*Three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill (14 June, 1775), the Continental Congress officially create a Continental Army to raise regular regiments and oversee the various colonies’ militia.  On the 15th, at the nomination of John Adams, Congress chose a commander for the Army:  he was the tallest man in Congress, possibly the richest man in America, the member of Congress with the most military experience, a superb horseman, and a Southerner (which John Adams hoped would encourage the Southern colonies to support the war)—George Washington.

*One of the first missions that Washington and Congress assigned was an invasion of Canada, to be commanded by Philip Schuyler, Richard Montgomery, and Benedict Arnold. 

*Benedict Arnold was already one of America’s military heroes.  In May he had led an expedition to capture Fort Ticonderoga (on the site of the French Fort Carillon).  On the way he had met Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, who had no official authorisation to attack Ticonderoga, but planned to anyway.

*Arnold and Allen arrived at Ticonderoga on 9 May, 1775, and began to sneak towards the fort in the dark of night.  They attacked at dawn on the 10th, catching the only sentry by surprise.  His gun misfired and he fled into the fort.  The Americans caught the British in bed and began confiscating their weapons.  Soon the second-in-command of the fort asked by whose authority Arnold and Allen were attacking the fort, and Allen said, ‘In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!’  Soon the commander of the fort, Captain William Deplace, came out of his quarters, fully dressed, and surrendered his sword.  Shortly afterwards, Arnold and Allen captured two smaller British forts on the southern end of Lake Champlain.

*One American was injured by a sentry’s bayonet at Ticonderoga, but the fort was plundered by the Green Mountain Boys, who did not recognise Arnold’s authority.  Once the plundered liquor ran out, most of the Green Mountain Boys drifted off back home, and Arnold began preparing the cannon from the fort to send back to the coast. 

In June, Colonel Benjamin Hinman came to take charge of Ticonderoga and tried to place Arnold under his command.  Instead, Arnold resigned and went home, after spending a small fortune of his own money on the campaign.

*When the time came to invade Canada, General Schuyler was engaged in negotiations with the Iroquois to try to keep them out of the war.  Eventually two of the Six Nations supported America while the other four tended to support the British.  Therefore, Richard Montgomery began to move toward Montreal in August and Benedict Arnold towards Quebec in September.

*After a 2-month siege, Montgomery captured Fort St. Johns on which defended the route to Montreal after guns captured at Ticonderoga were brought to him.  After capturing is on 3 November, 1775, he marched on to Montreal which he took without a fight on the 13th.  On the 28th he began marching towards Quebec to meet up with Arnold.  Montreal remained in American hands until the summer of 1776.

*Benedict Arnold had had difficult trip to Quebec.  The route ended up being much longer than expected, boats he had ordered built were too small, rainstorms, snowstorms, and bogs slowed his men and led to illness among them, rations ran low until men began eating candlesticks and shoe leather, and some of his men deserted.  However, some of the people of Quebec were willing to provide him with supplies and guidance (Canadians around Montreal had even joined the army in the First Canadian Regiment), and he reached the Plains of Abraham on 14 November.  They had no cannon and were not able to mount an effective siege.

*Eventually Montgomery arrived with more supplies and a few mortars, and they began besieging the city in earnest, but still without great success, so Montgomery planned an assault on the city itself.  They attacked in a snowstorm on the night of 30/31 December.  Montgomery was killed by grapeshot through the head and thighs, and the attack fell apart.  Arnold was also wounded in the leg, and about 80 others were killed and wounded, while over 400 Americans were captured.  They retreated back to Fort Ticonderoga, and by the summer of 1776 all of Canada was back in British hands.  However, Arnold’s retreat was in good order and defensive enough to prevent the British chasing him back with a major invasion.

*While Montgomery and Arnold were planning their invasion of Canada, Washington joined the forces surrounded Boston, where Gage was trapped.  In October, Gage was replaced by William Howe.  Washington planned attacks on Boston, but was not able to break in.  The British attempted to send out raiding parties to get supplies, but were always beaten back.  For most of 1775 the siege was a stalemate.

*Everything changed in early in 1776, when Henry Knox arrived from Ticonderoga.  Washington had sent him there to bring down more cannon.  Knox managed to move 59 cannon and mortars weighing a total of 60 tonnes from Ticonderoga to Boston (a distance of 300 miles) in just 56 days, arriving on 24 January, 1776. 

*Washington and Knox positioned the artillery on Dorchester Heights.  Because the ground was still frozen and they wanted to set up quickly, they brought barrels and baskets full of dirt to build earthworks and bundles of sharpened sticks to make fascines (used to strengthen and extend earthworks).  They began firing into Boston on 3 March.  The British tried to fire back, but rarely hit the American forces, even though the Continental Army was so desperate for ammunition that soldiers were sent out to collect cannonballs fired at them by the British.  The last shots were fired on 9 March, and on 17 March the British (and hundreds of local Loyalists) sailed out of Boston for Halifax.  This date is still celebrated as Evacuation Day in Boston.

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