Note 29 — Chapter II · CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE QUEBEC ACT

It is very difficult to state the case quite fairly as between the mother country and the colonies. In the first place a broad distinction must be drawn between the New England colonies and the more southern colonies. The New Englanders, who had the French on their borders, made far more sacrifices in men and money than the southern colonies, some of which, owing to remoteness, took no part in the war. The efforts of Massachusetts, and the military expenditure incurred by that colony, are set out by Mr. Parkman in his Montcalm and Wolfe, 1884 ed., vol. ii, chap. xx, pp. 83-6. In the next place, the regular regiments, though the whole expense of them was borne by the mother country, were to a considerable extent recruited in the colonies. The Royal Americans, e.g. were entirely composed of colonists. At the second siege of Louisbourg the English force consisted, according to Parkman, of 11,600 men, of whom only 500 were provincial troops, and according to Kingsford of 12,260, of whom five companies only were Rangers. The expedition against Ticonderoga, excluding bateau men and non-combatants, included, according to Kingsford, 6,405 regulars and 5,960 provincials. Parkman gives 6,367 regulars and 9,034 provincials; this was before the actual advance began, and probably included bateau men, &c. Forbes’ army contained 1,630 regulars out of a total of 5,980 (Kingsford). Wolfe’s force at Quebec, in 1759, numbered 8,535 combatants, out of whom the provincial troops only amounted to about 700 (Kingsford. See also Parkman’s Montcalm and Wolfe, Appendix H). Amherst, in the same year, in the campaign on Lakes George and Champlain, commanded 6,537 Imperial troops and 4,839 provincials. [The respective numbers in the different forces are well summed up in the fifth volume of Kingsford’s History of Canada, pp. 273-4.]