February 15, 1776
The Pennsylvania Evening Post previewed the public funeral planned for Monday, February 19, for Major General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed in Quebec on December 31, 1775. Montgomery was buried in Quebec—though his body was reinterred in New York City decades later—so this procession culminated with a funeral oration by Richard Smith rather than a burial. The procession was set to begin at the Pennsylvania State House, the meeting place of the Continental Congress, at eleven o’clock, and end at “the new Calvinist Church” on Fourth Street, which could hold hundreds of people, including a section reserved for “Ladies and Strangers, whose public Spirit may induce them to honor the Solemnity.”
New Hampshire delegate Josiah Bartlett described the funeral in a letter to his wife, Mary: “Dr Smith of this City Delivered a funeral Oration, to the Memory of General Montgomery and the other Brave men, who fell in the attack on Quebeck; the oration was Delivered in a large and Beautiful & Elegant Dutch Church.” Bartlett also described the music as “very solemn & mournful, and composed with the organs, Bass viol, 8 or 10 violins, German flutes, French horns, &c.” Smith’s oration was printed, first in Philadelphia, and then other places, including London.
The Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne
We hear that the following public Bodies, viz. the Hon. House of Assembly, the Mayor and Corporation, the Committees of Safety and Inspection, the City Battalions and Rifle Companies, are invited to attend the Honorable Continental Congress on Monday next, in the Procession and funeral Solemnities appointed to the Memory of General Montgomery and the other brave Officers and Men, who gloriously fought and fell with him, in the Cause of American Liberty, before Quebec.
The Procession will set out from the State-House at eleven o’Clock, and passing up Fourth-street to the new Calvinist Church, will be joined at Dr. Smith’s House by the Clergy of the City and Faculty of the College. No Person can be admitted into the Body of the Church, till the Procession enters; but a Part of the Gallery, capable of containing about four hundred Persons, will be reserved for Ladies and Strangers, whose public Spirit may induce them to honor the Solemnity; and as they can only be introduced by Tickets, they will be pleased to apply for the same, to any of the following Gentlemen, viz. Mr. Bremner, Mr. Hare, Col. Bache, Capt. Peters, or Dr. Kuhn; and to be seated before eleven o’Clock.
