[From The Neio York Genealogical and Biographical Record.] 



GENERAL R. MONTGOMERY AND HIS DETRACTORS fl) 

 By J. M. LeMoine, F. E. S. C. 



The following is a short summary of what was done 

 in Quebec to rescue from unmerited censure the name 

 of the brave but ill-fated commander, Kichard Mont- 

 gomery, who fell at Pres-de-ville, at Quebec, on 31st 

 December, 1775. Several years have now elapsed since 

 I undertook to vindicate the memory of Brig.-Gen. 

 Kichard Montgomery, unjustly aspersed by several of 

 our leading French historians in Canada, who had con- 

 founded him with his barbarous brother, Capt. Alex- 

 ander Montgomery. As some writers have still persisted 

 in holding Kichard responsible for the acts of Alexander, 

 notwithstanding the convincing proof I adduced in the 

 Saturday Reader, in 1866, it may not be amiss to 

 recapitulate, the salient points in my memoir. The 

 charge of atrocious cruelty, brought by French writers 

 against R. Montgomery, rests on the supposition that 

 he was the " barbarous Captain Montgomery, who 

 commanded us" (the 43rd Foot) — alluded to in Lieute- 

 nant Fraser's Diary of the Siege of Quebec, in 1759 ; 

 the entry runs thus : " 23rd August, 1759 — there were 

 several of the enemy (the French) killed and wounded, 

 and a few prisoners taken, all of whom the barbarous 

 Captain Montgomery, who commanded us, ordered to 

 be butchered in the most inhuman and cruel manner, 



(1) For an article on the ancestry of General Montgomery, 

 see Record for July, 1871, vol. II, p. 233 — Editor. 



