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instructions for the fortification of Bunker Hill overlooking Boston harbour (for some reason the work actually took place on the lower Breed s Hill) Meanwhile, Gage had secured reinforcements to bring his garrison up to 7000 With the reinforcements came three generals who would each play a significant role as the war continued: John Burgoyne, William Howe, and Henry Clinton At dawn on the morning of 17 June, Gage reacted to the American fortifications on Breed s Hill The warships in the harbour bombarded the rebel position and Howe crossed the bay with 2200 men Incredibly, the 1200 rebels holding the position stood off two attacks, although they all but exhausted their ammunition supply doing so A third assault carried the position at the point of the bayonet Howe s troops sustained over 1000 casualties, while the rebels lost 140 killed, 271 wounded, and 30 captured Although Gage claimed a costly success, the battle did not change the overall situation The number of rebels surrounding Boston grew month by month until by March 1776 there were no fewer than 26,000 of them In addition, they had emplaced some captured British heavy guns Howe, now commanding in place of Gage, recognised that remaining in Boston would solve nothing and on 17 March he evacuated the city and sailed for Halifax, on the Canadian coast

Many people in the colonies took up arms to maintain the link with Great Britain Loyalists formed numerous units and these served alongside the regular regiments, usually with a stiffening of regular soldiers Most loyalist troops dressed in green to indicate their status The best known of these units was the British Legion, consisting of both cavalry and infantry elements Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton was its commander, a British regular officer who became the most outstanding cavalry leader of the war, winning one engagement after another until the Legion suffered a serious reverse at Cowpens in 1781 Tarleton gave his name to the smart, fur-crested helmet that light dragoon regiments and the Royal Horse Artillery later wore A cruel streak marred his brilliance and led his enemies to name him Bloody Tarleton, a nickname conferred for an incident in which he was, ironically, innocent After the war most loyalists left the United States for Canada, Newfoundland, or Nova Scotia Among them was Flora MacDonald, who helped Prince Charles Edward Stuart escape from Scotland following his defeat at Culloden (see the section The Jacobites Return And This Time They re Bonnie: The Forty-Five , earlier in this chapter)

American General Richard Montgomery, with 1000 men, managed to penetrate Canadian territory by way of the Richlieu river in the autumn of 1775 and occupied Montreal on 13 November Simultaneously, Benedict Arnold set out with a similar number of Americans to the St Lawrence river, which he reached after a gruelling march through Maine reduced his strength to 600 men On 3 December Montgomery joined him and took command at his camp near Quebec, bringing with him 300 men from Montreal On 31 December they launched a foolish assault on the formidable defences of Quebec in a driving snowstorm The 1800-strong garrison, commanded by Sir Guy Carleton, the British Governor General of Canada, experienced no difficulty in repelling the attack His men killed Montgomery and wounded Arnold, also killing or wounding almost 100 of the attackers and capturing 300 Arnold and the rebel survivors remained in the vicinity until May 1776, then fell back on Montreal when General Burgoyne arrived with British and German reinforcements General John Sullivan was now commanding the rebel forces in Canada, and he planned a counter-stroke that he hoped would restore the initiative to him In June he despatched General John Thomas with 2000 men to attack Trois-Rivi res; Thomas s troops lost their way and blundered into Burgoyne s entire army Predictably, the British army dispersed the rebel force Sullivan hastily abandoned Montreal and withdrew first to Crown Point and then to Ticonderoga In a perceptive letter Arnold had already written to Sullivan, he commented that there was nothing to be gained for the rebel cause in upper or lower Canada, and that they had better return to their own country before it was too late