An infantry captain from Connecticut, Abner Stocking, witnessed the defeat of Montgomery’s assault force when it tried to advance along the narrow riverbank path that wound along the southern edge of the Plains of Abraham and led an entry point on the eastern side of Quebec City.
"Having reassembled about two hundred men, whom he [Montgomery] encouraged alike by his voice and his example, he advanced boldly and rapidly at their head to force the barrier. One or two persons had now ventured to return to the battery, and, seizing a slow-match standing by one of the guns, discharged the piece, when the American front was within forty paces of it. This single accidental fire was a fatal one. The general with Captains M'Pherson and Cheeseman, two valuable young officers near his person, the first of whom was his aid, together with his orderly sergeant and a private, were killed on the spot. The loss of their general, in whom their confidence had been so justly placed, discouraged the troops; and Colonel Campbell, on whom the command devolved but who did not partake of that spirit of heroism which had animated their departed chief"
Journal of Abner StockingHenry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told By Participants (Boston: Da Cap Press, 1968), p. 206.