| Description | Plan of the Fort St John
On the River Sorrele (IdB now Richelieu River) in the Province of Quebec
With a Sketch of the Environs
7th December 1777
[BLOCK ONE]
Explanations and Historical Facts
The south & north (redouts) were constructed by me in 1775, His Excellency Gen. Carleton.
was determined to make choice of this situation preferable to the Isle aux Noix, by
the Position of the birch House C and the large Stone House D, as they would serve as
Citadels in those Redouts. He on my arrival at Montreal, sketched them on a slip of paper
like a deuce of Diamonds as marked by the pricked Figures C & D, as his Idea of having
them constructed, but left me the liberty to alter the position when I came to the ground.
As I saw in tracing them in this manner that two sides of each would be left to their own
direct defence only, and that the other two would have but a very oblique (xx) defence
from the other Redout, as likely to kill our own people as the Enemy, as appears from the
lines drawn between them; I changed the Figure of His Excellency’s sketch into that which
is now executed, where three sides of each are defended by the other, and two of each by a
(xxxx?). His Excellency on coming to St John’s found great fault with me for
that alteration.
E, E, E was the line of the shrubs and brush wood behind the redouts in summer
1775. I was struck with the disadvantage it would be to our Forts in case of an attack,
and therefore applied personally to his Excellency in presence of Major Preston commanding
at St John’s, Captain Kinnier commanding the detachment of the fusiliers in the North
Redout and great many other officers at his (xxx) at Montreal among whom if I am not
mistaken was Lieut Colonel (now Brigadier) MacLean, to send some two hundred
Canadians for a Fortnight to cut away and burn the brush, as far at least as the
[BLOCK 2]
Letter G, and (xxx), as the very small number we had in Camp were not
sufficient to do the necessary duty, raise the Ramparts and clear away the Brush
during that season. He was pleased to say that unless I could find money to pay them,
they could not be granted as he had not one shilling. The consequence was that
Montgomery (IdB American general) erected under cover of that Brush a mortar Battery at the Brewhouse,
and another for Cannon & Mortars at the Rebel Redout, which he durst not have
attempted had the ground been clear. On his Excellency’s coming to St
Johns in July, when he got upon East Face North Redout, which was in some parts
raised above the Banquette and on others not so high, where the earth thrown up
necessary to form the several (xxx) gave the appearance of greater breadth to the
work, he expressed great displeasure at my making the work so solid, and said that
engineers could never go out of the old beaten road, and wanted all their work
as solid as those at Portsmouth or (xxx); that we were not to expect the
Rebels to come down with Cannon, but only to make a rush from the woods and
Brush and try to (xxx) us by a Coup de Main, for this reason & my having
altered the deuce of Diamond figure, he was pleased to say that he had a great
mind to order the works to be demolished, and begun again. On this Captain
Kinnier told his Excellency that all his men were (xxx) and willing to pull
down the Ridout and raise a new one in lieu thereof. Now so far was I from
making the work twenty or twenty four feet in the thickness in the top of the
Parapets as at Portsmouth or (xxx) that I gave mine only ten feet.
He afterwards (xxx) me to give the other parapets at the top six feet of
thickness only. I obeyed and the enemy’s shot came whistling through from
the Rebel Redout and (xxx) through three sheds afterwards.
His Excellency is a great enemy to platforms and says “he thinks guns
may answer as well on firm earth as platforms”. I use his own words in the
BLOCK 3
only note I received from him at St John’s before the siege; and that Cannon
can be worked as well with a single plank under each truck as on such
an expensive floor. He threatened to make me pay from my own pocket
for any boards or planks I should purchase for that service & actually
refused for some time to pay for two small rafts delivered to me by
Major Preston’s orders.
Major Charles Preston of the 26th Regiment with
a small detachment of the 7th and 26th Regiments, a small detachment
of Artillery, some Sailors , and a few Canadian Gentlemen and their
followers (about 80 in number), his whole garrison not amounting to
six hundred men, maintained those two redouts from the 6th of September
to the 3rd of November 1775 against Montgomery whose army was said
to be four thousand strong; and only surrendered at last, when our
Provisions, ammunition, (xxx), entrenching tools were expanded,
and all hopes of relief cut off. We had been for above a month at short
allowance. This obstinate defence and resistance gave time to
provide for the defence of Quebec and therefore saved the province.
For my own part from the 17th of June to the surrender of the place I
was never in bed after 4 in the morning, nor event stripped myself
during the siege, but for clean linen. Sir Guy Carleton who was the
greatest (gainer?) thereby, has forgotten this, and on all occasions since,
has given the preference to a younger officer.
The sheds built between those two ridouts in 1776, have
destroyed their mutual Defence.
Major Gordon’s project of a quadrangular, but not (xxx)
fort in my humble opinion would have stood better had it been
advanced two hundred yards further west, so as its smallest Polygon
had occupied the rising ground; but as it is little more than
BLOCK 4
Loch pitted (?), it would not be a great loss to the government to
begin a new one and give it a different figure, a Pentagon
at least, for this ground will admit a regular fortification
As the barracks within this project had nothing to cover
them from being surprised, I without orders in November last cut
down timber for a double line of Palisades, and had planted
thorns along the West Polygon and hath the Trench open for these
on the north and south sides, when Lieut Swift was sent by
His excellency to relived me and deprive me of the Credit of
finishing my design.
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