By Matthew J. Seelinger
In their fight for independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution, the Continental Army received invaluable foreign assistance, including French units sent by their King, as well as individual French, Polish, and German soldiers who provided their expertise in military tactics and engineering. In addition to Europeans, hundreds of Canadians cast their lot with the Americans and were organized into two Continental Army regiments. One of these was the 2d Canadian Regiment, nicknamed “Congress’ Own,” which later enlisted Americans into its ranks and served with the Continental Army from early 1776 until the end of the war.
The origins of the 2d Canadian Regiment date back to late summer 1775, when American forces invaded their northern neighbor to encourage French- and British-Canadian colonists to join the American cause. One of these men who would side with the invaders was Moses Hazen, an expatriate from Massachusetts who served with provincial forces in the French and Indian War, including command of a ranger company. He later purchased a commission in the British Army 1761, took retirement at half-pay after the British victory over the French, and settled in Canada to seek his fortune in land speculation in the Richelieu River Valley of Quebec.
When the Americans launched an invasion of Quebec through the Richelieu Valley in September 1775, Hazen was undecided as to what side to support. As a half-retired British officer, he had received orders from General Sir Guy Carleton, commander of British forces in Quebec, to raise troops and join the garrison at Fort St. Jean, but with his land holdings at stake, Hazen chose not to report to the fort and instead met with Major General Philip Schuyler, commander of the American Northern Department. Hazen told Schuyler that while the Canadians would not be openly hostile to the American invaders, it was unlikely they would rise in support of the Americans. At the same time, James Livingston, another expatriate living in Canada, painted a rosier picture of Canadian pro-American sentiments and recruited approximately 300 men to support the American invasion. Livingston was commissioned a colonel in the Continental Army and given command of the Canadian Regiment (later the 1st Canadian Regiment), organized on 19 November 1775 at Pointe Olivier.
As a result of Hazen’s less optimistic assessment, Schuyler questioned Hazen’s motives and loyalties and had him arrested. While he was being transported, his escort abandoned him when a large British force approached. British Major Chales Preston, commander of the garrison at Fort St. Jean, sent Hazen to Carleton in Montreal. Carleton immediately had Hazen arrested for collaborating with the invaders and imprisoned him in squalid conditions for fifty-four days. Released when the British abandoned Montreal, Hazen decided to join the Americans following his mistreatment by the British and the successes of American forces as they advanced down the St. Lawrence River towards Quebec City.
Serving under Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, Hazen took part in the failed American assault against Quebec City on 31 December 1775. The attack, fought in a blinding snowstorm and led by Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold, resulted in Montgomery’s death and Arnold taking a bullet to the thigh. Dozens more were killed or wounded, and over 400 were taken prisoner. Following the assault, Arnold ordered Hazen and Edward Antill, another expatriate who served as an engineer officer under Montgomery, to Philadelphia to report to Congress the death of Montgomery and the failed attempt to seize Quebec City, and to request reinforcements. Upon reaching Philadelphia and issuing their report, Congress decided to authorize a second Canadian regiment. Hazen was commissioned as a colonel and given command of the new unit, designated the 2d Canadian Regiment. Antill was made the regiment’s lieutenant colonel. Always looking out for his own interests, Hazen accepted the colonelcy of the 2d Canadian, but only after Congress guaranteed compensation for his lost half-pay and that his property in Canada would not be confiscated.
Upon returning to Canada, Hazen and Antill set out to begin recruiting men for their new regiment in the Richelieu and St. Lawrence Valleys. The regiment was to be organized into four battalions of five companies each, with an authorized strength of 1,000. Led by officers under the direct auspices of Congress, the 2d Canadian was also funded and provisioned by Congress rather than individual states. As such, the regiment adopted the nickname “Congress’ Own” or “Congress’s Own.”
The regiment’s nickname, however, became a source of controversy. Congress never approved the 2d Canadian’s nickname or any other special unit designations, and, on 15 April 1777, ordered General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, to see that the practice was discontinued. Reasons for halting the practice of special unit designation centered on the fact that this was a feature of European armies and something a revolutionary army, like the Continental Army, certainly wanted to avoid—the monarchical trappings of the past. According to historian Holly A. Mayer, in her book, Congress’s Own: A Canadian Regiment, the Continental Army, and the American Union, “As Congress had noted—and Washington concurred—there was to be equality among the Continental regiments.” Nevertheless, despite Congress and Washington’s orders, the Congress’ Own nickname stuck for the remainder of the war, and several officers added the initials “COR” after their signatures on correspondence. The 2d Canadian later gained an additional nickname, “Hazen’s Infernals,” due to the regiment’s prowess on the battlefield.
Initial recruits for the 2d Canadian largely came from areas around Quebec and Montreal. In raising soldiers for the new regiment, Hazen and Antill faced several difficulties, including finding men willing to risk giving up their homes and property by joining the Americans. Both the 1st and 2d Canadian Regiments were unable to fill their ranks with Canadians to anything close to authorized strength, although the 2d Canadian was able to attract a few more recruits due to larger bounties ($6⅔ or 40 livres) Hazen could offer. By the end of March 1776, however, the 2d Canadian had only 250 men on it rolls. Hazen attributed the difficulty in recruiting due to anti-American sentiment among the Canadian populace stemming from the looting of private property, payment in paper money many considered worthless, and restrictions on the Catholic Church during the occupation of largely French-Canadian Montreal.
In its first assignment in March 1776, the 2d Canadian performed occupation duty in and around Montreal. When Brigadier General David Wooster was ordered to Quebec to command the American forces there, Hazen was temporarily placed in command of the troops at Montreal, and remained in command until April, when Brigadier General Arnold arrived. Arnold then ordered the 2d Canadian to Fort Chambly, where it remained until the American withdrawal from Canada beginning in June 1776. During the withdrawal, the 2d Canadian served as the rearguard of the American column. Upon reaching Crown Point on Lake Champlain, Arnold had Hazen arrested on charges of disobeying orders and neglecting property seized in Montreal. Hazen was eventually cleared of the charges, but the incident resulted in lingering animosities between Hazen and Arnold.
After 2 July, when the Canadian Department was disbanded, the 2d Canadian was reassigned to the Northern Department and posted to Fort Ticonderoga. Of the 477 men Hazen claimed on the regiment’s rolls in Canada, only 175 followed him into New York. In September, the regiment was assigned to Albany. By this time, Hazen could only count 100 men in the regiment. On 12 November, the 2d Canadian was assigned to the Highlands Department and sent to Fishkill, New York, approximately seventy miles north of New York City, to establish winter quarters.
On 1 January 1777, Congress gave authorization for the 2d Canadian to recruit “at large” since it was not affiliated with a single state and provided funds for bounties ($20 per recruit) and promised land grants after the war. While a few recruits still trickled from the northern borderlands, Quebec was no longer a reliable source for manpower following the American withdrawal in the summer of 1776. Eventually, Hazen was able to recruit men from every state, save South Carolina and Georgia, with large numbers coming from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The 2d also attracted a number of foreign soldiers, primarily Germans, several British deserters, and a small number of men of African descent. Overall, however, the 2d Canadian competed with the assigned quotas of the states for troop recruitment, so the regiment’s numbers never reached its authorized strength of 1,000.
Over the course of its existence, the 2d Canadian was one of the best disciplined regiments in the Continental Army, with no record of mutiny or any other type of disturbance. Hazen claimed that the 2d had relatively few desertions, with none coming from his French-Canadians, although that could be attributed to the fact that they had no home to return to. A strict disciplinarian, Hazen was not loved by all his men, but he was respected and obeyed, and he proved to be an effective combat leader. One internal issue Hazen was forced to deal with was a clash of cultures between his Catholic French-Canadian soldiers and his Protestant American troops. He solved the problem by organizing his French soldiers into their own companies.
On 8 January 1777, the 2d Canadian was relieved from the Highland Department and assigned to the Main Army. On 22 May, the 2d was assigned to 2d Maryland Brigade, part of Major General John Sullivan’s Division. On 22 August several companies of the 2d, led by Lieutenant Colonel Antill, took part in a raid on British-held Staten Island to gather supplies and intelligence. Initially successful, the raiders ran into the British 52d of Foot as they withdrew towards their initial landing area. Antill’s men conducted a fighting retreat but soon discovered there were not enough boats to transport them back to New Jersey. 2d Canadian losses included ten dead, five wounded, and 127 taken prisoner, including Antill, who would not be exchanged until 10 November 1780. Several officers from the 2d Canadian later filed charges against Sullivan for poor planning and execution; Sullivan was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing by a court-martial.
General Washington spent much of the summer 1777 trying to determine where the British would strike next. When it was finally discovered that British General William Howe intended to march on Philadelphia after landing his army at Head of Elk, Maryland, along the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay, some fifty miles from the American capital, Washington began to gather his forces along Brandywine Creek to block the most direct route to Philadelphia. As the British approached, Hazen’s 2d Canadian was positioned along the extreme north of the American line to guard Buffington and Wistar’s Fords. While Washington was convinced the main British attack would be to the south at Chadd’s Ford, Howe, in a plan like the one he conducted at Long Island, marched his main force north and crossed at the forks of the Brandywine on 11 September to flank the Americans. As at Long Island the previous year, Howe’s maneuver was a success. While Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen and his Hessians held the Americans in place at Chadd’s Ford, Howe and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis slipped around the American right after crossing the forks and Jeffries’ Ford to get into the American rear. Hazen’s men reported seeing the flanking maneuver and sent a dispatch of the British movement to Washington’s headquarters, but conflicting intelligence caused Washington to initially dismiss it. Sullivan’s division bore the brunt of the British flank attack, and much of it disintegrated in the face of the redcoat onslaught. As other units broke and ran, the 2d Canadian accorded itself well and was one of the last units to withdraw from the field, but it suffered significant losses at Brandywine: four officers and seventy-three men killed, wounded, or missing. Combined with the raid on Staten Island less than a month earlier, the 2d Canadian had lost forty percent of its strength in two engagements.
The 2d Canadian took part in a third major engagement in less than two months when it fought in the Battle of Germantown on 4 October. Washington’s overly complicated two-pronged assault on British and German forces outside of Philadelphia quickly unraveled in the early morning hours when some units became lost. Thick fog and smoke added to the confusion, leading to cases of fratricide. The 2d Canadian, which was part of the vanguard of Sullivan’s Division, lost three officers and nineteen men killed, wounded, and missing.
As the British settled into winter quarters in and around Philadelphia, Washington’s Main Army established its winter encampment at Valley Forge, where it endured a trying winter. The 2d Canadian, however, along with the 2d Maryland Brigade, was ordered to Wilmington, Delaware, in December to protect the city from the British. While there, American troops captured the British brigantine Symmetry, laden with winter clothing and other supplies, on 30 December.
On 28 January 1778, the 2d Canadian was relieved from the 2d Maryland Brigade and assigned to the Northern Department in Albany. The objective of this assignment was for the 2d Canadian to take part in a possible invasion of Canada, something that Hazen pressed for and would continue to request for the remainder of the war. Hazen was assigned as the deputy quartermaster for the planned expedition, but almost immediately the effort was troubled by supply and manpower problems; by March, Congress called off the invasion.
On 4 April, the 2d Canadian was reassigned to the Highlands Department and ordered to West Point, New York. It was relieved from the Highlands Department on 22 July and assigned to the New Hampshire Brigade, an element of the Main Army. In September, Hazen and other officers of the 2d Canadian again attempted to persuade Washington to authorize an invasion of Canada, but this was eventually declined, with Washington declaring such an undertaking “impracticable” due to the large numbers of troops required to watch the British in New York City and Rhode Island.
An issue facing the 2d Canadian in the fall of 1778 was the number of men on its rolls. Hazen reported that he had 522 men in the regiment, of which thirty-three were officers—a high ratio of officers to rank-and-file for a Continental Army regiment. The 522 officers and men were far below the regiment’s authorized strength of 1,000. As a result, Congress debated whether to disband the 2d Canadian. In his defense of his regiment, Hazen reminded Congress that the 2d Canadian, not supported by any state, was therefore “without friend, without acquaintance, without money,” and that his soldiers “have no parent state to reward them for their meritorious services…” Hazen’s pleas to keep his regiment in the Army worked, and on 24 November, Congress agreed not to disband the 2d Canadian.
In November 1778, a large shipment of uniforms arrived from France, and for the first time, much of the American army would look like soldiers instead of a rabble in arms. Regiments drew lots from the blue and brown uniforms in the shipment, with blue being the preferred option, the 2d Canadian drew brown with white facings but later switched to brown jackets with red facings the following year. Most of the men wore black cocked hats, while soldiers in light infantry companies wore leather caps. Many had the letters “COR” emblazoned on their hats despite Congress’s prohibition of the “Congress’ Own” designation.
During the winter of 1778-79, the 2d Canadian went into winter quarters at Redding, Connecticut, along with brigades from New Hampshire and Connecticut, all under the command of Major General Israel Putnam. In an area referred to as “Connecticut’s Valley Forge,” located in what is now Putnam Memorial State Park, the Americans endured a harsh winter, facing shortages of food, clothing, blankets, and shoes.
On 6 March 1779, the 2d Canadian was relieved from the Main Army and assigned to the Northern Department. After obtaining supplies in New Hampshire, the regiment was ordered to Coös Country of northern New Hampshire to continue construction on a road started three years earlier for a possible invasion of Canada. The road was to cut through the heavily forested area of the Upper Connecticut River Valley, in an area of the New Hampshire Grants that is now northern Vermont. By 22 June, Hazen reported that he and his men were within forty miles of St. Jean. In the end, after fifty-four miles of road construction, the project was terminated; it all turned out to be a diversionary effort. The main American operation during the summer of 1779 was a campaign led by Major General Sullivan against Iroquois tribes allied with the British in western New York. On 28 August, the 2d Canadian was relieved from the Northern Department and reassigned to the Main Army.
In October 1779, the 2d Canadian arrived in Peekskill, New York. On 25 November, it was assigned to Brigadier General Edward Hand’s Brigade before going into winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. Shortly after arriving at their encampment, Hazen reported to Washington that he had 471 men on his roster; of that number, 127 were what remained of the volunteers who followed him from Canada.
On 14 January 1780, the 2d Canadian took part in a raid on Staten Island, this time led by Major General Alexander, Lord Stirling. Launched on a bitterly cold night across the ice from New Jersey, the raiders lost the element of surprise when Loyalists tipped off the British posted on Staten Island. The raid was aborted, and while the 2d did not suffer any combat casualties, several men suffered frostbite injuries.
In the spring of 1780, Major General Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Army’s Inspector General, conducted a thorough inspection of the 2d Canadian. While he found the regiment to be “well taken care of,” von Steuben recommended that it be combined with the depleted 1st Canadian, establishing a single regiment of just over 500 men.
The 2d Canadian spent the summer of 1780 at King’s Ferry, New York. On 1 August, the regiment was relieved from Hand’s Brigade and assigned to the New Hampshire Brigade, Main Army. Hazen was given command of the New Hampshire Brigade but not promoted to colonel, so he remained in command of the 2d Canadian as well. During this period, as the main fighting of the war moved south, the 2d Canadian was active in a series and raids and skirmishes with British and Loyalist forces in the twenty-mile “no-man’s-land” between Westechester County and New York City.
Following the capture of British Major John André and the defection of Major General Benedict Arnold in September 1780, 100 soldiers from the 2d Canadian were detailed to witness the hanging of André, who had been tried and convicted as a spy. On 2 October, the soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant William Torrey assembled at Tappan, New York, for André’s execution.
In late November, the 2d Canadian went into winter quarters at Fishkill, which had become an important supply depot for the Continental Army. It was also where many of the families of the Canadian members of the regiment had established a refugee camp after leaving Canada.
On 1 January 1781, in accordance von Steuben’s recommendations in the past year, the 1st Canadian Regiment was disbanded, and its Canadian and foreign volunteers reassigned to the 2d Canadian. The 2d Canadian was then redesignated as the Canadian Regiment, although soldiers still often referred to their unit by its old designation. Three weeks later, on 22 January, the regiment took part in a raid led by Lieutenant Colonel William Hull against a Loyalist outpost in Morrisania (in present-day Bronx). After the Americans burned the Loyalist barracks and began making off with supplies and prisoners, the Canadian Regiment covered the American retreat, ambushing the Loyalist pursuers and inflicting significant casualties. After being ordered to the Mohawk Valley to guard against a feared British attack that never came, the regiment returned to West Point. On 29 June, Hazen was finally given a brevet promotion to brigadier general.
The Canadian Regiment was assigned back to the Main Army on 10 August, not long before American and French forces began the march south to trap a British army under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Hazen was given command of the 2d Brigade of the Marquis de Lafayette’s Light Division, which included the Canadian Division, now led by Lieutenant Colonel Antill. After sailing from Maryland down the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia, the Canadian Regiment reached Yorktown on 28 September.
During the siege of Cornwallis’s army in Yorktown, soldiers of the Canadian Regiment took part in backbreaking work of digging trenches and establishing artillery positions, often under British cannon fire. On 2 October, a cannonball killed a regimental drummer. The following day, British artillery killed four men from the regiment, including Private Robert Smith, who Captain James Duncan described as “one of the finest men in the Army.” Elements of the Canadian Regiment took part in the successful 14 October night assault against the British position at Redoubt 10, attacking with unloaded muskets and relying on bayonets alone. With the capture of the redoubt, and the French capture of Redoubt 9, Cornwallis opened negotiations with the Americans and French besieging his army. On 19 October, Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington, bringing an end to the last major campaign of the Revolutionary War.
Following the successful Yorktown Campaign, the Canadian Regiment was reassigned from Hazen’s Brigade on 6 December 1781 and assigned to the Middle Department. The regiment was ordered to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to guard British prisoners of war taken at Saratoga and Yorktown, and it would later police prisoners at York and Reading. The regiment also recruited a handful of prisoners, primarily Hessians, into its ranks. In November 1782, the Canadian Regiment went into winter quarters at Pompton, New Jersey, where it took part in operations to interdict trade between New Jersey and the British in New York City.
In June 1783, with peace between the Americans and British approaching and military operations all but over, much of the Canadian Regiment was furloughed; on 9 June, pursuant to Congress, 300 soldiers were discharged while the regiment was reassigned from the Middle Department to the Highlands Department. By the end of the month, the regiment was reorganized into two companies before being disbanded on 15 November 1783 at West Point, New York.
Over the course of the war, some 1,900 enlisted men and officers served in the 2d Canadian/Canadian Regiment, with the regiment reaching its peak strength in the spring of 1778, when it counted 720 men on its rolls. The regiment took part in four major campaigns, Quebec, Brandywine, Germantown, and Yorktown, and participated in several raids and skirmishes against British, Hessian, and Loyalist forces.
After their discharge, the Canadians that remained joined their families in the refugee camps they had established in Fishkill and Albany. A few returned to Canada. Hazen tried to get Congress to provide land grants, but it failed to act on his request. The State of New York, however, did respond to Hazen’s demands and established the Canadian and Nova Scotia Refugees Tract in northern New York along Lake Champlain and not far from the Canadian border, which provided land for the Canadian veterans of the Continental Army beginning in 1786.
About the Author
Matthew J. Seelinger is the Chief Historian for the Army Historical Foundation and editor of On Point: The Journal of Army History. He holds a B.A. in History from James Madison University and an M.A. in History from Ball State University. A native of Virginia, he lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife Elisabeth, an archivist for the U.S. Senate, and their three cats.
