Note 1 — ARNOLD AND MONTGOMERY AT QUEBEC
Reading edition
In all probability that bullet saved Quebec. Had Arnold not been disabled, his energy and daring would have successfully carried through the attack on the second barricade.
All his subsequent history shows this.
The attack on Quebec failed from four causes: the extraordinary inclemency of the weather, the death of Montgomery, the precipitate retreat by order of Lieut.-Col. Campbell, who was next in rank, and the disabling of Arnold.
The first was contributory only, and the second would not have been conclusive but for Campbell—an officer of whose subsequent career absolutely nothing appears of record.
The fourth was the deciding blow. Even Morgan lacked the decision which would have led Arnold to carry the (second) barricade at all hazards—and that carried, the third must have fallen and with it the city. Had Arnold so much as suspected Morgan’s inaction, it is certain he would have remained in the field, and personally directed the assault in which he could not join.
It was his first and last failure. Valcour Island, Saratoga, Ridgefield—all exhibit the vigor of him of whom Mr. Codman justly remarks: “Arnold, with the exception of Ethan Allen, seems beyond all others, to have understood the value of rapid action at the beginning of (he might have said, throughout) a war.—Ed.