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The closing months of 1775 also developed the progress of the expeditions for the conquest of Canada. The reënforcements required for the actual rescue of the detached forces from destruction, increased the burdens of the Commander-in-Chief. This period of Washington’s military responsibility cannot be rightly judged from the general opinion that Montgomery’s nominal force of three thousand men represented an effective army of that strength: in fact, it was less than half that number.

Montgomery reached Ticonderoga on the seventeenth of August. Schuyler, then negotiating a treaty with the Six Nations, at Albany, received a despatch from Washington, “Not a moment of time is to be lost,” and at once joined Montgomery. They pushed for the capture of St. John’s, under the spur of Washington’s warning; but on the sixth of September and again on the tenth, were compelled to suspend operations for want of artillery, having at the time a force of but one thousand men present, instead of the three thousand promised. Schuyler’s ill-health compelled him to return to Ticonderoga; but with infinite industry, system, and courage he was able to forward additional troops, increasing Montgomery’s force to two thousand men.