flight' from Quebec. A week later, when Chase and Charles
Carroll ought to have known better, they were still
assuring the Congress that this 'shameful retreat' was
'the principal cause of all the disorders' in the army;
and even after the whole story ought to have been understood
neither they nor the Congress gave their army its proper
due. But, as a matter of fact, the American position had
become untenable the moment the British fleet began to
threaten the American line of communication with Montreal.
For the rest, the American volunteers, all things
considered, had done very well indeed. Arnold's march
was a truly magnificent feat. Morgan's men had fought
with great courage at the Sault-au-Matelot. And though
Montgomery's assault might well have been better planned
and executed, we must remember that the good plan, which
had been rejected, was the military one, while the bad
plan, which had been adopted, was concocted by mere
politicians. Nor were 'all the disorders' so severely
condemned by the commissioners due to the army alone.
Far from it, indeed. The root of 'all the disorders' lay
in the fact that a makeshift government was obliged to
use makeshift levies for an invasion which required a
regular army supported by a fleet.

On the 19th of May another disaster happened, this time
above Montreal. The Congress had not felt strong enough
to attack the western posts. So Captain Forster of the
8th Foot, finding that he was free to go elsewhere, had
come down from Oswegatchie (the modern Ogdensburg) with
a hundred whites and two hundred Indians and made prisoners
of four hundred and thirty Americans at the Cedars, about
thirty miles up the St Lawrence from Montreal. Forster
was a very good officer. Butterfield, the American
commander, was a very bad one. And that made all the
difference. After two days of feeble and misdirected
defence Butterfield surrendered three hundred and fifty
men. The other eighty were reinforcements who walked into
the trap next day. Forster now had four American prisoners
for every white soldier of his own; while Arnold was near
by, having come up from Sorel to Lachine with a small
but determined force. So Forster, carefully pointing out
to his prisoners their danger if the Indians should be
reinforced and run wild, offered them their freedom on
condition that they should be regarded as being exchanged
for an equal number of British prisoners in American
hands. This was agreed to a