Daniel Morgan attacks Quebec City 31 Dec 1775

Next time you drive by Daniel Morgan Middle School in Winchester VA, you'll remember this moment when Canada might have joined the colonies. Richard Montgomery (not the same as Archibald Montgomery) had taken down Montreal and now was meeting Benedict Arnold in Quebec City. But Richard ntgomery, the conqueror of Montreal, gets cut down by grapeshot to his head. The overall leader of this expediton is now dead.

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Here's Daniel Morgan's moment. This excerpt is from Thomas Fleming's book, 1776 Year of Illusions, Chapter 1, Soldiers far from home:

One gun went off with a belch of fire. A hurricane of grapeshot whistle over Arnold's head. The gun had been aimed too high. Snow had wet the powder of the other gun, and it sputtered and did not go off. The cannon were reinforced by at least 30 men armed with muskets, and they fired a fusillade of their own. Arnold pitched forward into the snow, writhing in agony. A bullet had ricocheted off one of the stone houses and ripped into the calf of his leg. Chaplain Samuel Spring rushed to his side and pulled him to his feet. A frantic conference ensued. Who would take command? Tnhe men called out for Morgan. and the other officers agreed. The chaplain begged Arnold to retreat to the hospital, but he furiously refused to leave.

While his blood stained the snow, Arnold watched Morgan fling himself at the barrier, men with scaling ladders racing beside him. Muskets flamed through the barrier's loopholes, and men toppled into the snow. But one ladder reached the barrier, and Morgan went up it, roaring,"Now boys, follow me. Follow me." As his head cleared the 15 foot barrier, a blaze of cannon and musketry erupted behind it. For a moment, Morgan wavered there, illuminated in the fiery glare. Then he toppled backward off the ladder into the snow. Could any man have survived that point-blank blast?

Morgan did it, turning every American in the army into an instant fatalist. Powder from the cannon had blackened his face. and bullets had cut away part of his whiskers and his hair, but he was on the ladder again within a second, and this time he dived over the top before the astonished British had a target. Bouncing off a cannon, he rolled under it, while a dozen British bayonets lunged for him. Most of the blades glanced off the side of the cannon, and before the soldiers could lung again, other Americans were firing though the loopholes and leaping from the top of the barrier. A British soldier went down screaming with a wound in his head. Morgan was on his feet swinging his rifle like a club. Other Americans drove homemade pike at the astonished British, while Morgan roared. "Down with your arms if you want quarter."

End of excerpt.

End of excerpt.

This story goes on. Daniel Morgan, the American Achilles.

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Illustrated by Microsoft Copilot.

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Arnold has a 3rd leg and it's wounded. But copilot could only deem his sitting in the snow with his folded legs and then add a wounded leg.

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N'wait, you want more?

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"The British fled into the nearest houses, but the Americans followed them and they swiftly surrendered. Surging up the narrow, twisting street, the Americans met a company of French-Canadian militia, wearing green provincial uniforms. Their captain was drunk, and the amateur soldiers threw down their arms and cried, "Vive la liberté "

Microsoft copilot creation:

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What Morgan may have looked like with all that black power on his face

Benedict Arnold looking on.

Compiled and Posted 9/7/2025 by Jim Moyer

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