Skirmish on Lake Champlain
A quarter millennium ago
By 1776, America had arguably been on a path towards independence for decades.
But why did the Second Continental Congress adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 — rather than earlier in 1776 (or even 1775), or later on?
As the crisis escalated, many Americans still hoped reconciliation would be possible. The battles of Lexington and Concord undercut that sentiment. The Prohibitory Act of late 1775, declaring trade with the American colonies to be illegal, and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published on January 10th, 1776, banished such hopes from most minds. Yet still it took nearly six more months for the colonies to opt for full separation from the vengeful metropole. Why?
Because by early July the Americans knew British forces were preparing to invade from Canada. Why?
Because the continental army had invaded Canada in 1775.
Two columns under Montgomery and Arnold with about 2,500 troops had moved against Montreal, which they occupied in November, and Quebec City, which held out.
At Quebec, the besieging Americans faced only about 1,000 defenders — a very few British regulars backed by French Canadian militias, British sailors and a new provincial regiment called the Royal Highland Emigrants.
The American attempt to storm the walls of Quebec City on New Year’s eve failed. Montgomery was killed. Even with reinforcements, by spring 1776 the Americans had only 2,500 troops around Quebec and eventually several thousand more at Trois-Rivières, Montréal and elsewhere.
But on May 6th, the first British troop transports arrived at Quebec with reinforcements. By summer, ten British regiments had arrived from Halifax and Britain itself. This represented 9,000 troops, plus about 5,000 German auxiliaries from Brunswick (Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and Hesse-Hanau.
In response to these reinforcements, American forces under Arnold left Montréal on June 14th. By early July, they had left the Richelieu, reaching Crown Point on Lake Champlain by July 2nd. Congress knew British forces were massing in Québec. At the same time, a huge force of over 30,000 British troops had assembled in 100 ships in the lower bay off Manhattan, landing unopposed on Staten Island as Congress voted for independence. The battle of Long Island began on August 27th and the broader New York campaign, which Britain won, played out that fall.
