Military officer; born in Swords County,
Dublin, Ireland, Dec. 2, 1736; was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin, and entered the army at the age of eighteen.
Fighting under
Wolfe at the siege of
Louisburg (1756), he won the approval of that commander.
After its surrender his regiment formed a part of
Amherst's force, sent to reduce the
French forts on
Lake Champlain, in 1759.
Montgomery became adjutant of his regiment in 1760, and was under
Colonel Haviland in his march upon
Montreal when that city was surrendered.
In 1762,
Montgomery was promoted to captain, and served in the campaign against
Havana in the same year.
After that he resided in this country awhile, but revisited
England.
In 1772 he sold his commission and came to
America, and the following year he bought an estate at
Rhinebeck, on the
Hudson, and married a daughter of
R. R. Livingston.
He was chosen representative in the Colonial Assembly, and was a member of the Provincial Convention in 1775.
In June following he was appointed
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by the Continental Congress one of the eight
brigadier-generals for the
Continental army.
Appointed second in command, under
Schuyler, in the Northern Department, he became acting commanderin-chief because of his superior's protracted illness.
He entered
Canada early in September, with a considerable army, captured
St. John, on the
Sorel or
Richelieu River, Nov. 3, took
Montreal on the 13th, and pushed on towards
Quebec, and stood before its walls with some troops under
Arnold, Dec. 4.
On the 9th the Continental Congress made him a major-general.
He invested
Quebec and continued the siege until Dec. 31, when he attempted to take the city by storm.
In that effort he was slain by grapeshot from a masked battery, Dec. 31, 1775.
His death was regarded as a great public calamity, and on the floor of the British Parliament he was eulogized by
Burke,
Chatham, and
Barre.
Even Lord North spoke of him as “brave, humane, and generous;” but added, “still he was only a brave, humane, and generous
rebel; curse on his virtues, they've undone his
country.”
To this remark
Fox retorted: “The term ‘rebel’ is no certain mark of disgrace.
All the great assertors of liberty, the saviors of their country, the benefactors of mankind in all ages, have been called ‘rebels.’
We owe the constitution which enables us to sit in this
House to a rebellion.”
Montgomery was buried at
Quebec.
In 1818 his remains were removed to the
city of New York, at the expense of the
State, and they were deposited near the monument which the United States government had erected to his memory in the front of St. Paul's Church, New York.