In December 1775, a starving army of American rebels stood outside the walls of Quebec, hours from potentially bringing Canada into the revolution. This episode examines the Battle of Quebec, the Continental Army’s first major defeat, and how a bold invasion unraveled through brutal logistics, expiring enlistments and cultural misjudgments.

We look at the faulty intelligence from Quebec’s English-speaking Old Subjects, Benedict Arnold’s grueling 300-mile march through the Maine wilderness, and Richard Montgomery’s arrival from Montreal. We then follow the desperate New Year’s Eve assault in a blizzard, the fighting in Quebec’s lower town, and the long, disease-ridden siege that ended with the British fleet’s arrival in May 1776.

• Why both the British and Americans misjudged the French Canadian habitants
• Leaking bateaux, boiled shoe leather and the loss of nearly half of Arnold’s force
• How enlistments expiring on December 31 forced an attack in a snowstorm
• Montgomery’s death by grapeshot and Daniel Morgan’s surrender to a priest
• Guy Carleton’s defensive restraint and his use of smallpox against the besiegers