Chapter I (3)

The intended campaign of 1759, was early made known to General Montcalm: that on Quebec was made known to him on the 14th of May, by M. de Bougainville, appointed on the Marquis' staff, as Aid-de-Camp. In January, a census of those capable of bearing arms in Canada was taken, when 15,229 were reported as available for service. Montcalm went energetically to work to preserve the country to France. A council of war was held at Montreal, and it was decided that a body of troops, under Montcalm, the Marquis de Levi, and M. de Jennezergus, should be posted at Quebec; that M. de Bourlemaque should hasten to Ticonderoga, blow up the works at the approach of the English, retire by the Lake to Isle-aux-Noix, and there stubbornly resist. With 800 regulars and militia, the Chevalier de la Corne was directed to hold the rapids above Montreal, to entrench himself in a strong position, and hold out to the last. It is, therefore, obvious, that the evacuation of Ticonderoga was determined upon; and that the retention of Niagara was not much desired. The intended march upon Quebec, by a large force from England, caused the greatest uneasiness. Montcalm, hastening to Quebec, pushed on the defences of the city and its outposts vigorously. The buoys, and other marks for the safe navigation of the St. Lawrence were removed. Proclamations, calling upon the people to make a determined resistance, were issued. The people were reminded that they were about to contest with a powerful and ruthless enemy of their religion and their homes. The Church urged the faithful to resist the heretical invaders.

General Wolfe was in the harbour of Quebec before either Ticonderoga or Niagara had fallen. Eight thousand men had been embarked at Louisbourg, under convoy of Admirals Saunders and Holmes. The expedition arrived without accident off the Island of Orleans, where the troops were disembarked, on the 25th of June. General Wolfe, three days afterwards, issued an address to the colonists. He appealed to their fears. General Amherst was approaching in one direction, Sir W. Johnston in another, and he (Wolfe) was at their very doors. Succour from France was unobtainable. To the peasantry he, therefore, offered the sweets of peace, amid the horrors of war. The French colonists, however, were ignorant of the English language as of English customs. They saw no sign of fine feeling towards themselves in so large a fleet and so considerable an army. Every obstacle that could be placed in the way of an invading force, the French colonists patriotically placed in the way of General Wolfe. They readily formed themselves into battalions for defence. They hung about the skirts of that part of the army which had been landed, cutting off foraging parties, and otherwise harassing it. They prayed in the churches for the preservation of their country. The most noble spirit animated the Canadians. General Monckton was sent to drive the French off Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and take possession of the post. He succeeded. Batteries were thrown up and unceasingly worked. The firing was, but however, of little use, only the houses of the town being injured. The fortifications were not only uninjured, they were being rapidly strengthened. More energetic measures were determined upon. Wolfe crossed the river and attacked the enemy in their entrenchments, at Montmorenci. But, some of the boats in which the soldiers had crossed, unluckily grounded, and the attacking party did not all land together. The grenadiers rushed impetuously forward, without even waiting to form, and were mowed down by the enemy's close, steady, and well directed fire. Montcalm's force now advanced to the beach, and the contest waxed hotter. A thunder storm was approaching, and the tide was setting in. Wolfe, fearing the consequences of delay, ordered a retreat, and returned to his quarters, on the Island of Orleans. He lost six hundred of the flower of his army in this unhappy encounter, and left behind him some of his largest boats. The condition of the invaders was far from enviable. Sickness prevailed to an alarming extent in the camp. They had been already five weeks before the city, and many lives had been lost, not only in skirmishes, but by dysentery. Wolfe himself fell sick. Depressed in spirits by the disastrous attempt to land on the Beauport shoals, and worn down with fatigue and watching, he was compelled to take to his bed. It was while lying ill that the plan occurred to him of proceeding up the river, scaling the heights by night, and forcing Montcalm to a general engagement. On his recovery he proceeded to carry his plan into execution. A feint of landing again at Beauport was made. The boats of the fleet, filled with sailors and marines, apparently made for the shore, covered by a part of the fleet, the other part having gone higher up the river. At one hour after midnight, on the 12th September, the fleet being now at anchor at the narrows of Carouge, the first division of the army, consisting of 1,600 men, were placed in flat bottomed boats, which silently dropped down the current. It was intended to land three miles above Cape Diamond, and then ascend to the high grounds above. The current, however, carried the boats down to within a mile and a half of the city. The night was dismally dark, the bank seemed more than ordinarily steep and lofty, and the French were on the _qui vive_. A sentinel bawled out, "_Que vive_," who goes there? "_La France_," was the quick reply. Captain Macdonald, of the 78th Highlanders, had served in Holland, and knew the proper reply to the challenge of a French sentry. "A quel regiment?" asked the sentry, "De la Reine" was the response. "Passe" said the soldier, who made the darkness vibrate as he brought his musket to the carry. Other sentinels were similarly deceived. One was more particularly curious than the others. Something in the voice of the passing friend did not please his ear. Running down to the water's edge, he called "Pour quoi est-ce que vous ne parlez plus haut," why don't you speak louder? "Tais toi, nous serons entendu!" Hush, we shall be overheard and discovered, said the cunning highlander, still more softly. It was enough, the boats passed. Within one hour of daylight a landing was effected, and the British army began to scale the heights, the base of which was then washed by the St. Lawrence. By daylight, the army was drawn up in battle array, on the "Plains of Abraham." The ground was somewhat undulating, and well calculated for manoeuvring. Every knoll was taken advantage of. Every little hillock served the purpose of an earthwork. For the invaders it was victory or death. To retreat was impossible. The position of the British army was speedily made known to Montcalm. There was not a moment to be lost. The French General rapidly crossed the St. Charles, and advanced with his whole army, to meet that of Wolfe. Fifteen hundred Indians first ascended the hill, from the valley of the St. Charles, and stationing themselves in cornfields and bushes, fired upon the English, who took no notice of their fire. Between nine and ten o'clock, the two armies met, face to face, and when the main body of the French, advancing rapidly, were within forty yards, the English opened their fire, and the carnage was terrible. The French fought gallantly, but under a galling and well directed fire, they fell, in spite of the exertions of their officers, into disorder. The British Grenadiers charged at this critical moment. The Highlanders rushing forward, with the claymore, hewed down every opponent, and the fate of the battle was no longer doubtful--the French retreated. Wolfe had just been carried to the rear, mortally wounded in the groin. Early in the battle, a ball struck him in the wrist, but binding his handkerchief around it, he continued to encourage his men. It was while in the agonies of death, that he heard the cry of "they flee," "they flee," and on being told that it was the French who fled, exclaimed, "Then I die happy." His second in command, General Monckton, was wounded and conveyed away, shortly after assuming the direction of affairs, when the command devolved upon General Townshend who followed up the victory, rendered the more telling by the death of the brave Montcalm, who fell, mortally wounded, in front of his battalion, and that of his second in command, General Jennezergus, who fell near him. Wolfe's army consisted of only 4,828 men, Montcalm's of 7,520 men, exclusive of Indians. The English loss amounted to 55 killed and 607 wounded, that of the French to nearly a thousand killed and wounded; and a thousand made prisoners. Montcalm was carried to the city; his last moments were employed in writing to the English general, recommending the French prisoners to his care and humanity; and when informed that his wound was mortal, he sublimely remarked:--"I shall not then live to see the surrender of Quebec." On the 14th he died, and on the evening of the 18th the keys of Quebec were delivered up to his conquerors, and the British flag was hoisted on the citadel. French imperial rule had virtually ended in Canada. Not so, French customs. By the capitulation, which suffered the garrison to march out with the honors of war, the inhabitants of the country were permitted the free exercise of their religion; and, afterwards, in 1774, the Roman Catholic Church establishment was recognized; and disputes concerning landed and real property were to be settled by the _Coutume de Paris_. In criminal cases only was the law of England to apply.

Admiral Saunders, with all the fleet, except two ships, sailed for England, on the 18th of October, Quebec being left to the care of General Murray and about 3,000 men. After the fleet had sailed, several attempts were made upon the British outposts at Point Levi, Cape Rouge, and St. Foy, unsuccessfully. Winter came, and the sufferings of the conquerors and the conquered were dreadful. The Frazer Highlanders wore their kilts, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and provisions were so scarce and dear, that many of the inhabitants died of starvation. The Marquis de Vaudreuil, the Governor General of His Most Christian Majesty, busied himself, at Montreal, with preparations for the recovery of Quebec, in the spring. In April, he sent the General De Levi, with an army of 10,000 men, to effect that object. De Levi arrived within three miles of Quebec, on the 28th, and defeated General Murray's force of 2,200 men, imprudently sent to meet him. The city was again besieged, but this time by the French. Indeed, it was only on the appearance of the British ships, about the middle of May, that the siege was raised. De Levi retreated to Jacques Cartier. The tide of fortune was again turning. General Amherst was advancing from New York upon Montreal. By the middle of May, that city, and with it the whole of Canada, including a population, exclusive of Indians, of 69,275 souls, was surrendered to England.

Montcalm, who was not only a general, but a statesman, is said to have expressed himself to the effect, that the conquest of Canada by England would endanger her retention of the New England colonies, and ultimately prove injurious to her interests on this continent. Canada, not subject to France, would be no source of uneasiness or annoyance to the English colonists, who already were becoming politically important, and somewhat impatient of restraint. How far such an opinion was justifiable, is to be gathered from the condition of Canada and the colonies of Great Britain in America, at this hour.

Canada was, in 1763, ceded by His Most Christian Majesty, the King of France, to His Britannic Majesty King George the Second. Emigration from the United Kingdom to Canada was encouraged--not to Canada only, but to Nova Scotia, which then included the present Province of New Brunswick. By the treaty of 1763, signed at Paris, Nova Scotia, Canada, the Isle of Cape Breton, and all the other Islands in the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, were ceded to the British Crown. Britain, not only powerful in arms, but, even at this period, great in commerce, was about to change, though almost imperceptibly, the feelings of her new subjects. The old or New England colonies, which had so largely contributed to the subjugation of Canada, were already largely engaged in trade. They had not made much progress in agriculture. They had made no progress in manufactures. It was six years later before their first collegiate institution, at Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded. But, while Canada, perhaps, only loaded a couple of vessels with the skins of the bear, the beaver, the buffalo, the fox, the lynx, the martin, the minx, and the wolf, to prevent the total evaporation of heat from the shoulders of the gentler sex in Paris or London, or to fringe the velvet robes of the courtiers of St. James and the Tuileries, the New Englanders employed, annually, about one thousand and seventy-eight British vessels, manned by twenty-eight thousand nine hundred seamen, while their whale and other fisheries had become of great importance.[4] To change the military character of the sixty-nine thousand inhabitants of Canada ceded by France to England, could not be done immediately. That was as impossible as to make them abjure by proclamation, their religion. All changes, to be lasting, must be gradual, and the government of Great Britain only contemplated a lasting change, by the introduction into Canada of her own people, imbued with somewhat different ideas, religiously, legally, and commercially, from those which actuated the conquered population.

[4] In 1771, however, 471,000 bushels of wheat were exported from
Canada, of which two-thirds, it was computed, were made in the
Sorel District. _See the Journal of Charles Carroll, of
Carollton, page 77._