page_title: Battle of Longue-Pointe
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Longue-Pointe / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: English: Statue of Ethan Allen, Montpelier, Vt.
context_page_description: The Battle of Longue-Pointe was an attempt by Ethan Allen and a small force of American and Quebec militia to capture Montreal from British forces on September 25, 1775, early in the American Revolutionary War. Allen, who had been instructed only to raise militia forces among the local inhabitants, had long had thoughts of taking the lightly defended city. When he reached the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River with about 110 men, he seized the opportunity to try. Major John Brown, who Allen claimed was supposed to provide additional forces, did not appear as they had planned, isolating Allen and his men on the north side of the river.
  British General Guy Carleton sent a force composed mostly of Quebec militia in response to news of Allen's crossing of the St. Lawrence. This force cut off Allen's escape route, and eventually surrounded and captured Allen and a number of his men. Carleton eventually abandoned Montreal, which fell without battle to Continental Army forces on November 13. Allen was sent first to England and then New York City as a prisoner, and was eventually exchanged in 1778.
context_section_description: When Montgomery finally began the siege of Fort Saint-Jean, he ordered Allen and about 30 Americans to join with Livingston's Canadians to secure the south bank of the St. Lawrence River against attempts by Carleton in Montreal to relieve the siege.  He also ordered a larger force under Brown's command to secure the area north of the fort, and to cover the road between Saint-Jean and Montreal.
  Allen traveled along the southeastern banks of the Richelieu River, up to Sorel, where he crossed that river and continued up the southern shore of the St. Lawrence to Longueuil. According to Allen's account, he met Brown there, and the two of them then hatched a plan to attack Montreal. Brown would cross the river with 200 men at La Prairie, upriver from Montreal, and Allen, with his Americans and 80 Canadians under the command of Loiseau and Duggan, two of Livingston's captains, would cross the river at Longueuil, below the city, and the two forces would, after a prearranged signal, converge on the city itself.
caption: A 1904 photograph of the Ethan Allen statue in Montpelier, Vermont
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