The Siege and Capture of Louisburg: Quebec and Montcalm

At the beginning of the siege, Prideaux was killed by the bursting of one of his own cannons, and the command devolved on Sir William Johnson. He disposed his force so as to meet the approaching army for the relief of the fort. They came in collision on the 24th of July. A severe fight occurred, when the French and their allies were defeated and dispersed, leaving their killed and wounded lying in the forest. On the following day the fort and its dependencies, with the garrison, were surrendered to the English, and British dominion was immediately extended along Lake Erie to Presque Isle, now Erie. The connecting link between Canada and Louisiana was now broken, never to be restored.

Sir William was so encumbered with his prisoners, and being unable to procure a sufficient number of boats for transportation, he could not proceed to Montreal, according to the original plan, to co-operate with Amherst, so he garrisoned Fort Niagara and returned with the remainder of the troops to Oswego, and thence to Albany. These events drew De Levi, Montcalm's second in command, from Quebec, with a body of troops to prevent the Americans descending the St. Lawrence. For awhile he watched the passes at the rapids below Ogdensburg, when he returned to Quebec.

The great event of the campaign was impending while those just described were occurring. The fleet of Admiral Saunders (whose lieutenant was Admiral Holmes), consisting of twenty-two line-of-battle ships and as many frigates and smaller vessels, and bearing eight thousand troops under General Wolfe, ascended the St. Lawrence as soon as the ice had left that stream, and anchored off the beautiful island of Orleans, a few miles below Quebec, and in full view of the city. Upon that island the troops landed on the 27th of June. Among the subordinate naval officers was James Cook, who afterward circumnavigated the globe and discovered the Sandwich Islands. Among the commanders of land troops were General Robert Monckton, afterward governor of New York; the impetuous Col. Murray; General George Townshend, who soon became a peer of the realm; Colonel Guy Carleton, in command of grenadiers, and Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe, a leader of light infantry, both of whom were conspicuous in the royal service in our war for independence.

Quebec was partly on a high rocky promontory at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers, and upon a plain on the borders of the latter. The upper town was surrounded by a strong wall with five gates. Two of these opened out upon an elevated plateau, on the southwestern side, called the Plains of Abraham, whose border on the St. Lawrence is marked by steep declivities. The shores of that river were lined with batteries above and below the city, and the town was strongly garrisoned. Along the St. Lawrence between Quebec and the Montmorenci River, a distance of some miles, lay Montcalm, with a force of French Canadians and Indians, in an intrenched camp, a larger portion of the former having been impressed into the service.

Wolfe prepared for a siege with amazing skill and vigor. On his left lay his proud fleet at anchor, and the beautiful island was dotted with the white tents of his army. During the day after his arrival, clouds gathered in ominous blackness. The evening was dark and tempestuous, lighted only, until about midnight, by flashes of lightning. Suddenly a lurid glare shot across the billows as a fleet of fire-ships went blazing down the river in wrath toward the English shipping. The skillful British seamen caught each vessel as it came, and turned it away from the English ships. Their flames expired in darkness far below Orleans, as they drifted on the current.

The English, under General Monckton, now proceeded to take possession of Point Levi, opposite Quebec. There, on the 30th of June, they began to erect batteries within a mile of the town. From there red-hot cannon balls and blazing bomb-shells were hurled upon the city. These set fire to fifty houses in one night in the lower town, but the citadel, crowning Cape Diamond, the highest part of the promontory, was beyond the reach of their missiles, and the real military strength of Quebec remained untouched. It was upon this natural strength of the position that Montcalm relied for final victory, more than upon his exhausted troops and unwilling conscripts. Wolfe knew this, and resolved to attack the French commander in his fortified camp, and for that purpose he first landed a strong force, under Generals Murray and Townshend, below the Montmorenci, on the 10th of July, and formed an intrenched camp there. But when he looked for a place to cross that stream, he found the only fordable spot three miles from its mouth, and the opposite bank, steep and wooded, strongly fortified by the vigilant Montcalm.