Osprey, Men-At-Arms #048 Wolfe's Army (1974) 95Ed OCR 8.12

7/29/2019 Osprey, Men-At-Arms #048 Wolfe's Army (1974) 95Ed OCR 8.12

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mmmMILITARY MEN-AT-ARMS SERIESWOLFE'S ARMY

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t!milDMILITARYEDITOR: MARTINWINDROW

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIESWOLFE'S ARMY

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First published ill Ureat Britain in 1971 byOsprey, an ilnprinl 01' Rl"'d Consull1er Books I,\(I.\Iichclin House, HI Fulhall1 Road,London S\\':1 (iRBand,\uckJand, \lclbonrl1e, Sin).!;


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Introduction

In the days of Empire, only remembered with anyclarity today by those over forty, the Seven YearsWar was a landmark in schools' history lessons.The 'year of miracles', 1759, when HoraceWalpole could write only halfmockingly ' one cannever afford to miss a single copy of a newspaperfor fear of missing a British victory somewhere',was still a matter not only of pride, but also ofgreat interest.

Only in America, despite the matchless splendour of Francis Parkman's writing on the period,was the French and Indian War, as the SevenYears War has always been cal led there, ratherneglected. It was a 'colonial days' campaign inthe minds of later Americans for whom life beganin the 1nos, and only in states where the battleshad been fought was it - and is it - much recalled.Today, the neglect spans the Atlantic with only

one exception: the story ofWolfe at Quebec, stilla matter of passionate interest far outside Canada,as the flood of books published for the bicentenaryin 1959 proved. Canadians feel its effects to thisday and Americans have cause to remember it,for in winning the battle, the British, as we shallsee, lost America.

The fascination with Wolfe and his army isunderstandable, and a considerable part of thisbook is devoted to the campaign; bu t it was onlypar t ofan extraordinary story, for, even by Britishstandards, the French and Indian War was aclassic example of early bungling which bravery

could not counterbalance, followed by inspiredleadership of that much abused but magnificentfigure, the British redcoat. Many provincials, too,contributed to the victory despite inter-colonybickering and jealousies, and natural resentmentat the arrogance of too many British officers andofficials. They learnt lessons which were soon torebound on the mother country.The cast list of this ferocious, often terrifying

war, much of it fought in forests which must haveseemed to the redcoats to be a wilderness oftigers, is an impressive one: the young Washington; Sir William Johnson, the land-hungryEmpire-builder who genuinely liked and wastrusted by Indians; Lord Howe, the incomparable young officer whose death at Ticonderogawas nothing less than a national tragedy; theunfortunate Braddock; Rogers and his Rangers;the malicious Townshend; the appalling Abercromby; and, above all, the heroic twin heroes ofthe great drama, Montcalm and Wolfe.And always there was the redcoat, the centralfigure of this book. The body of the text is ahistory of the war from a military point of view,the colour pictures and their captions are mainlydevoted to the uniforms of the redcoats, theirleaders, and their allies.No one who has studied the redcoat fails to

respond to his cheerfulness, his own response togood leadership, his bravery when things (as sooften) went wrong, his occasional disgracefulbehaviour in battle, his sheer guts. The concept ofEmpire can r ight ly be criticized, even attacked,and apologists for it in the 1970S must recognizeits faults as well as its many virtues. But those whoattack the redcoats, those who cannot respond totheir valour and, indeed, the valour of theirenemies, are to be pitied.

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tended to side with the British or remain neutral.o longer the power they once were, these proud,

fierce advanced tribes lived in what is now centralew York State, but lorded it over a much wider

area. Fortunately a trader and agent , Will iamJohnson, later to be Sir William and the greatestlandowner in North America, had enormousinfluence over them, and especially over theMohawks. He liked the men and loved the women:his last wife in all but name was the lovely MollyBrant, sister of the greatJoseph Brant, the Mohawkwar chief for whom an extraordinary career inwar and peace lay in the future.

By 1748 the fur trade had led to too manyIndians becoming dependent on white goods,everything from trinkets to armaments, and thesethe English could supply more easily than theFrench. Loyalty to New France was strained, buttwo factors played into French hands. ThoughQuebec, their capital, was priest-ridden andthough the fur trade was rotten with corruption,the French Canadians were better soldiers thantheir rivals, having learnt the art of woodlandfighting with their Indian allies; and, moresignificantly, for all their lack of unity, the Englishcolonists, as we have seen, wanted land.

No Indians ever really understood this lust forland. To Indians, the earth was sacred, a mother,not something to be bartered or owned. I t could

_.. . ,- - -:'

'A volley from the hunting-pieces of a few backwoodsmen, commanded by a Virginian youth ,George Washington', is how Francis Parkmandescribes the obscure action in 1754 whichprecipitated the French and Indian War and inHorace Walpole 's phrase ' se t the world on fire'.The Father of his Country began making historywhen he was a twenty-two-year-old actinglieutenant-colonel of militia.

So began the struggle that Winston Churchillcalled the First World War. Yet in North Americathere had been little peace during the century.The war was part of the seemingly unendingconflict between France and England to decidethe fate of a continent.

The century had already seen two officialAnglo-French wars, the second of which ended in1748. The treaty-makers returned to each countrythe conquests of the other, the commercia llyhopeful town of Madras to Britain, Louisbourg toFrance, much to the legitimate fury of the NewEnglanders who had captured the great fortresson Cape Breton Island with naval a id in 1745.

The 'peace' that followed in America was nopeace at all. The vastly outnumbered French there were about 55,000 of them in contrast toabou t a million and a half English colonists - werethe leading power in North America, even thoughtheir position was built on sand. Most Indianspreferred the French Canadians, who had littleof the racial prejudice of the Anglo-Americans;they were traders, explorers, adventurers and,except along the St Lawrence, not settlers.

Only the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy - Six Nations since 17 I 5 when theTuscaroras were allowed to join the Mohawks,Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas -

71ieUnendingGonJlict

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British batteries

be hunted over, fought over or even farmed - bythe women - but owned in the white sense, never!

Indian warfare against the whites was total.Terror was an instrument of policy. The whitesbrought warfare on themselves by repeatedbetrayals or misunderstandings and vengeancebred vengeance until savagery was rampant onboth sides. The redcoats were to find themselvesin a nightmare world where the disciplines ofEurope had no counterpart (until the Quebeccampaign, which was not so very different fromthe European style of warfare).

In 1747, the Ohio Land Company was formedto open up the fertile lands of the Ohio Valley,and in 1749 the Company got its first land grantof 200,000 acres on both sides of the Ohio andsent its first scouts across the mountains the nextyear. Soon, English colonists who were killed werelikely to have dirt stuffed into thei r mouths, forthe Indians knew what the Ohio Company andthe independent prospectors were after.

Meanwhile, in 1749, a French and Indian partyswept down into the Ohio Valley to claim it forFrance, optimistically putting notices on treesand burying engraved plates to enforce theirclaim. The Ohio Company established a base at

Wills Creek, now Cumberland, Maryland. Trailswere blazed westwards to the Monongahela Riverto find suitable land for settlement. With Frenchinfluence among the Indians spreading fast, thestage was set for an encounter to decide whowould rule the Forks of the Ohio, the Monon-gahela and the Allegheny - and the whole valley.

In 1753, the new Governor of Canada, MarquisDuquesne, sent 4 ,000 men south to build forts.Fort Presqu' ile was erected on Lake Erie andFort Ie Bceuf below it, and the English post atVenango was taken, garrisons being left at eachof them.

The alarmed Governor of Virginia, RobertDinwiddie, sent a warning to Legardeur de StPierre, who was in command at Fort Ie Bceufsincethe previous commander died of dysentery,informing him that he was trespassing on Virginian soil. Not surprisingly, St Pierre disagreed,so Dinwiddie sent Major George Washington,twenty-one years old, over six feet tall and eagerfor land and a regular commission, to see him. Hissmall escort of frontiersmen was joined on the wayby a friendly Seneca, Half King, and some of hisband. St Pierre politely received Washington,refused to budge, and, without success, t ried to

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seduce the Senecas, known, confusingly, in thatarea as Mingoes. Washington returned andreported to the Governor, urging that a fort shouldbe built at the Forks of the Ohio.

After a struggle, Dinwiddie got a little moneyout of his assembly, and, in April 1754, work onthe fort was begun. Suddenly, 500 Frenchmenmaterialized out of the forest and the Britishsurrendered and were sent home. The victorsproceeded to erect Fort Duquesne, a famous spot,later to be Fort Pitt and, finally, Pittsburg.

This was war, or so the Virginians thought,even though neighbouring colonies showed typicallack of interest. Washington, now an actinglieutenant-colonel and twenty-two, was put incharge of a 300-strong party and was met atGreat Meadows by Half King, who told him thatsome French and Indians were near by. On28 May the Americans took the French by surprise, wounded a few men, killed their leader deJumonville and took twenty-one prisoners. Thewar, undeclared for another two years, hadstarted.

Washington learnt that 500 Frenchmen were ontheir way to meet de Jumonville and retreated toGreat Meadows, where he was joined by menfrom two Independent Companies, commandedby Captain McKay, a regular, who outrankedColonel Washington, a mere volunteer. Thissituation was all too common throughout theensuing war and one which naturally upset theyoung Virginian.

Washington still hoped to push on to Duquesne,but, hearing that the French were now near, heand his exhausted, starving men retreated againto Great Meadows and built Fort Necessity,dangerously far from water and exposed to firefrom wooded slopes.

The fire came on the night of 2 July, directedby de Jumonville's brother, Coulon de Villiers. Inheavy rain, the British fought bravely for ninehours, r e f ~ s e d a surrender call, but finally, whena quarter of the ragged, sick garrison of some 400had been killed or wounded, they gave in. I t wasa cruel blow to the ambitious young Washington.However, the British left with the honours ofwar,leaving swivel guns and military baggage behind.

Two significant things occurred. An interpreterbotched his job and made Washington unwittingly6

sign that he was the assassin of de Jumonville,an excellent propaganda weapon for the French;and a Scotsman named Robert Stobo was chosenas one of the hostages to be left. He was, as we shallsee, to render great services, first at Fort Duquesne,then at Quebec . But the immedia te effect of thedefeat was sheer disaster. The Indians rightlybelieved the French to be the masters of thesituation, while de Villiers returned to FortDuquesne having seen to it, as Parkman put it ,that ' ot an English flag now waved beyond theAlleghenies'.

'Disaster

When the news of Washington's humiliationreached Europe, British and French officials inParis were still arguing about the previous war.France's numerical weakness in orth America in1754 was more than offset by the total unpreparedness of the British to fight a major war onany front. Not that anything as foolhardy as adeclaration ofwar was made. Instead, and despitethe inadequacies of the incompetent Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, an attempt was madeto improve the armed services.

I t was high time. The Navy had 200 overextended ships, many of them in poor condition,and the army was down to less than 20,000 men.But inJuly 1754, before the news ofFort Necessityhad reached Europe, money and arms were sentacross the Atlantic, and late September, when theworst was known, the 44th and the 48th Footwere ordered to sail from Cork to North America.

Each battalion was about 350 strong with additional drafts of variable .quality added to them,bringing them up to 500 each, and it was hopedthat Americans would later be recruited.

In command was a forty-five-year-old Coldstreamer, Major-General Edward Braddock, a


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Although no Foot Guards served in Anterica at t h is t in te ,t hi s p ic tu re n te ri ts inclusion as the best of M orier 'sgrenadier paintings, illustrating clearly the cut of theunifornts and several sntull details of interest. T heunifornts o f a ll i nf an tr y were bas ica lly the sante , d is tinguished for grenadiers by ntitre caps and shoulder-wings- se e description of colour plates AI, A2 and A3 for generali nf or nta tio n. L ap els c ou ld b e bu ttoned ac ro s s in foulweather, or half-buttoned for ntarching. Belts were lightcoloured buff leather; a heavy one over th e r igh t shou lde rs up po rt ed t he polished black cartridge-box. Grenadierstatus was indicated by a perforated, s toppered brass tubeabove the brass buckle, originally the ntatch-case. At ightly coiled ntatch ntay have been worn on the belt

stern but by no means inhumane soldier who knewnothing of American conditions, but realized (ashe told his actress friend, Anne Bellamy) that hewould have to cu t his way 'through unknownwoods'. He said that he and his men were beingsent like sacrifices to the altar.

Braddock reached Hampton Roads, Virginia,in February 1755. Meanwhile, 3 ,000 French

behind the shou lde r. The wa is tbe lt suppo rted the sword- 'hanger ' - and bayonet in a double f rog ; usua ll y onlyg re na di er s c ar ri ed t he h an ge r i n t he field. A picker andbrush for clearing the touch-hole of th e n tusket h an g b yfine c ha in s f ro nt t he end of the shoulder -be lt . Note thevisible front breeches buttons - unfashionable, but stilusual antong contn ton soldiers. White gai te rs wi th th ir tysix black buttons are worn fo r fo rn ta l duty, r ep laced byblack, brown o r g re y o ne s fo r ' nta rch ing and contntonduties '. Muskets had steel or wooden rantrods - sontet in tes bo th within t he s an te unit. The sn ta l l figure in thel ef t b ackg round, and the right-hand grenadier, weacorporals ' shoulder-knots o n t he r ig ht shoulder. (Reproduc ed by g ra ci ou s pern t is s ion of H.M. the Queen)

regulars under Baron von Dieskau, who hadserved brill iantly under Marshal Saxe, wereunder orders for Canada. The provincials welcomed Braddock effusively. Now the redcoatcould do their fighting for them! Braddock tactfully invited the touchy young Washington toserve as his aide-de-camp, which eased theVirginian's frustration at being outranked by the7


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F ro nt a nd b ac k views of a fine exantple of a grenadierofficer 's ntitre cap of the 43rd" Foot, w it h e la bo ra teentbroidery in co loured s ilk s, silver and gold. (NationalArn ty Museun t)

British Regulars, but orders had come fromLondon which confirmed that this offensive rulestill applied. As, with few exceptions, Britishofficers despised the provincials, a dangerouslymutual antipathy sprang up from the beginning.

I t must be stressed, though, that the British hadsome reason to resent Americans in general.Pennsylvania refused to supply fighting troops forreligious reasons, though the most distant settlersof the Quaker colony badly needed protecting.Braddock only got really adequate help fromVirginia, and trying to get his expedition properlyprovisioned and travelworthy proved a nightmare.Local recruit ing, however, got the 44th and 48thbarely up to strength.On 14 April, British officers and colonial

governors agreed on a series of plans. First theFrench must be cleared from the Forks of the

Ohio and Fort Duquesne by Braddock. Mean-while, the admirable Governor Shirley of Massa-chusetts was to head for Oswego, then attackNiagara, and William Johnson, now His Majes ty'sCommissioner of Indian Affairs, was to proceedup the Hudson and take Crown Point with NewEngland volunteers and some ofhis fierce Iroquoisfriends. Finally, Brigadier Robert Monckton, wasto deal with the French in Acadia with naval help.

This bold plan, covering huge tracts of wilder-ness with split forces, was not so bad as subsequentevents made it seem". Against the British, however,were some 3,000 French regulars, 15,000 militia,2,000 colonial regulars of ~ h Marine and anunknown number of Indians.

Braddock had one stroke of luck. The hostagetaken at Fort Necessity, Robert Stobo, smuggled aplan of Fort Duquesne out to him. When his act


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Front and back views of a typical other ranks ' ntitre cap,i n t hi s case of th e 49th Foot, t hough a l l followed more orless the s ame p at te rn . The r eg iment al facing coloura pp ea re d o n t he f ro nt and on the band at the base of theback. The back and the smal l front flap with th e whitehorse of Hanov er wer e of red cloth. The GR cipher,usually f la nked by deco r at iv e scrollwork, was in variouscolours, th e crow n in f ul l c ol ou r. The cap w as boundwas discovered, only the fact that the two nationswere not yet officially at war saved him fromexecution, and instead he was sent to Quebec,where he was to be even more useful.

In May, Braddock reached the trading post ofWills Creek, making his headquarters at near-byFort Cumberland. Let down by contractors andweakened by disease, the troops were badly delayed. They were in two brigades. LieutenantColonel Sir Peter Halkett led his 44th Foot , nowsome 700 strong; there were some 230 Rangersfrom Virginia, New York and Maryland , and50 carpenters. Meanwhile Colonel ThomasDunbar commanded the 48th, now 650 strong,230 Rangers from Virginia and the Carolinas,and 35 carpenters. There were four I2-pounders,six 6-pounders, four 8-inch howitzers and fifteenmortars. Both brigades also had one Independent

with whi te t ape , and sunnounted by a tuft in regimentacolours, ntis sing here. T he horse usually rode overstr ip o f ' ground ' in green and yellow. The band at thback was embro ide red in a variety of ways, o f ten with agrenade, the regimental n umbe r, an d scrolls. Certaiuni ts w i th Royal or Ancient badges carried them in fulcolours in place of the cipher. (National Army Museum

Company from New York, while to help with thferrying and block-and-tackle work, LieutenanCharles Spendlowe from H.M.S. Norwich waattached with a landing-party to the gunners.

Things at Wills Creek went from bad to worseBraddock wanted ISO four- team wagons, pluwagoneers, and if it had not been for BenjamiFranklin, Postmaster of Pennsylvania, 'almost thonly instance of ability and honesty I have knownin the provinces', he would have got hardly anyAs it was, 1,500 pack-horses were rounded upmany being promptly stolen by the locals, andwagons were found thanks to Franklin.

Braddock resorted to fierce discipline to keepa grip on a deteriorating situation, but his manydetractors rarely include Pennsylvanians, whoregard what he achieved before the debacle aremarkable.


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Morier pa in t ing of grenadiers i n ma rchi ng o rde r . Thesethree reg iments a l l se rved in America: the 46th Foot from1758 to 1767, the 47th and 48th from 1758 to 1763. ColonelThomas Murray ' s 46th served a t Ticonderoga in 1758.Facings are yellow, lace whit e w i th r ed a nd yellow stripesand a double dark blue zigzag. Note the pigta il tucked upunder th e cap and t he white s to ck b uc kle d a t th e r ea r.Colonel Peregrine Lascelles ' 47th had white facings, andthe whi te l ace bor e two black zigzags with a row of blackdots in between. Colonel Daniel Webb's 48th wore dist inctions as in co lour p la te C1 ; t he sc ro l lwo rk on the capis white, th e c ip he r green. For marching o rd er d ra bcoloured gaiters would actually have been worn. Cowhide

This is partly because of the road which he andhis men built on an Indian trail, which wassurfaced and widened enough to take both gunsand wagons. Often the most that could bemarched was under four miles a day, and moralewas not improved by short rations. At this time anambush w as unlikely, for scouts wer e out on theflanks and i n fr ont , while t he axe-men hacked theroad which was to be more than twelve feet wide.It was an amazing feat.The expedition reached Little Meadows, the

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knapsacks and t in canteens are slung on the left, and ahaversack of greyish canvas on the right, over thecartridge-box. I t is possible tha t painted canvas cover sp ro te ct ed t he caps. Sections of t he s ix -man tents, ten tpoles a nd c amp ke tt le s would be divided among the meno n t he march . Waistbelts were o ft en wo rn ove r the rightshoulder, the bayonet and - fo r g renadie rs - the swordhanging under t he l ef t arm. An extra cartridge-box wasoften worn on a buff o r black strap buckl ed ove r thewaistbelt. Note t he cent re man's open collar and lack ofs tock . (Reproduced by g ra ci ou s permission of H.M. theQueen)

advance guard a rnvmg on 25 June. Thoughstragglers had been picked off by French andIndian scouts, t he re w as as yet no sign of a majorFrench force. However, Braddock heard that 500Frenchmen were marching to reinforce FortDuquesne. At a counci l of war, Washington wasasked for advi ce. A ct in g on it , Braddock decidedto advance with 1,200 men, leaving Dunbar withthe heavy baggage, the wagons and the womenfolk. An advance guard was to be led by Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Gage, and it was this


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Rare c on tempor ar y i ll us tr at io ns o f I nd ia ns : t he wachieftain with scalp in hand, and th e Ottawa warrior withis family, were sketched by George Townshend(Courtauld Ins t itut e o f Art)

best with curses and the flat of his sword to restororder, aided by the young Virginian. Five horsewere shot under the General as the chaos becamtotal. His men were broken up into heavinggroups, total ly without purpose, except for thVirginians. The few British who tried to takcover, Indian fashion, incurred their leader'wrath.

With sixty-three out of eighty-six of his officerkilled or wounded, Braddock himself fell shothrough his arm and lung. He had just ordered aretreat, even though a panic-stricken flight waalready beginning.

The Indians, as usual, were too busy withplunder to "follow: the booty that they took

force that crossed the Monongahela on 9 July,eight miles from Fort Duquesne.

At the fort were abou t 1 ,000 French and Indiansunder Contrecreur. The new Governor-Generalof Canada, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, could spareno more because of pressures elsewhere. Only onthe 8th, had the French heard that Braddock wasapproaching, and Contrecreur decided to ambushhim at the Monongahela, choosing a party of 250Frenchmen and 650 Indians under CaptainLienard de Beaujeu for the fight.

The British had been forced to ford the rivertwice to avoid a narrow defile and were engagedin a short skirmish at the second crossing with somethirty Indians who fled. Now they were in moreopen country, woods rather than thick forest. Aband played and redcoats and provincials steppedout, with Braddock and his men following closelybehind the advance guard in two columns.Grenadiers were on the flanks, Virginians in therear, and cattle and pack-horses were betweenthe columns. The sun shone on this army of thedamned, its men jauntily confident that the Frenchhad already fled.

Waiting for them was Beaujeu, who had grea tdifficulty in persuading his Indians to stay. Likethem, he and his men were stripped for action andpainted.

Braddock's men marched on. Suddenly, Bealljeuappeared, turned and waved his hat to the menbehind him. He was killed almost at once as theambush site echoed to a terrifying war-cry, ablood-chilling moment for any Europeans hearingit for the first time. The redcoats swung from theircolumns into line as bullets tore into them fromthe trees. The French Canadians took to theirheels, and only the prompt action of CaptainDumas and Charles Langlade, leading theIndians , prevented them from following theFrench. Yet despite this disarray in the enemyranks, the Brit ish were doomed. They could no tsee their enemy, their whole training was foreignto the situation and, as the provincials sensiblytook cover, the redcoats became so unnerved thatthey shot at them by mistake.

The offi


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included Braddock's chest with all the Britishplans in it for the operations in the north andwest.

Washington remained unwounded. I t was hewho brought the news of the disaster back toDunbar and he who later read the memorialservice over Braddock's body when his chief diedfour days after the battle. He never ceased toadmire the tough, brave Coldstreamer.The British had suffered a catastrophe. Apart

from the heavy loss of officers, over 914 ..C.O.sand privates were killed or wounded out of a totalof 1,300. The French lost only three officers killedand four wounded and less than ten regulars andCanadians killed and wounded. Twenty-sevenIndians were killed or wounded.The fleeing redcoats met the supply wagons at

Gist's Plantation, where they had been sent byDunbar, but the pan ic went on. At Duubar'scamp, Dunbar himself ordered the destruction ofeverything: cannons, ammunition, powderwagonsand shells, a disgraceful miscalculation eventhough another attack - wrongly - seemedimminent.Braddock at least had learnt his lesson before he

died. 'We shall know better how to deal withthem another time,' he said, and he praised hisVirginians, while whispering that he could notbear the sight of a redcoat. And, indeed, whilethe panic of the regulars was understandable, theirreputation, and that of British soldiers in general,had taken a terrible beating.On 13 July, the retreat to Fort Cumberland

began (Braddock's death occurred on the march).

The 'F rench Cast le ' a t Old Fort Niagara, a massive s tonefortified bui lding erected by t he F rench in I7z6. (Old FortNiagara Assoc. Inc.)1'2

The triumph of the French and Indians wascomplete, though the victory had been almostentirely an Indian one.

Back in England, a young officer named JamesWolfe commented: 'Our military education is byfar the worst in Europe', and significantly complained: 'All our concerns are treated withcontempt or totally neglected.'

* * *The year 1755 was no t a total disaster forBritish arms, however. Monckton, in commandof the minor expedition against Acadia, led NewEnglanders and a few redcoats against FortBeausejour successfully. The fort was situated onthe mainland side of the isthmus leading toAcadia and was taken after a short siege, and thesmaller Fort Gaspereau fell without a struggle.There followed the harsh expulsion of theAcadians, simple people who had become politicalpawns and were now sent south into exile andmIsery.Governor Shirley, held up by t ransport and

supply problems, could not get beyond his basecamp at Oswego. The enemy, thanks to Braddock's papers, knew all about his plans to attackNiagara. He realized that unless he first tookFrontenac, the French could cut off his retreatby capturing Oswego behind him, so he busiedhis men, including remnants of Braddock's forces,in strengthening Oswego.The only real success, boosted beyond its merits

to raise morale, was Johnson's campaign againstCrown Point. His army was a disuni ted nat ion of3,000 colonists and 300 Iroquois consisting of hisbeloved Mohawks and some Oneidas. owappointed major-general, but without combatexperience, the charming Johnson did a war-dancewith his Indians and even disarmed the suspicions of his Bible-intoxicated New Englanders,the most God-fearing group since Cromwell's day,whose a ttitudes s tartled the New Yorkers andRhode Island men present.

After the usual transport difficulties, he reachedLac du St Sacrement, which he was to nameLake George, later naming his two camps for theKing's grandsons, Fort Edward and For t WilliamHenry.Meanwhile, the French under Dieskau were

reinforcing Crown Point - once again the


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Interior of the guardrooDl a t Old Fort Niagara, on thefirst floor. An in teres ting fea ture is the l ong und iv i ded' shelf ' b un k, w hic h h eld at least th irty Dlen. (Old FortNiagara Assoc . Inc .)Braddock papers came in useful - then, with adisputed number of regulars, militia and Indians,perhaps 2,500 in all, he travelled down LakeChamplain and built Fort Ticonderoga.

Misled by a prisoner that Johnson had returnedto his base at Albany, Dieskau pressed on with hisarmy. He then learnt that the British were stillin the area, and Johnson tried to ambush himwith 500 men and his Indians, despite a warningfrom the Mohawk chief Hendrick who said: 'Ifthey are to fight they are too few, if they are to die,they are too many.'The wise old Indian was right, for 200 were

killed, including Hendrick, and the survivors fledback in disorder to Johnson's camp at LakeGeorge.A fort was rapidly improvised from logs, boatsand carts, and the advancing French met with ahail of bullets, the forerunner of similar blasts of1.1

fire against the British at Bunker Hill, NewOrleans and elsewhere. The French and Indiansbroke and ran, and Dieskau was captured andjust saved byJohnson from being boiled and eatenin revenge for Hendrick's death.Johnson did not pursue the shattered French,which has always been held against him by

critics, even though pursuit might have endedin yet another British disaster. Instead, he nursedhis wounded thigh, built Fort William Henry,and then, with his t ired, sick and hungry men, heretired to the Hudson. He was made a baronet andgranted 5,000 by Parliament.

But the true significance of Lake George lay inthe future. Mere provincials had licked Frenchregulars. Dieskau said of them: 'In the morningthey fought like good boys, about noon like men,and in the afternoon like devils. ' Three of thedevils, were to become major-generals againstthe British. Lake George was a warning of thingsto come.

~ s m a n a g e m e n tand ~ a s s a c r e

For the British 1755 had been a catastrophic year,and the following two years showed no improvement. Braddock's defeat led to an autumn ofsheerterror on the frontier as French and Indian warparties ravaged settlements and attacked lonelyfarmhouses, while colonial assemblies argued withtheir governors. Meanwhile Colonel Dunbar,having hardly distinguished himself under Braddock, opted out by settling in Philadelphia forthe winter.Washington found himself commanding 1,500

Virginia Militia, virtually the only force to serve a350-mile frontier in a situation quite ou t of


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control. The vast superiority in numbers of theBritish meant little in the face of the combinationof wrangling colonists and French and Indianwar-parties. The French ability to understandIndians was now paying off in terms of blood. Notuntil Deccmber 1755 did Pennsylvania shake offits worthy Quaker shackles and prepare for war.

In the winter there was a lull as the enemyrested. Back in Britain, with a declared warclearly not far away, there was little sign of action.There were only 24,000 redcoats on the BritishEstablishment, with 13,000 more allocated to thecolonies. A ray of hope was the granting of commissions to foreign Protestants in America, whichled to the formation of the Royal AmericanRegiment ofFoot, the 60th, latcr the King's RoyalRifle Corps.

The spring of 1756 saw the judicial murdcr ofAdmiral Byng, who was made a scapegoat 'pourencourager les autres', as Voltaire observed.Meanwhile, with Britain seeking allies in Europe- Hanover and Prussia - the Government sent I 15,000 to Governor Shirley to help raise forcesin New England for its defence. War was officiallydeclared on 18 May, by which time a remarkablesoldier, the Marquis de Montcalm, had reachedCanada to replace the defeated Dieskau. Therehe encountered from the beginning the hostilityof his superior, Vaudreuil, the Governor-General,a colonial who saw no reason for the importationof a French regular. Their enmity was to benefitthe British considerably. Montcalm brought withhim able subordinates and 1,200 men.

While the great Frenchman was discovering thedisgracefully corrupt state of New France, theaffairs of British America were being handed overto incompetents. The unfortunate Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, a man who served Britainand her colonies well, was due to be replaced bythe Earl of Loudoun, but first he sent some inferiortroops to Oswego, all that could be raised. Moreusefully, he appointed a veteran of Louisbourg,Major John Bradstreet, a brilliant Americansoldier with a regular commission, to raise 2,000armed boatmen. Their first achievement was toget supplies to Oswego despite French and Indianattacks.In mid-July Loudoun arrived, soon after his

even more useless subordinate, Major-General

James Abercromby and the equally feeble ColonelDaniel Webb. Shirley, hounded by his enemies,left in disgrace, while, unbelievably, an orderaccompanied Loudoun stating that even generalswith provincial commissions could be outrankedby mere regular majors. Better news was thearrival with Loudoun of the 35th and the 42ndFoot.The rest of this miserable year was a chapter ofcalamities. Although Johnson managed to persuade many of the Iroquois to remain neutral this

could not save Oswego from falling to Montcalm.The French captured over 1,600 prisoners, sixships, I 13 cannon, plus ammunition, supplies andmoney, and silenced the fort. They had usedBraddock's guns to help destroy it.The nervous Webb, hearing of the loss, believed a rumour that Montcalm was advancing

on him and fled to German Flats on the Mohawk.

One of Brigadier Townshend 's many waspish cartoons ofWolfe; though coarsely wit ty , t hey t en ded t o demoralizehis fellow staff officers, already disturbed by the longstalemate and their commander 's illness. (McCordMuseum)


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The 1St o r Royal Reginlent of Foot, later the RoyalScots, wore red coats and waistcoats , b lue breechesand facings, and p la in white lace. The cap is blue,t he c rown is fu ll co lour, t h e g reen Ord er o f theThist le circlet bears tbe motto Nemo Me ImpuneLacessit, and th e cipher is yellow on b lu e; t he redHap bears th e usual whi te horse . Colonel JamesSinclair ' s 2nd Battal ionwas at Ticonderoga in 1759,and remained in America until 1764. (Reproducedby gracious permission o f H.M. th e Queen)Colonel Edward Whitmore ' s 22nd Foot served inAmerica from 1758 to 1765. The facings were buff,the lace white with two red and b lu e s tr ip es . Thes cr oll s a nd c ip he r o n t he buff-fronted cap areyellow. (Reproduced by g rac ious permiss ion ofH.M. the Queen)

Actually, the war had petered out for the winter,with the British at Fort William Henry dying ofdisease in a stinking outpost which faced theFrench at Ticonderoga (called by them FortCarillon).That winter Newcastle, a master polit ician in

the worst sense of the word, retired and the Dukeof Devonshire took over. So, fortunately, didWilliam Pitt. The British Establ ishment wasraised to 30 ,000 men, with 19 ,000 more for thecolonies, plus 2 ,000 engineers and artillerymen.

The 27th (Inniskil ling) Foot served in America from1758 to 1767; they were at Ticonderoga in 1758 and1759. The facings were buff, th e lace white wi th ayellow stripe between a blue and a black zigzag.The cap bears a b lue roundel with a castle HyingSt George's Hag beneath a scroll inscribed Inn iskilling. (Reproduced by gracious permission o fH.M. the Queen)The 40th Foot , which s eems to have gone throughfour colonels during its American service in 175865 , wore buf f facings; the lace had a black stripeedg ed e ach s id e with buff. The g renad ie r cap bearswhi te scro l lwork and a black cipher. (Reprodur.edby gracious permission o f H.M. the Queen)

Fifteen line regiments were ordered to raise secondbattalions and Pitt - boldly, for it was only twelveyears after the "45' - raised two regiments ofHighlanders, Fraser's and Montgomery's. Amongother signs of action were seven battalions orderedto North America and new drafts for regimentsalready there.For all his faults, Loudoun should not have

been burdened with the provincials, at their mostselfish and insular at this critical time. NativeAmericans resented British troops being billeted


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The 4 zn d Foo t (The Highland Reghnent) , or lUorepopular ly The BlackWatch, served in AlUericafrolU 1758 to 1767, a nd w as falUous for its par t inthe at tack on Ticonderoga in 1758. Two battalionswere in AlUerica in t he w in te r o f 1759-60. Coat andwais tcoat were red, as was the Rap elUbroideredwith a white lUotif o n t h e f r on t o f t he fur grenadiercap. Collar and cuffs were buff; lace was whi tew it h two red stripes. Note that t he co ll a r is sewnto the coat below th e strip of lace around the n eckof t h e coa t. Belts are black, the lUuske t s l ing verydark buff. (Reproduced by gracious perlUission ofH.M. the Queen)

on them, but expected the same troops to diefor them.Events of the 1757 campaign included a disappointment and a disaster. The former was anill-mounted attack on Louisbourg, distinguishedby late mustering of provincial troops, laterreinforcements from Britain, and a late arrival byLoudoun at Halifax. Finally, the expedition foundthe great fortress heavily garrisoned and supported by a large French fleet, so sailed back toNew York.

Colonel Jal11.es Kennedy's 43rd Foot served inAlUerica frolU 1758 to 1765. Facings were white,and the white lace had two red str ipes with a rowof black s ta rs be tween . The cap has white scrol l work relieved in black, a dark blue cipher, and ablue and white tuft. Sir Peter Halket t 's ( la ter Jal11.esAbercrol11.by's) 44th Foot was one of the regilUentsinvolved in Braddock 's Massacre , but se rved on inAlUerica until 1765. Gene ra l co lou r de ta il s will befound in the description of colour plate Cz. Thegrenad ier corporal (centre) has whi te scro l ls anda b lack c ipher on his ochre-yellow cap front. Thestrip of lace on h is r ig ht shoul de r holds the knotof his rank, hang ing down the back. Hugh Warburton's 45 th Foot served in Al11.erica frol11. 1758 to1765; i ts facings were a dark bluish green, its lacewhite wi th g reen s tr ipes and s ta r s. The Jni tr e caphas whi te scro l ls a nd c ip he r o n its green front , anda green and wh ite tuf t . (Reproduced by graciousperJnission of H.M. the Queen)

The disaster was the fall of Fort William Henry,where Lieutenant-Colonel Monro of the 35thFoot commanded over 2,000 redcoats and NewEnglanders, including sailors and mechanics. Hismen's health and morale was as alarming as thestate of his twenty-four guns.Montcalm had reached Fort Ticonderoga in

July with 8,000 men, regulars, Canadians andIndians, and proceeded by land and water toinvest the British post. During the six-day siegethe gutless Webb, though previously of good


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record, stayed put with 1,200 men at FortEdward, a mere fourteen miles away, and madeno effort to summon several thousand troops southof him along the Hudson.

So it was that Monro and his disease-riddenmen, after losing 300 men (some of them killed byBraddock's guns) accepted Montcalm's surrenderterms.

The terms were honourable and included anarmed escort to Fort Edward, but the Britishfailed to destroy the rum, which the Indians foundand drank with disastrous results. The next morning the march began, with the Indians closing inominously and demanding more rum. A massacrefollowed and a disputed number - 80 to 200 of men, women and children were butcheredbefore the French under Montcalm could restoreorder. The great Frenchman was not to blame.Both sides used Indians and knew the consequences of drink plus blood-lust. The survivorsreached Fort Edward under escort and Webbcalled urgently for more men, who came up theHudson. Montcalm, urged by his GovernorGeneral to advance, could not comply because oflack of supplies - back in Canada also there was adesperate food shortage - and because his Indianshad headed for home with booty and captives.He returned to Fort Ticonderoga, having lost hisone great chance ofwinning North America.The winter of 1757-58 found morale in thecolonies lower than ever, but though there werecalamities to come, William Pitt was fully incommand now. Even he was not to succeed at

The inner fort at Fort Ligonier, bui lt b y B ri gadi er JohnForbes on his tnarch in to the Ohio Valley in 1758:a reconstruction which follows the original plans.(S. Fredtnan)

first, but everyone, even the most bloody-mindedand insular provincial, now knew that there wasa t itan in command.

7Ite /758Gampaigns

Pitt's plan for 1758 was a masterly one, but it wasweakened by the impossibility ofsupervising it at adistance of 3,000 miles, the difficulties of communications, and by his exaggerated opinion ofAbercromby. The new Commander-in-Chief ofthe Army, the expatriate Huguenot, JohnLigonier, selectedJeffreyAmherst to command thenext attempt on Louisbourg. I t was a good, ifnot inspired, choice. Admiral Boscawen was tocommand the fleet.

Under Amherst were 14,000 regulars. Thegrenadiers and l ight infantry, also the 42nd (theBlack Watch), were to be commanded byBrigadier James Wolfe, whose earlier career willbe found in the next chapter. Brigadier Lawrencecommanded the 13th, 22nd, 35th and 45th Foot,also the 2nd Battalion, the Royal AmericansAmerican troops under British discipline, paid forby Britain and some of them commanded bySwiss mercenaries. Colonel Whitmore commanded the 17th, 47th, 48th and 58th Regiments,also the I st Royals and the 3rd Battalion, theRoyal Americans.

Abercromby had 15,000 regulars and provincials and the finest young officer in the army,Lord Howe, as his second-in-command. Theirplan was to head up Lake Champlain, whileBrigadier John Forbes was to lead 6,000 menagainst Fort Duquesne.

Significantly, Pitt changed the official attitudeto the colonies. Asking for 25,000 provincials, hesaid that Britain would provide food and shelter


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for them, only requiring the assemblies to raise,pay and clothe them. Also, senior provincialofficers were no longer to be ordered about bymere regular striplings.The Louisbourg expedition did not leave

Halifax until the end of May because of badweather, but, finally, the transports set outescorted by twenty-three ships of the line. Theirtask was a daunting one, for to defend the fortressthe Chevalier de Drucour and the population of4,000 had 3 ,000 regulars, plus Canadians, militiaand Indians, 2 I 9 cannons and 17 mortars. Thearrival of five ships of the line and seven frigatesadded 544 guns to the total.The weather prevented boats being launched

from the transports for several days, but on 8 Junethe attack began. Feints were to be made byLawrence and Whitmore, while the main attackrowed towards Freshwater Cove four miles fromLouisbourg. This was led by Wolfe, who had withhim five companies of grenadiers, 550 marksmenfrom various regiments, Fraser's Highlanders andprovincial Rangers.

The French held their fire, then first artilleryand next muskets from 1,000 entrenched men cutinto the invaders. I t looked like failure, but someof the l ight infantry had headed r ight againstorders and landed on an unguarded section ofrocks. After order ing them to withdraw, Wolferealized his chance, changed his mind and was thefirst to land. Despite heavy losses of men andboats, he collected several hundred men, orderedthem to fix bayonets, and led them against theFrench. The enemy fled, not even spiking theirguns. Not unt il the fortress's cannon opened upto cover their panic-stricken troops did Wolfe halt.

The rest of the Army came ashore and a siegebegan, giving Amherst, a less mercurial commander than Wolfe and less capable of improvising, a chance to shine. Bad weather and difficultterrain did not help the British, nor did AdmiralBoscawen's perhaps prudent decision not to enterthe harbour.The French dismantled a large bat tery on the

north of the harbour opposite the fortress, intowhich they concentrated all their troops. Learning

Three naive bu t very i Jnpor tan t d rawings byLieutenant WilliaDl Baillie, who in 1753 sketchedDleDlbers of his 13th Foot recruiting pa rt y i nBirDlinghaDl. The 13th were not in ADlerica, bu tthese lively i f untu to red drawings of battalionsoldiers are ra re represen ta t ions of redcoats ofthe period. Note that t h e g renadie r (left) has a GRcipher on his cartridge-box, and a picker and brushhanging froDl th e belt j us t above i t . 'Corporal Jonesloading Dlusket ' (centre) shows hair tucked intoha t, unusua l spacing of lapel lace, and clearly

drawn hook and eye o n c oa t skirts. The vastnUDlber of t iny gaiter buttons DlUSt have causedSODle curses. The shirt cuff, visible on the rightarDl, seeDlS to be c lo sed with a l ink rather than abutton; exaDlples have been d ug u p in ADlerica.The r igh t-hand sketch of Corporal Jones showsthe l ines of lace on the waistcoat, and th e jaunty hatangle - to avoid accidents when shouldering arDlS.Al l th e uniforDls appear to be fairly cruDlpled, andrather t ight . (Courtesy British MuseuDl; and LightInfantry MuseuDl, Taunton)


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Various changes in uniforll lwere taking place by 1760,which lIlay b e s ee n in thesetw o Sandby watercolours.Both these infantryl l lenhave creall l-colouredb re eche s, wh ich we re i ncreasingly replacing the redtype, and hats with a lIlarkedly higher cock at thefront. One wears shortergaiters with a stiff kneepiece. The cart r idge-boxwas increased in size t o t akethir ty-six rounds, and givena larger weather-proofingflap. (Reproduced bygracious perl l liss ion ofH.M. the Queen)

Ano the r Sandby sket ch , oftwo infantry ll len rest ing ,c. 1760. Again, note shortergaiters and high, s tra ightfront to t he h at . (Reproduc ed by g ra ci ou s perIIlission of H.M. the Queen)


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of this, Wolfe was ordered to move and bringboth fortress and harbour under artillery fire.

By 23 July, the French were reduced, asAmherst noted, to firing 'all sorts of old IronNails on every occasion' but the well-entrenchedBritish were not much troubled by the bombardment. The city was steadily reduced to rubble,and on 27 July the garrison capitulated, layingdown firearms, colours, more than 200 cannonand surrendering vast amounts of stores. Over5,000 men surrendered.So fell Louisbourg, along with Cape Breton

Island and lIe St Jean (Prince Edward Island),and bells and bonfires sounded and blazed inAmerica and Britain. Even the New Englandclergy indulged in paroxysms of loyalty to theCrown.

I f the news from elsewhere had been better,Amherst could have pushed on towards Quebec,but Boscawen pointed out that such an operationcould not succeed on its own. The Champlaincampaign had collapsed because of Abercromby'sgross blundering and the death of Howe.

The campaign had seemed promising enough.Before he left America, Loudoun had relaxed hisEuropean standards of warfare to the point ofallowing Colonel Thomas Gage to raise a RangerRegiment, the 80th , which was to model itself onRogers' already famous Rangers. Abercromby,however, was a well-meaning, pleasant, slowwitted 'book' soldier of fifty-two (not to be confused with the famous Sir Ralph) whose lack ofmartial talent bordered on the phenomenal.

He had a fine army of 9,000 provincials andover 6,000 regulars, five regiments of them. Thismagnificent force, three times as strong as itsopposition, had ample artillery support andsupplies and a thousand boats. I t also had LordHowe, grandson of George I and his mistressBaroness Kielmansegge, an officer in his midthirties. (His brothers were destined to be evenmore famous than he, William becoming Commander-in-Chief during the early part of theAmerican Revolution, and Richard, Admiral'Black Dick' Howe.)

Lord Howe was that rare being, the beau idealof an English officer and gentleman. He had beenmade second-in-command to Abercromby tomake up for the latt er' s suspected weaknesses.

What set Howe apart from nearly every otherofficer was that by his bravery, skill, charm andbrains he almost singlehandedly overcame thecolonists ' hostility to British regular officers. Hewas 'the Idol of the Army' , wrote one American.He scouted with Rogers, carried his own blanketand did his own washing without loss of respect,and he was at home with the wildest backwoodsman as he was in a fashionable drawing-room.He rapidly mastered woodcraft by studying withthose who knew it best, and he soon became themost liked and admired British soldier ever toserve alongside Americans.

He worked to transform his own men. The longskirts of their jackets were shorn off, so were theirpigtails; musket barrels were browned to preventglitter; pipeclay and leather stocks were banned.Howe also ordered officers to live rough, makingthem cut down their own baggage, do their ownwashing as he did, and eat more simply. Moralesoared in the ranks.

On 5 July the expedition embarked from itscamp by the ruins of Fort William Henry in itsfleet of batteaux, whale-boats and artillery flatboats. Bands played as the armada moved north.In the van were Rogers' and Gage's Rangers andHowe's 55th Foot. Men from Britain, New York,New England, New Jersey and Rhode Islandsailed to win Canada from Montcalm.The French General had 3,500 men and hisposition at Fort Ticonderoga seemed serious.Fortunately for the French, the British advancehad been held back by the slow assembling of theprovincials, but now, with the British advancingup the lake, Montcalm withdrew his outposts inthe fort's perimeter and ordered the fortificationsto be strengthened. A defence line of tree trunksand earth was frantically built , and trees werefelled round the fort with the branches facing theexpected line of attack.

Montcalm had little more than a week's supplies. His retreat could have been cu t off ifAbercromby had sent a force to control thenarrows between the two lakes, but he had onestroke of luck, the arrival of 400 regulars and thesame number of Canadians, sent by the GovernorGeneral.

Abercromby's men landed at 10 a.m. on themorning of 6 Ju ly , and by noon his whole army

'2 I


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had disembarked. The French had destroyed thebridge across the channel dividing the lakes and itwas decided to advance up the western bank andattack the fort from the rear. Rogers went aheadto scout, with the rest of the force trying to followbut gett ing lost in the forest. Then came a majortragedy. Howe, with some Rangers, ran into aFrench scouting party and a fierce skirmishfollowed. I t was a small-scale affair with greatconsequences, for Howe was shot through theheart.The whole army was shattered by the loss, as

were Americans generally. Abercromby was notonly shaken - he promptly went to pieces. Despite

View, looking s ou th -e as t, o ve r t he b ea uti fu ll y reconstructed Fort Ticonderoga, now a museum. The stone fortis of typical s ta r- shape, wi th an inner courtyard or Placed 'Armes where troops might assemble. There arebarracks on south and west, four bastions, and tw omassive ex te ri o r defences - dew-lunes - on north andwest; a square watch- tower r i ses on t he e as t. (CourtesyFort Ticonderoga Museum, New York)'2'2

advice to a ttack the enemy on the flank havingwrecked his breastworks with cannon fire first,he decided on 8 July to attack head-on with thebayonet. Carefully stationing himself a mile and ahalf away, he sent his men against the completedbreastworks.Battalion after battalion was sacrificed, cu t to

pieces by musketry and grapeshot. First in werethe Rangers and l ight infantry, then came the42nd and the 55th. The desperate a ttack of theBlack Watch was the most famous of the manyhopeless assaults that were launched on theFrench positions. For a full hour the Scots t ried tostorm the breastworks, hacking their way withbroadswords and trying to shoot an enemy theycould not see, but finally even these bravest of thebrave - what was left of them - had to fall back.Abercromby now surpassed himself. He sent

his men in again and there followed one of themost val iant at tempts in the history of arms tostorm an impregnable position. I t failed, as it wasbound to; then, with the French almost out oammunition, Abercromby ordered a retreat, andeven the reluctant Highlanders finally obeyed.Montcalm, who had inspired his men great ly

had lost about 400 of them; 1,600 regulars fell, 3!4men of the Black Watch being killed and 334wounded, while the provincials lost 334 men. Thewretched Abercromby partly blamed the provincials for the disaster and wished to retreat atonce to Albany, but, fortunately, he managed toforce himself to entrench his men once again at thefoot of Lake George.Montcalm had saved Canada with Aber

cromby's help, and now suffered, not from theBritish, but from his own Governor-General whourged him vainly to advance with his tiny force.The British effort in 1758 seemed little better thanin previous years, Louisbourg apart, but in Augusthings improved. In 1757, Lieutenant-ColonelBradstreet had been eager to attack Fort Frontenac(now Kingston, Ontario), the French supply basefor their western outposts. Now, in 1758, he gohis chance, leading a force of over 2,500 menprovincials, militia and 157,Royal Americans.They passed the ruins of Oswego and sailed

across Lake Ontario, avoiding action with threeFrench ships, and appeared at Fort Frontenac on25 August to find only 110 men there, plus 9 ships


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and 60 cannon. All fell easily into Bradstreet'shands before Vaudreuil could rush reinforcements to the fort, which was then destroyed. Thismajor provincial triumph lost the French controlof Lake Ontario.The other campaign, too, was a success, though

its leader, Brigadier John Forbes, did not surviveit. He was a fine Scottish soldier in his sixties, theColonel of the 17th Foot. He believed in studying'the art of warr from the enemy, Indians or anything else who have seen the country and warrcarried on in i t' . Reaching Philadelphia in April1758, he ran into the by now traditional difficultiesthat had afflicted Braddock earlier.He finally mustered some 1,600 men, including

Montgomery's Highlanders, a battalion of RoyalAmericans under a Swiss soldier, Henry Bouquet,and provincials from all the central colonies,including a large body of Virginians, also manysouthern Indians.

His route to Fort Duquesne was the shortest andbest, taken against the advice of land-hungryAmericans of the Ohio Company who wantedBraddock's old road taken, repaired and turnedinto a free short-cut to their would-be possessions.One of those who urged this was Washington,whose motives mayor may not have been disinterested. He had endured several years offrontier warfare, still without a regular commission, but he served Forbes loyally with hisVirginian provincials. On the march Forbes washit by severe dysentery, which gradually wreckedhis health altogether, and he had to be carriedon a litter between two horses.

The road was hacked out of the forest, fortswere built at regular intervals, but progress wasslow. Then an ambitious junior officer caused adisaster. Major James Grant , commanding 800Highlanders and Virginians, got permission fromBouquet, leading the vanguard, to try and takeFort Duquesne by a night attack. Though he gotwithin a mile of the fort, his men became lost andthe French attacked them. Three hundred werekilled and wounded and a panic-stricken routonly ended at the base camp. Bouquet halted thefugitives and, not being a Dunbar, held his own.

British morale was made lower by rain andmud, but in late November the troops near FortDuquesne learnt frOm a prisoner that the French

were abandoning the fort. Within a mile of thefort the forest suddenly echoed with the sound ofexplosions: the tiny garrison - only 200 strongnow - was burning it down. The British marchedin the next day, 25 November.

Forbes left a small garrison and named the fort'Pittsborough', soon shortened to Pitt. Helped byBradstreet's success to the north , he had achieveda major triumph, but he was now a dying man.Leaving Bouquet in charge of building For t P itt(and Washington to go home and marry a richwidow, Martha, and retire from soldiering forseventeen years) Forbes was carried home todie a hero in Philadelphia. .

So ended a year of triumphs ruined in part byone appalling tragedy. Pitt sacked Abercromby,and Amherst took his place for the 1759 campaign.But in November 1758, just before Fort Duquesnefell, young James Wolfe, already racked with illhealth, had returned to London from Louisbourgto find himself a popular hero. I t is now time tomeet him more fully before beginning the story ofthe Year of Miracles in general and Wolfe and hisarmy's triumph in particular.

'With 'Wofft to ~ e b e c

James Wolfe was born at Westerham in Kent in1727. He was of Irish and Yorkshire descent, apotent mixture for a soldier, and his father hadrisen to be a lieutenant-colonel under Marlborough. Only ill health prevented the boyaccompanying him to the Siege of Cartagena in1740; but the next year, young Wolfe became asecond lieutenant of Marines.Being a martyr to seasickness, it was lucky thathe transferred to the 12th Foot. His first battIe


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Channing d rawing showing officers of th e IndependentCompanies dining - or ra ther wining - with friends. Theofficer at left wears his sash, and his lapels buttoned

was Dettingen, by which time he was sixteen andalready an adjutant. His horse was shot under himand the Duke of Cumberland noted his efforts, agood start for a born soldier.

He fought at Culloden and on at least oneoccasion showed himself more ru thless than heneed have been in 'pacifying' the Highlands. Hecared deeply about his duty, tried to live on hispay, and began his endless run of ill health as hebrooded about his profession and his lonelygarrison life. Though he fought in the Netherlandsin 1747, most of his pre-American career wasspent in Scotland, where he never ceased tryingto improve himself, even hiring a mathematicstutor . His temper was explosive and sudden, hisnature warm and impetuous and sometimesarrogant, and his military genius was a mixture ofdash and diligent attention to detail. As manyhave noted, he had much in common withNelson, including the abili ty to inspire loyalty inthose below him. When his hour came at a veryearly age, he was a seasoned veteran who had

across; the tw o facing us have theirs buttoned back.(Courtesy the Henry Franc is du Pont Winte r thur Museum)

trained his men to such a peak of efficiency thateven his least observant superiors noted it.When Wolfe finally left Scotland in 1753, hewas a lieutenant-colonel cursed by 'the stone' andrheumatism. The 20th, currently his regiment, wasto be four years in the south.

He had to endure reading about the bunglingof others in North America until, in 1757, he wasmade quartermaster-general of the force sentagainst Rochefort, the first of his three majoramphibious expeditions. This abortive effort ledto the court martial of its leader, Sir John Mordaunt, who, in modern parlance, was 'past it'.Only two senior officers came out of the feeblyconducted expedition well: our hero, and CaptainRichard Howe, later , as we have seen, the famousadmiral.

At the inquiry in to the fiasco, Wolfe's performance on the witness stand was widely admired.He summed up his colleagues privately to a friend:'There never was people collected together sounfit for the business they were sent upon -


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I Sergeant, Battal ion Company of aRegiment of Foot, 1750S2 Corporal, Bat tal ion Company,45th Foot, 1750S3 Gremldier, 15th Foot (Amherst 's);in America, 1758-67

G A. EMBLETON A


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1 Soldier of th e IndependentCompanies, 17552 Officer, 2nd Connect icu t Regiment,1758

3 Pr iva te , the Virginia Regiment,1755-62 2

G. A. EMBLETON


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1 Private, Battal ion Company,48th Foot, 17552 Ensign with Regimenta l Colour,44 th Foo t, 17553 Captain of over three years 'senior ity , Royal Navy

G. A. EMBLETON c


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1 Ranger , His Majes ty 's IndependentCompanies of American Rangers ,1758

2 Ranger , late 1750S3 Ranger , l a te 1750S

G. A. EMBLETON


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I D r u m m e r , 3 5 th F o ot , late I750S2 S e n i o r Officer, IS t o r R o y a lR e g i m e n t o f Foot, late I750S3 P r i v a t e , I7 th Foot, w i n te r d r es s ,late I750S

G. A. EMBLETON E


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1 Private , 80th Regitnent of LightArmed Foot (Gage 's Light Infantry),1758

2 Private, 55th Foot , 1758J Light Infantryman, 1759

G. A. EMBLETON


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1 Officer , Royal Artillery, 17592 Private, Battal ion Company, 42nd(Highland) Regiment of Foot, 17583 Pr iva te , Ba ttal ion Company, 78thFoot (Fraser 's Highlanders), 1 7 5 7 ~ 3

G. A. EMBLETON G


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1 Major-General James Wolfe, 17592 Grenadier, 60th (Royal American)Regiment of Foot, 17593 Officer, 40th I 'oot, 1758-59

2

3

G. A. EMBLETON


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dilatory, ignorant, irresolute, and some grains of avery unmanly quality and very unsoldierlike orunsailorlike.' He excepted Howe.The King got to hear of Wolfe's efforts and

promoted him colonel. There followed the Louisbourg campaign, already recorded, and we canresume the main story where we left i t, with Wolfethe hero of the hour in London in November 1758.In December, Pitt summoned Wolfe and offeredhim the command of the expedition up the St

Lawrence to take Quebec. He was to be a majorgeneral - local American rank - and he was notquite thirty-two.

For Newcastle, the choice of such a man ongrounds of sheer merit was too much. He rushedto George II to complain, but the veteran ofDettingen admired young Wolfe. When informedthat the fellow was mad, he made his immortalreply: 'Mad is he? Then I hope he will bite someofmy other generals!'So James Wolfe, who had returned to England

to join the 2nd Battalion of the 20th (lately madea separate regiment, the 67th) found himself 'in avery bad condition, both with the gravel andrheumat ism' and , on 12 January 1759, officiallymade a major-general.In America, Amherst had heard he was to be

Commander-in-Chiefon the previous 9November.He had twenty-three under-strength battalionsof regulars and many promises of provincialtroops, who were finally to reach 12,000 in all.

Pitt's plan was once again a four-pronged one.Apart from Amherst's campaign to the north andWolfe's up the St Lawrence, Brigadier Stanwixwas to reinforce Fort Pitt, and Brigadier Prideaux,with Sir William Johnson as his second-incommand, was to take Fort Niagara, then headeastwards down the St Lawrence.

This last campaign was to divide the Canadiansfrom their people in the west and wreck plans toretake Fort Pitt. Prideaux had two Regularregiments, a battalion of Royal Americans andover 3,000 Provincials; and, thanks to Johnson,900 previously neutral Iroquois joined theexpedition.The force reached Niagara and besieged the

fort. Prideaux was killed early in the siege andJohnson, provincial that he was, took over with nocomplaints from the regulars. I t was to him that

the gr.eat prize fell on 25 July; a little-rememberedvictory today, but almost as significant a one asQuebec.

Amherst was a slower mover. In late June, herebuilt Fort William Henry and, in late July,took a deserted Fort Ticonderoga after a stubborndefence by the French rearguard. Then he settleddown to rebuild the fort and build ships to dominate Lake Champlain. The French were now verymuch on the defensive and everything dependedon Wolfe.His three aristocratic brigadiers were Robert

Monckton of Acadia fame; George Murray, abrave, ambitious, envious soldier; and GeorgeTownshend, the malicious, sullen, arrogantnephew of the Duke of Newcastle, but undeniablybrave and clever and, not least, a good artist andcaricaturist. He was three years older than Wolfe.There were two staff officers: the Quartermaster-General, Guy Carleton, later the saviour

of Canada, and Isaac Barre, the AdjutantGeneral, and the son of a Huguenot. The ChiefEngineer was Major Patrick Mackellar, who hadbeen with Braddock, been captured, taken toQuebec, and exchanged complete with a perfectdescription of the city and its defences in his head.

On the naval side, Wolfe could not have beenluckier. Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, aprotege of Anson's, was the finest type of navalofficer. His second-in-command, Rear-AdmiralDurell, was less able, but the number three,Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes, was a fine sailor.Also under Saunders were two men destinedrespectively to fame and immortality: John Jervis,later Lord St Vincent, and James Cook, thehumbly born Yorkshireman later to become thegreatest of all navigators.

The fleet was a fine one; there were three largeships of the line, including Saunders' ninety-gunNeptune, a number of smaller ships of the line, plusfrigates, sloops, fire-ships, bomb-ketches and I 19supply and ordnance ships.Wolfe's army was only slightly less remarkable,

less so because the originally planned 12,000 hadbeen reduced to 8,500 by sickness, desertions andother causes. There sailed from Louisbourg on6 June 1759, an army almost wholly made up ofregulars. There were no cavalry, but three companies of artillery, who could be supported by

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guns from the ships, and six companies ofRangers,who were characterized at first by Wolfe, anardent anti-American from a military point ofview, as the worst soldiers in the universe.His regiments were the 15th, 28th, 35th, 43rd,

47th, 48th and 58th.! There were also Fraser'sbattalion of Highlanders, the 78th,2 whoseofficers were much admired by Wolfe, and the2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal AmericanRegiment.These were the men determined - in the words

of Sergeant Ned Botwood, the soldier-versifier ofthe 47th - to give the French 'hot stuff'.

There were grenadier companies from each ofthe regiments and a small corps of light infantry,and later 300 colonial pioneers were to arrive forthe siege.Wolfe followed Lord Howe's sensible reforms

with some of his own. He might dislike and despiseIndians, but he could order knapsacks to becarried higher and fastened with 'a scrap of webover the shoulder, as the Indians carry theirpacks'. Extra pockets for musket balls and flintswere sewn on, scouts' coats were made freer andthe lace of the cuffs abolished. The grenadiercompanies' mitre caps were retained, but thelight infantry's hats were turned into caps 'withas much black cloth added under his chin' to'keep him warm when he lies down'.Meanwhile, the French had been betrayed bytheir own Government. It was bad enough thatthe Governor-General and Commander-in-Chiefwere at loggerheads, but far worse that Montcalm's messenger to France, Bougainville, couldnot make her rulers see beyond Europe. Hereturned to Canada with about 400 men and something at least - instructions that militarydecisions were to be made by Montcalm. He alsocarried an intercepted letter revealing Pitt's plans,so Montcalm was able to revise his. But, likeeveryone else, he believed that the British couldnot sail up the St Lawrence, considered by Frenchmen a navigational nightmare. For the defence ofthe whole country he could only muster some16,000 men, about 3,000 of them regulars, butwith desertions and leave for farming the totalwas more like I 1,000. In his final encounter atQuebec with Wolfe, both sides were to have about4,500 men.34

By 26 June, Wolfe's Army had been transportedup the St Lawrence and its commander hadlanded on the rIe d'Orleans, four miles fromQuebec. I t had been a magnificent feat ofseamanship, though British sailors did not think it so.'Damn me, ' roared Captain Killick, master of thetransport Goodwill, at a Canadian pilot, 'I'llconvince you tha t an Englishman shall go where aFrenchman dare not show his nose!' then, havingcleared a difficult passage, he claimed: 'Damn meif there aren't a thousand places on the Thamesmore hazardous than this.' The French werestunned.Wolfe could now see Quebec and also the

Beauport Lines stretching eight miles eastwardsfrom the city. Monckton was at once sent to takePoint Levis, downstream from Quebec on thesouthern bank of the river, before the Frenchrealized its importance.On the 28th, the French t ried floating fireships downstream on Saunders' ships, butbungled the job, the fire-ships being set alight toosoon. Saunders then anchored under the lee ofPoint Levis. British artillery was placed two mileswest of it in easy range of the citadel, and, on9 July, Wolfe sent troops east of the Falls ofMontmorenci, which did not lure Montcalm out.On the 27th, the French made another attackwith fire-ships but again they failed, and, fourdays later, it was the turn for British action.

This was Wolfe's misconceived attack on theBeauport Lines, a combined operationwhich failedbecause of faulty reconnaissance. Though theshallows of the Beauport Bank had been found,which prevented ships getting close in, a ledgeshort of the flats had not. So the landings went inat intervals instead of in one major assault. Thegrenadiers in particular suffered heavy casualtiesfrom cannon and 'Small shot like showers of hail'as they tried to climb the slope, until a rainstormsoaked the ammuni tion of both sides. Wolfeordered a withdrawal after his grenadiers andmarines had lost 500 officers and men. SergeantNet Botwood, too, fell in this action. 'Come, eachdeath-dealing dog who dares venture his neck,Come, follow the hero that goes to Quebec', hehad written in his magnificent doggerel poem,but for once the hero had blundered.A lull occurred during which Wolfe tried to


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Models of the f la t- bo tt omed landing barges used tot ransport troops a t Quebec. In the 'manned ' model , no tenaval officer at t he t il le r, and drummer in bows, withlanding-party ofgrenadiers. (NationalMaritime MuseumGreenwich)

more light infantry, the remainder of the RoyaAmericans and the Louisbourg Grenadiers.

The weather was good and i t was a starl it nightbut tha t did not make a river with a six-knot tideand swollen by rains, easy to navigate. Shipopposite Beauport made a feint attack, andMontcalm massed most of his men there to wardit off.

As the boats passed close to the shore on the wayto the landing-place, the story goes that Frenchsentries challenged them with 'Who goes there?One version of the story has it that CaptainDonald McDonald, a Jacobite in his time whohad served in France, answered: 'L a France.' \ .vhich regiment?' he was asked. 'The Queen's'he replied in French. Another sentry challengedhim and he said the boats were the provision shipsand was believed. There was no guard at thelanding-place. I t was 1- o'clock in the morning.

dishearten the Canadians by destroying all nearby settlements, hoping he would cause the militia to desert. Spasmodic gueri lla warfare had beengoing on for some time in a minor, but savage,way, with the Rangers using their scalping knivesas well as the Indians and Canadians until Wolfeobjected, and with the Indians complaining to theFrench that the British were harder to kill than inBraddock's day.Meanwhile, Admiral Saunders had sent severalvessels upstream and troops had landed, severingcommunications between Quebec and Montreal,bu t stalemate followed, punctuated by bombardment of the city. I t seemed impossible to cross theMontmorenci upstream because of its defences,and farther west the Charles River was a barrierto be overcome, even supposing the Montmorenciwere forced.In late August, Wolfe's health finally brokedown and he lay sick, frustrated and depressed in

his camp on the east bank of the Montmorenci.His three brigadiers took over and it was they whosuggested a landing upstream of Quebec. Reconnaissance from the south bank led to the choice byWolfe of a cove called the Anse de Foulon at thefoot of nearly vertical cliffs (they are far less sotoday) which were, however, scaleable. Theresourceful Captain Robert Stobo, whom we firstmet at Fort Necessity, and who had now escapedfrom Quebec, where for a time he had been onparole, agreed with this choice of a landing-place.Even before Wolfe arrived in the St Lawrence, hehad hoped to land above the city, but his illnessseems to have clouded hisjudgement, leading to hissubordinates actually putting up the plan.

On 12 September, British Intelligence reportedthat provision ships would try and reach Quebecon the next ebb tide, just the cover needed to helpthe new plan to success. At 1 a.m. on 13 Septembertwo lanterns were swung to the maintop ofH.M.S. Sutherland, the signal for Wolfe and 1,700men aboard thirty landing-craft to start theirhazardous adventure. In the first six boats wereWilliam Howe's light infantry, with CaptainDelaune of the 47th beside Howe in the leadingboat. Wolfe was up with the leaders, along withthe 28th, 43rd, 47th and 58th Regiments, also theHighlanders and Royal Americans. I ,goo were tofollow later, including the 15th, 78th and 35th,

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An iDlpression of Quebec after British bODlbardDlent.(Public Archives of Canada)

The cliffs rose 175 feet above the invaders, someof whom scrambled up as best they could, othersusing the only path. In the dark it was a trickyclimb, but the first men up, including Howe,Delaune and some light infantry, soon overpowered the post at the top, which was slacklyheld, and let out a hurrah. Wolfe was at his best inthe complicated situation which demanded organization and inspiration of a high order; andbefore sun-up, the whole of his 4,500 strong forcewas on the Heights of Abraham and moving onto the plain. Captain Chads, who had led theconvoy to its destination, having been selected asthe best boat navigator in the fleet, could relax.I t was up to the army now.

There was a moment when guns to the westmade Wolfe believe that Bougainville's forces,eight miles in upstream, were approaching, andhe ordered that troops not yet disembarked shouldremain in their boats. Fortunately, Barre haddisobeyed him.

Wolfe's position was dangerous. Though Montcalm's l ine of battle was to be numerically thesame, the French had Canadians and Indians, aswell as Bougainville as a possible threat; but sobrilliant had the operation been that Wolfe hadall the time he needed to assemble his battle-line,first with his troops with their backs to the river,then, after a personal reconnaissance, deployedon open ground. I t was an ideal posit ion for hisarmy, which was entirely made up of regularsdri lled to his own standard and ready to use theirmassive fire-power to maximum effect. Only his

flanks were open to attack and, before Montcalmarrived, Canadians and Indians were causingsome nuisance value on the left flank.

Showers were falling as Wolfe's magnificentthin red line, standing two deep, its files a yardapart with more than forty yards between eachbattalion, took up its battle order. From right toleft of the line were the Louisbourg Grenadierswith Wolfe at their head, the 28th, 43rd, 78th,58th and 15th Foot. The Royal Americans andthe 48th were in reserve, while Howe's menguarded the flanks and the rear. The Highlanderslooked splendidly conspicuous in the centre intheir kilts.

When the news was brought to Montcalm, hedecided that only a small par ty had landed, but,somewhat alarmed, he galloped off on his blackcharger to be stunned by what he saw; a Britisharmy, drawn up for battle and motionless.I t was 6.30 a.m.

Without surprise on its side, Wolfe's army mightwell have been defeated, but as it was the surprisewas complete. De Vergor, who had commandedth e post at the top of the cliffs, had an appallingprevious record, made worse that night becausehe had allowed most of his men to go home for theharvest. On such small things can the fate ofcontinents depend.

)1Watercolour of JaDles Wolfe p ai nt ed by George Townshend in 1759. (McCord MuseUnt, Canada)


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Fine exaDlple of a conteDlporary officer's uniforJll - thatof Captain ThoJl la s PluDlbe of the Royal LancashireMilitia, c. 1760. Coat, waistcoat and breeches are red, theforJl le r two i teJ lls fu l ly and the lat ter partly lined withblue. The c ol la r i s lined wi th b lu e velvet, th e lace is allgold and the buttons coppel'-giIt. Lapels c an be but to nedback and the coat closed with cloth-covered buttons on ared fly. Al l edges a re 'r aw '. The unlined white linengaiters have twenty-n ine horn bu ttons ; they are cut tot he s hape o f t he le g and s ti tc he d up the back, wi th i ns etsections over the foot, and linen t apes undernea th .(Lancashire MuseUJll, G. A. Embleton)

Not until 9.30 were the two battle-lines finallydrawn up, the French having the regiments ofBeam and La Sarre on the right, the troops ofGuyenne and Languedoc on the left.The bat tle began at 10 a .m. Montcalm has

been criticized for not waiting for Bougainvilleand his men (probably rightly) but he wanted todislodge the British before they were finallyestablished. He did not realize that they alreadywere. As for Wolfe, he had to force an action and,fortunately, action came on his terms.

Montcalm thought that the British were alreadyentrenched, but they were merely down on theground to avoid the now very troublesome firefrom Canadians and Indians on the flanks, whowere being dealt with by the British skirmishers.But this was a mere sideshow. Now the French,fired on by artillery dragged up the cliffs, began toadvance and the redcoats rose up to await them.The French came on at a run, which at once

broke their lines, then fired too soon, the Canadians among them flinging themselves to theground to reload. They decided to retreat rather

than face a British volley with its followinbayonet charge, but the French regulars continued to advance as the British stood motionlesseach redcoat with his Brown Bess at the ready. Thorders had been given: 'Handle cartridge'Prime', 'Load' , 'Draw ramrod', 'Return ramrods', 'Make ready', 'Present' . Now only 'Givfire' remained.

The order came when the French were fortyards away, and the volley which followed, sSir John Fortescue wrote, was the most perfecever fired on a battlefield. In the centre of thBritish line it was like a single shot, only less so othe right and left, and it won Canada.

There was another volley, and the smoke rosto reveal the ruin of an army. Then came thorder to charge and a great cheer went up. ThBritish surged forward with bayonets and claymores as Montcalm's men fled. Wolfe, alreadinjured in the wrist, was now struck in the groiand the chest, as he led the Louisbourg Grenadierand the 35th forward, but his work - the climaof years of preparation and training - was done

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He. was laid down, refusing a surgeon because' It is needless; it is al l over with me.' 'They run,'cried someone. 'Who runs?' asked the dying manurgently. 'The enemy run. Egad, they give wayeverywhere, ' was the reply. Wolfe gave his finalorders to cut off the fugitives, then, smiling, said:' . ow, God be praised, I will die in peace.' Amoment later, as Parkman wrote, 'his gallantsoul had fled'.The French retreat was a rout from the first, so

'horrid' and 'abominable' in the words of athat Townshend, the new commander,

iled to bottle up the enemy along the BeauportMany escaped towards Montreal andonly survived because the town was so near.

Too late, Bougainville appeared to help, summedup the situation, and retreated westwards.

Gabriel Chris tie , captain a nd ma jo r i n the 48 th Foot from1754 to 1762, was at Ticonderoga in 1759. He wears ascarlet regimental coat , f aced buff; a buff waistcoat , andgold lace and buttons. His insignia o f r an k is a shoulderknot of two paral lel rows of lace forming a shoulder-strapending in a bow wi th a f la ttened knot , with a loop and tai lhangi ng down t he arm. (Courtesy t he Cu ra to r, Cha te aude Ramezay)

Townshend, Wolfe's bitterest cnt Ic , could notcope with a situation which needed improvisationof a high order, always Wolfe's strong point.Montcalm, too, had been mortally wounded, andTownshend contented himself with besiegingQuebec. Five hundred French had died and 350been taken prisoner, while the British had lost9 officers and 49 men, with nearly 600 wounded.Montcalm died on the 14th and the city capitulated on the 18th. Bougainvil le was now on hisway back to Quebec with better troops than hadfought there, but it was too late. The capital ofNew France and the birthplace of Canada was inBritish hands.

'IheYOll if .J?ance

IfQuebec had fallen, Canada had yet finally to bewon. Amherst heard about the victory while stillat Crown Point. His ponderous advance was nothelped by disease and desertions, but the suffererswere Brigadier Murray's garrison of 7,500 menleft in Quebec when the fleet had had to sailaway for the winter because of the St Lawrenceice. The redcoats endured bi tte r months whichleft more than half of them unfit for duty.In April 1760, the new French commander, De

Levis, t ried to r-:capture Quebec before the icebroke and the avy could return. A second, verysevere battle was fought on the Plains ofAbraham,which Murray did not lose for he was able toretreat safely into the cifadel, wnile the French,being without siege guns, could do nothing tofollow up their advantage. The defences werestrengthened, officers working with their men to


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The Death oJ Wolfe by Edward Penny, c. 1764. In anearlier, more realistic version of t hi s p ai nt in g Pennyshowed the battle-line in th e d is ta n ce , h av ing advancedfrom t h e s cene of Wolfe's fall. H e took grea t t roub le t o

paint th e figures accurately, however, and t he c os tumeare worth careful s tudy. He was advised by an eyewitnesVolunteer H enderson o f th e Lou is bo ur g G re na di er(Cou rt esy The Ashmol ean Museum, Oxford)

The Death oJ WolJe by Benjamin West,c. 1770. West was more concerned withdramat ic effect than his tor ica l accuracy,and m an y o f th e people depicted were noeven in Arner ic a, l et alone at Wolfe's s idt he re i s a strong suggestion that places ith i s prest igious scene were obta inablefrom the art is t for a financial consideration! Several men who wer e definitelywith Wolfe at th e e nd are not shown.Consider ing Wolfe 's lively dislike ofI nd ian s, t h e i nc lu s ion of one here is rnounconvincing. The costume is a JDixtureof 1750S and 1770S s tyles. Wolfe ' s c lotheswere sketched by a staff officer. TheRanger co st ume was suppo sed ly l en t f ocopying by Roger s h imse lf , a nd , t oge th ewi th t he g ren ad ie r un if orm on t h e r igh t,d i sp lays severa l interest ing features.(Courtesy the National Gallery of CanadaOttawa)

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place 150 guns on the walls; then, on 9 May, thefleet arrived, De Levis was in full retreat andQuebec was saved.

Amherst heard the news from the north and atlast, in the summer, he moved. By 24 August,Murray had reached a point only nine leaguesfrom Montreal while Brigadier Haviland wasclosing in on the city via the Richelieu River.Amherst by now was leading eight understrength battalions of 6,000 regulars, plus 500provincials, down the St Lawrence, and, by6 September , the three armies were besieging thecity, 17,000 men against Vaudreuil's 2,500regulars. Canada's Indians had seen that it wastime to

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