Quebec Campaign Ends at Three Rivers (8 JUN 1776)
After the successful capture of Fort Saint-Jean and the surrender of Montreal in late fall 1775 [https://www.dvidshub.net/news/546297/continental-army-begins-invasion-quebec-28-aug-1775], Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery marched the Northern Department of the Continental Army east to where Col. Benedict Arnold was preparing to seize Quebec City. Montgomery took command when he arrived and planned to assault the city with around 800 soldiers on the evening of Dec. 31. Fought during a blizzard, the Battle of Quebec was disastrous; Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, and more than 400 soldiers were taken prisoner.
Rather than retreat, Arnold instead laid siege to the city into the spring of 1776. The endeavor was plagued by widespread disease, limited armaments and supplies, and the brutal Canadian winter. Maj. Gen. John Thomas arrived to take command in early May 1776 and found the Army greatly depleted and demoralized. The arrival of several British regiments to reinforce the fortress at Quebec City led him to finally order the Continentals back up the St. Lawrence River towards Sorel, halfway between Quebec City and Montreal.
Word of the highly disorganized American withdrawal soon reached now Brig. Gen. Arnold at Montreal. Also at Montreal was a delegation from the Continental Congress, led by Benjamin Franklin, who were attempting one last time to convince Quebec to join the American cause. Upon news of Thomas’s retreat, Franklin wrote to Congress that it would “not be in our power to render our country any further services in this colony.” Congress, however, was still keen to hold the ground already captured by the Americans and urged Thomas not to abandon Quebec. Brig. Gen. John Sullivan was dispatched from New York to replace the smallpox-stricken Thomas, who succumbed to his illness on June 2. Sullivan arrived with much-needed reinforcements but without the necessary supplies to sustain them.
The situation Sullivan found in Quebec was bleak, but he was encouraged by intelligence regarding the enemy strength moving towards Three Rivers from Quebec City. Sullivan reported to General George Washington on May 31 that he was “fully convinced” by his spies “that there is no appearance of men or ships on this side of that city,” and he was “surprised that an army should live in continual fear and even retreat before an enemy which no person has seen.” Brig. Gen. William Thompson lent credence to Sullivan’s assessment, writing to Washington on June 2 that his scouts reported “about 800 regulars and Canadians” at Three Rivers. Unbeknownst to them, the enemy force numbered several thousand recently arrived British regulars who had greatly strengthened the fortifications around the city.
Wanting to appease Congress with what he believed would be an easy victory, Sullivan ordered Thompson to take 2,000 Continentals from the American encampment at Sorel and attack the British at Three Rivers. Thompson departed early on the morning of June 8, 1776 and was quickly struck by misfortune when his Canadian guide—whether by an act of clever deception or through general incompetence—led the Americans directly into a swamp. When they finally escaped, the column was spotted and driven back by a British sloop on the St. Lawrence River. Several hours later, the first American unit reached the city, where it quickly realized British strength was considerably larger than expected.
The Continental Army was immediately forced into a retreat that left dozens of casualties and more than 200 captured, including Thompson. Over the following weeks, the Americans abandoned their remaining strongholds in Quebec. The last troops under Arnold arrived in New York in early July, bringing the campaign for the “Fourteenth Colony” to a disappointing conclusion.
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Article by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
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