The Battle of Quebec

The Battle of Quebec, fought on September 13, 1759, during the Seven Years’ War, was a pivotal engagement between British and French forces. Taking place on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City, the battle saw British General James Wolfe decisively defeat French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, leading to the British conquest of New France. This victory played a crucial role in shaping the future of Canada, marking the beginning of British dominance in North America. Both Wolfe and Montcalm died from wounds sustained in the battle, symbolizing the high cost of this significant conflict.

Quebec: Battle of North America

Introduction

In 1754, an ambitious but inexperienced 23-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia was dispatched with a small contingent of soldiers to a disputed area of western Pennsylvania. There, he was to locate French troops who were constructing a fort and order them to depart from what the British considered to be their territory. When his demands were ignored, the officer attempted a sneak attack that failed miserably, and he was forced to withdraw. This incident would be insignificant, but for two facts. First, the young lieutenant colonel’s name was George Washington; second, the episode initiated a chain of events that helped spark a war between England and France.

Backdrop to the Battle

• (1) By the mid-1700s, England’s American colonies were firmly entrenched along the Atlantic seaboard with a population of approximately 1.5 million. But colonial expansion was hampered by the French conviction that the land west of the Appalachians was theirs.
• (2) Although the French in North America numbered just 70,000, they laid claim to a vast diagonal band of territory stretching from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes to New Orleans. Daring voyageurs traveled westward through the Great Lakes and explored south along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, establishing a series of trading posts and forts along the way and blocking westward movement by the English.
• (3) After a series of escalating border incidents, in 1756, war broke out between France and England. Among the British objectives was to seize control of the strategic St. Lawrence waterway. Situated on a series of high bluffs overlooking this river was the capital of New France, Quebec. If Quebec could be taken, France’s main route of communication and trade would be severed, and the British could lay claim to North America.

The Opponents

• (1) James Wolfe was from a military family, and from a young age, he dreamed of achieving distinction in the army. By virtue of both his abilities and his aggressive self-promotion, Wolfe ascended through the officers’ ranks of the British army with unusual rapidity—by the time he gained command of the attack on Quebec as a major general, he was only 32.
• (2) Wolfe’s opponent at Quebec was the Marquis de Montcalm, a French nobleman also descended from a long line of military officers. Like Wolfe, he was an experienced soldier who was demonstrably brave on the battlefield.
• (3) Although possessing a charm and sophistication that Wolfe lacked, Montcalm had some of the era’s prejudice against those he regarded as social inferiors. Thus, when assigned to command in North America, he openly expressed his disdain for both the Indians, who were allies of the French, and the local French Canadians.
• (4) The Canadian-born governor-general of New France had an especially thorny relationship with Montcalm and disagreed radically with him over how the war should be fought. The governor-general advocated a kind of guerilla warfare using Indians and local soldiers that Montcalm found morally troubling.

The Campaign

• (1) Quebec is situated on a high, rocky promontory on the north side of the St. Lawrence waterway. It is protected to the east and south by the St. Lawrence and to the north by the St. Charles River. The walled Upper City stands high above the river on a plateau; the smaller Lower City is below, by the river. On the plateau west of the city spread the flat plains of Abraham. Along the edges of this plateau are steep cliffs dropping 200 feet to the St. Lawrence.
• (2) The French believed that their cannons could prevent British ships from proceeding up the St. Lawrence River. To prevent British troops being landed further down the St. Lawrence and marching up to Quebec, Montcalm had an elaborate series of fortifications and strong points constructed along the northern escarpment, ending near a 300-foot cliff over which the Montmorency Falls plummeted. Montcalm nevertheless judged that this zone of the St. Lawrence was the most likely area for a British landing; thus, he stationed the majority of his field army here.
• (3) To capture this stronghold, Wolfe had about 8,500 men. What it might have lacked in numbers, his force made up in quality: 10 excellent battalions of British regular line infantry supplemented by some grenadiers, a contingent of artillerymen from the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and 6 companies of American rangers.
• (4) Wolfe’s main subordinates were all young, eager, and competent. He also enjoyed the support of the sizable fleet of Royal Navy warships and crews that transported his army to its target. This fleet offered an important resource in terms of spare cannons, gunpowder, supplies, manpower, boats, and experience with amphibious landings.
• (5) On the other side, Montcalm had perhaps 13,000 to 15,000 troops of all kinds, but the core of his forces was his 8 battalions of regular French infantry, although these were badly under strength and probably totaled no more than 5,000 men.
• (6) The British arrived in the region of Quebec in June 1759, and Wolfe was determined to launch an assault at the far end of the French fortified line on the northern bank, near the Montmorency Falls. The British attacked in the late afternoon of July 31.
• (7) The British grenadiers managed to capture one French redoubt but could not force their way into the main French lines. Another group coming along the shore bogged down, and the assault was called off. In addition to failing to achieve its objectives, the attempt cost Wolfe more than 400 prime soldiers.
• (8) But the British had discovered that they could run ships upriver past the guns of Quebec, and Wolfe had begun a two-pronged strategy designed to wear down the defenders’ will to resist: a combination of direct bombardment and a campaign of laying waste to the surrounding countryside.
• (9) Employing heavy cannon and mortars, Wolfe pounded the city without mercy. The shelling sparked destructive fires, and large sections of Quebec were effectively flattened. Out in the countryside, an estimated 1,400 farms were burned, and the region around Quebec was transformed into a smoking wasteland.

The Battle

• (1) Wolfe chose a direct assault aimed at the cliffs west of the city. Montcalm had established a series of pickets to keep watch along these cliffs, but most people believed that they were too steep to offer a reasonable route of attack. Wolfe had noted one spot where a steep trail ran to the top. The trail was blocked by a barrier, there was a strong guard post at the top, and a nearby battery covered the landing site at the base of the trail, but Wolfe decided that this spot constituted a weak point in the defenses. He decided on a nighttime landing from boats that would seize control of this trail.
• (2) The plan was for the assault force to start upriver and drift down silently on the current, land at the base of the trail, slaughter the guards, fight their way to the top, and overwhelm the guard post there. The main army could then follow and strike Quebec from the land side. Several other diversionary attacks would be made the same night.
• (3) The British now enjoyed a streak of luck that allowed the attack force to seize control of the vital trail.
  (a) Montcalm had stationed a French officer with a powerful flying column of elite troops opposite the British ships from which the attack was to emanate. The officer was to keep a close watch on the ships and move to intercept and destroy any boats launched from them. On the critical night, he failed to notice the heavily laden boats gliding downstream on the current.
  (b) The officer in command of the detachment guarding the trail, Captain Vergor, had been told to expect a convoy of French boats that night bringing supplies to the city. When the British boats materialized out of the darkness, the French sentries naturally took them for the supply convoy.
  (c) Some of the English boats, carried on a strongly ebbing tide, overshot the landing zone by several hundred meters and came ashore at the base of the cliffs where there was no apparent route. The light company under the command of Colonel Howe threw themselves at the cliff face and scrambled directly upward. Coming from this totally unexpected direction, they took the sentries guarding the top of the trail totally by surprise.
• (4) Attacked on two sides by Howe’s men coming along the cliff and by other British troops storming up the trail, Captain Vergor’s men were overwhelmed or fled. Wolfe and the rest of the British army were now able to land and climb up the trail.
• (5) Dawn found Wolfe and the British army of around 3,000 men drawn up in a line of battle facing the city. The French opened fire at relatively long range, and following their usual practice, individual soldiers shot and reloaded as fast as they were able. The British, by contrast, held back until the French were 40 to 60 yards away, then fired by platoons.
• (6) The battalions at the center of the British line held their fire even longer, then unleashed a single, more coordinated volley. Wolfe had ordered his men to load their muskets with an extra ball, and observers recorded that the effect of this one volley was devastating to the French ranks. In just a few minutes, it was all over. The city surrendered five days later, on September 18.

Outcomes

• (1) The fall of Quebec was a decisive moment. The battle directly contributed to the birth of the United States because the British crown levied new, heavier taxes on the American colonies to pay
  for it: a source of considerable resentment and one of the principal causes of the American Revolution.
• (2) On the French side, the war weakened the monarchy and drained the treasury, provoking harsh new taxes that contributed directly to the French Revolution.
• (3) In the long term, the removal of French power along the Mississippi River and other regions in the Midwest allowed the newly independent American colonies to expand beyond the Appalachians and claim the rest of what would become the continental United States.

Conclusion

The Battle of Quebec stands as a pivotal moment in the history of North America, marking the turning point in the struggle between the British and French empires for control of the continent. The British victory on the Plains of Abraham not only led to the fall of Quebec City but also set in motion the eventual dominance of British rule in Canada. The deaths of both commanding generals, James Wolfe and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, underscore the high stakes and profound impact of this confrontation. Ultimately, the battle reshaped the geopolitical landscape, contributing to the decline of French influence in North America and paving the way for the emergence of a British-led Canada.

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