On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington reversed his policy that prohibited the enlistment of Blacks in the Continental Army because almost all of the initial enlistments ended with the new year, new enlistments were very slow and few soldiers were reenlisting. Washington wrote to John Hancock, president of Congress that
it has been represented to me that the free negroes who have Served in this Army, are very much disatisfied at being discarded—as it is to be apprehended, that they may Seek employ in the ministerial Army—I have presumed to depart from the Resolution respecting them, & have given Licence for their being enlisted, if this is disapproved of by Congress, I will put a Stop to it.
“George Washington to John Hancock, 31 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0579. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 622–626.]
In the early morning hours on this day 250 years ago the American Army suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Quebec. The Americans lost 60 men killed, 34 wounded and 431 captured while the British had only 5 men killed and 14 wounded. I can find the names of the American officers who gave their lives or were wounded in the battle. General Richard Montgomery, Maj. John Macpherson, Capt. Jacob Cheesman, Capt. William Hendricks, Lt. Humphries, Lt. Cooper, and Lt. Joseph Thomas were killed, and Col. Benedict Arnold, Brigade-Major Matthias Ogden, Captain Jonas Hubbard, Capt. John Lamb, Captain John Topham, Lieutenant Steele, Lieutenant Tisdale, Commissary Taylor and Chief Sabattis of the Abenakis were wounded. One source names “Desmarais the Canadian guide” as killed with Montgomery, but “the orderly sergeant . . . and eight other brave fellows [who] lay dead and dying” in the snow next to Montgomery are unnamed. Another source gives the name of John Harris for one of the enlisted men in Arnold’s command who was killed. But that leaves more than 50 men who died in the assault on Quebec unidentified.
The Patriots of Massachusetts did an admirable service recording the names of every Massachusetts man who was killed on April 19 at Lexington or on the road from Concord back to Boston. Similarly, I have found compilations of names of the Americans killed at Bunker Hill preserved so that they would be remembered by future generations. But starting with the Battle of Quebec, all too often the enlisted Americans who gave their lives fighting for American Liberty are recorded as simply numbers rather than as names. If anyone can identify others who were killed or wounded at Quebec, please share those names with me and I will be happy to help honor and remember them on this blog.
Sources:
https://gardnerlibrary.org/journal/captain-william-hendricks-and-march-quebec-1775; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-the-assault/; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-death-of-montgomery/; Ward, Geoffrey C. & Burns, Ken, The American Revolution, An Intimate History, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2025 at pp. 142-46
On This Day In The Revolution 