THE LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY. BY THOMAS WYATT, A. M., AUTHOR OF “HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE,” ETC. ETC. ETC. Richard Montgomery, the subject of this memoir, was born in the year 1737, at Convoy House, the seat of his father, near Raphoe, in the north of Ireland. Thomas Montgomery, father of the above, had three sons, Alexander, John, and Richard. Alexander commanded a grenadier company in Wolfe’s army, and was also present at the capture of Quebec. He many years represented the county of Donegal in the Irish parliament. John, the second son, lived and died in Portugal; and Richard, after receiving a liberal education at Trinity College, Dublin, entered the British army at the age of eighteen, under General Monckton. In 1757 the regiment to which he belonged was ordered to Halifax; and in the following year formed part of the army at the reduction of Louisburg, a French fortress, on which much money and science had been expended, and which had been vauntingly named by its possessors, “the Gibraltar of America.” Here our young aspirant commenced his career of field-service, which was destined to end in another war on the same continent. Early in the spring of 1758, a naval and military force commanded by Major-General Amherst, and Admiral Boscawen, began its voyage from Halifax to Cape Breton, and on the 2d of June arrived in Cabarras Bay. As soon as practicable, the reconnoiterings of the coast and other preliminaries were arranged. Two divisions, commanded by Generals Lawrence and Wetmore, were employed to keep the enemy in a state of separation; while the third, composed of the _élite_ of the army under General Wolfe, pressed toward the headland near Freshwater Cove, and in despite of a heavy and well-directed fire from the French, and a surf uncommon high and perilous, gained the bank, routed the enemy, and seized a position which covered at once the further debarkation of the troops, and the necessary communications with the fleet. It was in this movement Montgomery furnished the first decisive evidence of those high military qualities which so distinctly marked every step of his subsequent conduct. An incident is related, as having occurred during the bombardment of the fort, which excited the wit of one of the officers. While commanding in the trenches, a bomb thrown from the fort knocked off the hat and grazed the skull of General Lawrence, but without injuring him; which circumstance drew forth a sarcastic remark from General Charles Lee, then a captain in the British army—“I’ll resign to-morrow,” exclaimed Lee. “Why so?” asked the person to whom he spoke. “Because,” said the wit, “none but fools will remain in a service in which the heads of the generals are bomb-proof.” The siege terminated on the 27th of July in the surrender of the fortress, the destruction of several French ships of the line, and the capture of a garrison of five thousand men.