and reception were in proportion to their wonder and awe; and he circulated among them the proclamations of the commander-in-chief, offering liberty, ARNOLD'S MARCH. 199 security, and peace, should they aid the common object of the united colonies. But Arnold relied on sterner agencies than these, and his sudden appearance near Quebec caused as much consternation in the garrison as if his had been an army of demons, so little could they calculate upon the approach from that quarter of such a foe. Arnold found the town, as he had anticipated, completely deserted, the governor being absent, endeavouring to turn the storm of war, raging upon another side of the province. The mighty river rolled between him and his certain prey, and vessels of war, moored in the stream, checked his first bold and prompt design of crossing the river, and entering at once the undefended gates of Quebec. But the passage would have been attempted in the night, were it not for a storm which raged for several days and nights, sweeping with angry, but protecting surge, between the panting Arnold and the unguarded town. While he was thus delayed, the panic in the garrison abated, and Colonel McLean, with his Scotch volunteers, threw himself into it to protect its fate, or share its fall. Arnold, chafing at further delay, moved his force down the river to Wolfe's Cove, and resolved to imitate the daring, and share the glory of the hero of that name. At dead of night his intrepid band crossed the flood and ascended the precipitous banks at the other side. Here a council-of-war was held, in which Arnold proposed to storm the town; but this counsel was overruled as desperate; and, after a short delay before the walls, he was obliged to retire to a position of greater safety, twenty miles up the river, there to await a junction with Montgomery. Meantime the governor of Canada arrived in Quebec, and took the promptest and most decisive measures for its defence; so that by the time the junction of the two American generals was effected, it was fully prepared to resist their joint assault. Ere Arnold reluctantly abandoned the storming of Quebec, or retired from its walls, he was forced to admit to himself, that all his toil, his waste of time and treasure, and the stupendous undertaking he had accomplished, had been in vain. He sighed to think, that the storm which averted from the city his long collected blow, or being a day or two behind the propitious time, should interpose between him and his crowning fame, and give to Quebec and Canada a different destiny. But thus does fortune play with the prospects of the wisest and the boldest. The spirit of Arnold was not, however, to be depressed by this mischance. He warmly seconded Montgomery's prompt resolution of investing Quebec; a resolution at once executed. But Quebec was defended by superior resources and a |