MARTELLO TOWER ON THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM,
WHERE WOLFE WAS KILLED.
One wise step of Pitt was in winning the cordial support of the provincials, as the colonists were called, to the British regulars. Our ancestors thus gained a most valuable military training which served them well in the great struggle for independence a few years later.
WOLFE'S GREAT VICTORY.
The year 1759 brought decisive success to the English. Knowing that they intended to attack Quebec, Montcalm drew in his troops to defend that city. It therefore was an easy matter for the English to capture Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort Niagara, General Wolfe, one of the very ablest of English leaders, left Louisburg with a fleet and sailed up the St. Lawrence. He found the fortifications of Quebec at so great an elevation that he could make no impression upon them. Three months passed in idle waiting and the besiegers were almost disheartened. Wolfe himself was so distressed by anxiety that he fell ill. The sagacious Montcalm could not be induced to come out and give battle, and there seemed no way of reaching him.
But the lion-hearted Wolfe would not be denied. He found a path leading up to the Heights of Abraham, as the plain above was called, and, selecting a mild night in September, his troops floated down the river in their boats and landed at the foot of the cliff. All night long the English soldiers were clambering up the steep path, dragging a few guns with them, and, when the morning sun rose, it shone on the flashing bayonets of the whole army drawn up in battle array before the walls of Quebec.
The astonished Montcalm, instead of remaining within the city, marched his army out and gave battle. In the fight both Wolfe and Montcalm were fatally wounded. Wolfe lived long enough to learn that the French were fleeing before his victorious troops. "Now, I can die happy," he said, and shortly after expired. When Montcalm was told he must die, he mournfully replied: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec."
