In consequence of this resolution, thirteen companies of British grenadiers, and part of the second battalion of royal Americans, were landed near the mouth of the Montmorency, under cover of the cannon of the ships; while two divisions, under generals Townshend and Murray, prepared to cross that river higher up. The original plan was to make the first attack on a detached redoubt close to the water's edge, apparently unprotected by the fire from the entrenchments, in the hope that Montcalm might be induced to support this work, and thereby enable Wolfe to bring on a general engagement.[168]
On the approach of the British troops, this redoubt was evacuated. Observing some confusion in the French camp, Wolfe determined to avail himself of the supposed impression of the moment, and to storm the lines. With this view, he directed the grenadiers and royal Americans to form on the beach, where they were to wait until the whole army could be arranged to sustain them. Orders were at the same time dispatched to Townshend and Murray to be in readiness for fording the river.
The grenadiers and royal Americans, disregarding their orders, rushed forward, with impetuous valour on the entrenchments of the enemy. They were received with so steady and well supported a fire, that they were thrown into confusion, and compelled to retreat. The English army repulsed.The general advancing in person with the remaining brigades, the fugitives formed again in the rear of the army; but the plan of the attack was effectually disconcerted, and the English commander gave orders for re-passing the river, and returning to the island of Orleans.
Convinced by this disaster of the impracticability of approaching Quebec on the side of the Montmorency, Wolfe again turned his whole attention to the St. Lawrence. To destroy some ships of war lying in the river, and at the same time to distract the attention of Montcalm by descents at different places, twelve hundred men were embarked in transports under the command of general Murray, who made two vigorous, but unsuccessful attempts, to land on the northern shore. In the third he was more fortunate. In a sudden descent on Chambaud, he burnt a valuable magazine filled with military stores, but was still unable to accomplish the main object of the expedition. The ships were secured in such a manner as not to be approached by the fleet or army. Murray was recalled; and on his return brought with him the intelligence that Niagara was taken, that Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been abandoned, and that general Amherst was making preparations to attack the isle Aux Noix.[169]
This intelligence, though joyfully received, promised no immediate assistance; and the season for action was rapidly wasting away.[170] Nor was it easy for Wolfe to avoid contrasting the success of the British arms under other auspices, with the ill fortune attending his own.
A council of war having determined that all their future efforts should be directed towards effecting a landing above the town, the troops were withdrawn from the island of Orleans, and embarked on board the fleet. Some of them were landed at Point Levi, and the residue carried higher up the river.[171]
Montcalm could not view this movement without alarm. That part of Quebec, which faces the country, had not been well fortified; and he was apprehensive that a landing might be effected high up the river, and the town approached on its weak side. At the same time, he could not safely relinquish his position, because the facility of transportation which the command of the water gave the English, would enable them to seize the ground he then occupied, should his army be moved above the town.
Thus embarrassed, he detached Monsieur de Bougainville with fifteen hundred men, to watch the motions of the English, and to prevent their landing.
In this state of things Wolfe formed the bold and hazardous plan of landing in the night, a small distance above the city, on the northern bank of the river; and, by scaling a precipice, accessible only by a narrow path, and therefore but weakly guarded, to gain the heights in the rear of the town.
This resolution being taken, the admiral moved up the river, several leagues above the place where the landing was to be attempted, and made demonstrations of an intention to disembark a body of troops at different places. During the night, a strong detachment, in flat bottomed boats, fell silently down with the tide to the place fixed on for the descent. This was made an hour before day-break, about a mile above cape Diamond, Wolfe being the first man who leaped on shore. The Highlanders and light infantry, who composed the van, under the particular command of colonel Howe, had been directed to secure a four gun battery defending an entrenched path by which the heights were to be ascended, and to cover the landing of the remaining troops. The violence of the current forced them rather below the point of disembarkation; a circumstance which increased their difficulties. However, scrambling up the precipice, they gained the heights, and quickly dispersed the guard. The whole army followed up this narrow pass; and, having encountered only a scattering fire from some Canadians and Indians, gained the summit by the break of day, when the several corps were formed under their respective leaders.[172]