Richard Montgomery

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Richard Montgomery bigraphy, stories - Continental Army General in the American Revolutionary War

Richard Montgomery : biography

December 2, 1738 – December 31, 1775

Richard Montgomery (December 2, 1738 – December 31, 1775) was an Irish-born soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a Major General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is most famous for leading the failed 1775 invasion of Canada.

Montgomery was born and raised in Ireland. In 1754, he enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, and two years later joined the British army to fight in the French and Indian War. He steadily rose through the ranks, serving in North America and then the Caribbean. After the war he was stationed at Fort Detroit during Pontiac’s War, following which he returned to Britain for health reasons. In 1773, Montgomery returned to the Thirteen Colonies, married Janet Livingston, and began farming.

When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Montgomery took up the Patriot cause, and was elected to the New York Provincial Congress in May 1775. In June 1775, he was commissioned as a Brigadier General in the Continental Army. After Phillip Schuyler became too ill to lead the invasion of Canada, Montgomery took over. He captured Fort St. Johns and then Montreal in November 1775, and then advanced to Quebec City where he joined another force under the command of Benedict Arnold. On December 31, he led an attack on the city, but was killed during the battle. The British found his body and gave it an honorable burial. It was moved to New York City in 1818.

Notes

Memorials

Montgomery’s home in Rhinebeck, New York is now the General Montgomery House, a historic house museum moved from Montgomery Street to 77 Livingston Street. The oldest structure in the Village of Rhinebeck, the building is also used for monthly meetings of the Chancellor Livingston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.Directory: Historical Agencies, Museums, Local Historians: Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester, booklet, p 16, Elmsford, New York: Lower Hudson Conference, 1984; Web page titled, Guidebook: American Revolution: Upper Hudson, at the Hudson River Valley Institute website, retrieved December 6, 2009

The United States Navy has named a number of ships over the years, including a frigate that was begun in 1776, and burned before completion to prevent its capture by the British.

The liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery remains sunk in the Thames Estuary. Its cargo of 3,173 tons of munitions continues to pose a threat to the local area.

In Philadelphia, there is a statue of Montgomery in Fairmount Park, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Places

Fort Montgomery, a massive masonry fortification mounting 125 guns on Lake Champlain was named for the General. Its construction begun in 1844, it was designed to guard the strategically important frontier between Canada and the United States; only ruins remain today.

Montgomery has several places named after him. Counties named for him are to be found in North Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois,Allan H. Keith, . Consulted on August 15, 2007. Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky. Cities and towns named for him most notably include Montgomery, Alabama, that state’s capital and second largest city, as well as Montgomery, Minnesota. There is a township in New Jersey, a village in New York, and a town in Massachusetts as well.

Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland bears his name, itself located in the county named after him Montgomery County. Montgomery Place, a mansion in Barrytown, New York, was constructed in 1803 and named in his honor by his widow. General Montgomery had planned it before his departure from Grassmere in 1775, and construction was originally planned to start in 1776.

American Revolution

Appointment

After the appointment of George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed Continental Army on June 15, 1775, the Second Continental Congress asked the New York Provincial Government to select two men for service in the army.Shelton p.65 One would be a Major General, the other a Brigadier General. The assembly favored Philip Schuyler as the Major General. Montgomery expressed concern over this, as he did not believe that Schuyler had enough combat experience for such an appointment.Shelton p.66 Montgomery wrote that "Phil Schuyler was mentioned to me…..His consequence in the province makes him a fit subject for an important trust — but has he strong nerves? I could wish to have that point well ascertained with respect to any man so employed." Although Montgomery knew he was under consideration for Brigadier General, he did not publicly show any desire for the appointment. Nonetheless, Schuyler was appointed Major General, and Montgomery Brigadier General, on June 22.Shelton p.67 Montgomery was ranked 2nd in command of all the Brigadier Generals.Shelton p.69 In view of this appointment, he said, "The Congress having done me the honor of electing me brigadier-general in their service, is an event which must put an end, for awhile, perhaps for ever, to the quiet scheme of life I had prescribed for myself; for, though entirely unexpected and undesired by me, the will of an oppressed people, compelled to choose between liberty and slavery, must be obeyed."Griswold p. 185