o condition to
withstand the attack. They had no intrenchments, and could not muster
three hundred men at any point. A precipitate retreat was the
consequence, in which baggage, artillery, everything was abandoned.
Even the sick were left behind; many of whom crawled away from the
camp hospitals, and took refuge in the woods, or among the Canadian
peasantry.

General Thomas came to a halt at point Deschambault, about sixty miles
above Quebec, and called a council of war to consider what was to be
done. The enemy's ships were hastening up the St. Lawrence; some were
already but two or three leagues distant. The camp was without cannon;
powder, forwarded by General Schuyler, had fallen into the enemy's
hands; there were not provisions enough to subsist the army for more
than two or three days; the men-of-war, too, might run up the river,
intercept all their resources, and reduce them to the same extremity
they had experienced before Quebec. It was resolved, therefore, to
ascend the river still further. General Thomas, however, determined to
send forward the invalids, but to remain at Point Deschambault, with
about five hundred men, until he should receive orders from Montreal
and learn whether such supplies could be forwarded immediately as
would enable him to defend his position.

The despatches of General Thomas, setting forth the disastrous state
of affairs, had a disheartening effect on Schuyler, who feared the
army would be obliged to abandon Canada. Washington, on the contrary,
spoke cheeringly on the subject. He regretted that the troops had not
been able to make a stand at Point Deschambault, but hoped they would
maintain a post as far down the river as possible.

[The reverses in Canada, which spread consternation through the New
England frontier, now laid open to invasion, strengthened the ill-will
and prejudice that prevailed in the Eastern States against General
Schuyler. He was stigmatized as the cause of the late reverses, and
was even accused of being untrue to his country. Committees, which the
alarming state of affairs had caused to be organized in various
counties, addressed Washington on the subject, which, reviling
Schuyler, he at once demanded a court of inquiry. It is proper to add
that the committees in question, after investigating the evidence,
acknowledged to Washington that their suspicions had been wholly
groundless.]

As the reverses in Canada would affect the fortunes of the Revolution