Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec
According to the plan of operations for 1759, General Wolfe, whose bravery at Louisburg had gained him great favor, was to ascend the St. Lawrence with a fleet of war-vessels and an army of eight thousand men, as soon as the river should be clear of ice, and lay siege to Quebec. General Amherst was to advance by the often-attempted road of Lake George, with the purpose of reducing Ticonderoga and Crown Point, then to cross Lake Champlain and push on to co-operate with Wolfe. A third expedition, under General Prideaux, assisted by Sir William Johnson and his Indians, was to attack Fort Niagara. Amherst's expedition consisted of nearly twelve thousand men. The forts threatened had no hope of a successful resistance against such a force, and they were deserted as the English army advanced, their garrisons retiring towards Montreal. Instead of pursuing. Amherst stopped to repair the works at Ticonderoga and build a new fort at Crown Point, useless measures just then, and causing a delay which deprived Wolfe of very desirable assistance. The expeditions of Prideaux and Wolfe proved more valuable in their results. We select a description of them from Irving's "Life of Washington," in which the exploits of Wolfe are described with all the clerness and rhetorical beauty of this excellent historian.
GENERAL PRIDEAUX embarked at Oswego on the 1st of July, with a large body of troops, regulars and provincials, -- the latter partly from New York. He was accompanied by Sir William Johnson and his Indian braves of the Mohawk. Landing at an inlet of Lake Ontario, within a few miles of Fort Niagara, he advanced, without being opposed, and proceeded to invest it. The garrison, six hundred strong, made a resolute defence. The siege was carried on by regular approaches, but pressed with vigor. On the 20th of July, Prideaux, in visiting his trenches, was killed by the bursting of a cohorn. Informed by express of this misfortune, General Amherst detached from the main army Brigadier-General Gage, the officer who had led Braddock's advance, to take the command.
In the mean time the siege had been conducted by Sir William Johnson with courage and sagacity. He was destitute of military science, but had a natural aptness for warfare, especially for the rough kind carried on in the wilderness. Being informed by his scouts that twelve hundred regular troops, drawn from Detroit, Venango, and Presque Isle, and led by D'Aubry, with a number of Indian auxiliaries, were hastening to the rescue, he detached a force of grenadiers and light infantry, with some of his Mohawk warriors, to intercept them. They came in sight of each other on the road between Niagara Falls and the fort, within the thundering sound of the one and the distant view of the other. Johnson's "braves" advanced to have a parley with the hostile red-skins. The latter received them with a war-whoop, and Frenchman and savage made an impetuous onset. Johnson's regulars and provincials stood their ground firmly, while his red warriors fell on the flanks of the enemy. After a sharp conflict, the French were broken, routed, and pursued through the woods, with great carnage. Among the prisoners taken were seventeen officers. The next day Sir William Johnson sent a trumpet, summoning the garrison to surrender, to spare the effusion of blood and prevent outrages by the Indians. They had no alternative; were permitted to march out with the honors of war, and were protected by Sir William from his Indian allies.
This victory secured the key of communication between Lakes Ontario and Erie, and to the vast interior region surrounding. But more important events were to follow.
Wolfe, with his eight thousand men, ascended the St. Lawrence in the fleet, in the month of June. With him came Brigadiers Monckton, Townshend, and Murray, youthful and brave like himself, and, like himself, already schooled in arms. Monckton, it will be recollected, had signalized himself, when a colonel, in the expedition in 1755 in which the French were driven from Nova Scotia. The grenadiers of the army were commanded by Colonel Guy Carleton, and part of the light infantry by Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe, both destined to celebrity in after-years, in the annals of the American Revolution. Colonel Howe was a brother of the gallant Lord Howe, whose fall in the preceding year was so generally lamented. Among the officers of the fleet was Jervis, the future admiral, and ultimately Earl St. Vincent, and the master of one of the ships was James Cook, afterwards renowned as a discoverer.
About the end of June, the troops debarked on the large, populous, and well-cultivated Isle of Orleans, a little below Quebec, and encamped in its fertile fields. Quebec, the citadel of Canada, was strong by nature. It was built round the point of a rocky promontory, and flanked by precipices. The crystal current of the St. Lawrence swept by it on the right, and the river St. Charles flowed along on the left before mingling with that mighty stream. The place was tolerably fortified, but art had not yet rendered it, as at the present day, impregnable.
Montcalm commanded the post. His troops were more numerous than the assailants; but the greater part were Canadians, many of them inhabitants of Quebec; and he had a host of savages. His forces were drawn out along the northern shore below the city, from the river St. Charles to the Falls of Montmorency, and their position was secured by deep intrenchments.