Montgomery had served with Wolfe at the taking of Louisbourg and had been an officer in the proud British army which had received the surrender of Canada in 1760.
Not without searching of heart had Montgomery turned against his former sovereign.

He was living in America when war broke out; he had married into an American family of position; and he had come to the view that vital liberty was challenged by the King.

Now he did his work well, in spite of very bad material in his army.

His New Englanders were, he said, "every man a general and not one of them a soldier." They feigned sickness, though, as far as he had learned, there was "not a man dead of any distemper." No better were the men from New York, "the sweepings of the streets" with morals "infamous." Of the officers, too, Montgomery had a poor opinion.

Like Washington he declared that it was necessary to get gentlemen, men of education and integrity, as officers, or disaster would follow.