On this day 250 years ago at the Holland House on St. Foy Road on the edge of Quebec City, Major John Macpherson Jr. wrote to his father John Macpherson:

If you recieve this letter it will be the last this hand will ever write you  Orders are given for a general storm of quebeck this night and heaven only knows what will be my fate.  But whatever it may I cannot resist the inclination I feel to assure you that in this cause I feel no reluctance to venture a Life which I confess is lent only to be used when my Country demans it in moments like these such an assertion will not be thought a boast by any one – by my father I am sure it cannot – 

It is needless to tell you that my prayers are for the happiness of our family and their preservation in this general Confusion – But their is one thing I must mention.  Should providence in its wisdom call me from rendering the little Assistance I can to my country I could wish my Brother would not continue in the service of her enemies – 

That night as a blizzard struck Quebec, Maj. Macpherson prepared to take his position beside Gen. Richard Montgomery at the head of the column of some 300 men as they assaulted the Lower Town of Quebec from the south. Also that night a larger column of 600 men — Continentals plus Canadien militia and Indians — led by Col. Benedict Arnold assembled at Mr. Devine’s house on the outskirts of Quebec to assault the Lower Town from the north. Canadian militia numbering less than 200 led by Col. James Livingston and fewer than 100 American militia led by Capt. Jacob Brown assembled for diversionary attacks of the gates of the fortress surrounding the Upper Town of Quebec.

The next morning Maj. Macpherson lay dead next to Montgomery in front of a barricade in the Lower Town. Soon thereafter William Macpherson resigned his commission as a Lieutenant in the British Army and was commissioned as a Major in the Continental Army to take his brother’s place.

Sources: http://msedev.mysticseaport.org/documents/quebec_letter/; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-the-assault/