This gives a total of 3,266
rank and file fit for duty at or near Quebec, besides which there
were between one hundred and two hundred artillerymen, and
a company of rangers. This was Murray's whole available force
at the time. Of the rest of the 6,808 who appear in the return,
2,299 were invalids at Quebec, and 669 in New York, 538 were
on service in Halifax and New York, and 36 were absent on furlough.
These figures nearly answer to the condensed statement of
Fraser, and confirm the various English statements of the numbers
that took part in the battle; namely, 3,140 (Knox), 3,000
(John Johnson), 3,111, and elsewhere, in round numbers, 3,000
(Murray) Levis, with natural exaggeration, says 4,000. Three or
four hundred were left in Quebec to guard the walls when the
rest marched out.
I have been thus particular because a Canadian writer, Garneau,
says "Murray sortit de la ville le 28 au matin a la tete de toute
la garnison, dont les seules troupes de la ligne comptaient encore
7,714 combattants, non compris les officiers." To prove this, he
cites the pay-roll of the garrison, which, in fact, corresponds to
the returns of the same date, if noncommissioned officers, drummers,
and artillerymen are counted with the rank and file. But
Garneau falls into a double error. He assumes, first, that there
were no men on the sick list, and secondly, that there were none
absent from Quebec, when in reality, as the returns show, considerably
more than half were in one or the other of these categories.
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