The campaign of 1755 was closed in October, by the British retiring to Albany, after reinforcing the garrison of Oswego, but without any attack on Crown Point. France, fully aware of the importance of Canada, sent out early in the ensuing year a large body of chosen troops, under the command of the gallant and experienced Major-General the Marquis de Montcalm, who soon invested Fort Oswego, and compelled the garrison to surrender. In the next year’s campaign (1757), success still signalized the progress of the French arms; Fort George was invested and captured; and the English prisoners, amounting to nearly 2,000 regular troops of His Majesty’s service, were brutally massacred while on their march to Fort Edward, by the Indian allies of the French—the latter asserting, or pretending that they were, through inability or neglect, incapacitated from preventing the perpetration of this horrid slaughter. The feelings with which the news of this monstrous deed was received in England, and throughout British America, may well be conceived; it helped to hasten the downfall of the French dominion in Canada, the deepest abhorrence being excited against those who permitted or sanctioned such a diabolical act. The elder Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham) then at the head of affairs, and in the full blaze of his eloquence, infused a noble spirit into His Majesty’s counsels, and so wielded the resources and energies of the nation, that the effects were speedily felt in America.
France reinforced her Canadian garrisons; and England opened the campaign of 1759 with a plan of combined operations by sea and land, somewhat, if not mainly, formed on the plan adopted in 1690, and already detailed. The invasion of Canada was to take place at three different points, under three generals of high talent; that destined for Quebec being considered the chief. The forces for the latter place were under the command of the heroic General Wolfe, and amounted to about 8,000 men, chiefly drawn from the army which, under the same commander, had taken Fort Louisberg in Cape Breton, and subdued the whole island in the preceding year. Wolfe’s army was conveyed to the vicinity of Quebec by a fleet of vessels of war and transports, commanded by Admiral Saunders, and was landed in two divisions off the island of Orleans, 27th June, 1759. The Marquis de Montcalm made vigorous preparations for defending Quebec; his armed force consisted of about 13,000 men, of whom six battalions were regulars, and the remainder well disciplined Canadian militia, with some cavalry and Indians; and his army was ranged from the river St. Lawrence to the Falls of Montmorency, with the view of opposing the landing of the British forces. A few ships of war, including fire ships, assisted De Montcalm. The skilful disposition of the French commander was shown in the failure of the British attack on the intrenchments at Montmorency, where the British lost 182 killed and 450 wounded, including 11 officers killed and 46 wounded. In consequence of this repulse, Wolfe sent despatches to England, stating that he had doubts of being able to reduce Quebec during that campaign.
Montmorency Cove.
Monument to Wolfe and Montcalm
(near Quebec.)
Prudence and foresight are the characteristics of a good general, as well as of an able statesman. Wolfe called a council of war—he showed that the fire of his ships of war, which had passed and repassed Quebec, had done little damage to the citadel, though the lower town had been nearly destroyed—that further attacks on the Montmorency intrenchments were useless: it was therefore proposed, as the only hope of success, to gain the heights of Abraham behind and above the city, commanding the weakest point of the fortress. The council, composed of the principal naval and military commanders, acceded to this daring proposal; and their heroic leader, although suffering severely from sickness, commenced his operations on the memorable morning of the 13th of September, 1759, with an address, secrecy and silence, that have perhaps never been equalled; indeed, so difficult was the ascent of the narrow pass where the troops landed, that the soldiers had to climb the precipice, by the aid of the branches of shrubs and roots of trees growing among the rocks. De Montcalm found all his vigilance unavailing to guard this important pass—he lost his usual prudence and forbearance, and finding his opponent had gained so much by hazarding all, he, with an infatuation for which it is difficult to account, resolved to meet the British in battle array on the plains of Abraham. The French sallied forth from a strong fortress without field artillery—without even waiting for the return of a large force of 2,000 men, detached as a corps of observation under De Bougainville against the British fleet—and with a heat and precipitation as remarkable as were the coolness of the British. The eagle eye of Wolfe saw that to him retreat was almost impossible; but, while directing his main attention to the steady advance of his right division, he skilfully covered his flanks, and endeavoured to preserve their communication with the shore. Both armies may be said to have been without artillery, the French having only two guns, and the English a light cannon, which the sailors dragged up the heights with ropes; the sabre and the bayonet accordingly decided the day, and never was the nervous strength of the British arm better wielded. The agile Scotch Highlanders, with their stout claymores, served the purpose of cavalry, and the steady fire of the English fusileers compensated in some degree for the want of artillery. The French fought with a desperation heightened by the fanaticism to which their priests had excited them against the English heretics, while the heroism of De Montcalm was as conspicuous as that of his illustrious opponent; both headed their men—both rushed with eagerness wherever the battle raged most fiercely, and often by their personal prowess and example changed the fortune of the moment;—both were repeatedly wounded, but still fought with an enthusiasm which those only who have mixed in the heady current of battle can conceive; in fine, both those gallant commanders fell mortally wounded, while advancing on the last deadly charge, at the head of their respective columns. Wolfe, faint with the loss of blood, reeled, and leant against the shoulder of one of his officers—the purple stream of life was ebbing—the eye that but a few moments before beamed bright with glory, waxed dim, and he was sinking to the earth, when the cry of “They run!—they run!” arrested his fleeting spirit. “Who run?” exclaimed the dying hero. “The French,” returned his supporter. “Then I die contented!” were the last words of a Briton who expired in the arms of victory. The chivalrous Montcalm also perished—rejoicing in his last moments that he should not live to witness the surrender of Quebec—and both the conquerors and the conquered joined in deploring their national loss.
The battle may be said to have decided the fate of the French dominion in Canada; five days after, the citadel of Quebec was surrendered, and occupied by General Murray with a force of 5,000 men, and the British fleet sailed for England. The contemplated junction of the invading British forces took place at Montreal in September 1760; and by the treaty between France and England, in 1763, the former resigned all further pretensions to Canada and Nova Scotia,—thus losing at one blow every acre of her North American dominions.
The population of Canada, on its conquest by the British, was about 65,000, inhabiting a narrow strip of land on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and chiefly employed in agriculture. No people ever had juster cause of gratitude for the cession of the country to Great Britain than the Canadians. Bigot, the Intendant, or King’s financier, and his creatures, plundered the colonists in every direction; a paper currency, termed card-money, founded on the responsibility of the King of France, for the general support of the civil and military establishments of the colony, and which, from having been faithfully redeemed during a period of thirty years, enjoyed unlimited credit, enabled Bigot to conceal for a long time his waste and peculations; and while the British were capturing Canada by force of arms, the French monarch was destroying the commerce and prospects of his subjects by dishonouring the bills of exchange of the Intendant, to whom he had granted absolute power; thus involving in ruin not only the holders of 12,000 livres (£500,000 sterling) but also those who possessed any paper currency, which at the conquest amounted to £4,000,000 sterling, and the only compensation received for which was four per cent. on the original value.