Captain John MacPherson Prepares for the Worst

Posted on August 28, 2025

Captain John MacPherson Prepares for the Worst

250 years ago today—August 28, 1775—Captain John MacPherson was contemplating his own death. MacPherson served as an aide to General Richard Montgomery, who was assigned to the command of an expedition to Canada. Montgomery planned to capture Montreal and then Quebec City, driving British forces out of the province and convincing its inhabitants to join the Revolution as the fourteenth colony.

The forces assigned to the invasion gathered at Fort Ticonderoga throughout August 1775. By August 28, the first wave of troops, consisting of 1,200 men, was ready to head north. While making his final preparations before their march, the possible outcomes of the expedition must have weighed on MacPherson’s mind. The invasion could be a spectacular success, with Quebec joining the Revolution and the British losing a critical foothold in the north; or MacPherson, Montgomery, and the rest of the army could lose their lives.

MacPherson took up his pen, writing this letter to “Doctor Rush” of Philadelphia. This was likely Dr. Benjamin Rush, later a famed doctor and delegate to the Continental Congress. MacPherson asks Rush a favor: “Little as I have to leave, yet I cannot but think proper to take Care that that little is disposed of as I would wish. This is the reason why I have made the inclosed [presumably MacPherson’s will]. Your friendship for me, & knowledge of my affairs, lead me to beg you will take care of it till the last of earthly events (with respect to myself) shall render it necessary to [open] it; & that then you will take the trouble of executing it”.

Having put his affairs in order, MacPherson tells Rush, “In a day or two, or perhaps in a few hours, I expect to [go] forward to meet the enemy.” He began his journey later that day. Just over four months later, the possibility that MacPherson had prepared for came to pass: he came face to face with “the last of earthly events”. Both he and Montgomery were killed at the Battle of Quebec, an unsuccessful attack on Quebec City, on December 31.

Learn more about MacPherson’s letter (object ID MS.7028) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database here.