In May and June 1776, American and allied Canadian volunteer forces in Quebec were in full retreat as a reinforced British army advanced upstream along the St. Lawrence River. Montreal and Fort Chambly quickly fell to the advancing redcoats. At Fort Saint-Jean, a riverside outpost less than a day’s march from the New York border, evacuation boats lined the shore as soldiers hastily loaded wounded men, weapons, and equipment. Supplies too heavy to move were smashed or burned to keep them out of British hands.
When the British relieved Quebec City in May 1776, American forces were forced to flee down the St. Lawrence to Sorel, and then south along the Richelieu River through Chambly, before ultimately retreating to Lake Champlain and New York. Alan Wakim
