covering the locks of our guns with the lappets of our
coats, holding down our heads (for it was impossible to
bear up our faces against the imperious storm of wind
and SLOW), we ran along the foot of the hill in single
file. Along the first of our run, from palace gate, for
several hundred paces, there stood a range of insulated
buildings, which seemed to be store-houses ; we passed
these quickly in single file, pretty wide apart. The
interstices were from thirty to fifty yards. In these
intervals we received a tremendous fire of musketry
from the ramparts above us. Here we lost some brave
men, when powerless to return the salutes we received,
as the enemy was covered by his impregnable defences.
They were even sightless to us, we could see nothing
but the blaze from the muzzles of their muskets.

A number of vessels of various sizes lay along the
beach, moored by their hawsers or cables to the houses.
Pacing after my leader, Lieutenant Steele, at a great rate,
one of those ropes took me under the chin, and cast me
headlong down a declivity of at least fifteen feet. The
place appeared to be either a dry dock, or a sawpit. My
descent was terrible ; gun and all was involved in a great
depth of snow. Most unluckily, however, one of my
knees received a violent contusion on a piece of scraggy
ice, which was covered by the snow. On like occasions,
we can scarce expect, in the hurry of attack, that our
intimates should attend to any other than their own
concerns. Mine went from me, regardless of my fate.
Scrabbling out of the cavity, without assistance, divesting
my person and gun of the snow, and limping into the
line, it was attempted to assume a station, and preserve
it. These were none of my friends they knew me
not. We had not gone twenty yards, in my hobbling
gait, before I was thrown out, and compelled to await
the arrival of a chasm in the line, where a new place



Campaign against Quebec ^ 1775. 109

might be obtained. Men in affairs such as this, seem
in the main to lose the compassionate feeling, and are
averse from being dislodged from their original stations.
We proceeded rapidly, exposed to a long line of fire from
the garrison, for now we were unprotected by any build
ings. The fire had slackened in a small degree. The
enemy had been partly called off to resist the general,
and strengthen the party opposed to Arnold in our front.
Now we saw Colonel Arnold returning, wounded in the
leg, and supported by two gentlemen, a Parson Spring was
one, and in my belief, a Mr. Ogden the other. Arnold
called to the troops, in a cheering voice, as we passed,
urging us forward, yet it was observable among the
soldiery, with whom it was my misfortune to be now
placed, that the colonel s retiring damped their spirits.
A cant term, " We are sold," was repeatedly heard in
many parts throughout the line. Thus proceeding en
filaded by an animated but lessened fire, we came to the
first barrier, where Arnold had been wounded in the
onset. This contest had lasted but a few minutes, and
was somewhat severe, but the energy of our men pre
vailed. The embrasures were entered when the enemy
were discharging their guns. The guard, consisting of
thirty persons, were either taken or fled, leaving their
arms behind them. At this time it was discovered that
our guns were useless, because of the dampness. The
snow, which lodged in our fleecy coats, was melted by
the warmth of our bodies. Thence came that disaster.
Many of the party, knowing the circumstance, threw
aside their own, and seized the British arms. These
were not only elegant, but were such as befitted the
hand of a real soldier. It was said that ten thousand
stand of such arms had been received from England, in
the previous summer for arming the Canadian militia.
Those people were Icath to bear them in opposition to
our rights. From the first barrier to the second, there
was a circular course along the sides of houses, and
partly through a street, probably of three hundred yards,
10



no Campaign against Quebec ^ 1775.

or more. This second barrier was erected across and
near the mouth of a narrow street, adjacent to the foot
of the hill, which opened into a larger, leading soon into
the main body of the lower town. Here it was, that
the most serious contention took place ; this became the
bone of strife. The admirable Montgomery, by this
time (though it was unknown to us), was no more ; yet,
we expected momentarily, to join him. The firing on
that side of the fortress ceased, his division fell under the
command of a Colonel Campbell, of the New York line,
a worthless chief, who retreated without making an effort,
in pursuance of the general s original plans. The inevit
able consequence, was, that the whole of the forces on
that side of the city, and those who were opposed to the
dastardly persons employed to make the false attacks,
embodied and came down to oppose our division. Here
was sharp shooting. We were on the disadvantageous
side of the barrier, for such a purpose. Confined in a
narrow street hardly more than twenty feet wide, and
on the lower ground, scarcely a ball, well aimed or
otherwise, but must take effect upon us. Morgan,
Hendricks, Steele, Humphreys, and a crowd of every
class of the army, had gathered into the narrow pass,
attempting to surmount the barrier, which was about
twelve or more feet high, and so strongly constructed,
that nothing but artillery could effectuate its destruction.
There was a construction, fifteen or twenty yards within
the barrier, upon a rising ground, the cannon of which
much overtopped the height of the barrier, hence, we
were assailed, by grape shot in abundance. This erection
we called the platform. Again, within the barrier, and
close in to it, were two ranges of musketeers, armed with
musket and bayonet, ready to receive those who might
venture the dangerous leap. Add to all this, that the
enemy occupied the upper chambers of the houses, in
the interior of the barrier, on both sides of the street,
from the windows of which we became fair marks.
The enemy, having the advantage of the ground in front,



Campaign against Quebec, 1775. in

a vast superiority of numbers, dry and better arms, gave
them an irresistible power, in so narrow a space. Hum
phrey s, upon a mound, which was speedily erected,
attended by many brave men, attempted to scale the
barrier, but was compelled to retreat, by the formidable
phalanx of bayonets within, and the weight of fire from
the platform and the buildings. Morgan, brave to
temerity, stormed and raged, Hendricks, Steele, Nichols,
Humphreys, equally brave, were sedate, though under a
tremendous fire. The platform, which was within our
view, was evacuated by the accuracy of our fire, and few
persons dared venture there again. Now it was, that
the necessity of the occupancy of the houses, on our side
of the barrier, became apparent. Orders were given by
Morgan, to that effect. We entered this was near
daylight. The houses were a shelter, from which we
could fire with much accuracy. Yet, even here, some
valuable lives were lost. Hendricks, 1 when aiming his
rifle at some prominent person, died by a straggling ball,
through his heart. He staggered a few feet backwards,



1 The second company from Pennsylvania was commanded by Captain
William Hendricks, a native of Cumberland county, born two miles west
of the Susquehanna river at what was long known as Tobias Hendrick s place,
and latterly as Oyster s point. He was killed at Quebec January i, 1776,
and buried in the same enclosure with General Montgomery, on the south
side. The Rev. Dr. Smith, in his oration on the death of the gallant officer
last named, makes this allusion to the former : " I must not, however,
omit the name of the brave Captain Hendricks, who commanded one of the
Pennsylvania Rifle companies and was known to me from his infancy.
He was, indeed, prodigal of his life and counted danger out of his tour of
duty. The command of the guard belonged to him on the morning of the
attack ; but he solicited and obtained leave to take a more conspicuous part j
and having led his men through the barrier, where his commanding officer,
General Arnold was wounded, he long sustained the fire of the garrison with
unshaken firmness, till at last, receiving a shot in his breast, he immediately
expired. These particulars were certified by Gen. Thompson and Col.
Magaw, his commanders in the Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment, and they give
me this further character of him in their letter : No fatigues of duty ever
discouraged him ; he paid the strictest attention to his company and was
ambitious that they should excel in discipline, sobiiety and order. His social
and domestic virtues you are well acquainted with. " Dr. W. H. Eglc.



112 Campaign against ghie bee, 1775.

and fell upon a bed, where he instantly expired. He
was an ornament of our little society. The amiable
Humphreys died by a like kind of wound, but it was in
the street, before we entered the buildings. Many other
brave men fell at this place, among these were Lieutenant
Cooper, of Connecticut, and perhaps fifty or sixty non
commissioned officers, and privates. The wounded
were numerous, and many of them dangerously so.
Captain Lamb, of the York artillerists, had nearly one
half of his face carried away by a grape or canister shot.
My friend Steele lost three of his fingers, as he was
presenting his gun to fire ; Captain Hubbard and Lieutenant
Fisdle, were also among the wounded. When we reflect
upon the whole of the dangers at this barricade, and the
formidable force that came to " annoy us, it is a matter
of surprise, that so many should escape death and
wounding, as did." 1 All hope of success having vanished,
a retreat was contemplated, but hesitation, uncertainty,
and a lassitude of mind, which generally takes place in
the affairs of men, when we fail in a project, upon which
we have attached much expectation, now followed. That
moment was foolishly lost, when such a movement might
have been made with tolerable success. Captain Laws,
at the head of two hundred men, issuing from palace gate,
most fairly and handsomely cooped us up. Many of the
men, aware of the consequences, and all our Indians and
Canadians (except Natanis and another), escaped across
the ice which covered the bay of St. Charles, before the
arrival of Captain Laws. This was a dangerous and
desperate adventure, but worth while the undertaking, in
avoidance of our subsequent sufferings. Its desperate-



Of the other company officers Lt. John McClellan, who resided on the
Juniata died on the march to Quebec. Lt. Francis Nichols was captured
at Quebec ; after the war he was commissioned brigadier general in the
Pennsylvania forces. Dr. Thomas Gibson of Carlisle was also captured. He
died at Valley Forge in the memorable winter of 1778. Ibid.

x See General Nichols s letter. Henry.



Campaign against Quebec , 1775. 113

ness consisted in running two miles across shoal ice,
thrown up by the high tides of this latitude and its
danger, in the meeting with air holes, deceptively covered
by the bed of snow.

Speaking circumspectly, yet it must be admitted con-
jecturally, it seems to me, that in the whole of the
attack of commissioned officers, we had six killed, five
wounded, and of non-commissioned and privates, at least
one hundred and fifty killed, and fifty or sixty wounded.
Of the enemy, many were killed and many more
wounded, comparatively, than on our side, taking into
view the disadvantages we labored under ; and that but
two occasions happened when we could return their fire,
that is, at the first and second barriers. Neither the
American account of this affair, as published by congress,
nor that of Sir Guy Carleton, admit the loss of either
side to be so great as it really was, in my estimation.
It seems to be an universal practice among belligerents
of all nations, to lessen the number of the slain of the
side of the party which reports the event, and to increase
it on the part of the enemy. Having had pretty good
opportunities of forming a just opinion on the subject, it
is hoped that gentlemen who have thought or written
differently, will not disdain to listen to my argument.
As to the British, on the platform they were fair objects
to us. They were soon driven thence by the acuteness
of our shooting, which in our apprehension must have
destroyed many. Perhaps there never was a body of
men associated, who better understood the use and
manner of employing a rifle, than our corps, which by
this time of the attack, had their guns in good order.
When we took possession of the houses, we had a
greater range. Our opportunities to kill were enlarged.
Within one hundred yards every man must die. The
British, however, were at home they could easily drag
their dead out of sight, and bear their wounded to the
hospital. It was the reverse with us. Captain Prentis,
who commanded the provost guards, would tell me of



H4 Campaign against Quebec, 1775.

seven or eight killed, and fifteen or twenty wounded.
Opposed to this, the sentries (who were generally
Irishmen that guarded us with much simplicity, if not
honesty), frequently admitted of forty or fifty killed, and
many more wounded. The latter assertions accorded
with my opinion. The reasons for this belief are these :
when the dead, on the following days, were transported
on the carioles, passed our habitation for deposition in
the dead house we observed many bodies of which
none of us had any knowledge ; and again when our
wounded were returned to us from the hospital, they
uniformly spoke of being surrounded there, in its many
chambers, by many of the wounded of the enemy. To
the great honor of General Carleton they were all,
whether friends or enemies, treated with like attention
and humanity. The reason why the wounded of our
side bore so small a proportion to the dead, seems to be
this : in the long course we ran from palace gate to the
first barrier, we lost many men who were killed out
right, but many more died, who were merely wounded,
yet in such a manner as in a milder region to make the
case a curable one. A blow from a ball so large as that
of a musket, staggers a man, whether the wound be in
the arm, leg, or elsewhere ; if in staggering he falls, he
comes down into a deep bed of snow, from which a hale
man finds it very difficult to extricate himself. Five or
ten minutes struggling in such a bed, benumbs the
strongest man, as frequent experience has taught me j
if the party be wounded, though but slightly, twenty or
thirty minutes will kill him, not because of the severity
of the wound, but by the intensity of the frost. These
are my opinions, grounded on a tolerably distinct and
accurate knowledge of particular cases which occurred
in the first part of the attack, and a variety of inform
ation obtained afterwards from individual sufferers, who
were persons of credibility, rescued from death by the
humane activity of Governor Carleton. About nine
o clock, A.M., it was apparent to all of us that we must



Campaign against gtuebec, 1775. II S

surrender. It was done. On this occasion, my friend
General F. Nichols, by his own native spirit, persever
ance and determined bravery, obtained an honorable
distinction, and acknowledgment from a brave and dis
tinguished enemy. It enhances his merit and the boon
(when we reflect that that enemy was no other than
General Carleton), an ornament such as would grace
any nation, whether in the worst or best of times. Some
privates came to Lieutenant Nichols, and demanded his
sword ; the requisition was peremptorily denied, though
there was great risk in the refusal. He retained his
sword till meeting with Captain Endesly of the enemy,
to whom it was surrendered ; but with the exaction of
a promise that it should be returned when he, the cap
tive, should be released. In the August following,
before our embarkation for New York, Captain Endesly
waited on Lieutenant Nichols, and in the presence of
all the American officers, redelivered the sword, under
the assurance that it was by the permission and com
mand of General Carleton. This trait in the character
of Carleton adds to the celebrity of his derivation, and
manner of thinking, and casts into a dark ground the
characters of most of the principal British officers, par
ticularly the Scotch, who had much influence in those
days and bore towards us an intemperate hatred.

The commissioned officers, and some of the cadets
were conducted to the seminary, a respectable building.
It became my lot, in one way or other, to be lost in the
crowd, and to be associated with the non-commissioned
officers, in the company of some of whom ardent and
perilous duties had been undergone. These men are
by no means to be lessened in character, by contrasting
them with the levies made in Europe, or those made
since that time in our own country. Many of our
sergeants, and even of our privates, were, with good
educations, substantial freeholders in our own country.
Upon a former occasion you were told the story of the
respectable Dixon. He possessed (if sordid wealth



1 1 6 Campaign against Quebec ^ 1775.

makes the man), two-fold the riches of his captain ; and
if it be permitted me to decide upon the characters of
men, five-fold his understanding, activity and spirit.
Amiable Dixon ! Many of these men, in the progress of
the bloody scenes which ensued, became props of our
glorious cause, in defence of our sacred liberties. All
could be named. Let a few suffice. Thomas Boyd,
so often spoken of in the wilderness for his good humor,
his activity and the intensity of his sufferings ; struggled
gloriously for his life as a captain, and died a dreadful
death by the hands of the savages in 1779, in the expedi
tion conducted by General Sullivan against the Six-nation
Indians. 1 Charles Porterfield, who lost his life in the



1 The death of my friend Boyd was to me as a thunderbolt} painful in
an excessive degree ; many a tear has since been shed to his manes. In
the autumn of 1779, ne commanded a company of rifle-men of the first
Pennsylvania regiment. When Sullivan had penetrated into the Seneca
country, in the neighborhood of the Genesee river, Boyd, as my inform
ation is from various gentlemen, was ordered with a band of twenty choice
men, before daylight to make an excursion towards an Indian village, on
the river Genesee (which flows north into Lake Ontario), at a distance of
eight miles, for the purpose of making discoveries. In his return, arriving
at a rising ground, a knoll, he heard a. rustling of the leaves in his front :
an enemy was suspected j he gathered his men around him, each taking
his tree. The enemy was sightless to Boyd and his party, yet the approach
around him was sensible to every one. Boyd, not knowing the number of
his assailants, it is said, considered them as a small body of observation.
This party of Indians, probably one thousand, encompassed Boyd and his
men, gradually : a defence worthy of the character of Boyd took place.
Every man he had was killed, except three, who broke through the Indians,
and brought the doleful tidings to our camp. Boyd was taken, and carried
alive to the Indiantown, where he was tortured after their savage custom,
and his body mangled in the most horrible manner. General Simpson,
who was then with the army, assures me that on the following day, when
the troops arrived at the town, in the wigwams, they found a number of
fresh scalps stretched in the usual manner on small hoops, and painted.
The head of Boyd lay in one of the cabins, newly dissevered. His scalp
was still moist and hooped and painted. Simpson knew it by its long
brown and silky hair : it is now preserved as a relic of our friend. An
officer (Captain A. Henderson), lately, in describing this unequal but
arduous fight, upon the part of Boyd, told me, " that the hands of the dead
men, in many instances, were fast closed upon the hair of Indians."

To give you a more perfect idea of the brutality of savage torture, and of
heart-rending sensations, I can do no better than to lay before you the



Campaign against Quebec , 1775. 117

battle of Camden, when in the station of a colonel.
Joseph Aston, of Lamb s, who served his country
throughout the war, and was promoted to a majority.
Doctor Thomas Gibson, of Hendricks , who died in the
performance of his duty, at the Valley Forge, in the
winter of 1778. Robert Cunningham, a wealthy free
holder of Smith s, who here imbibed the seeds of that
disorder, which, at too early an age, hurried him to the
grave. He was a younger brother of that excellent



letter of the Honorable Thomas Campbell, of the senate, who himself has
been a martyr in our cause. He saw the corpse of the unfortunate Boyd
on the following day, and interred it. Since the death of Colonel Craw
ford we know nothing like the present martyrdom, in the cause of liberty }
and it is to be hoped, from the prudence and strength of the federal go
vernment, nothing of the kind will again occur in our future wars with the
aborigines of our country.

" SENATE CHAMBER, LANCASTER,

"January 30^, 1809.
"SiR,

" Captain Lieutenant Thomas Boyd, belonging to the riflemen of the
state of Pennsylvania, was most inhumanly murdered by the Indians. His
death occurred on the I3th day of September, 1779, at tne Genesee Castle,
on General Sullivan s expedition to the northwestward, against the Six-
nation Indians."

" He was sent on the night of the lath of September, from the camp,
near a lake called Conesus, with a party of men, consisting of twenty
soldiers, five volunteers and an Indian chief, named Han-Jost, belonging
to the Oneida nation : in all twenty-seven in number. They were sent by
General Sullivan to reconnoitre an Indian town, supposed to be about
six miles distant from the camp. On the morning of the I2th of September,
the army took up the line of march before sunrise, but marching a short
distance, was obliged to halt, till the pioneers made a bridge over a morass,
otherwise the cannon could not have been brought up. The town that
Captain Boyd was taken to, was evacuated by all except two Indians, one
was on horseback, the other was leading a cow. James Elliot and Timothy
Murphy were sent to stop them, they both discharged their guns at the
same time, the one that led the cow was killed, the other, though severely
wounded, escaped. Boyd returning slowly, expecting to meet the army, saw
an Indian start up and run off. It was with great difficulty that Boyd
stopped the men from pursuit, at the request of Han-Jost, who said the Indian
was only a runner, sent to draw them into an ambuscade. Eighteen of the
soldiers were killed, and Han-Jost the Oneida chief, was made a greater
sacrifice than any of the white men who fell or were taken at that place.

"Captain Boyd and Michael Parker were made prisoners, and taken to
the Genesee Castle, and there most inhumanly murdered. Boyd s head



n8 Campaign against Quebec, 1775.

citizen, and frequent representative of the people of the
county of Lancaster, James Cunningham. In short,
many others might be mentioned in the general, as worthy
and well informed as their superiors, without in anywise,
imputing to the latter, in so saying, the slightest degree
of disparagement. This will always be the case, when
the great body of a nation rises in its strength to defend
its rights. Those who understand the point in question,
in a national dispute, and are most strongly impressed



was taken off and totally skinned, his right eye was taken out, as also his
tongue. His right foot, from the ball of the heel to the toes, was laid
open as if with a knife. He was cut open across the bottom of his belly,
.and his bowels were taken out, and a very long knife was sticking in be
tween his shoulders, descending to the vital parts. This seems to have
been the coup de grace.

" General Simpson and myself, were sent to see the corpse of Boyd in
terred. I spread a blanket on the ground beside him, we then turned the
corpse over on it. I took the head of the deceased, and put it as near the
neck as possible. I procured a needle and thread from one of the tailors,
and sewed the corpse up as well as I could. As to the head of Michael
Parker, it could not be found. All the flesh was cut out from his shoulders
downward, and otherwise his body was most inhumanly mangled.

" We interred the corpses of both, near the Genesee Castle, in separate
graves, on the I4th day of September, 1779.
" I am Sir,

Your humble servant

THOMAS CAMPBELL.
Late a captain of the four tb