Not without searching of heart
had Montgomery turned against his former sovereign. He was living
in America when war broke out; he had married into an American
family of position; and he had come to the view that vital
liberty was challenged by the King. Now he did his work well, in
spite of very bad material in his army. His New Englanders were,
he said, "every man a general and not one of them a soldier."
They feigned sickness, though, as far as he had learned, there
was "not a man dead of any distemper." No better were the men
from New York, "the sweepings of the streets" with morals
"infamous." Of the officers, too, Montgomery had a poor opinion.
Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to get
gentlemen, men of education and integrity, as officers, or
disaster would follow. Nevertheless St. Johns, a British post on
the Richelieu, about thirty miles across country from Montreal,
fell to Montgomery on the 3d of November, after a siege of six
weeks; and British regulars under Major Preston, a brave and
competent officer, yielded to a crude volunteer army with whole
regiments lacking uniforms. Montreal could make no defense. On
the 12th of November Montgomery entered Montreal and was in
control of the St.
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