Canada, the 51st State

It’s been said that history repeats itself. And America trying to get Canada attached has happened before. Several years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an American army was sent up to Canada to try to make that happen. Among those sent were members of the East End’s Bridgehampton militia.

In 1773, the British demanded that the American colonies pay a tariff on tea. In response, citizens of Boston dressed up as Indians, climbed aboard British ships docked there and dumped hundreds of crates of British tea into the harbor. Infuriated, King George III sent soldiers to punish the Bostonians.

Many Bostonians were arrested or killed, causing leaders of the 13 colonies to assemble in Philadelphia for a Continental Congress. What should they do about this? Should they fight?

They met twice, once in the fall of 1774 and then in the spring of 1775, at which time they hired George Washington to create a continental army out of the 13 militias and drive the Brits out of Boston. The British waited for them. Death or imprisonment awaited those rebels who would fight the redcoats. But fight them they did.

Late in the fall of 1775, George Washington, headquartered in the outskirts of Boston, ordered some of his militiamen to march up the Hudson River and attack Canada. The Canadians were a British colony being oppressed just as we were.  Have them join with our cause.

In November, an American army, one part Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys and the other some Continentals led by Benedict Arnold, sailed up the Hudson intent on chasing the British from Montreal and Quebec. In the late evening of their second day on the water, the Americans approached Fort Ticonderoga, a fortress the British had built on the Hudson. Two hundred powerful cannons sat atop the fort’s walls. Its officers, firing them, could stop any enemy that might want to pass.

That night, the Americans launched a surprise attack, overwhelming the British asleep in their beds. The British surrendered without a fight. After leaving 40 rebels to guard the prisoners, the Americans proceeded further north, now meeting up with Gen. Richard Montgomery and his troops who had come up a different way toward Canada.

In Philadelphia, the members of the Continental Congress heard about the great victory at Ticonderoga. Contacting Washington in Boston, they asked him to have a force of nearly 300 men sent up to the Fort to march the British prisoners down to Philadelphia so they could be paraded past the Continental Congress.

By this time, in Boston, the redcoats controlled about half the city, which included the slips where the British ships were docked. They’d also built a high wall to keep Washington’s soldiers away. Cannonballs lobbed over this wall kept this situation a stalemate.

Receiving the message from Philadelphia about Ticonderoga, Washington arranged for the Bridgehampton militia — about 400 ragtag farmers with rifles — to take the Ticonderoga prisoners to Philly.   Marching off under a makeshift flag of 13 stars, they headed to Fort Ticonderoga to do the job.   The parade in Philly took place in February 1775.

Meanwhile, Montgomery and Arnold launched the attack against the trapper town of Montreal in the middle of a winter blizzard. The Canadians didn’t know what to make of it, and some resisted while others fled.  Montreal fell. But Quebec, the headquarters for the British, was another matter. The Americans, suffering from the cold, disease, hunger, exhaustion, and battle wounds, attacked through the storm with only 500 men and failed to make headway. Then Montgomery got shot and died and Arnold ordered all the stragglers home. What a disaster.

Meanwhile, down in Boston, the most amazing thing happened. As the cannonball exchange continued, a young bookshop owner, Henry Knox, 24, asked for an audience with Washington. Wasn’t it true there were 59 cannons now in our hands at Fort Ticonderoga? There were. Knox said he’d like to go get some of them.

He’d use oxen or horses to drag them back to Boston. It could be done.   Washington said the winter cold was terrible, Ticonderoga was 300 miles away and each cannon weighs six tons, but if you want to try, go ahead.

Six weeks later, Knox, accompanied by farmers, friends, horses, and oxen, arrived in Boston with 50 of the largest cannons. They’d built 30 giant wooden sleds, tied the cannons to them and had 40 oxen drag the cannons through forests, streams, ponds and fields.

Everyone was astounded. Washington had the cannons secretly carried to the top of Dorchester Heights where, all at one time three nights later, they began firing cannonballs into the British compound. They were too high up and far away for the British cannons to get back at them. The British hauled anchor and fled. Amazing.

But the British did not go home to England. Instead, they sailed to New York, joining other shiploads of soldiers arriving to create a great army of 30,000 redcoats who then defeated and drove off the entire rebel army (including the Bridgehampton militia) in what became known as the Battle of Long Island.

Years later, long after the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776 and the British subsequent surrender, an old beat-up flag was found in the attic of a private home in Bridgehampton. This was about 1926. It is on display in Riverhead today at the Suffolk County Historical Society and is believed to be the flag that John Hulbert’s Bridgehampton Militia carried into Philadelphia in 1775. This was two years before Betsy Ross. Canada will remain Canada, thank you very much. At least for now. We’ll have to see what happens after Iran.