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GENERAL WOLFE
From the painting by Shaak in the National Portrait Gallery
GENERAL WOLFE
General Wolfe
BY
EDWARD SALMON
AUTHOR OF " THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE," ETC.
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED
42 ADELAIDE STREET WEST, TORONTO
F
50(^5
W853
MAKERS OF
NATIONAL HISTORY
It is intended in this series to commemorate im-
portant men whose share in the making of national
history seems to need a more complete record than
it has yet received. In some cases the character,
the achievements, or the life, have been neglected
till modern times ; in most cases new evidence has
recently become available ; in all cases a new estimate
according to the historical standards of to-day seems
to be called for. The aim of the series is to illustrate
the importance of individual contributions to national
development, in action and in thought. The foreign
relations of the country are illustrated, the ecclesias-
tical position, the evolution of party, the meaning
and influence of causes which never succeeded. No
narrow limits are assigned. It is hoped to throw
light upon English history at many different periods,
and perhaps to extend the view to peoples other than
our own. It will be attempted to show the value in
national life of the many different interests that have
employed the service of man.
The authors of the lives are writers who have a
special knowledge of the periods to which the subjects
of their memoirs belonged.
W. H. HUTTON.
S. John's College, Oxford.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
On the 13th September will be commemorated the
150th anniversary of the death of General James
Wolfe on the heights of Abraham. Of all the lives
indelibly associated with the history of the Empire,
certainly of the heroes of the eighteenth century, none
has perhaps been so little " done " as that of the
Conqueror of Quebec. The romance of Quebec has
been described till it is almost a nursery tale, but
among biographies of Wolfe there are only two that
claim special attention — one, Wright's, which
appeared more than sixty years ago and is necessarily
out-of-date ; the other, Mr. A. G. Bradley's, which
appeared fourteen years ago and consequently could
not include valuable material made more readily
available in the interval. Francis Parkman, most
indefatigable of searchers after hidden records, in
his Montcalm and Wolfe added much to Wright on
the Canadian side, and in his turn has been supple-
mented by Mr. A. G. Doughty, the Canadian archivist
who has given us six big volumes, The Siege of Quebec.
The Military Life of the First Marquess Townshend,
by Col. C. F. V. Townshend, alone would seem
to justify a new " life " of Wolfe ; it revived old
controversy and misled many. Miss Kimball's
Correspondence of Pitt with Colonial Governors and
Naval and Military Commissioners in America has
placed many of the treasures of the Archives at the
command of the student who cannot go to them for
himself. But it is extraordinary that from the
PREFACE
Gentleman's Magazine of 1759 down to Miss Kimball
and Mr. Doughty, frequently though Wolfe's mar-
vellous despatch of the 2nd September to Pitt has
been published apparently at length, it has never been
given in England without some qualification. In
Canada it was given, I believe, in extenso, by Brymner
in his Report on the Canadian Archives for 1898.
Miss Kimball omits two passages — for no obvious
reason — and three words, the absence of which
makes a material difference. To the best of my
opportunities I have gone to the originals and the
despatch is now printed in an appendix, exactly
as Wolfe sent it off. Among more general histories,
the most important, from the point of view of Wolfe's
work, is Mr. Julian Corbett's masterly study of
" amphibious " strategy — combined naval and mili-
tary operations — in England in the Seven Years'
War. Mr. Corbett, in his study of the Stopford-
Sackville MSS., seized upon a very interesting and
material fact in the record of Wolfe which no bio-
graphy has contained hitherto. It has sometimes
struck me as remarkable that Macaulay did not
find in Wolfe's life the motif of at least one glowing
passage in his Essays, if not of an Essay itself.
He only mentions him twice, so far as I am aware.
Disraeli did not even mention him in that striking
speech of the stranger in the forest inn to Coningsby
which ends, " The history of Heroes is the history of
youth." Wolfe was more a case in point than either
Nelson or Clive.
I cannot return thanks individually to the many
friends who have acted for me almost as so many
skirmishers in attacking the subject. From those
near at home to others who could have no personal
PREFACE XI
interest in myself, I have received invaluable assis-
tance. My good friend, Mr. J. R. Boose, the Librarian
of the Royal Colonial Institute, devoted much precious
time to assisting me in clearing up points of difficulty ;
to Messrs. Pearson & Co., the dealers in Rare Books
and Manuscripts, I owe a special debt for their
generosity in permitting me to make use of the
hitherto unpublished letters of Wolfe to Miss Lacey.
Most of Wolfe's letters are in the possession of the
descendants of his friend Warde, who still occupy
Squerryes Court ; Wright made use of them, but did
not wholly exhaust their interest as Mr. Beckles
Willson, the Canadian writer who to-day lives in the
house which the Wolfes occupied at Westerham, has
shown. To handle the two Lacey letters was a rare
privilege.
I have pointed out some mistakes in the various
accounts of Wolfe, and can only hope I have avoided
pitfalls myself. My object has been to tell Wolfe's
life story, to set that story in the framework of
national history, and to place facts beyond dispute so
far as my individual limitations permit. Mistakes in
regard to the events of Wolfe's career seem inevitable.
Even the inscription on Schaak's picture of him in the
National Portrait Gallery is wrong I It says he fought
at Fontenoy — a mistake which J. R. Green in his
History of the English People (vol. iv, p. 188) endorses.
Green, in the one page he devotes to the conquest of
Canada, has two misapprehension? and three distinct
errors in his references to Wolfe. That such things
can be, makes one wonder sometimes whether Truth
is the sovereign passion of the historian, as Disraeli
said it was of mankind.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. BIRTH, SCHOOL, AND FIRST COMMISSION . 1
II. WOLFE IN FLANDERS . . . 12
III. FALKIRK, CULLODEN, AND LAFFELDT . 25
IV. WOLFE, THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE, AND SOME
REFLECTIONS . . . .42
V. IRELAND, PARIS, AND THE SOUTH OF
ENGLAND . . . . .59
VI. BEGINNING OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 71
VII. THE FAILURES OF 1757 . . .90
VIII. THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOURG . . 106
IX. PREPARING FOR THE ST. LAWRENCE . 127
X. FROM CHAMPLAIN TO MONTCALM . 145
XI. BEFORE QUEBEC . . . .157
XII. THE MONTMORENCY REVERSE . 178
'xin) THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM . . .196
XIV. WOLFE'S ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHARACTER 221
APPENDIX I . . . . . 233
APPENDIX II . . . 241
APPENDIX III .... 243
BIBLIOGRAPHY .... 244
INDEX ..... 245
map . . between pp. 160 & 161
xiii
GENERAL WOLFE
GENERAL WOLFE
CHAPTER I
BIRTH, SCHOOL, AND FIRST COMMISSION
No surer proof of a man's greatness is needed than The Claim
the rival claims of localities to the distinction of his of York-
birthplace. In the case of James Wolfe the city of
York and the town of Westerham, separated as they
are by two-thirds of the length of England, have been
unequal contestants for the reflected glory. How
York ever came to imagine that it had any more than
the remotest connection with an event which was to
mean so much to British Imperial history, it is
impossible to say. The tradition was long since
disposed of. Yet last year, when Quebec was
celebrating not merely the exploits of Cartier and
Champlain and Frontenac, but of Montcalm and
Wolfe, York reasserted its claim and gave illustrated
accounts of the house, now an inn, where Wolfe was
born.1 General Wolfe's mother was a Yorkshire lady,
a daughter of Edward Thompson of Marsden, and at
the date of Wolfe's birth, his grandfather apparently
was living in the house in York which some men of
that city to this day point out as Wolfe's birthplace.
Fortunately the wisdom of Solomon has not to be Westerham
invoked to determine the truth. The evidence as to
Westerham is complete. 2 James Wolfe was born in
1 The Yorkshire Herald, 18th July, 1908.
2 Only recently it was stated that Wolfe was born at
Ferneaux Abbey, Kildare, so that Ireland as well as Yorkshire
claims him.
1
3 (221?)
2 GENERAL WOLFE
that picturesque, even to-day rather-out-of-the-world,
Kentish village, on the 22nd December, 1726, Old
Style, or the 2nd January, 1727, New Style. As
tradition has endeavoured to give him two birthplaces,
so his early biographers were prepared to give him
two birthdays. The Rev. G. R. Gleig fixed the date
at the 6th November, 1726. Nor can the mistake be
attributed to the confusion wrought by the New
Style of reckoning time, introduced in 1752. James
Wolfe was baptized in the parish church, according to
the register, on the 11th January, 1726, which appears
to be nearly twelve months before he was born, until
we remember that the new calendar dispensed with
eleven days and made the year begin with the 1st
January instead of three months later. The date of
baptism therefore in the New Style, would be 22nd
January, 1727.
On yet another point biographers are not quite
agreed. He was not born, as some have stated, in
the old Tudor house, which his father had taken at
Westerham, then called Spiers, now familiar as Quebec
House. He was born at the Vicarage. His earliest
biographer, Robert Wright, who published the fullest
account of Wolfe's antecedents and career that we
have, said that Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs. Wolfe
were living at the Vicarage, which they had rented
from the Rev. George Lewis. x Mr. Beckles Willson
tells a circumstantial story which shows that the birth
at the Vicarage was more or less inadvertent. Colonel
Wolfe was away on duty with his regiment and Mrs.
Wolfe living alone for the moment at Westerham had
made an afternoon call. She was taken ill, the
good Vicar and his wife insisted that she should
» Wright : Life of Wolfe, p. 6.
FATHER AND SON 3
remain,1 and the Vicarage in consequence enjoyed
the distinction of hearing the first sound uttered
by lips whose words of command in the days to come
were to carry with them the fate of peoples.
James Wolfe came of venturesome stock. His Wolfe '«
genealogical record is unfortunately incomplete. His ancestr7«
great-grandfather — who is variously described as
George and Edward — was the descendant of the
Woulfes who settled in the south-west of Ireland at
the end of the sixteenth century. In 1650 the
Woulfes roused, or assisted to rouse, the citizens of
Limerick to oppose the Duke of Ormond when he
wished to enter in order to defend the city against
Cromwell's forces. One of the Woulfes was a Francis-
can friar, the other an army captain. Both were
proscribed, but whilst the friar was executed, the
captain escaped to the North of England, dropped the
" u " from his name, became a good Protestant, and
married. Of his son we know nothing, but his
grandson — the relationship has never been called in
question — was Edward Wolfe the father of the hero
of Quebec. Edward Wolfe was gazetted second
lieutenant of marines when he was fifteen, became a
captain in Temple's Regiment of foot at eighteen, and
was one of Marlborough's brigade majors in the Low
Countries at twenty-three. He served with Wade
in Scotland in the rebellion of '15, and two years later,
when he was thirty-two — the age at which his son
James died — received his commission as Lieutenant-
Colonel. The professional opportunities which came
to James Wolfe were denied to his father, but there
were resemblances in the two careers up to a point.
Without social influence, both father and son rose
1 Westminster Gazette, 23rd July, 1908.
4 GENERAL WOLFE
rapidly in a profession where wealth and family
connection were a surer road to preferment than zeal
and ability ; both fought in Flanders and assisted to
put down rebellion in Scotland ; both made their
mark by devotion to duty, their courage and resource
in warfare, their efforts to improve in the hour of peace
the instrument to which there must be appeal in any
national crisis. The elder Wolfe's opportunities for
distinction were sharply denned by Walpole and his
policy of peace ; the younger Wolfe got his chance
when Pitt determined that war, war at any cost of
life and treasure, war in any part of the world where
the French could be found, was essential to the
security and the future of the British people.
Not a great deal is recorded of James Wolfe's years
at Westerham. He probably only saw his father at
intervals ; the Lieutenant-Colonel would naturally
have to spend much of his time away on duty, but in
those intervals how the lad would absorb every
parental reminiscence of service beyond the seas or
across the border. The martial influence of the
father, indelible as it was, was qualified and toned by
the sweet and tender influence of the mother. If good
mothers make good sons, Mrs. Wolfe must have been
a veritable angel in the house. Father and mother,
in their respective ways, are the shining lights of
Wolfe's life as soldier and as man. Other influences
which came to him at Westerham were his brother
Edward, less than a year his junior, and his lifelong
friend, George Warde, the youngest son of the owner
of the neighbouring estate of Squerryes Court. James
Wolfe possibly had something to do with Warde 's
choice of the profession of arms. In their hours
together in the woods and fields of Squerryes, the
A STORY DISPROVED 5
Wolfes and the Wardes played soldiers with all the
earnestness of pretence.
For a while James and his brother went to a school
kept by one Lawrence, of whom nothing is known
beyond his name. James was eleven years of age
when the home at Westerham was exchanged for one
at Greenwich, and a more advanced tutor was found
in the Rev. S. F. Swinden, whom James and Edward
Wolfe held in affectionate memory after their
schooldays. It was at Mr. Swinden's that Wolfe is
said to have met a youngster destined like himself to
leave his mark on British history. That was John
Jervis, who was intended for the law, but ran away
to sea, to become in time the great admiral Lord
St. Vincent. As Wolfe in the days to come on the St.
Lawrence was to entrust Jervis with a sacred com-
mission, it is a pity this story of their school-days is
not true. Wolfe had been five years in the Army
when the Jervis family moved from Staffordshire to
the banks of the Thames. 1
Greenwich brought young Wolfe into touch with Walpole.
some of the forces that went to make up the larger
national life. The river not only carried much of the
commerce which was the very life-blood of the people,
but bore to and fro the men who would be loudest in
their clamour against the tyranny of the foreigner in
his efforts to maintain a monopoly of over-the-sea
markets. Walpole had preserved the peace for England
during more than twenty years in circumstances
1 Wright tells the story and Mr. Bradley and Mr. Doughty
both repeat it. Wright's mistake on this point is amazing.
He actually quotes Brenton's Life of St. Vincent, which
contains the Admiral's own words that he was born 9th Jan.,
1734 (O.S.), and at the age of twelve went to a school at
Greenwich kept by a Mr. Swinden.
6 GENERAL WOLFE
that demanded a very gymnast in diplomacy.
He found kindred spirits in Cardinal Fleury in France
and in Queen Caroline at home ; his motives were not
always either unchallenged or unchallengeable ; his
methods were not always compatible with dignity
and honour, though their courage was superb. The
people grew tired of a peace which gave no security,
and George II, with an eye mainly to his Hanoverian
interests, would have welcomed a pretext for the
drawing of the sword which his Minister sedulously
defeated. Whilst the King was concerned with the
dynastic difficulties and ambitions of Europe, his
people, seeking to enjoy the benefits of colonial and
commercial enterprise, were incensed against Spain
as later they were to be incensed against France, who
now was England's ally. English merchants found
the restrictions of the Treaty of Utrecht intolerable.
One British ship per year of all the British mercantile
marine was permitted to trade with Spanish America.
It was a positive invitation to the descendants of
Hawkins and Drake to turn themselves into smugglers.
The Spaniards, with the letter of the law on their side,
punished any luckless runner of illicit cargoes whom
they might capture with truly Spanish severity.
English national pride and commercial ambition
combined with considerations of humanity to make
idle all talk about words and forms even though they
involved legality and international right. *
Politicians with party and personal axes to grind
strenuously encouraged the popular clamour, and
when war was declared against Spain, on 13th October,
1 Morley: Walpole, p. 216. Chap, x of Lord Morley's
Walpole is a masterly summary, analysis and estimate of
Walpole's foreign policy.
PREPARING FOR CARTAGENA 7
1739, the day was one not of national apprehension
or regret, but of national rejoicing. Horace Walpole's
suggestion that the people who were ringing their
bells then would before long be wringing their hands
was justified to the letter. To James Wolfe the
war fever would be an exhilaration such as he had
not known in his thirteen years of life. The martial
spirit was part of his nature, and the call to arms
set every nerve in the boy's body tense. Fleets sailed ;
troops were under orders for service beyond the seas ;
and every roll of the drum stirred the national
consciousness to energetic action. The things of
which his father had told him were now to happen
again, and they came nearer home than ever when a
big camp was formed a few miles away on Blackheath,
and his father was appointed Adjutant-General of
the force, 10,000 strong, collecting on the Isle of
Wight for the Cartagena expedition.
The mere idea that any lad of James Wolfe's tender A volun-
years, a lad moreover who was far from strong, should t£er at
be allowed to take part in an expedition that must try
the fortitude of the most robust strikes us to-day as
ludicrous. What arguments James brought to bear
on the father who surely did not want the responsi-
bility, and the mother who used every appeal to heart
and parental authority to keep the boy with her, we
must evolve for ourselves. It was agreed that he
should go with the expedition as a volunteer. His
triumph here is not insignificant. It was admittedly
a tribute to the energy and force of will that distin-
guished him through life ; x it was to supply the occa-
sion of the first of that long and profoundly interesting
series of letters which gave Wolfe a title to be regarded
1 Bradley : Wolfe, p. 10.
8 GENERAL WOLFE
as the literary soldier ; it was also to throw into
sharp relief at the outset the physical conditions
against which he battled stoically in nearly all he
undertook.
Thus the boy, barely in his teens, was with his father
at Newport prepared, in his own mind, to draw the
sword manfully against the hated Spaniard. He was
vastly impressed by the sight of the ships that went
to make up his Majesty's " mighty navy," and he
was not yet quite capable of detecting the defects in
army organisation which the long peace had accentu-
ated. The whole thing was more than a spectacle,
because the lad had in him the intention, the genius
of the soldier. In the midst of his excitements he
remembered his " dearest mamma " ; there were
little twinges of conscience that he should not have
heeded her protests ; and he was much moved that
she should doubt his love. He wrote a letter which
was at least as far beyond his years as was his military
ardour. He assured his mother that his love was
" as sincere as ever any son's was to his mother,"
and begged her if she loved him not to give herself
up to fears. " I will certainly write to you by every
ship I meet because I know it is my duty. Besides,
if it were not, I would do it out of love with pleasure."
Here we have a note which a thoughtful man might
have been pardoned for omitting, which many a man
has omitted who had no intention to hurt. Duty
done because it is duty and not reinforced by love
must be a mechanical virtue ; and Wolfe, boy as he
was, saw that his mother's sense of injury might only
be aggravated if he did not hasten to affirm an
impulse stronger than duty. It was no ordinary mind
of thirteen, no ordinary character that anticipated
nate
illness.
WASHINGTON AND WOLFE 9
the interpretation which might be put upon a
conventional phrase.
Wolfe told his mother that he was in very good A fortu-
health and likely to continue so, but the statement
was wanting in that nice accuracy too often sacrificed
to optimism. He was taken ill before the Cartagena
force could embark, and his father wisely at the
eleventh hour decided that home was the lad's more
fitting place. Wolfe could hardly have survived
the disease, the distress, and the incompetent or
inadequate medical accommodation which attended
this ill-starred enterprise. There is a fine chance here
for those who love to speculate on the might-have-
beens. Would the history of the British Empire not
have been radically different if Wolfe had found an
early grave in Caribbean waters ? Among those who
took part in the Cartagena expedition and succumbed
to its disorders, was a volunteer from Virginia —
Washington's elder brother. His death changed the
whole outlook for George Washington. " If," says
Mr. Bradley, " George Washington had remained a
younger son, it is most unlikely he would have been
available in 1775 to have stepped into the chief
command " of the revolting colonies. " And without
George Washington the very struggle itself in which
he triumphed seems an inconceivable thing." J If the
death of a member of the Washington family in that
expedition affected the history of America, the sparing
of young Wolfe from a similar fate may equally be
said to have contributed to the same end. It was
the capture of Quebec by Wolfe which made the
American revolt possible, and we may therefore take
it that without Wolfe there would not have been the
1 Bradley: Wolfe, p. 12.
10 GENERAL WOLFE
Washington we know. Laurence Washington died,
and Wolfe was spared, to some purpose !
Another year passed under Mr. Swinden's tutelage,
and James Wolfe went to spend his Christmas holidays
with his friend George Warde at Squerryes. The
boys were amusing themselves at a spot in the
grounds which is now historic, when Mr. Warde
brought his young guest an envelope bearing the
magic symbol, " On His Majesty's Service." The lad
tore it open with none the less excitement because he
probably anticipated the nature of its contents. His
first commission ! It was dated November 3rd, 1741,
and appointed him second lieutenant in his father's
old regiment of marines. That was a memorable
moment for Wolfe and for his country, and on the
spot where he broke the seal of His Majesty's envelope
his friends at Squerryes less than a couple of decades
later erected a stone cenotaph bearing an inscription
admirable in intent but not wholly devoid of
imagination —
"Here first was Wolfe with martial ardour fixed.
Here first with glory's brightest flame inspired ;
This spot so sacred will for ever claim
A proud alliance with its hero's name."
Wolfe's martial ardour was not so much fired as
confirmed by the receipt of his commission. He was
now fifteen, a tall, spare, effeminate-looking youth,
with red hair and features that were little indicative
of the iron will behind them. If there be any truth
to nature in the pictures of him which were painted
after his death, he was not at any time the con-
ventional hero in appearance. But there must have
been something more attractive about him facially
than the artists succeeded in discovering or rendering.
WOLFE'S PORTRAITS 11
One historian dismisses Wolfe, no doubt after a due
study of certain pictures, as a remarkably ugly boy
with a shock of red hair and a turned-up nose ; l
another speaks of him as " the red-haired, unattrac-
tive soldier whose cold and almost repellent manner
concealed some of the highest qualities."2 It is
agreed that Wolfe had a fine eye, " that searching,
burning eye which carried all the distinction and
greatness denied him elsewhere," says Sir Gilbert
Parker. 3 Wolfe's face must have conveyed to those
who knew him in the flesh a very different impression
from that to be gleaned from most of his portraits.
No character such as his could have failed to assert
itself sooner or later in his physiognomy, and the love
he won from so many people in different walks in life
would not have gone to one who was unprepossessing.
Some faces cannot be adequately interpreted by
the brush any more than character is necessarily
revealed by the camera. There is an infinite but not
charming variety of so-called Wolfe portraits,4 and
none, even though it be authentic, seems to me to
embody a character at once sweet and firm, sympa-
thetic and resolute, serious with a qualifying vein of
humour, eager to advance the right, quick to scorn
the unworthy, resourceful, self-reliant, capable, and
withal modest.
1 Fortescue : A History of the British Army. vol. ii, p. 53.
2 McCarthy : History of the Four Georges, vol. ii, p. 375.
3 The Seats of the Mighty, chap, xxiii.
4 See an admirable article on the subject by Mr. Beckles
Willson in the Connoisseur, January, 1909.
CHAPTER II
WOLFE IN FLANDERS
?rom The last thing in the world that Wolfe courted was
viarine to the sea, and his enthusiasm on the receipt of his
commission was qualified by the character of the
arm to which he was appointed. He soon found a
means of transfer and became an ensign of Colonel
Duroure's Regiment of Foot, then known as the
Twelfth. The regiment was under orders for Flanders,
where England was again to take a hand in a
continental conflict,
rhe Army Not international politics but the army was Wolfe's
n I74I- concern ; in all probability he knew little and cared
less what the war was about. It sufficed that he was
to take part in a real campaign and on ground of
which he had heard his father — not yet returned from
the West Indies — talk much. England's army in
1741 amounted to less than 20,000 men. That she
had an army at all was almost matter for wonder.
Every conceivable means was adopted to make the
ranks unpopular not only with the men but with the
people. There were no barracks, the soldiers were
quartered in places which made them a nuisance, so
that the populace might be sensible of the fetters a
standing army would forge, and after a war regiments
which had begun to understand their business were
too frequently disbanded ; officers who were not
retired on inadequate half-pay, generally elected to
swell the more easily recruited army of men about
town, aimless save in dissipation, efficient only in
12
THE DUEL WITH FRANCE 13
unprofitable pursuits. The men were neglected
whether they served at home or abroad, and in
emergencies their numbers were augmented by the
gaol-bird and the ne'er-do-weel. To prepare for war
in time of peace was not the tenet of national safety
in the early part of the eighteenth century, and the
example set by Government was in the main faith-
fully followed by the officers who might at any time
be called upon to direct the movements of men in the
field. The Civil War, the struggle with France
maintained by William III, the achievements of
Marlborough confirmed the English people in their
dislike of militarism and its cost in blood and treasure.
Hence the army, with notable exceptions, was a poor
machine badly looked after, and when we read its
history and note its victories we can only conclude
either that it enjoyed extraordinary good fortune or
that the exceptions were of incomparably sterling
stuff.
For England the whole of the eighteenth century Inter-
was an intermittent duel with France for supremacy. "^^T .
It was a duel which began in Europe, was fought to tions.
a finish throughout the world, and ended only with
Trafalgar and Waterloo. International relations at
the time that Wolfe was called upon to play his small
part in their settlement by the arbitrament of the
sword, were what Seeley calls an " immense complex
medley."1 The royal houses of Austria, Prussia,
France, Spain, Poland, Bavaria, and England were
all concerned in an universal game of grab in which
they changed their parts as circumstances dictated.
Honesty was at a heavier discount than any mere
Machiavel would ever have dared to encourage, and
1 The Expansion of England, p. 28 (1886 ed.).
14 GENERAL WOLFE
England and Austria alone came out of the dynastic
milee with approximate credit. " Congresses without
issue, campaigns without visible objective, open
treaties, secret treaties, public alliances, private
combinations, the destruction to-day of the web
laboriously woven yesterday, the union of four powers
against one, of three against two, and so on in every
variety of permutation and combination make a vast
chaos," which even Lord Morley1 does not try to
reduce to order. The really visible objectives were,
on the one hand, the satisfaction of the greed and
aggrandisement of princes, and, on the other, the
preservation of ancestral and solemnly secured rights
against that satisfaction. The Emperor Charles VI,
in order to save dispute and bloodshed over the
succession to his enormous heritage, negotiated with
the various powers the Pragmatic Sanction. His
daughter, Maria Theresa, was to ascend the throne
not merely by right but by the guarantee of all
Europe. Charles VI provided for every contingency
save one — ambitious unreadiness to observe a sacred
compact when observance meant the sacrifice of an
opportunity for the advancement of self-interest.
George II Of all the rulers who pledged their honour, one
and Maria only, George II, was true to his bond. Frederick of
Prussia — surnamed the Great on account of his
marvellous achievements in war, rather than on
account of qualities which should alone justify
the title — promptly attempted to appropriate Silesia ;
France, Bavaria, Saxony, Spain, Poland, Sardinia
all discovered claims and began to swarm about
Austria like ravening wolves about the carcase of
a lion. But they found the lioness in the person
1 Walpole, p. 200.
TO ASSIST MARIA THERESA 15
of Maria Theresa prepared to dispute every inch of
ground. Europe proclaimed the Elector of Bavaria
Emperor, and as Charles VII he donned the Imperial
mantle. Maria Theresa, strong in her own character,
strong with the strength of a woman's weakness,
appealed to her people to save for her son her father's
dominions, and her people rallied round her to a man.
They rose nobly to the occasion, the French who had
invaded Austria were driven out, and the Austrians
overran Bavaria. Frederick defeated the Austrians
at Mollwitz, but Maria Theresa was undismayed, and
the intervention of England in Flanders relieved the
pressure of the French on her forces to the south.
It was on behalf of Maria Theresa that some sixteen
thousand English troops were to be despatched to the
Continent.
Duroure's Regiment formed part of the flower of Wolfe In
the English army assembled towards the end of April, Belgium-
1742, on Blackheath to be reviewed by George II.
The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland, and
Field-Marshal the Earl of Stair were in attendance.
The spectacle was more brilliant than any England
had witnessed for a good long time. There was, of
course, a crowd of spectators. A proud day that for
Ensign Wolfe carrying the colours of his regiment.
His mother and brother were present with other
friends, and some hearts beat faster as the gaily
uniformed stripling marched past. The regiment
was to embark at Deptford for Ostend. It was a
trying little voyage. In these days of more or less
comfortable, rapidly moving steamers which cover
the distance from the Thames to the Belgian coast
in a few hours, there are sufficient terrors in contrary
winds for passengers who are poor sailors. Wolfe's
16 GENERAL WOLFE
boat was kept several days at sea before the sand
dunes came in sight and Ostend could be made. That
trip was certainly torture to Wolfe, but whatever his
sufferings, whatever his sense of loss of dignity from
sea-sickness, this son of Mars faced Father Neptune
in all his moods with the same indomitable spirit
he presented to every enemy. In Belgium, Duroure's
men marched straight away to Bruges and Ghent.
What the country hereabouts lacks in physical
beauty it more than makes good in the romance of
its history, of its alternating struggles for freedom
and its commercial and manufacturing achievements.
Wolfe's thoughts would be more of Marlborough and
his father than of Charles the Bold, Maximilian or
Charles V ; more still of the protagonists in the
present struggle, Frederick II and Louis XV and
Maria Theresa, Prince Charles of Lorraine, Due de
Noailles, and the Earl of Stair who was in command
of the British troops ; but the appeal of the past is
the animating force of the most commonplace present,
and the present with which Wolfe was now directly
interested was far from commonplace.
Nine . The reception of Wolfe and his companions in
Ghent. Ghent where he was quartered, was anything but
pleasing. There was no enthusiasm for the cause of
Maria Theresa, and the people, hating to be dragged
into a dispute from which, whoever else might gain,
they would derive no sort of benefit, were often
openly hostile to the British. English soldiers and
the Ghentois came to blows on the smallest provo-
cation, and the magistrates threatened with whipping,
burning in the back and expulsion anyone who
should affront the British. Wolfe, eager to get
away to the front, had to possess his spirit in patience.
NINE MONTHS IN GHENT 17
Ready to march at a couple of hours' notice, he was
not called upon to move throughout that summer and
winter. Nine months were spent in Ghent. Wolfe
beguiled himself with professional studies, which the
fortifications of the quaint old Belgian town assisted ;
with the flute, on which he performed like another
ardent soldier, Frederick the Great himself ; and
with visits to the grand new play-house which had
within recent years been started in the town. There
were plenty of officers in the place, including his
friend, George Warde, so that " we never want
company," and he conversed " a little with the ladies
who are very civil and talk French." He looked
forward soon to seeing his brother Edward in Flanders,
and " in all probability," he said, " before next year
is over we may know something of our trade."
Edward Wolfe apparently reached Ghent in the first
weeks of 1743. He was lucky in being able to join
his brother's regiment. His ambition was strictly
fraternal. He wished to follow in James's footsteps,
but his constitution was even more delicate than his
brother's and the spirit was martial beyond the
capabilities of the body.
In February a move was at last made from Ghent. Adjutant
On the way to Germany — " at St. Tron in the Bishop- at sixteen-
ric of Liege " — Wolfe wrote home that they had had
bad weather on the march, that his strength was not
so great as he imagined — " I never come into quarters
without aching hips and knees " — that the road
ahead was trying and that he intended to hire a horse.
He would march on foot one day and ride the next —
sharing the horse probably with Edward. Never-
theless, he said, " I'm in the greatest spirits in the
world. " The language of the country was a difficulty.
3— (2213)
18 GENERAL WOLFE
Useful as French was, Edward said he would once
have gone without his dinner if he had not been able
to ask for it in Latin. On the 9th June the British-
Hanoverian forces arrived at an awkward bend
of the Main, near Aschaffenburg, and were joined
by an Austrian force under the Duke d'Arenberg.
There were repeated alarms that the Due de Noailles,
who was on the other side of the river with 60,000
men, was about to attack. Edward was actually in
a skirmish and received his baptism of fire on the night
of the 20th. James was called upon to face another
ordeal. He was given the position of adjutant. How
it happened that this boy of sixteen was entrusted
with so important a post is not clear. On the 21st
June he wrote from Aschaffenburg that King George
had joined the army, and they would soon know what
they were going to do. The situation was critical.
The King found the forces under the Earl of Stair
in something very like a trap, from which they could
hope to escape only with heavy loss, if they escaped
at all. They could not go forward ; to stay where
they were meant that their supplies were cut off and
the French from across the river could make so many
targets of them ; in retreat lay the one slender chance
and that only if it could be accomplished before the
enemy were alive to the movement. The King
ordered the retreat. Such was the desperate plight
in which incompetence had involved the British and
their allies at the time when Wolfe was to fight his
first grim battle. And the duties of an adjutant,
in any case severe, but more severe in these
circumstances than usual, devolved on him.
Sthjune Silently on the morning of the 27th June the allies
1743. began to retrace their steps in the direction of Hanau.
AT DETTINGEN 19
The movement was observed by de Noailles, who
instantly sent a strong force across the river to cut
them up or secure their surrender. Happily British
commanders are not alone in their mistakes. The
Due de Grammont, who was entrusted with this vital
manoeuvre, instead of waiting for the retreating army
at a defile, advanced to meet it on equal terms, and
actually exposed his men to the fire of his own
batteries across the river. The battle of Dettingen
has been variously described. Military authority
tells us that the honour which the generals had
compromised was saved once again by " the fine old
quality of British doggedness," x and endorses the
contemptuous description of George II — for which
Thackeray seems mainly responsible2 — standing in
front of his troops " in the preposterous position of
a fencing-master." George II has to bear the burden
of many failings, but prejudice seems a little hard on
his doings at Dettingen. His courage was never
questioned, and at Dettingen he was only doing his
best, and a fine best it was, to get the army out of the
hole which others had made for it. James Wolfe's
long letter to his father written from Hochst, on the
4th July, is so interesting from both the military and
the personal point of view, written as it was by a boy,
that I cannot refrain from quoting it at some length.
After explaining that the fatigues of the day put him
very much " out of order," Wolfe says —
" The army was drawn out this day se'nnight between a wood Wolfe 's
and the river Main, near a little village, called Dettingen, in description,
five lines — two of foot and three of horse. The cannon on
both sides began to play about nine o'clock in the morning,
and we were exposed to the fires of theirs (said to be above
1 Col. C. B. Brackenbury : Frederick the Great, p. 91.
* The Four Georges, Oxford Edition, p. 735.
20 GENERAL WOLFE
fifty pieces) for near three hours, a great part of which flanked
us terribly from the other side the water. The French were
all the while drawn up in sight of us on this side. About
twelve o'clock we marched towards them ; they advanced
likewise, and, as near as I can guess, the fight began about
one. The Gens d'Armes, or M ousquetaires Gris, attacked
the first line, composed of nine regiments of English foot,
and four or five of Austrians, and some Hanoverians. They
broke through the Scotch Fusileers, who they began the attack
upon ; but before they got to the second line, out of two
hundred there were not forty living, so they wheeled, and
came between the first and second line (except an officer
with a standard, and four or five men, who broke through the
second line and were taken by some of Hawley's regiment
of Dragoons), and about twenty of them escaped to their
army, riding through an interval that was made for our Horse
to advance. These unhappy men were of the first families
in France. Nothing, I believe, could be more rash than their
undertaking."
Wolfe then briefly describes the second attack on
the left by the Horse, and enlarges on the third and
last attack by the Foot —
"We advanced towards one another ; our men in high spirits
and very impatient for fighting, being elated with beating
the French Horse, part of which advanced towards us ; while
the rest attacked our Horse, but were soon driven back by the
great fire we gave them. The Major and I (for we had neither
Colonel nor Lieutenant-Colonel), before they came near,
were employed in begging and ordering the men not to fire
at too great a distance, but to keep it till the enemy should
come near us ; but to little purpose. The whole fired when
they thought they could reach them, which had like to have
ruined us. We did very little execution with it. So soon
as the French saw we presented they all fell down, and when
we had fired they got up, and marched close to us in tolerable
good order, and gave us a brisk fire, which put us into some
disorder and made us give way a little, particularly ours and
two or three more regiments, who were in the hottest of it.
However, we soon rallied again, and attacked them with
great fury, which gained us a complete victory, and forced
the enemy to retire in great haste. 'Twas luck that we did
give way a little, for our men were loading all the while, and
it gave room for an Austrian regiment to move into an
interval, rather too little before, who charged the enemy with
THE EFFECT OF DETTINGEN 21
great bravery and resolution. So soon as the French re-
treated, the line halted, and we got the sad news of the death
of as good and brave a man as any amongst us, General
Clayton, who was killed by a musquet ball in the last attack.
His death gave us all sorrow, so great was the opinion we had
of him, and was the hindrance of anything further being done
that day. He had, 'tis said, orders for pursueing the enemy,
and if we had followed them, as was expected, it is the opinion
of most people, that of 27,000 men they brought over the
Main, they would not have repassed with half that number.
A great number of their officers and men were taken prisoners.
Their loss is computed to be between six and seven thousand
men, and ours three thousand.
" His Majesty was in the midst of the fight ; and the Duke
behaved as bravely as a man could do. He had a musquet-
shot through the calf of his leg. I had several times the
honour of speaking with him just as the battle began, and
was often afraid of his being dash'd to pieces by the cannon-
balls. He gave his orders with a great deal of calmness, and
seemed quite unconcerned. The soldiers were in high delight
to have him so near them. I sometimes thought I had lost
poor Ned, when I saw arms, legs, and heads beat off close by
him. He is called ' The Old Soldier,' and very deservedly.
A horse I rid of the Colonel's, at the first attack was shot in
one of his hinder legs, and threw me ; so I was obliged to
do the duty of an adjutant all that and the next day on foot,
in a pair of heavy boots. I lost with the horse, furniture and
pistols which cost me ten ducats ; but three days after the
battle, got the horse again, with the ball in him, — and he is
now almost well again, — but without furniture and pistols."
Dettingen had its effect on the fortunes both of A marked
the war and of James Wolfe. The French, pressed man-
elsewhere by Prince Charles, withdrew to their own
frontier ; the allies, after their retreat to Hanau, made
Worms their headquarters, and were neither molested
nor in a mood to attempt to follow up their advantage.
As for Wolfe, his services were recognized not only by
his official appointment as adjutant but within a week
or two by promotion to a lieutenancy. England
rejoiced inordinately over the victory ; Handel
composed his finest Te Deum, and George II was a
22 GENERAL WOLFE
popular hero when he returned to London. The
campaign of 1743 was over, and Wolfe went into
winter quarters with his regiment at Ostend. He
would have liked to take a trip home, but was refused
permission, though it was granted to Edward. James
was clearly a marked man. His presence with the
troops was indispensable, and in the following June
he was advanced a step further. He became captain
in Barrell's Regiment, and curiously enough the
promotion and transfer, whilst an official mark of his
worth, kept him for the rest of his stay in Belgium
from further participation in serious fighting. In
the spring of 1744 Marshal Saxe, in command of the
French, opened the campaign with a powerful army
which scared the Dutch into surrendering Ypres, and
was soon overrunning half Belgium. Wolfe, under
General Wade's command, was on the banks of the
Scheldt, where the allies awaited attack, but Prince
Charles with 60,000 Austrians, crossed the Rhine and
half the French forces were precipitately withdrawn
to protect France itself from invasion.
The death October came, and Wolfe was again taking up
of Edward. ~x , , °
winter quarters in Ghent, when a heavy sorrow came
to him and to his family. His brother Edward,
much loved and affectionately known as the Old
Soldier — he was not seventeen, — was taken ill and died.
James, near at hand but not understanding that the
illness might terminate fatally, was not with him at
the last, and the thought of the lad dying with no
special friend, save his faithful servant, to watch over
him, was a bitter one to his brother for many a day.
James put his feelings into a letter to his mother,
full of manly grief and of the philosophy which
usually comes of a much more intimate experience of
A BROTHER'S SORROW 23
the world. It hardly strikes one as characteristic
of seventeen years of age. Were there ever two more
precocious warriors than James and Edward Wolfe ?
The letter is dated "Ghent, 29th October, 1744
as."—
" Poor Ned wanted nothing but the satisfaction of seeing
his deafest friends to leave the world with the greatest
tranquillity. He often called on us. It gives me many
uneasy hours when I reflect on the possibility there was of
my being with him some time before he died. God knows it
was being too exact, and not apprehending the danger the
poor fellow was in ; and even that would not have hindered it
had I received the physician's first letter. I know you won't
be able to read this paragraph without shedding tears, as
I do writing it ; but there is a satisfaction even in giving way
to grief now and then. 'Tis what we owe the memory of
a dear friend.
" He was an honest and a good lad, had lived very well,
and always discharged his duty with the cheerfulness becom-
ing a good officer. He lived and died as a son of you two
should, which, I think, is saying all I can. I have the melan-
choly satisfaction to find him regretted by his friends and
acquaintances. His Colonel is particularly concerned for
him, and desired I would assure you of it. There was in him
the prospect (when ripened with experience) of good under-
standing and judgement, and an excellent soldier. You'll
excuse my dwelling so long on this cruel subject, but in relating
this to you, vanity and partiality are banished. A strong
desire to do justice to his memory occasions it.
' ' There was no part of his life that makes him dearer to me
than that where you have often mentioned — he pined after me.
It often makes me angry that any hour of my life should pass
without thinking of him ; and when I do think of him, that
though all the reasons I have to lament his loss are now as
forcible as at the moment of his departure, I don't find my
heart swell with the same sorrow as it did at that time.
Nature is ever too good in blotting out the violence of affliction.
For all tempers (as mine is) too much given to mirth, it is
often necessary to revive grief in one's memory."
James Wolfe was indeed too completely absorbed 1745— the
in his profession to admit of sorrow having more than ^f?L
a momentarily recurrent sway when the first
24 GENERAL WOLFE
poignancy was over. He had already grasped the
fact that British poverty in soldierly attainment was
his opportunity ; preferment came to him, contrary
to the usual practice, as the reward of merit, and he
was prepared to take any post which might be denied
to nepotism, wealth, or social influence. Whilst
Wolfe in 1744-5 was busy in the cause of self-efficiency,
France, against whom that efficiency was one day to
be used with crushing effect, was employing every
weapon at command to paralyse the arm of England.
From the time when Louis XIV pledged his word to
James II on his death-bed to assist his son to the
British throne, — a pledge explained away on the very
morrow when its consequences were realised — the
French had always the Stuart card to play. In 1744
Louis XV encouraged Charles Edward to attempt
the invasion of England. In 1745 the Pretender
managed to do on the Scottish coast what he had
failed to do on the English. It was a black year for
England. The Duke of Cumberland had succeeded
to the command of the allies in Flanders, had been
badly beaten by Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy on 11th
May, and had been unable to stay the advance of the
victorious French at any point. Wolfe's old regiment
(Duroure's) was among those that suffered most at
Fontenoy ; his own, of which he was made brigade-
major on June 12th, was not present ; he was at
Lessines when Ghent was taken by the French ; and
a couple of months later he and the rest of the British
forces were recalled to England to deal with the
Pretender.
CHAPTER III
FALKIRK, CULLODEN, AND LAFFELDT
When Wolfe landed in England after an absence of France and
three and a half years he found the country already the Stuarts.
in a state of rapidly growing alarm at the news from
Scotland. Men had not forgotten the misery which
the rising in '15 had occasioned on both sides of the
Tweed, and the movements of the Young Pretender,
as Charles Edward was called, soon showed the
necessity for energetic measures. They were not
forthcoming. The Government and the nation had
been taken completely by surprise. They seem to
have thought that the abortive effort of the previous
year, when a French fleet intended for the invasion
of England in Stuart as well as Bourbon interests,
was stopped by Sir John Norris, and scattered by a
storm, had disposed of the peril of invasion. As a
fact Louis XV in 1745 did refuse to grant Charles
Edward's request that a new expedition should be
fitted out. The Prince, however, was determined to
strike a blow on his father's behalf, and told King
Louis that he would make the attempt even though
he had to go with a solitary footman.
Towards the end of July he landed at Arisaig, in Charles
Moidart, at the south-west corner of Inverness-shire, Edward in
with seven followers, " The Seven Men of Moidart." Scotland.
His presence in Scotland was not known to the
Government for nearly three weeks. On the 19th
August he raised his red and white-silk standard at
Glenfinnan. x Supporters rallied round him apace ;
1 P. Hume Brown : A Short History of Scotland, p. 539.
25
26 GENERAL WOLFE
the character of the adventure fired the Highland
imagination, and Sir John Cope had only a small force
at Edinburgh with which to challenge him. If the
French had backed up Charles Edward in July, 1745,
as they were prepared to back him in 1744 and con-
templated doing three months later when he was as
far south as Derby, England's chances of escape from
a second Stuart restoration might have been slender.
The French marshal, Belleisle, while a prisoner in
England, said that he would " engage with 5,000
scullions of the French army to conquer England,"1
and Henry Fox on the 5th September, 1745, wrote :
" England, Wade says (and I believe), is for the first
comer, and if you can tell whether the 6,000 Dutch
and the ten battalions of English or 5,000 French or
Spaniards will be here first, you know our fate."2
Cope instead of trying to bar the Pretender's way
south, and not feeling himself strong enough to pro-
ceed against him, adopted the extraordinary course
of marching to Inverness. If he had been a traitor
he could not have done more precisely what the rebels
wished. He left the way to Edinburgh and England
open. By the time Cope got back Prince Charles
had proclaimed his father King James VIII in the
Palace of Holyrood, and was ready to meet the English
force not merely with vastly superior numbers, but
with the sympathies, tacit or avowed, of the larger
proportion of the Scottish people. At Prestonpans
on the 21st September Cope's army was surprised as
the dawn broke — it was Charles Edward's favourite
method of attack — and in ten minutes it had ceased
to exist. For a month the Prince unmolested held
1 Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, July 26th, 1745.
a Coxe : Memoirs of Lord Walpole, p. 284.
THE INVASION OF ENGLAND 27
royal Court at Holyrood ; it was precious time wasted
from his point of view. Then he decided to try his
fortunes in England.
Wolfe comes upon the scene about this time. He With Wade
was with General Wade, who had ten thousand men f*
Ncwcflstlc
at Newcastle. Wolfe's father, now Major-General,
who was so far worn with his services, especially in the
West Indies, that he was more fit for the fireside than
the field, was there also. As usual, Wolfe was called
upon to discharge duties beyond his official station.
Judging from an order dated the 2nd November,
1745, that £930 was to be paid to him " for allowance
of 93 baggage horses to the seven battalions lately
come from Flanders," he was acting Deputy-Quarter-
master-General. A letter to his mother, in which
he seeks to remove her fears for his father's safety,
is chiefly interesting for the hint it affords of the views
held as to the rebel forces. She need not be concerned
he wrote, " for 'tis the opinion of most men that these
rebels won't stand against the King's troops." The
annihilation of Cope's little force, mainly if not wholly
composed of men who had never seen service, did not
weigh seriously with the veterans of Dettingen and
Fontenoy. They who had learned their " trade " in
conflict with Noailles' and Saxe's trained and seasoned
battalions would know how to dispose of a horde of
wild Highlanders.
Wade heard that the Prince was near Carlisle. The
He tried to get across country to intercept him. Bad southern
weather and boggy land baffled his efforts. He
moved ten miles in fifteen hours. On the second day
news came that Carlisle had surrendered, and Wade
returned to Newcastle. The rebels continued their
southern march light-heartedly. What a march that
28 GENERAL WOLFE
must have been. They came within 120 miles of the
capital. London wondered what was going to
happen, and trembled. How one can picture the
kilted and tartaned hillmen tramping with the Prince
at their head, and breaking the monotony of the
march with skirl of bagpipe and snatch of Highland
song or some old Jacobite refrain such as —
"Then look for no peace
For the war will never cease
Till the King shall enjoy his own again."
At Derby the Prince's officers seem suddenly to
have lost their nerve ; or they were disheartened
by lack of serious demonstration in favour of the
Stuarts. They decided that they must turn back.
The Prince protested vigorously and the men rent the
air with cries of indignation. 1 If they had suffered a
check from superior forces there might be some
reason for retreat, but to retreat without striking a
blow was sheer humiliation. The Prince would have
protested more stoutly still, possibly with more
effect, if he had known that Louis XV, impressed by
his progress, was assembling troops at Calais and
Boulogne to assist him. But the protests of Prince
and clansmen alike were vain : the officers insisted.
Back they went, all the spirit gone out of the march,
the Prince the most dejected member of his army ;
back again through the northern counties, pillaging
and destroying with all the ruthless disregard which
the Lowlander associated with the very name of
Highlander. Whatever sympathy there may have
been for the Stuart cause when the Pretender went
south was dissipated by his followers on the return.
1 Mackintosh : Story of the Nations : Scotland, p. 268.
A DRAWN BATTLE 29
Back in Scotland, the Prince visited Glasr w, Falkirk,
which was then already enjoying the prosperity. di)£t x7th Jan->
came to it from the Act of Union ; he requisi. m — 1 x'4 *
supplies of boots and clothes which his men sadly
needed, and then made for Stirling. Wade was
superseded in his command by Hawley — " Hangman"
Hawley, as he was called. Hawley, who had moved
up to Edinburgh, went to the relief of Stirling, and
the armies met at Falkirk, where Hawley was nearly
surprised. It was the morning of the 17th January ;
a bleak sleet-laden wind blew full in the faces of the
King's troops ; the men were half frozen, and the
wet which found its way to their very skins found its
way also to their ammunition. The conditions were
all against the King's men, and Wolfe, frail in con-
stitution, must have suffered keenly from the expo-
sure. But there was little time to think of personal
discomforts. Wolfe and his comrades were to undergo
a new experience. Hawley began the fight by a
cavalry charge ; the Highlanders reserved their fire
and met the charge by a point-blank volley, which
threw the horses and men who were not killed on the
spot, into hopeless disorder. Remnants came back
to scatter confusion in their own lines, and a few
reformed to charge again. Whilst the pitiless sleet
nearly blinded the waiting infantry, the Highlanders
rushed upon them with a fury and a yell such as
no soldier in the Continental wars had known.
They bore down the first line and apparently were
only checked by the men with whom Wolfe was
fighting. To this day no one knows precisely what
happened. Chaos reigned, and was not relieved till
both armies took to their heels, or something very
like it. The Highlanders bolted, and Hawley
30 GENERAL WOLFE
abandoned his camp and his guns, falling back on
Ep'.nburgh.
Ap
', v7olfe makes light of the encounter ; he said
" 'twas not a battle as neither side would light," and
he anticipated that it would be " told in a much worse
light than it really is " ; he attributed the loss of the
guns to the drivers who ran off with the horses — a
version which is at variance with the accusation of
misconduct brought against an officer who committed
suicide rather than face court-martial. Anyway
the result of the fight was sufficiently inconclusive
to give the Jacobites, as one chronicler put it, "a
handle to vaunt." Some students of the battle are
strong in their censure of Charles Edward and his
officers because they did not follow Hawley and
destroy him as completely as they destroyed Cope,
the truth probably being that they did not because
they could not. Hawley attributed the reverse or
whatever it was to the misleading accounts of the
numbers and discipline of the enemy supplied by the
Intelligence Department in Edinburgh : " You see
and I feel the effect of it. I never saw troops fire in
platoons more regularly, make their motions and
evolutions quicker, or attack with more bravery or
in better order than those Highlanders did at the
battle of Falkirk. And these are the very men that
you represented as a parcel of raw and undisciplined
vagabonds. No Jacobite could have done more hurt
to the King's faithful friends, or done more service to
his inveterate enemies."1
1 Quoted by A. C. Ewald ( Life and Times of Prince Charles
Edward Stuart) from a pamphlet among the Scottish State
papers.
THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND 31
History does not accord a high place among Preparing
generals to the Duke of Cumberland, but we know decisive
that Wolfe held his abilities in considerable esteem — encounter,
an esteem which would hardly have survived his later
campaigns — and it is quite certain that new confidence
was inspired in the British ranks when the Duke with
reinforcements reached Edinburgh in hot haste to
take over the command. Edinburgh received him
with every possible demonstration of joy, and he
proceeded to deal with the situation in a spirit which
hitherto had been lacking. Falkirk convinced the
sceptical and confirmed the pessimistic that the rising
was no mere holiday adventure. The Prince after
Falkirk resumed his attentions to Stirling, but with
the coming of the Duke he retired to the north and
took up his head-quarters at Inverness. The Duke
endeavoured to follow him up, but with all the energy
possible thrown into the pursuit, physical difficulties
augmented by meteorological, could only be overcome
by patience. It was decided to go into quarters at
Aberdeen till the weather improved and to utilise
the interval in preparing the King's forces for the
decisive encounter, more particularly by exercises
which might fit them the better to meet the peculiar
tactics of the Highlanders. It was an interval which
was not favourable to the Jacobites. Their provisions
ran short, and there was much suffering and
discontent.
In the second week of April the British were on the The eve of
move across country. The Prince with a force Culloden«
variously estimated at eight or nine thousand, took
up his position on Drummossie — or Culloden-moor,
with Culloden House on his left ; it was the 15th, the
Duke's birthday, and the hungry Highlanders were
32 GENERAL WOLFE
informed that the event was being celebrated with
feasting and revelry. Here was another opportunity
for a surprise. A night march and an attack in the
early morning before the effects of the day's indulgence
had worn off might add Culloden to Charles Edward's
victories, provide his men with food, and bring him
one step nearer the British throne. Fortune did not
favour him this time ; morning broke before his army
got in touch with the British outposts, and there was
nothing for it but retreat. Wolfe thought the failure
was due to " some unforeseen accident, together with
a great deal of superstition." A few hours later and
the English, ten thousand strong, in three lines
battle-arrayed, confronted the Stuart forces on the
moor. Wolfe was on the left of the first line. Before
the battle began the Duke addressed his men, remind-
ing them of what depended on their success, bidding
them forget Prestonpans and Falkirk, and warning
The them that no quarter would be given by the High-
m°«Hn!?er landers — " a statement which, though quite justified
by the traditional practice of the Highlanders, was,"
says Mr. Bradley, " untrue so far as this particular
campaign had gone."1 It is a question whether
before Culloden orders were or were not issued by
Lord George Murray, who was in command of the
Prince's army, that no quarter was to be given to the
Elector's troops " on any account whatever."
Mr. Andrew Lang says Lord George's general orders,
of which two copies are in possession of the Duke of
Athole, do not contain the words. 2 That there was
a belief in the genuineness of the " no-quarter "
1 Wolfe, p. 42.
2 History of Scotland, vol. iv, p. 517.
question.
THE PRETENDER'S DEFEAT 33
orders is undoubted, and that belief illustrates the
character of the fight. It meant that one army or
the other was, for all practical purposes, to be
annihilated.
The battle opened with an artillery duel, in which Culloden,
the English had much the best of it. Lord George l6th APril-
Murray hoped that the Duke of Cumberland might I74
hurl his men at the Highlanders after the manner of
Hawley, but the Duke had quite other views. His
guns played on the clansmen with precision, driving
them to desperation and placing them beyond the
control of their officers. When at last they could
stand it no longer, the Macintoshes set the example
by a rush upon the English front line of Foot, which,
says Wolfe in a letter to his Uncle Walter, " they did
with more fury than prudence, throwing down their
firearms and advancing with drawn swords." By
reserving their fire the English did deadly musketry
work, but nothing could wholly withstand the mad
onslaught. The Highlanders broke down the centre
of the first English line, and of Wolfe's regiment 120
officers and men were killed and wounded. But
Wolfe had the remnant well in hand, the second line
stood firm and when Cumberland's cavalry began to
move the Highlanders lost their nerve. They were
cut down as they attempted to get away, and in a
quarter of an hour from the time the battle began
the fugitives who managed to escape the dragoons
were all that was left of Charles Edward's army. That
was the end of the Young Pretender and of the Jacob-
ites so far as fighting went. The Prince after months
of hiding and adventures which have added to the
romance of his name, found himself safe once more
on the Continent, and the Duke of Cumberland set
4— (2213)
34
GENERAL WOLFE
Crushing
the
Clansmea
about the task of crushing the Highlanders who had
in any way supported the Stuart cause, by methods
which secured for him the title of Butcher.
Wolfe was called upon to take his share in the
unpleasant business. Never again were the clansmen
to be in a position to challenge the right of the House
of Hanover to the British crown. The story of course
loses nothing from the fact that it is told chiefly by
Stuart sympathisers. Before the action of Cumber-
land is condemned out of hand we must remember
that this was not the first occasion on which the
Highlanders had carried fire and slaughter into
innocent homes in the interest of the Stuarts, and
a Scotch historian has reminded us that the barbarities
of Cumberland's army were no worse than those of
most other armies in similar circumstances. It is not
quite reasonable to judge it by modern standards.
Nor were the English soldiers the sole offenders. The
clansmen in the Duke's army were at least as brutal
in their treatment of the vanquished. 1 However
uncongenial compliance might be, Wolfe would
certainly not have been backward in enforcing the
orders of his chief. A certain story told of him and
the Duke is probably entitled to no sort of credence.
Wolfe, it is said, was with the commander-in-chief
after the battle when they came across a wounded
Highlander, whose glance of hatred the Duke resented.
" Wolfe," said his Royal Highness, " shoot me that
Highland scoundrel who dares to show us such
insolence." " My commission," said Wolfe, "is at
your royal highness's disposal, but I never can
consent to become an executioner." The story, it
1 Macrae : Scotland Since the Union, p. 73.
THE FORT OF INVERSNAID 35
strikes one, is told not to illustrate the humanity of
Wolfe so much as the brutality of the Duke.
Culloden was one of the battles that have decided An interval
the fate of countries. Wolfe played his part with and fresh
a soldierly distinction which ever after ensured for orders-
him the favour of his chief. It was near the end of
July when the Duke left Scotland to receive an ovation
in London and a pension of £25,000 a year. What
Wolfe did throughout that summer can only be
surmised from such incidental allusion as is to be
found in local guide-books and Scott's introduction
to Rob Roy. He is said to have commanded the
Fort of Inversnaid in the gorge not far from Loch
Lomond. " When we find the celebrated General
Wolfe commanding in it," says Sir Walter, " the
imagination is strongly affected by the variety of
time and events which the circumstance brings
simultaneously to the recollection." Wright is,
however, of opinion that as the fort was in ruins in
1746, there must be some confusion with Wolfe's
later doings in Scotland. x Sir Walter states that the
fort was " a third time repaired after the extinction
of civil discord," and that would probably be a year
or two later. We must therefore take up the thread
of Wolfe's career after he left Scotland in the winter
of 1746 under orders again for Flanders. For the first
time for more than four years he was to have a short
holiday which he spent with his father and mother
in London. They had shifted their home to Old
Burlington Street. How delightful would be a glimpse
of this young veteran with his parents ; the wonder of
friends who hardly knew whether to treat him as boy
or man. He disposed of his fortnight or so between
1 Life of Wolfe, p. 92.
36 GENERAL WOLFE
the domestic hearth and the attractions and distrac-
tions of London, the London of Johnson and Hogarth,
of Garrick and Fielding. And then he was off once
more to join the Austrians and the Dutch in their
efforts to withstand the redoubtable Saxe. France
had not failed to take full advantage of the diversion
caused by the troubles of England. Flanders was
practically in possession of her troops. Her objective
now was Maestricht. The English threw themselves
into the new campaign with all the greater zeal in the
hope of punishing Louis XV for his support of the
Stuart cause. The Duke of Cumberland resumed
command of the Austro-Dutch-British forces, now
120,000 strong. There was some delay in taking
the field, thanks to the inadequate commissariat
arrangements made by the Dutch and Austrian
commanders.
Two rare Wolfe's letters at this time, judging from the rare
letters. specimens that have survived, were a delightful blend
of youthful gossip and soldierly appreciation of the
situation. In one, written on the 1st June, 1747, to
Miss Lacey, 1 the tone of which shows her to have been
a very special friend and confidante, if not something
closer, he talked of certain " dear girls " and the
injustice of any doubts as to their constancy. But
his thoughts were not only for the " dear girls."
" We are here," he said, " the guardians of the
Republick and since their reformation I begin to think
them worth our care." In another letter dated " the
camp at Westerloo, June 22nd," he referred to
Maestricht, which the Duke was presently to make
1 Miss Lacey according to an endorsement on this letter
became Mrs. Pool ; she was probably a relative of the famous
General Lacey in the Russian service.
A SOLDIER'S LOVE 37
a supreme effort to save. " The implacable enemy,"
he said, " may depend on their former success and
use it as a motive to new enterprises." In that case
Miss Lacey might be assured that nothing a fine army
could undertake would be wanting. Something that
she had told him or failed to tell him was responsible
for the first reference we get to his relation with the
fair sex. " You have," he wrote, "left me in a doubt
that is hurtful to my repose. Sure it must never
happen that a soldier is unhappy in his love," and he
was apprehensive lest some unworthy person should
triumph in " the frailty of my countrywomen."
He sent his wishes for the health and happiness of
Miss Lacey 's " pretty friends " and confessed : ' I
may say to my praise that no man has a greater
consideration for the sex than your obedient humble
servant, J. W."
Wolfe, who liked to " catch himself disposed to Laffeldt,
serious thoughts," was soon to discover that the 2nd July,
French did presume on their previous success. The x747-
Duke encountered Saxe at Laffeldt on the 2nd July.
That day's battle was intended to dispose once and
for all of Maria Theresa's claims and to confirm the
French in their mastery of the Netherlands. Saxe
had an army of 150,000 men, and Louis had actually
come to witness the triumph. If the Dutch had
fought with the same spirit and stood their ground
or rallied when forced to give way, with the same
dogged determination that the English showed
throughout the day, the French might have been
badly beaten ; at the moment when the fortunes
of the day seemed to be in favour of the allies the
Dutch threw everything into confusion by retreating
and the Duke of Cumberland was only saved from
38 GENERAL WOLFE
capture by a furious cavalry charge led by Sir John
Ligonier, who was himself taken prisoner. The
charge saved the situation. The allies were able to
retire on Maestricht, and the French, who had lost
ten thousand men, abandoned all idea for the present
of another attempt to take it. The battle of Laffeldt
cost the allies 5,000 men in killed and wounded, the
British casualties being disproportionately severe,
for there was some truth in Louis XV's remark that
' The English not only paid all but fought all."
Wolfe's regiment was in the thick of the fight, and
Wolfe was wounded, though happily not seriously ;
his services were sufficiently conspicuous to command
the Duke's public thanks. The ensuing winter Wolfe
was permitted to spend at home. Hence, the twenty-
first anniversary of his birth was celebrated in Old
Burlington Street. No conventional majority func-
tion that ! At an age when youth usually begins to
think of settling down to the serious business of life,
he had already put in six years in the hard school of
professional experience.
Peace and Returning to Holland in March, 1748, Brigade-
profes- Major Wolfe was sent to join a detachment of British
prospects, troops with the Austrians near Breda — a post which
did not appeal to him. Negotiations with a view to
peace had been opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, but the
fighting went on. Maestricht was besieged by Saxe,
and Wolfe had some hope of assisting " a fortunate
stroke " which might prove the total ruin of the
besieging army. In a letter from Osterhout dated
the 12th April he gave the purport of a conversation
with Adjutant-General Yorke, who said some " civil
things." The Duke, according to the Adjutant-
General, had expressed great concern at not having it
WOLFE'S ASPIRATIONS 39
in his power yet to serve Wolfe, but intimated his
" just intention " to give him a major's commissio
without payment so soon as opportunity served.
Wolfe, professing himself to be beyond the reach of
disappointment, did not expect much to come of this.
The negotiations for peace were so far advanced that
the preliminaries were signed and orders for the
cessation of fighting were issued, and Wolfe in the
intervals of affairs was speculating as to his future. J*0*?^"8
Much as he had done, efficient as he had made himself future
according to the standard of his fellows, he was aware
that in general education he was lamentably wanting,
and that in regard to military science, with all his
experience and application, he had mastered but its
fringe. Without funds — and £10,000 he said might
be " prettily disposed of " — something more than
patient merit was necessary to preferment in the days
of purchase, of " family compacts " in small things
as in large, of social and political wire-pulling which
there was little attempt even to gloss, certainly not
disguise. His parents did all they could for him
financially, and his mother always had her eye open
with a view to a rich marriage that should place her
son beyond the necessity of schemes of economy in
which, as he humorously put it, spare diet and small
beer had their place. Wolfe's ideas of economy
were not those of the young men of the time. He did
not waste his substance in riotous living, fine clothes,
and high play, and then appeal to the paternal purse
on the ground that the society in which he mixed
made economy impossible. But " an unlucky know-
ledge of the immediate necessity of living well " — in
other words, his health — made the practice of " par-
simonious maxims " unwise. If, said Wolfe, the
40 GENERAL WOLFE
paymaster-general " knew how well we feed, and that
sometimes the table for four is crowded, he would
be jealous of our emoluments and censure our extra-
vagance, refuse perhaps our arrears, and cut off the
non-effectives."
Desire to However, to feed the brain rather than the body
travel. was Wolfe's immediate concern. He ardently desired
to travel and to study the military systems of other
nations, of Prussia, of Austria, and of Italy, but the
opportunity was denied him. He expressed his
feelings in strong terms against the " settled opinion "
that an officer should confine himself to his particular
military functions. Why should men's capacities be
beaten down so that " no man would ever be fitted
for a higher employment than he is in ? Tis un-
accountable that who wishes to see a good army can
oppose men's enlarging their notions or acquiring that
knowledge with a little absence which they can't
possibly meet with at home, especially when they are
supposed masters of their present employment and
really acquainted with it. In all other stations in life
that method is usually pursued which best conduces
to the knowledge every one naturally wishes to have
of his own profession." Another letter written by
Wolfe when he was in camp at Osterhout bears on
this plaint. He did not believe in limiting the ideas
of men to their professional pursuits, still less to the
narrow grooves which sufficed to carry them through
from point to point. " We military men don't
accustom ourselves to moral topics, or seldom enter-
tain one another with subjects which are out of the
common role from the frequent occasion we have to
mention our own affairs which in time of war are of
no small extent and concern. Possibly our manner
A NEW INFLUENCE '41
of writing may proceed in some measure from diffi-
dence and modesty as not caring to attempt things
we are sensible have been better touched upon ; and
rather choose to be confined to that particular branch
of knowledge with which we are supposed to be well
acquainted."1
A new influence entirely outside his profession had Miss
entered Wolfe's life. During his visit to London in Lawson.
the winter of 1747-8 he very nearly surrendered to the
charms of one of Sir Wilfrid Lawson's daughters, a
maid of honour to the Princess of Wales. The
capitulation was complete when he returned from the
Netherlands for good in December, 1748. Wolfe
might have a tender corner in his heart for Miss Lacey
and her " pretty friends," but the deeper and more
abiding passion came to him only when he met Miss
Lawson. She had an auxiliary merit in the shape
of a little fortune of some £12,000 — in Wolfe's eyes
probably a sufficient reinforcement of love's claims,
but not in his mother's. She found a lady worth
£30,000 a year, whom she regarded as much more
fitted to be her son's wife. But in that as in other
matters the ever-dutiful boy had views of his own,
and with every desire in the world to " oblige," he
was constrained to obduracy. " Sure it must never
happen that a soldier can be unhappy in his love " :
his desire to marry Miss Lawson was the occasion of
much unhappiness to the author of that oracular line.
1 Beckles Willson : " Some Unpublished Letters of Genera]
Wolfe," Nineteenth Century, Sept., 1908.
CHAPTER IV
WOLFE, THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE, AND SOME
REFLECTIONS
Major of With the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
the 20th. from which, after seven or eight years' war, nobody
derived an atom of benefit, the restoration of peace
apart, England once more found herself governed by
men of timorous Imperial outlook. That treaty
made England feel that all her sacrifices had been in
vain. In America the surrender of Louisbourg, which
the colonists themselves had captured, to France in
return for Madras was strongly resented. Pelham,
the Prime Minister, was a petty Walpole. He was
convinced that England could not stand alone
against the House of Bourbon, and the mere thought
that the French might join hands with the Dutch
scared him. Under such auspices, Wolfe could not
hope that the army would provide much opportunity
for others than coxcombs and uniformed swaggerers.
The exceptions certainly proved the rule. Yet his
military ardour burned fiercely : he wanted to know
all that was best in other systems and was determined
to secure by force of character what came to others
by favouritism. The nepotism of the age was not
altogether without leaven. Wolfe had not been in
London many days before he was gazetted Major
of the 20th — his rank abroad had been brevet only —
and he repaired in January, 1749, to Stirling, where
the regiment was quartered. His colonel was Lord
George Sackville ; his lieutenant-colonel the Hon.
42
IN SCOTLAND AGAIN 43
Edward Cornwallis. The prospect of Wolfe's suc-
ceeding to the position of lieutenant-colonel at an
early date was a good one, always provided ulterior
considerations were not allowed to override profes-
sional. Cornwallis was appointed Governor of Nova
Scotia, and from the time of Major Wolfe's arrival
in Stirling he was acting lieutenant-colonel, then as
always discharging duties beyond his rank.
In Scotland in 1749 Wolfe took up afresh the task Scottish
of assisting to reduce the Highlanders to complete changes!
submission and control. Even two years had made
some impression. After Culloden, Scotland entered
on a new era : an era which meant not merely the
destruction of Jacobite power for harm but the
disappearance of many distinctive racial symbols.
Tartan and kilt had to be abandoned, and the High-
land feudal system, which made the chieftain a law
unto himself and his followers, had to go. The state
of Scotland in the first half of the eighteenth century
was very different from what it became during the
second half. The Highlanders were as wild and
lawless a lot as the hillmen of the Indian north-west
frontier to-day, and some of Scott's facts in his pre-
faces and notes convey an idea totally at variance
with the impression left by the romance which he
built up from them. The Rob Roy of the introduc-
tion to the novel which bears his name was not
entirely the Rob Roy of the story. Efforts at
civilisation tried after '15 had so far failed that more
strenuous measures were instituted after '45. Of
these measures the most important was the substitu-
tion of sheriffs appointed by the Crown for the
hereditary jurisdiction of the chieftains, who were no
longer to hold lands on condition of " wardship " or
44 GENERAL WOLFE
military service. To compensate those heads of clans
who had taken no part in the rebellion for losses
involved in their change of status, Parliament voted
£150,000, and as invariably happens in such cases
the money was allotted in a way that made dissatis-
faction inevitable. But Scotland did not nurse her
grievances. Wealth came from the industrial activity
encouraged by the breaking down of the border bar-
riers and the opening up of the country by roads
which Wade had started after '15 and Wolfe and
others were now to continue. Scotland placed her-
self as a matter of right on a footing of equality with
her powerful neighbour and entered boldly into
rivalry for whatever prizes or rewards the British
Empire had to offer. x How well she succeeded the
story of the British Empire east and west amply
proclaims.
Glasgow in Wolfe's first care in Stirling was for his men. He
749- instructed his captains to keep a sharp personal eye
on them, not to be content with sergeant's reports,
but to visit the men's quarters at unaccustomed times
and when any man seemed ill or out of condition to
ascertain the cause in order to find a remedy. A
couple of months after his arrival Wolfe's regiment
was transferred to Glasgow. Here as elsewhere in
Scotland he was seldom in quite congenial surround-
ings. At times he felt himself rather more out of the
world of that civilisation of which London was the
centre than many an officer to-day who is serving on
the confines of the Empire. Glasgow in 1749 was not
an ideal jumping-off place for ambitious youth keen
for military preferment. He did not like Scotland,
and talked of " the very bloom of life being nipped
1 Macrae, p. 82.
UNCONGENIAL GLASGOW 45
in this northern climate." His health in Glasgow
was especially bad ; he felt the reaction after his
several campaigns, and the slightest business was a
trial. He chafed under his inability to prosecute his
suit with Miss Lawson, and feared that parental
opposition and long absence would extinguish the
fire of his passion. Young flames, he said, must be
constantly fed or " they'll evaporate." He was short
of means and estimated that after providing for
necessaries he had Is. Id. per day for pocket-money —
a condition of things which his father amended
directly he heard of it. He did not care for the men
with whom he worked in Glasgow — they were new
to him and many of them were of " low mettle,"
and if there was any prospect of an everlasting stay
" I'd rather be a major upon half-pay, by my soul ! "
Young as he was, he knew that one in his position
of authority would be surrounded by either " flatterers
or spies." " The men here are civil, designing, and
treacherous with their immediate interest always in
view. They pursue trade with warmth and a neces-
sary mercantile spirit arising from the baseness of
their other qualifications. The women, coarse, cold
and cunning for ever enquiring after men's circum-
stances : they make that the standard of their good
breeding." The northern nouveaux riches were as
little to his taste as the rich incompetents who secured
the professional plums.
But grumble as he might, Wolfe, according to his Solace in
lights — and they were not mere spluttering wicks — books and
struggled to make the best of his situation. A fnendshlP-
professor at the college to whom he had a letter of
recommendation, introduced him to a social evening
when conversation turned on subjects with which
46 GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe was unfamiliar. " He was so much mortified
at not being able to bear any share in it that he next
morning entreated his friend the professor to put him
in the way of acquiring the knowledge he found
himself deficient in. He was gratified in this request
and he became a most diligent student while he
continued in Glasgow."1 A tutor taught him
mathematics and assisted him to recover his ' ' almost
lost Latin." He found solace in his books and his
correspondence. Writing to his friend, Captain
William Rickson, then in Dublin, he said : " You'll
believe me when I tell you that, in my esteem, few
of what we call advantages in life would be worth
accepting if none were to partake them with us.
What a wretch is he who lives for himself alone — his
only aim ! It is the first degree of happiness here
below that the honest, the brave, and the estimable
part of mankind, or at least some among them, share
our success." But of course his real diversion was
his profession, as to which he indulged in certain
philosophic reflections in a letter to his father —
Advantages " That variety incident to a military life gives our pro-
of military fession some advantages over those of a more even and
life# constant nature. We have all our passions and affections
roused and exercised, many of which must have wanted their
proper employment had not suitable occasions obliged us to
exert them. Few men are acquainted with the degrees of
their own courage till dangers prove them, and are seldom
justly informed how far the love of honour or dread of shame
are superior to the love of life. This is a knowledge to be best
cquired in an army ; our actions are there in presence of
the world, to be freely censured or approved. Constancy of
temper, patience, and all the virtues necessary to make us
suffer with a good grace, are likewise parts of our character,
and, as you know, frequently called in to carry us through
unusual difficulties.
1 Gentleman' s Magazine, vol. lxi, p. 507.
TURBULENT TWENTY-THREE
47
" What moderation and humility must he be possessed of
that bears the good fortune of a successful war with tolerable
modesty and humility, and he is very excellent in his nature
who triumphs without insolence. A battle gained is, 1 believe,
the highest joy mankind is capable of receiving, to him who
commands ; and his merit must be equal to his success if it
works no change to his disadvantage. Lastly, a defeat is
a trial of human resolution, and to labour under the mortifica-
tion of being surpassed, and live to see the fatal consequences
that may follow to one's country, is a situation next to
damnable."
Wolfe's responsibilities were increased by the
transfer of his colonel, Lord George Sackville, to
Dublin. The " difficult and troublesome employment
of a commander " — still higher duties without the
rank — devolved upon him, and he had a lively
consciousness that to keep the passions in bounds
" when authority and immaturity go together," to
do justice to good and bad, " reward and punish with
unbiassed hand," " reconcile the severity of discipline
with the dictates of humanity," study tempers and
dispositions, and " oblige without partiality," " dis-
couraging vice and recommending the reverse at the
turbulent age of twenty-three " was no mean call
on one whose natural propensity might be opposed
to the very courses he upheld. No man, certainly
none at the mature age of twenty-three, was ever more
assured of the superior advantages in leadership of
practice over precept. One of Wolfe's years would
find it hard to preach and to practice without becom-
ing somewhat of a prig, at least in the eyes of his
fellows, but the ample knowledge of his character
which his letters supply puts any such deduction on
one side. Wolfe's great idea was to prove himself
worthy of whatever confidence was reposed in him
and to make the principles and the integrity which
Authority
and im-
maturity.
48
GENERAL WOLFE
Appointed
Lieutenant-
Colonel.
always marked his father's life the rule of his own.
In a letter to his mother from Glasgow on 2nd October,
1749, he said—
" Few of my companions surpass me in common knowledge
but most of them in vice. This is a truth I should blush to
relate to one that had not all my confidence, lest it be thought
to proceed either from insolence or vanity ; but I think you
don't understand it so. I dread their habits and behaviour,
and am forced to an eternal watch upon myself that I may
avoid the very manner which T most condemn in them.
Young men should have some object constantly in their aim,
some shining character to direct them. 'Tis a disadvantage
to be first at an imperfect age ; either we become enamoured
with ourselves, seeing nothing superior, or fall into the degree
of our associates."
Lord Bury succeeded to the colonelcy, but as
months elapsed before he visited the regiment, its
interests were entirely in Wolfe's charge. In March,
1750, his hopes were gratified by his appointment as
lieutenant-colonel. His promotion quickened his
desire to go abroad in order not to sacrifice all his time
" in idleness or trifling soldiership." His friend
Rickson was with Cornwallis in Nova Scotia, and
Wolfe outlined to him a tour which he would make
to Metz, along the Rhine to Switzerland, and back
through France and the Netherlands. His interest in
Rickson's situation in Nova Scotia was keen. The
colony, hitherto known as Acadie, belonged to France
down to the Treaty of Utrecht, and Cornwallis was
now busy making it British in fact as well as in name.
Wolfe asked many questions about the place, the
people, and the government, and spoke enthusiasti-
cally of the " felicity of our American colonies "
compared with those of France and Spain. What
would Wolfe not have given to be with Rickson
almost within hail of the spot which a few years hence
FOUR MONTHS IN LONDON 49
was to be the scene of his immortality ? But Wolfe
was not even to be allowed to go abroad. Leave of
absence was granted, but it was intimated that he
must stay in England. One must share his perplexity
and inability to understand why.
If Wolfe had been allowed to take a run abroad a period
he would have been spared an experience which of folly«
was a cause of regret to him for months. What
he resisted successfully in Scotland he succumbed t
in London, where he arrived on 14th November, 1750,
to stay with his parents in Old Burlington Street.
His lapse into the depravity of the age, when it
was "the vogue of the best society"1 to drink,
gamble, swear, and scoff at religion and morality,
may have been due to reaction after the severity
of his self-discipline in the north ; it may have
been due to disgust that he was not permitted
to turn his holiday to account profitably abroad as
he believed he could ; it may have been due to the
veto of his parents on his " senseless passion " for
Miss Lawson, who, moreover, seems to have endorsed
their views by rejecting his advances ; or it may have
been the cumulative effect of all three. Whatever
the explanation he plunged recklessly into the coarse
pleasures of London life, to the intense pain of his
father and mother and his own physical undoing
He made himself ill, and had barely recovered when
he rejoined his regiment at Banff in the middle of
April, 1751. During his four months in London, he
told Rickson he committed more imprudent acts than
in all his life before, living an idle, dissolute,
abandoned life, " and that not out of vice, which is
the most extraordinary part of it. I have escaped
1 Wright, p. 161.
5— (2213)
50 GENERAL WOLFE
at length and am once again master of my reason, and
hereafter it shall rule my conduct." His letters to
his father were charged with manly apologies : his
father had evidently upbraided him sharply. He
talked of those " seeds of such imperfections in me
that perhaps only wanted nourishment and proper
occasion to break forth," and he begged his father not
to think it troublesome to him to read any paternal
letter though it should be the mirror of his follies.
Nova On his return to Banff, Wolfe still showed a lively
Scotia. interest in Nova Scotian affairs — an interest that has
a certain piquancy in view of events of which Wolfe
perhaps never dreamed in his flightiest moment of
ambition. He wrote to Rickson that he imagined
certain works would be undertaken " in expectation
of future wars with France when I foresee great
attempts to be made in your neighbourhood." Did
he foresee that the fortress of Louisbourg, which had
been taken by the New England levies from the
French in 1744, would have to be taken again before
the position of the British colonies would be tolerable ?
He found " the present schemes of economy "
favoured by the ministry destructive of all patriotic
enterprise, and was disgusted with Pelham and
his colleagues that they refused to strengthen the
garrison of Nova Scotia. But Pelham was afraid
of taking any step which might afford a new occasion
of quarrel with " our everlasting and irreconcilable
adversary " — " a bad prognostic," as Wolfe put
it. The Acadians made things so impossible for
the British that it was later deemed necessary
forcibly to transplant them to other colonies. It
was a harsh proceeding, but not quite so barbarous
as the poet's pathetic frenzy would have us believe.
DISLOYALTY OF THE ACADIANS 51
Wolfe was sorry for the position in which Rickson
found himself, with no hope of ending the hostility
of the French by a decisive blow and in constant
danger from assassination. " These circumstances
discourage the bravest minds. Brave men when they
see the least room for conquest, think it easy and
generally make it so ; but they grow impatient with
perpetual disadvantages." Could the nerveless
statesmanship of the period from which Pitt a very
few years hence with the aid of a few indomitable
spirits like James Wolfe and Robert Clive, of
Boscawen and Hawke and Saunders, was to rescue
the country as if by magic, be illustrated more simply ?
Wolfe would have made short work of some of the
troubles of the British in Nova Scotia and by an
almost dramatic stroke — " prognostic " here at any
rate — he suggested that the Highlanders, so recently
at war with England, so soon to add new laurels to
British arms, would be the people for the unpleasant
work. " I should imagine that two or three inde-
pendent Highland companies might be of use ; they
are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country,
and no great mischief if they fall. How can you
better employ a secret enemy than by making his end
conducive to the common good ? If this sentiment
should take wind, what an execrable and bloody
being should I be considered here in the midst of
Popery and Jacobitism."
Wolfe's sentiments concerning his friend's position Inverness
in Nova Scotia and his own in Scotland if analysed in r75'«
would have been found to be curiously similar.
Though he made some good friends in Scotland, he
always looked upon himself "as an exile : with
respect to the inhabitants I am so, for I dislike 'em
52 GENERAL WOLFE
much." So, when in Banff, he told Rickson ; so
when, in the autumn of 1751, he was transferred to
Inverness, the very head centre of Jacobitism, he
told his father : "A little while serves to discover
the villainous nature of the inhabitants and brutality
of the people of its neighbourhood. Those, too, who
pretend the greatest attachment to the Government,
and who every day feed upon the public purse, seem
to distinguish themselves for greater rudeness than
the open and professed Jacobites." Inverness in
those days was not the sort of place to make less
querulous a temperament so impatient for larger
things, which " fretted at trifles and quarrelled with
Disuse of toothpicks." Wolfe for a time liked nothing in
Inverness, and he had " the additional mortification "
that the country round about afforded no relief in the
shape of hunting and shooting. He wondered how
long such a place would take to wear out the love of
arms " in a man moderately inclined that way." He
derived some satisfaction in surveying the field of
Culloden " with great exactness," and reporting to
his father that he found room for " military criticism
as well as for a little ridicule upon some famous
transactions of that memorable day. The actors
shone in the world too high and bright to be eclipsed ;
but it is plain they don't borrow much of their glory
from their performance on that occasion, however they
may have distinguished themselves in later events."
He did not reflect on the Head but on the lower
agents. His censure, he said, was made not to exer-
cise his ill-nature but to " exercise the faculty of
judging," to learn from the false steps of others what
to avoid and from " the examples worthiest of
imitation " what should never be lost sight of. With
FEMALE REBELS 53
many of the families against whose fathers and sons
he had fought he was necessarily brought in contact.
" We have an assembly of female rebels every fort-
night, entirely composed of Macdonalds, Frazers, and
M'Intoshes." He danced with the daughter of a
famous chieftain who fell at Culloden. These " female
rebels " were " perfectly wild as the hills that breed
them, but they lay aside their principles for the sake
of sound and movement."
In a flash of sardonic humour Wolfe assured his Serious
mother that " an easy stupidity and insensibility thoughts at
seems to have crept into me and does the part of
reason in keeping the vessel steady with prodigious
success. It is so pleasing a state that I prefer it to
any conceit that the fancy can produce, any whirl-
wind of the brain or violent chase after nothing."
He had reached the end of his twenty-fifth year, and
in a letter home indulged in some reflections on the
wearing away of life. Written in the dead of night,
the note was pessimistic. " It matters little where
a man passes his days and what station he fills, or
whether he be great or considerable, but it imports
him something to look to his manner of life. This
day I am five and twenty years of age, and all that
time is as nothing. When I am fifty (if it so happens)
and look back it will be the same ; and so on to the
last hour." Life's uncertainty induced the feeling
that " the little time taken in for meditation is the
best employed." All seemed vanity. Yet serious
as his thoughts and good intentions may be on retiring
to bed, so strangely " mixed and compounded " is
human nature that "it is likely I may rise with my
old nature or perhaps with the addition of some new
impertinence and be the same wandering lump of idle
54 GENERAL WOLFE
errors that I have ever been." " Our natural weak-
ness " made him fearful of being drawn by the herd
into " the worst degree of our iniquities." Work
was salvation : " Most employment and least vice."
He tried to be patient under " the little inconve-
niences " to which he was subject, and held in con-
tempt those who could only be happy in luxury and
idleness. " There are young men amongst us that
have great revenues and high military stations, that
repine at three months' service with their regiments
if they go fifty miles from home. Soup and venaison
and turtle are their supreme delight and joy — an
effeminate race of coxcombs, the future leaders of our
armies, defenders and protectors of our great and free
nation ! " He did not strive to avoid the vices
affected by most army officers of the period merely
because he feared contamination. Nor did he seek
from mere impatience alone to get into touch with
the world outside his shifting but hardly varying
Scottish society. He had a fear that " the tyrannical
principles of an absolute commander " " the tempta-
tions of power " might make him " proud, insolent,
and intolerable." " By frequenting men above
myself I may know my true condition and by discours-
ing with the other sex may learn some civility and
mi dness of carriage, but never pay the price of the
last improvement with the loss of reason. Better
be a savage of some use than a gentle amorous puppy
obnoxious to all the world. One of the wildest of wild
clans is a worthier being than a mere philander."
The effect. " Mere philander " Wolfe could never be. He
of study kept fog studies going and read mathematics until
he had " grown perfectly stupid," he said, " and
algebraically worked away the little portion of
WORDS AND ACTIONS 55
understanding that was allowed to me. They have
not even left me the qualities of a coxcomb ; for I can
neither laugh nor sing, nor talk for an hour upon
nothing." This was " a sensible loss," but he
consoled himself with the reflection that " a man may
make a neighbourlike appearance in this cold region
with a moderate competency of knowledge, and with
a degree of gravity that may supply the deficiency.
And whoever goes to kirk (as I do) once a week, and
there comforts himself with more reverence to the
priest than consideration for the nature of the business
— herein I sometimes fail — will most assuredly obtain
the reputation of great wisdom and discretion." A
cynical vein is touched by the allowance that he and
his companions are " the most religious foot officers "
seen in the north for many a day, whereas in other
quarters they had been regarded as no better than
the sons of darkness.
Wolfe's little disquisitions on morals are a fine
tribute to the abiding influence of parental example. measure
Nor were they a verbal cloak for inconsistency of of worth,
conduct. He was no saint ; he could even be a rebel
at times, but he always longed to be able to show the
superiority of action over words. " A number of
words and sentences ever so well put together cannot
equal a good action," he wrote from Glasgow in
July, 1749 ; " it is evident that our words are not
proof of good conduct," he wrote from Inverness in
February, 1752, " they don't always express our
thoughts, but what a man does may be depended
upon and is the true measure of his worth." With
his trouble over his love affair, his resentment and
ultimate surrender, and his standard of the relative
value of words and action, in mind, many things may
56 GENERAL WOLFE
be read into another passage from this letter of Febru-
ary, 1752. His parents could not have mistaken its
fairly plain significance : " We are not enough
acquainted with ourselves to determine our future
conduct, ror can any man foresee what shall happen ;
but as far as one may hazard a conjecture there is a
great possibility that I shall never marry. I should
hardly engage in an affair of that nature purely for
money, nor do I believe that my infatuation will ever
be strong enough to persuade me that people can live
without it ; besides, unless there be violence done to
my inclinations by the power of some gentle nymph.
I had much rather listen to the drum and trumpet
than any softer sound whatever."
The stoic in him finds further expression a month
later when he says that " perhaps there is a possibility
of going through the business of the world without
any strong connection or attachment to anything
that is in it and with a kind of indifference as to what
happens." And by way of commentary, unwitting
or designed, we have this delightfully naive
confession —
" I have lately fallen into the acquaintance (by mere
chance) of two young Scotch ladies, with whose conversation
I am infinitely delighted, They are birds of a fine feather,
and very rare in this country. One of them is a wife, ( x) the
ther a maid. The former has the strongest understanding,
the other has the prettiest face ; but as I am not disposed
to become the slave of either, the matron stands first. I
mention this circumstance to clear up all doubt that might
rise from the subject ; and I speak of these ladies to show
that we should not despair, and that some satisfaction may
be found even where it is least expected."
( x) Wright says there is good reason to conclude that the
elder lady was Mrs. Forbes, wife of John, only son of the
famous Lord President,
INVERNESS AND THE DUKE 57
Two years had elapsed since Lord Bury's appoint- Lord Bury
ment as colonel ; he was expected to visit the regi-
ment in April. His lieutenant-colonel's reflections are
amusing : " He'll stay six weeks, and then swear
there's no enduring it any longer, and beg leave to
return. ' Wolfe, you'll stay in the Highlands ; you
can't, with any face, ask to quit the regiment so
dispersed ; and when you have clothed and sent them
to their different quarters, towards the end of Novem-
ber you shall come to London, my dear friend, for
three months.' This will be his discourse, and I must
say, ' My Lord, you are very kind ! ' " Lord Bury
proved more kind in one respect than Wolfe antici-
pated : in another he proved himself less than kind —
in some ways a worthy successor of the victor of
Culloden, assuming, that is, any of the stories of the
Duke of Cumberland to be true. The colonel took a
sympathetic view of Wolfe's desire to escape from his
" long confinement," and leave of absence was
granted in May. But if Lord Bury showed himself
sensible of Wolfe's claim to consideration, he was
guilty of an act which went far to undo any good
that Wolfe's attitude towards the inhabitants might
have accomplished, for though Wolfe did not like
them he seems to have treated them as human beings.
When his Lordship reached Inverness it was proposed
to entertain him on the Duke of Cumberland's
birthday as a mark of loyalty to his Royal Highness :
an idea which it is hard to reconcile with the reputa-
tion of the Butcher. Lord Bury suggested that it
would be a better compliment to the Duke to celebrate
the following day, that of course being the anniversary
of Culloden. Confronted by a proposal which was
an outrage to half the locality, the embarrassed
58 GENERAL WOLFE
officials after taking time to consider regretted that
it was impossible to comply with the suggestion, and
Lord Bury coerced them by saying that he had told
his men of the forthcoming celebration, and would
not answer for the consequences if it did not take
place. It is a pity we have no letter from Wolfe
giving his view of a proceeding which was as inane
as it was cruel.
CHAPTER V
IRELAND, PARIS, AND THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND
Lieut.-Col. Wolfe's nine months in Inverness Leaving
gave him a sense of cramp, professional and mental, Scotland,
if not physical. On a bright May morning he set out
with certain companies of his regiment along the road
by Loch Ness to Fort Augustus at its south-west
corner — " a grandly wild " long summer day's march,
as Wright calls it. Fort Augustus was among the
strategic points selected after the rising of '15 and
strengthened after '45. It was one of the radiating
centres of the military posts established for the
purpose of disarming and cowing the recalcitrant,
and policing the Highlands generally. At Fort
Augustus, Wolfe received his furlough permit, and
with the eagerness of the schoolboy gathering up his
belongings for the summer holidays, made arrange-
ments to get away at once. His plans were to visit
Ireland, London, and Paris. From Fort Augustus
he went to Perth, Glasgow, and Portpatrick. During
his journey he called at many of the out-of-the-way
military posts and saw a good deal of the method by
which outlaws were hunted down, and, it is to be
feared, by which in some cases outlaws were made.
Whole pages of Scottish history at this period seem
to be lifted bodily, with names and locale changed,
out of Ireland's record ; there was the same bitter,
often bloody, conflict between large sections of
peasantry and the representatives of the Crown ; and
the factor on a confiscated Scottish estate carried his
59
60
GENERAL WOLFE
anecdote.
Ireland in
1752.
life in his hands just as the agents of unpopular
landlords in Ireland have always done in times of
agrarian agitation. It is a gloomy picture, though
one which we know was destined to brighten with
each succeeding generation.
Wolfe had much to say from time to time in
criticism of the common soldier, but he looked upon
the wearer of the King's uniform as a superior person
in the class to which he belonged. One day during
this Scottish journey Wolfe left his servant in charge
of his horse, and on his return found a grenadier
holding both his own and the servants' animals.
Wolfe was very angry. " Sirrah," he said when the
groom appeared, " what do you mean by thus
deserting your post and taking up the time of this
soldier ? Had I employed him, as you have, it would
have been proper enough, but can you be such a fool
as to think that a man who has the honour to wear
the King's uniform and is engaged in the service of
his country, ought to supply the place of an idle
servant ? Know that it is your duty and my com-
mand that you wait upon the soldiers and not the
soldiers upon you ! " It might be an extract from
Fielding or Smollett ; the note of over-emphasis is
characteristic.
Wolfe's uncle, Major Walter, was living in Dublin ;
the veterans, young and old, looked forward to
meeting with keen interest, the keener perhaps
because they differed on many points of military
economy. Walter Wolfe was of the school which
thought bull-dog courage of more importance than
training ; his nephew was certainly not indifferent
to the claims of the bull-dog, but if he had had to make
a choice would have favoured discipline before
MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRELAND 61
reckless devotion. From Portpatrick to Donaghadee
in a primitive flat-bottomed boat, and through the
north-eastern counties of Ireland by still more
primitive and ricketty post-chaise, was an ordeal,
unaccustomed though the traveller was to anything
approaching luxury in locomotion. Wolfe was
charmed with Irish scenery, though his quick eye
detected plenty of room for improvements particularly
in planting and the draining of boggy grounds. He
was told that the best estates were " involved deeply
in debt, the tenants racked and plundered, and
consequently industry and good husbandry dis-
appointed or destroyed." x The Irish problem was
then becoming, if it had not already become, pretty
much what it has been throughout the intervening
century and a half, with the difference that Ireland
had its Parliament to assist the ventilation of its
grievances. The Freeman's Journal was hammering
away at British interference in Irish affairs, and when
Wolfe was in Dublin its proprietor, Charles Lucas,
was hiding in England from a warrant out for his
arrest. 2 Lords-lieutenant themselves were absentees
for three-fourths of their term, one part of Dublin
was pretentiously gay on the proceeds of rack rents
while the other was in a state of squalid wretched-
ness, 3 and Irish distress was gradually working up to
a point which was to give the oratory of Flood and
Grattan its dynamic force. It was an Ireland steeped
1 Lecky (England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 317)
seeks to correct the common view that Irish life in the first
half of the eighteenth century was " altogether corrupt, frivo-
lous, grotesque and barbarous : among many and glaring
vices some real public spirit and intellectual energy may be
discovered."
2 Lawless : Story of the Nations : Ireland, p. 322.
3 Lecky : England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii, p. 318.
62 GENERAL WOLFE
in ignorance and superstition on the one hand ; poor,
shabby-genteel, and trying to keep up appearances
on the other ; the Ireland of whose homes Goldsmith
said with a fine native touch —
Some Irish houses where things are so so
A gammon of bacon hangs up for a show,
But as to think of eating the thing they take pride in
They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in.
The Boyne. As to Wolfe's doings and impressions in Ireland
we have scanty information. He took the oppor-
tunity of visiting the scene of the battle of the Boyne ;
his reflections would not be confined to the military
side ; he stood upon the historic ground where
" Dutch William " had scared the pusillanimous
James II to flight and asylum in France ; and he had
only a few weeks before left the neighbourhood of
Culloden where he had taken part in what would
probably be the last effort of the Stuarts to recover
the throne James had forfeited. If James had
possessed the personality, the chivalry, and the pluck
of his grandson, Ireland might have preserved what
Scotland was unable to restore, and if there had been
no Hanoverian succession how different would have
been British history, how different Wolfe's own life.
Sight of the monument erected to the memory of
Schomberg gave Wolfe more satisfaction than " all
the variety" of other spots he had visited, "and
perhaps there is not another piece of ground in the
world that I could take so much pleasure to observe."
After a week in Dublin, which appeared to him to be
" a prodigious city : x the streets crowded with
1 Lecky says, " In the middle of the eighteenth century
Dublin was in dimensions and population the second city in
the Empire."
FROM DUBLIN TO PARIS 63
people of a large size and well limbed, and the women
very handsome," he went south, then crossed to
Bristol, spent some time in the West of England, and
arrived at Blackheath about the time that England
brought her calendar into conformity with the
Gregorian. Wolfe probably reached home only to
lose eleven days of reckoning, for those who went to
bed on the night of Wednesday, 2nd September,
1752, did not get up till the morning of the 14th,
" and found themselves no more refreshed than after
an ordinary night's rest." 1
Wolfe's anxiety was now to know whether he was Wolfe in
to be allowed to go abroad. He had thrown out Paris«
hints more than once that if there were no chance of
active service at home he would join a foreign army
where further enlightenment would be possible.
However, his anxiety was soon relieved. Permission
came and he set out for Paris early in October ; Lord
Bury's father, the Earl of Albemarle, was then British
Minister in France, and to him Wolfe carried an
introduction from the colonel himself. It had its
advantages of course, though Wolfe soon found that
this rather remarkable specimen of an ambassador,
who frequently, according to Horace Walpole, did
not grace his own banquet table when guests were
present, was not of all the service that might have
been expected. It was at a peculiarly tense moment
in the history of France that Wolfe set foot in Paris.
Forces were gathering that were to have immediate
effect on French fortunes at home and abroad, and
forty years later were to sweep the Bourbons from
the throne. Louis XV was King, but Madame de
1 Wright, p. 231.
64 GENERAL WOLFE
Pompadour was ruler ; her influence in the councils
of State was supreme ; 1 she wielded the imperial
sceptre in return for the amusement of the monarch.
" She gained and long kept the power that she
coveted ; filled the Bastille with her enemies ; made
and unmade ministers ; appointed and removed
generals. Great questions of policy were at the
mercy of her caprices. Through her frivolous vanity,
her personal likes and dislikes, all the great depart-
ments of Government — army, navy, war, foreign
affairs, justice, finance — changed from hand to hand
incessantly, and this at a time of crisis when the
kingdom needed the steadiest and surest guidance." 2
Only one person near the throne dared to show his
disgust that Madame de Pompadour should be
allowed to stand not only between King and Queen,
but between the King and his duty to the nation.
That person was the Dauphin, and for his indepen-
dence he was humiliated before the whole Court. Wolfe
had not been long in Paris before, apparently at the
play, he came near Madame ; he described her as
" a very agreeable woman." In January he was pre-
sented with others to the King and the Royal Family,
and to Madame de Pompadour. She entertained
them at her toilette, it being her habit to receive
visitors in her dressing-room. " We found her curling
her hair. She is extremely handsome, and by her
conversation with the ambassador and others that
were present, I judge she must have a great deal of
wit and understanding." That meeting stirs one's
imagination. To Madame de Pompadour, history
1 Waddington : La Guerre de Sept Ans, vol. ii, p. 193.
2 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. i, p. 17, Ed.
1899.
THE HUMOURS OF HISTORY 65
traces many of the disasters of France in the third
quarter of the eighteenth century ; to gratify her
European vanities, New France suffered ; and a prin-
cipal instrument in the undoing of French empire
beyond the Atlantic was to be the tall, bright-eyed,
and not too healthy-looking young English officer
who now deemed it a privilege to observe the mighty
dame curl her hair. History has its humours as well
as its romance !
Paris must have been a hot-bed of temptation in How he
that winter of 1752-3 to our young lieutenant-colonel spent his
fresh from the almost Spartan severity of Inverness. ime*
He had not gone to France, however, to frivol away
his time in social dissipation. Up every morning not
later than seven, he worked till twelve, then dressed
and visited, dined at two, attended some entertain-
ment about five, and went to bed at eleven. " This
way of living is directly opposite to the practice of
the place ; but I find it impossible to pursue the
business I came upon and to comply with the customs
and manners of the inhabitants." The business he
came upon was to study foreign armies at first hand,
to see something of polite society abroad, and to learn
to speak French, to dance and to fence. Among the
friends he either found or made in Paris were Philip
Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield's son, who was an attache
at the Embassy, the young Duke of Richmond, and
Guy Carleton, the man who was one day successfully
to defend against the Americans the city on the
St. Lawrence which Wolfe was to take from France
in the interests of America. The Duke of Richmond
wanted a military tutor ; Wolfe was consulted,
possibly with the idea that he might offer himself for
the post ; he recommended his friend Carleton. His
6— (221 ?)
66 GENERAL WOLFE
parents thought he should have put himself forward. x
Wolfe's answer was that he did not always prefer his
own interest to that of his friends, that apart from his
liking for Carleton he did not feel equal to the task
— assuredly it would not have been acceptable to
one so eager to learn, to be called upon to teach —
and that "as for the pension that might follow it is
very certain it would not become me to accept it.
I can't take money from any one but the King, my
master, or from some of his blood." Wolfe wanted
money but not at the expense of his pride. His
correspondence while in Paris brought him news of
Miss Lawson. He admitted that he had not yet
recovered from the " disorder " into which he was
thrown by his great love for her. He could not hear
her name mentioned without " twitching." " My
amour has not been without its use. It has defended
me against other women, introduced a great deal of
philosophy and tranquillity as to all objects of our
strongest affection, and something softened the
disposition to severity and rigour that I had con-
tracted in the camp, trained up as I was, from infancy
to the conclusion of the Peace, in war and tumult."
He told his mother he should probably never marry,
but in a letter to his father from Paris he suggests that
he rather dreads the possibility of a life of single
blessedness. He reflects that " with us soldiers "
marriage must be late for various reasons, among them
prudence. " We are not able to feed our wives and
children till we begin to decline. It must be a solitary
1 Mr. Bradley {Wolfe, p. 71) says Wolfe " was offered the
position of governor to the young Duke of Richmond, but
refused it." This is clearly a mistake, as we may see from
Wolfe's letter to hjs mother given by Wright, pp. 252-3.
ORDERED HOME 67
kind of latter life to leave no relations nor objects to
take up our thoughts and affections — to be as it were
alone in the world without any connection with
mankind but the tie of common friendships which
are at best as you have experienced but loose and
precarious."
Wolfe had been in Paris four months when it a disap-
seemed that at last the purpose of which he had often pointment.
talked in Scotland and for which in large measure
he had left England, was to be attained. Lord
Albemarle told him that the French King would
encamp a great part of his army in the summer, and
proposed, to Wolfe's infinite satisfaction, that the
Duke should command him to attend as a represen-
tative of the British army. " The French are to have
three or four different camps ; the Austrians and
Prussians will probably assemble some corps, so that
I may before the summer have seen half the armies
in Europe at least." The Duke's response was a
command which, though half anticipated, was none
the less keenly disappointing. It was that Wolfe
should return to his regiment at once. Wolfe was
inclined to rebel, and was sarcastic at the expense of
" a major and an adjutant (if the colonel is to be
indulged himself) " who were " not to be considered
equal to the great task of exercising in our frivolous
fashion a battalion or two of soldiers." Fears — if
they existed — that Wolfe might, by too close contact
with foreign armies, be induced to abandon his own
were not the only cause of this sudden recall : the
Major of the 20th had been incapacitated by a fit
of apoplexy, and as Lord Bury, its colonel, was
not prepared to sacrifice himself for the sake of the
regiment, Wolfe's presence in Scotland was essential,
68 GENERAL WOLFE
Return to Disgusted and disappointed, Wolfe had to return.
Glasgow. He took Blackheath for a few days on his way, and
then started on a journey north which cost him much
discomfort — discomfort of the body which vexation
of spirit aggravated. A new sort of close post-chaise
had been put on the roads about this time,
" machines," said Wolfe, " purposely constructed to
torture the unhappy carcases that are placed in
them." He had recourse to post-horses, and fared
little better, having two spills at the hazard of his
neck. His troubles did not end with his arrival in
Glasgow. The regiment was in melancholy circum-
stances ; officers " ruined, desperate and without
hopes of preferment," the major dead, one ensign
had been in convulsions, and another was seized with
palsy, and Wolfe was so affected by the prevailing
distress that he nearly fainted. To what all these
things were due we are not told, but they were
enough in all conscience, apart from his dislike of
Scotland, to make Wolfe look forward to August,
when the regiment was to march out of " this dark
and dismal country." Three weeks later he wrote,
" We are all sick, officers and soldiers : I am amongst
the best and not quite well." The weather was in
large measure responsible, and Wolfe attributed his
immunity to the " store of health " amassed in
France, which he hoped would last out his stay in
Scotland, " though the consumption will be very
considerable." Gloomy as his reports were, there was
diversion in the granite city in the shape of plays,
concerts, balls, dinners and suppers. The food, he
said, was execrable, and the wines " approached to
poison." The men drank excessively, and the ladies
were cold to everything but a bagpipe — " I wrong
LEAVING SCOTLAND 69
them ; there is not one that does not melt away at
the sound of an estate ; there's the weak side of this
soft sex." He dined one day with the Duchess of
Hamilton, the famous Elizabeth Gunning, who had
been married rather more than a year and lived within
ten miles of Glasgow. A little grumble at the condi-
tion of things in the army that made " the doing of
one's duty well, and not talking of it, the roundabout
way to preferment " ; a complaint that he had
" hardly passion enough of any kind to find present
pleasure or feed future hope " ; an apology to his
mother for an exhibition of ill-temper and a plea that
if she thought he had any good qualities they might
be set in opposition to the bad ones ; and we come to
September 9th, 1753. On that date Wolfe with his
regiment left Scotland for the south.
When he crossed the Esk he saluted the soil of A long
England with almost effusive gladness, and the whole marcn-
regiment had a feeling that it was going home from
some foreign land. Wolfe at once perceived a
welcome change in many respects. "The English are
clean and laborious, and the Scotch excessively dirty
and lazy, though far short indeed of what we found
at a greater distance from the borders." The men's
health improved with the march ; they were so active
that they wore their clothes threadbare, and Wolfe
believed that by the time they arrived at Warwick
" they would be the most dirty, ragged regiment that
the Duke has seen for years." Though every day he
moved further south the country appeared richer and
more delightful — and he found the Lancashire women
surprisingly handsome after " the hard-favoured
Scotch lasses " — he grew heartily sick of the slow
movement of the march. It was not agreeable to his
70 GENERAL WOLFE
" disposition of mind." At Warwick he had some
hunting, and he enjoyed the " extremely beautiful
country." The regiment moved on to Reading with
Dover as its objective. At Reading he once more
complained of the state of morals among both officers
and men : " If I stay much longer with the regiment
I shall be perfectly corrupt ; the officers are loose
and profligate, and soldiers are very devils." Healthy
as he had described the men to be at Warrington in
September, at Reading in November he said they
were subject to exercises which were too much for
their constitutions. " Our debaucheries enervate
and unman us." Wolfe's own standard of conduct
was so high that it would be natural for him to
exaggerate shortcomings in others, and his views
always tended to extremes ; but there can be little
question as to the reasonableness of his strictures.
Contemporary records bear him out. If Wolfe could
say so much of his own men what was his opinion of
others ? The 20th, it was conceded, was the best
disciplined regiment in the British army, 1 and one
would fain believe that Wolfe's sharp condemnation
meant no more than that his officers and men fell far
short of his ideal — an impossible one in the
circumstances of the time.
1 Bradley : Wolfe, p. 83.
CHAPTER VI
BEGINNING OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR
England has never passed through a more uncertain Irregular
and inglorious time than in the eight years between warfare,
the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the
beginning of the Seven Years' War. She lacked
leaders, and a corrupt system strangled the efforts
of individual patriots. Fortunately for her, venality
abroad left her great opponent unable to seize oppor-
tunities which party prejudices and personal pique
supplied in ample measure. It was a period of
pretence in Europe ; of irregular and scarcely inter-
mittent warfare beyond the seas. The Treaty of
1748 involved suspension of hostilities between the
great powers : in India and in America the conflict
between French and English was abandoned in one
place only to break out in another. In the East the
French intrigued and fought for their own hand by
fighting for one or other of the native princes or
pretenders : the English did the same. It was a fore-
gone conclusion that if the French took one side in
a local quarrel the English took the other. Across the
Atlantic the conditions varied only with the character
of the country and of the people. In the East the
struggle was to command political influence and trade
privileges by alliance with or control of the natives ;
in the West to build up empire, to promote commerce,
and to establish strong offshoots of the motherland by
settlement, by exploration, by alliance with Iroquois
and Huron, and by the appropriation of forest and
71
72 GENERAL WOLFE
river and vast expanses of territory whose very limits
were unknown. In India it was a duel between
Dupleix and Give ; in America between New France
and New England.
Anglo- From the time that John Smith founded James-
rivalry, town in 1607 and Champlain Quebec in 1608, England
and France had been in competition for the riches of
North America, but their methods differed essentially.
English settlements had been planted down the coast
for hundreds of miles, and agriculture and trade were
their principal objects. The French, with a view
partly to the empire of the West, partly to the
monopoly of the fur trade, had taken possession of
the St. Lawrence, and so much of the great river-and-
lake system north, south, and west as bands of
intrepid explorers succeeded in traversing. La Salle's
voyage from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi and
the Gulf of Mexico led to the claim of France to the
whole of America west of the Alleghanies and to the
erection of a chain of forts which were intended to
confine the English to the coast strip from Canada
to Louisiana. In pursuance of this great ambition
the French were active on the Ohio during 1753.
Washington — then twenty-one years of age — was
chosen by Governor Dinwiddie to carry his message
of protest to the aggressors, and the following year
it was intended to build a fort at the junction of the
Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, where Pittsburg
stands to-day. Whilst the building was in progress
the French appeared, demolished the works, and put
up Fort Duquesne in their place. Washington was
on his way with a force intended to garrison the new
fort when news reached him that the French were
in possession. His expedition ended in disaster.
\
UNDECLARED WAR 73
Things were now almost desperate. The French
were masters, many of the Indian tribes drew their
scalping-knives on behalf of the winning side, and
not an English flag waved beyond the Alleghanies. x
Braddock was sent out in 1755 with a considerable
force, to which Wolfe's regiment contributed one
hundred men ; a person worse fitted for the task in
hand, says Parkman, could scarcely have been
found : 2 the French were to be attacked at four points
at once, and Braddock was to lead the attack on Fort
Duquesne. An officer of the old school, he was " a
bigot to military rules," and his inability to adapt
himself to unaccustomed conditions cost the empire
and the colonies dear. In the year of his defeat,
Admirals Boscawen, Hawke, and others were engaged
in endeavouring to prevent French reinforcements
from crossing the Atlantic. Yet there was no declara-
tion of war. It was in the middle of 1755 that Wolfe
declared " all notions of peace are now at an end."
He pointed to " the embargo laid upon shipping, the
violent press for seamen, and the putting soldiers on
board our fleet " as evidence that the maritime
strength of the enemy was "by no means contemp-
tible." Vigorous assaults were expected both in
Europe and in America. During the last year or two
it seemed as though France and England had decided
to give themselves breathing time whilst allowing
their children over-seas to keep the quarrel going
and furtively supporting, if not openly encouraging
them, to fight. France gave what seemed like
tangible proof of peaceful aims when she recalled
Dupleix in 1754, especially as Dupleix had done
1 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. i, pp. 132-167.
1 Conspiracy of Pontiac, vol. i, p. 110
74 GENERAL WOLFE
nothing more than serve her almost as brilliantly
as Clive was serving England. Dupleix was a knight
sacrificed on the Imperial chess-board. The real
spirit of the time is seen in the orders issued
from Paris to the Governor of Canada that he was
to invite the Red Man to destroy English trading
stations, but on no account was his complicity to
be discovered, because the two nations were not at
war ! 1
War It was not till May, 1756, that war was formally
declared. declared. By that time England, to secure her own
safety, had imported a large number of Hessians,
and in order to protect the interests of Hanover, had
entered into alliance with Prussia. George II con-
sidered— or pretended to consider — that Maria Theresa
had not kept faith with him, and she, hating Frederick
more than ever now that her old supporter had joined
hands with him, turned to France — in other words, to
Madame de Pompadour, who on her part hated
Frederick because he had made her the butt of his
sarcasm. A woman of high moral character herself,
Maria Theresa addressed the Pompadour as her " dear
cousin," and the flattery of the mistress secured the
adhesion of Louis XV and his ministers. The task
was the easier because Louis XV had also changed
his view ; he now favoured an alliance with Austria. 2
The year was a bad one for England. Admiral
Byng ignominiously failed to relieve Minorca ; the
whole country was horrified by the news of the Black
Hole of Calcutta, and Montcalm, the brilliant soldier
against whom Wolfe was to be matched at Quebec,
1 G. Le M. Bretton : Social England, vol. v. Parkman :
Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. i, p. 190.
8 Hassall: Balance of Power, 1715-1789, p. 249.
PITT IN POWER 75
captured Fort Oswego. Shame, horror, and indig-
nation took possession of the public as reverse after
reverse became known, and with a weak ministry at
home little or nothing was done. Pitt had offended
both the King and Newcastle by his fearless resump-
tion of freelance criticism, and was not in the Govern-
ment. He became Secretary of State under the Duke
of Devonshire in December, but the ministry did not
last long ; there was an interval during which the
country, at war, was without a ministry. In the
interests of the commonwealth, Newcastle and Pitt
had to compose their differences, and it was not till
Newcastle in June, 1757, agreed to become the figure-
head of a Government in which Pitt supplied the
brains, the character, the controlling force that
the British star once more began to rise, slowly,
occasionally clouded, but surely, until it shone
all-unchallenged in the very meridian.
During the years when England was labouring Wolfe's
under the dead weight of incompetence alike in the movements
Council Chamber and the services, Wolfe was watch-
ing events from various stations in the South of
England. His letters to his mother and father
continue to reflect at once his own striking individual-
ity and the local conditions as they were affected by
the movements of the world at large. We will run
through them as rapidly as may be. Dover Castle
did not please him : it was not as snug as he would
have liked, and he could not help wishing that the
moderns who destroyed some of its " antiquity " had
demolished it altogether. Before he left it he had
come to consider it as " a vile dungeon," " a melan-
choly, dreadful winter station." The castle was
haunted, of course, but the presence of the
76
GENERAL WOLFE
Among the
Jacobites
again.
supernatural does not seem to have affected him
much, whilst the tediousness of the time not devoted
to routine duties affected him a good deal. He rode
on the downs and did some shooting, bagging an
occasional pheasant or partridge, which he dare not
send home, "as we are not authorised by law to kill
them, and as they examine strictly upon the great
roads I should be unwilling to be reputed a smuggler."
Dover Castle, he says, " would be a prison to a man
of pleasure, but an officer may put up with it." The
ladies of Dover complained through his mother that
Wolfe's officers were lacking in gallantry. He replied
in a spirit of banter that dancing and all its light train
of amusements had their risks, and to those whose
years were creeping on might appear vain or
contemptible.
" Notwithstanding this, I always encourage our young
people to frequent balls and assemblies. It softens their
manners and makes them civil ; and commonly I go along
with them, to see how they conduct themselves. I am only
afraid they shall fall in love and marry. Whenever I perceive
the symptoms, or anybody else makes the discovery, we fall
upon the delinquent without mercy till he grows out of
conceit with his new passion. By this method we have
broke through many an amorous alliance, and dissolved many
ties of eternal love and affection. My experience in these
matters help me to find out my neighbour's weakness, and
furnishes me with arms to oppose his folly. I am not, how-
ever, always so successful as could be wished. Two or three
of the most simple and insensible in other respects have
triumphed over my endeavours, but are seated upon the stool
of repentance for the rest of their days."
In February, 1754, he had some idea that his
regiment might be selected for East Indian service.
But as Lord Bury was exempted from such service by
his position as aide-de-camp to the King, " I do not
suppose he would think it consistent to let his
THE DANCE OF PEACE 77
regiment embark without him. So we are reserved for
more brilliant service."1 At the end of March the
regiment left Dover to be reviewed at Guildford by
the colonel, and Wolfe got leave of absence, part of
which he spent with Sir John Mordaunt, the uncle of
Miss Lawson. The sight of her picture upon the
dining-room walls upset him for a day or two, " but
time, the never-failing aid to distressed lovers, has
made the semblance of her a pleasing but not a
dangerous object. However, I find it best not to trust
myself to the lady's eyes, or put confidence in any
resolutions of my own."2 When he returned to his
regiment early in October, it had gone into winter
quarters at Exeter, and almost his first business was
to provide the contingent for Braddock's " Ohio
party." It was fortunate Wolfe did not join the
party himself.
In Exeter he was in the heart of a Jacobite com- The
munity. " I begin to flatter myself that we shall Devonshire
soften the rigorous proceedings of our adversaries
here and live with them on better terms than hitherto.
It is not our interest to quarrel with any but the
French." Among the means he took to " soften the
rigorous " was the dance. " Would you believe it
that no Devonshire squire dances more than I do ?
What no consideration of pleasure or complaisance
for the sex could effect the love of peace and harmony
has brought about. I have danced the officers into
the good graces of the Jacobite women hereabouts,
who were prejudiced against them. It falls hard
upon me because of my indolence and indifference
1 Beckles Willson : Nineteenth Century, Sept., 1908.
1 Wright mentions that Miss Lawson, who meant so much
to Wolfe, died unmarried in March, 1759.
78 GENERAL WOLFE
about it." All the same it is on record that he showed
much " talent in the science " and that he was gener-
ally " ambitious to gain a tall graceful woman to be
his partner, as well as a good dancer." The sort of
barrier he had to break down is shown by the fact
that at a ball to celebrate the King's birthday every
man save one was wearing the King's uniform.
" The female branches of the Tory families came
readily enough, but not one man would accept the
invitation. If it had not fallen my way to see such
an instance of folly I should not readily be brought
to conceive it." Wolfe found himself " hand and
glove with the Right Worshipful the Mayor " and
reported that " the people seem tolerably well disposed
towards us at present " — a condition of things which
he hoped would last his time, " for, as the town
has nothing in it either inviting or entertaining,
the circumstances of a civil war would make it
intolerable." Wolfe's diversions, it is interesting to
note, did not include cards. He had no grave objec-
tion to them, especially in people of a certain age,
but he thought that young folks might be led into
excesses and sacrifice the hours which should be given
to improvement. In the beginning of January, 1755,
he had to attend a court-martial in Bristol — a duty he
always disliked.
Premom- From Bristol he wrote home : " Folks are surprised
to see the meagre, consumptive, decaying figure of the
son, when the father and mother preserve such good
looks. The campaigns of 1743, '4, '5, '6, and 7
stripped me of my bloom and the winters in Scotland
and at Dover have brought me almost to old age and
infirmity, and this without any remarkable intem-
perance. A few years more or less are of very little
THE NEED OF FUNDS 79
consequence to the common run of men, and therefore
I need not lament that I am perhaps somewhat nearer
my end than others of my time. I think and write
upon these points without being at all moved."
Wolfe's trouble, his health apart, was always about
funds, and he loathed the necessity of calling upon his
father's ever-ready purse. " I am eight-and-twenty
years of age, a lieutenant-colonel of Foot, and I cannot
say that I am master of fifty pounds." The only
ground on which, when hard pressed, he felt justified
in turning to the parental exchequer was that to be
cramped and tied down by circumstances when his
thoughts should be free and at large took his attention
off the most important parts of his duty. " That
spirit will guide others but indifferently which bends
under its own wants." He longed for advancement
with a longing which in a less brilliant man would
have been wholly unreasonable. His ambition was
encouraged by his friend, Sir John Mordaunt, by his
uncle, and by his father. His uncle wished him to
make a considerable figure in the profession, and he
was prepared to serve even at sea if he could only get
the chance, great though he knew his agony from
sickness would be. With the prospect of war in his
mind throughout the year 1755, he sometimes
thought he might be sent to Virginia, sometimes that
he might be called upon to go to Holland. " It is no
time to think of what is convenient or agreeable," he
wrote in February, " that service is the best in which
we are the most useful. For my part I am determined
never to give myself a moment's concern about the
nature of the duty His Majesty is pleased to order us
upon. It will be sufficient comfort to you two, as far as
my person is concerned at least it will be a reasonable
80 GENERAL WOLFE
consolation, to reflect that the Power which has
hitherto preserved me may, if it be His pleasure,
continue to do so ; if not, that it is but a few days or a
few years more or less and that those who perish in
their duty, and in the service of their country die
honourably. I hope I shall have resolution and
firmness enough to meet every appearance of danger
without great concern and not be over-solicitous about
the event." In all his letters Wolfe seemed to have
a premonition that his life was to be a short one.
When he wrote those words he was, as he said a week
or ten days before, twenty-eight, and he had four
and a half years to live.
New From March, 1755, to March, 1757, Wolfe was
colonels. shifted from Exeter to Winchester, Southampton,
Canterbury, Devizes, Stroud, Cirencester and other
places. It is not necessary to follow his marchings
and counter-marchings in detail. In 1755 he suffered
a serious disappointment. His colonel became Earl
of Albemarle by the death of his father at the end of
the previous year, and Wolfe was on tenter-hooks to
learn whether he was to succeed to the official com-
mand of the regiment which in fact he had com-
manded for so long. Three months of expectancy,
and he was informed that Colonel Honeywood had
been appointed. Wolfe was hurt, and declared he
would not serve one moment longer than honour
demanded even if he should starve. He got over his
vexation sooner than might be expected, and assured
his mother that " if you arm yourself with philosophy
you are mistress of all events." War might come to
his aid, but he dreaded the distress war might mean
to the country generally and to his mother in partic-
ular. Whatever happened he was solicitous for his
MUSKETRY PRACTICE 81
mother's comfort, and when it was proposed that
his father might resign his colonelcy in his favour,
the son settling an annuity upon him, he refused on
the ground that " a soldier's life in war is too great
an uncertainty for you to hazard a necessary part of
your income upon." If war did not come then Wolfe
would " jog on in the easiest position in the army, and
sleep and grow fat." A good deal more philosophy
was required a year later when Honeywood was
transferred and his place was taken by Colonel William
Kingsley.
Events, however, gave Wolfe plenty to think about Hints to
besides his own personal fortunes. He speculated Rickson.
incessantly on the needs of the country, and in a
remarkable letter to Rickson, who was now in Scot-
land, written in view of the possibility that the French
would again find allies among the Highlanders, he
outlined the plan — it was sufficiently drastic — by
which he would deal with the first outbreak in order
to avoid " a succession of errors and a train of ill-
behaviour," which made " the last Scotch war," he
said, difficult to match in history. He recommended
Rickson to practice musketry firing with balls :
" Firing balls at objects teaches the soldiers to level
incomparably, makes the recruits steady, and
removes the foolish apprehension that seizes young
soldiers when they first load their arms with bullets.
We fire first singly, then by files, one, two, three or
more, then by ranks, and lastly by platoons ; and the
soldiers see the effects of their shots, especially at a
mark or upon water. We shoot obliquely and in
different situations on ground, from heights down-
wards and contrariwise." Wolfe apologised for
suggesting so much on the ground that possibly it
7— (2213)
generally.
82 GENERAL WOLFE
might not have been thought of by Rickson's com-
mander— a casual remark which goes some way to
explain wherein Wolfe himself was ahead of his
fellows.
Army It may sound invidious, but it is not unreasonable
officers to say that if Braddock had been as ready as Wolfe
would have been to adapt himself to the military
conditions which confronted him on his advance to
Fort Duquesne, the disgrace of that 9th of July, 1755,
in the wooded defiles beyond the Monongahela would
have been avoided. Wolfe would not have rejected
the representations of Washington nor flouted the
Indian chiefs who placed their unrivalled knowledge
of forest warfare at his disposal. Braddock, with all
his courage, his strength of character, his unques-
tioned ability and patriotism, was simply incapable
of rising superior to the teachings of the school in
which he had learnt his business. He ought never
to have fallen into the ambush laid for him : and
when he was in it he destroyed a slender chance of
escape by treating men who endeavoured to save
themselves without running away, as so many
cowardly curs. It was the tragedy of cast-iron
system. When the news reached England in August
Wolfe was not in a position to deliver serious judg-
ment. From the accounts to hand, he said : " I do
believe that the cowardice and ill-behaviour of the
men far exceeded the ignorance of the chief, who,
though not a master of the difficult art of war, was
yet a man of sense and courage. I have but a very
mean opinion of the Infantry in general. I know
their discipline to be bad and their valour precarious.
They are easily put into disorder and hard to recover
out of it. They frequently kill their officers through
BRITISH MILITARY EDUCATION 83
fear and murder one another in their confusion."
In that view Wolfe was not quite judicial. The fault
lay not with the men but with the masters, the
Government and the officers, to whom they should
look for guidance. A foreign critic of the time said
that the British troops were " an army of lions led
by asses " ; that there were lions among the asses
and curs among the lions does not rob the description
of its brute force, and Wolfe himself qualified his
angry outburst by admitting that the method of
training and instructing British troops was " ex-
tremely defective. We are lazy in time of peace and
of course want vigilance and activity in war. Our
military education is by far the worst in Europe, and
all our concerns are treated with contempt or totally
neglected. It will cost us very dear some time
hence." In a passage full of significance, he wrote
to his mother in October, 1755, at a time when the
French were busy with their fleet and every hour
brought new fears of invasion, though war had not
yet been declared : " The officers of the army in
general are persons of so little application to business
and have been so ill educated that it must not surprise
you to hear that a man of common industry is in
reputation amongst them. I reckon it a very great
misfortune to this country that I, your son, who have
I know but a very moderate capacity and some degree
of diligence a little above the ordinary run, should
be thought, as I am, one of the best officers of my
rank in the service. I am not at all vain of the
distinction." Such a comparison he thought would
do even a man of genius very little honour. " The
consequence will be very fatal to me in the end for
as I rise in rank people will expect some considerable
84 GENERAL WOLFE
performances, and I shall be induced, in support of
an ill-got reputation, to be lavish of my life and shall
probably meet that fate which is the ordinary effect
of such conduct." A prophetic instinct surely !
Our Despite his criticisms Wolfe believed the army
mighty would give an excellent account of itself if the French
avy* should succeed in what every one believed to be their
designs. Was he putting his trust in the Hessians,
whose presence was the sharpest of all reflections on
the state of the army ? Wolfe had confidence in the
fleet which was more formidable than any England
had ever had, and he took a run to Portsmouth
specially " to enjoy the dreadful though pleasing sight
of our mighty navy." He was among the first to
recognise what the sea meant to England's safety,
and there was in him none of that petty jealousy
which too long made the navy the rival rather than
the sister service. Admiral Smith was so posted, said
Wolfe in December, as to make any attempt on the
part of the French to land " a little dangerous," and
he regretted that they did not " discover the same
degree of respect for us " — that is, for the army.
" They wish for nothing so much as to be quietly
ashore and then to make trial of our force," but we
have " some incomparable battalions, the like of which
cannot, I'll venture to say, be found in any army."
Which, one wonders, were the incomparable batta-
lions ? Wolfe's general criticisms were so severe
that an incomparable battalion in his eyes must have
been a very fine body indeed.
1756. No relief to the tension came with the new year. A
Admiral supine ministry shared Wolfe's gloomier views as to
yng" the army, but did nothing during all these months to
improve its morale and fighting capacity. Recruiting
MINORCA 85
went on with some vigour, but the raw material
was not worked up with the energy demanded by the
critical character of the situation. Troops were
moved from place to place, and the Guards were sent
to Dover much against their inclination, judging
from some remarks which Wolfe made. " Would
you believe that there are many who call themselves
soldiers, who, to excuse their shameful idleness, cry
out that they believe there will be no war — no invasion
— and so act as if they were persuaded of the truth of
it ? " Dread of invasion made the Government 1
unwilling to move sufficiently early or in sufficient
strength to save Minorca. Instructions that Byng's
force should be supplemented from the Gibraltar
garrison were disobeyed because an attack by the
Spaniards was feared. Byng gave battle to La
Galissoniere off Port Mahon, but instead of pressing
home the advantage he gained, he retired to Gibraltar.
The Minorca garrison was doomed, and Blakeney, its
brave general, surrendered with the honours of war.
Byng was denounced as a traitor : he was really an
ordinary individual, who could not rise superior to the
official atmosphere, and Wolfe summed the matter up
in a simple question : " Are the measures taken for
the relief of Minorca or the proceedings of our admiral
to be most admired ? " " The project of succouring
Minorca and the execution of the great design," he
wrote to his father, June 27th, 1756, " went hand
in hand successfully and may probably end in
a disgraceful peace. You are happy in your infir-
mity for 'tis a disgrace to act in these dishonourable
times." •
1 The Newcastle Papers (Add. MSS. British Museum) are
full of warnings sent over by the Government's secret agents.
86 GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's Wolfe grew so impatient under the ordeal of
tionSna" national humiliation that whilst writing " the King
of Prussia (God bless him !) is our only ally," he added
fiercely," I am sorry that they don't all unite against
us that our strength might be fully exerted and our
force known. I myself believe that we are a match
for the combined fleets of Europe, especially if our
admirals and generals were all of the same spirit."
Against Byng he was as bitter as the ministers who
sheltered themselves behind the obloquy which over-
whelmed their servants. Wolfe, " an eye-witness of
the consequences of his fatal conduct," condemned
him on every ground : " If he did not personally
engage through fear or declined it through treachery ;
or if he went out with instructions not to be too
forward in relieving Minorca, he deserves ten thousand
deaths. An English admiral who accepts such
instructions should lose his head, but, alas ! our
affairs are falling down apace." He saw the country
going fast upon its ruin as the result of " paltry
projects " and the more ridiculous behaviour of those
who were entrusted with its government. Wolfe's
suggestion that the ministry by their instructions
might have induced slackness on the part of the
admiral was not justified. The suggestion reflects
the state to which the minds of men had been reduced
by invertebrate administration. The demoralisation
was epidemic and few escaped. Courts-martial were
held to condemn the past when every nerve and every
muscle was wanted to assist the present. Byng was
shot, " pour encourager les mitres," as Voltaire said,
and the King, who refused to give him the benefit of
mercy recommended by the court, inflicted no
punishment on the ministers who would have reaped
CORNWALLIS INVOLVED 87
the glory if he had triumphed. The Governor of
Gibraltar, Lieut. -Gen. Fowke, was also court-
martialled, and sentenced to dismissal from the
service. Wolfe was one of the court, and was much
exercised by the fact that Cornwallis had been a party
to the refusal to assist Byng. Cornwallis had caught
the general complaint. "lam heartily sorry to find
him involved with the rest, of whose abilities or
inclinations nobody has any very high notions ; but
Cornwallis is a man of approved courage and fidelity.
He has unhappily been misled upon this occasion by
people of not half his value."
In the midst of the excitement incident to the A course
developments of a great war Wolfe found time to pen of study,
a long letter in response to an appeal for advice as to
the best course of study for a young officer — Henry
Townshend. The letter affords a clue to Wolfe's
own studies. Assuming that young Townshend was
master of the Latin and French languages, and had
some knowledge of mathematics, the study of which
" will greatly facilitate his progress in military
matters," Wolfe continues —
"As to the books that are fittest for his purpose, he may
begin with King of Prussia's Regulations for his Horse and
Foot, where the economy and good order of an army in the
lower branches are extremely well established. Then there
are the Memoirs of the Marquis de Santa Cruz, Feuquieres,
and Montecucculi ; Folard's Commentaries upon Polybius,
the Projet de Tactique, L'Attaque et la Defense des Places,
par le Marechal de Vauban, Les Mimoires de Goulon,
V Ingenieur de Campagne, le Sieur Renie for all that concerns
artillery. Of the ancients, Vegetius, Caesar, Thucydides,
Xenophon's Life of Cyrus and Retreat of the Ten Thousand
Greeks. I do not mention Polybius, because the Commen-
taries and the History naturally go together. Of later days,
Davila, Guicciardini, Strada, and the Memoirs of the Due de
Sully. There is an abundance of military knowledge to be
picked out of the lives of Gustavus Adolphus, and Charles XII,
88 GENERAL WOLFE
King of Sweden, and of Zisca the Bohemian, and if a tolerable
account could be got of the exploits of Scanderbeg, it would be
inestimable ; for he excels all the officers, ancient and modern,
in the conduct of a small defensive army. I met with him in
the Turkish History, but nowhere else. The Life of
Suetonius, too, contains many fine things in this way. There
is a book lately published that I have heard commended,
V Art de la Guerre Pratique, — I suppose it is collected from
all the best authors that treat of war ; and there is a little
volume, entitled Traitt de la Petite Guerre that your brother
should take in his pocket when he goes upon out-duty and
detachments. The Marechal de Puysequr's book, too, is in
esteem.
"I believe Mr. Townshend will think this catalogue long
enough ; and if he has patience to read, and desire to apply
(as I am persuaded he has), the knowledge contained in them,
there is also wherewithal to make him a considerable person
in his profession, and of course very useful and serviceable
to his country. In general, the lives of all great commanders,
and all good histories of warlike nations, will be instructive,
and lead him naturally to endeavour to imitate what he
must necessarily approve of. In these days of scarcity, and
in these unlucky times, it is much to be wished that all our
young soldiers of birth and education would follow your
brother's steps, and, as they will have their turn to command,
that they would try to make themselves fit for that important
trust ; without it, we must sink under the superior abilities
and indefatigable industry of our restless neighbours. In
what a strange manner have we conducted our affairs in the
Mediterranean. Quelle belle occasion manque" e ! "
Wolfe watched the course of events with eager
expectancy, his anxieties being at once professional
and patriotic. Changes, additions to, and movements
in the army naturally were the order of the day. He
kept a sharp eye on appointments going. " If any
soldier is preferred when my time comes I shall
acquaint the Secretary of War that I am sensible of the
injury that is done me, and will take the earliest
opportunity to put it out of his or any man's power
to repeat it. Not while the war lasts ; for if 500
younger officers one after another were to rise before
WOLFE'S TEMPTATION 89
me I should continue to move with the utmost dili-
gence, to acquit myself to the country, and to show
the ministers that they had acted unjustly. But
I flatter myself that I shall never be forced to these
disagreeable measures." What Mr. Bradley calls
" a great temptation " came Wolfe's way within a
few weeks of writing the words just quoted. His
friends' exertions to secure him some more profitable
post than that of lieutenant-colonel of Foot brought
an offer from the Duke of Bedford, Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland, of the offices of Barrackmaster-General
and Quartermaster-General of Ireland. Highly
sensible of the honour done him, Wolfe accepted on
one condition — that he was made colonel. If the
rank of colonel were not given him he would return to
his battalion immediately, or prefer to take service
with the King of Prussia in the great war in which
British troops apparently were not to be employed.
The King thought Wolfe's " short service " would
not justify his promotion ; fresh efforts were, how-
ever, to be made to induce His Majesty to grant
Wolfe's claim, and in the delay the chance of service
came. His pretension had saved him from being
side-tracked at a critical moment ; his acceptance of
the Irish appointment unconditionally might have
changed the history of the British Empire. So much
may depend on the ear man lends to the call to greater
things ; so is ambition justified.
CHAPTER VII
THE FAILURES OF 1757
When Pitt came back to office in 1757 he came to
power also. For the first time he found himself able
to put a policy into force without serious opposition.
He had England at his back. He was restored in
response to the people's emphatic demand ; it was
said of him that he was a minister given by the people
to the nation. Chesterfield's despondent view " We
are no longer a nation " was disproved. The people,
as opposed to the King, the place-hunters, the
Parliamentarians, at least showed themselves a nation
in their insistence that they should be led by one who
was self-reliant and purposeful as he was fearless and
incorruptible. After a period of intrigue and recrimi-
nation which make the domestic political record
almost as complicated a tangle as European diplo-
macy after the death of Charles VI, England, so long
in labour, as the King of Prussia put it, had at last
brought forth a man. Pitt was the very antipodes
of Walpole in conviction and temperament, as both
were head and shoulders above their contemporaries
in their own lines of statesmanship. Pitt, to adapt
Johnson's gibe about Chesterfield, was a man among
kings and a king among men. His insight, as Mr.
Fortescue says, pierced the heart of things ; he
compassed great designs ; his enthusiasm kindled
the energy of subordinates, broke down the opposition
of permanent officials, and carried his country forward
on " an irresistible wave of patriotic sentiment."1
1 A History of the British Army, vol. iii, p. 248.
90
HIGHLANDERS AS BRITISH SOLDIERS 91
Pitt dared where other men hesitated. Indecision, Decisive
the bane of empire, was as unknown to him as action.
physical fear to James Wolfe, one of the instruments
by which he ultimately lifted the whole English race
to the proudest pitch of self-consciousness. During
his few months in office with the Duke of Devonshire
he set the chords vibrating. He sent back to Ger-
many the foreign mercenaries who were an hourly
reminder to the Briton of his inability to defend
hearth and home, and undertook to raise a national
militia which, without doing violence to prejudices
against a standing army, should provide a ready and
reputable means of self-defence. He took a more
courageous step. He gave instructions that a couple
of battalions of Highlanders should be formed for
Imperial service. It would be interesting to know
with whom originated the idea of turning the gallant
Scots so recently England's bitter enemies, into
British soldiers. Duncan Forbes of Culloden some
years before the '45, urged Walpole to make the
experiment ; x Wolfe we know proposed it in his
letter to Rickson in 1751 ; the plan was laid before
Pitt by Lord Albemarle, Wolfe's late colonel, who
received it from the Duke of Cumberland ; 2 not
impossibly, therefore, its authorship might be traced
to Wolfe himself, as Wright believes. The impor-
tance of the departure, the very greatness of the idea,
is emphasised by the disapproval of the Duke of
Newcastle, Pitt's nominal chief. To crown all in this
scheme for creating loyal soldiers out of broken
1 G. M. Wrong : A Canadian Manor and its Seigneurs,
p. 23.
3 Almon : Anecdotes of the Earl of Chatham, 3rd Ed.,
vol. i, p. 299.
tunes.
92 GENERAL WOLFE
enemies, Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, the son of
the Simon Fraser whose treachery cost him his
head, was entrusted with the raising of a regiment.
The timorous quaked ; the over-cautious shook their
heads ; and the experiment was soon to prove that
neither fear nor prejudice but downright solid
conviction, directed to an end which is as a fixed
target, provides the pillars of success.
A series of When Pitt said there was only one man who could
™nl°r" save England and that man was himself he made no
idle boast ; he gauged his own powers as surely as he
gauged the powers of others. In his efforts to work
with the men immediately available he failed to
accomplish much. If 1756 was a demoralising year,
1757 would have taken the country to still lower
depths but for the superb qualities of endurance of
this one man. From every quarter save one came
the same story : incompetence, inertia, defeat.
Clive alone struck home, and at Plassey laid deep the
foundations of British Empire in the East. Else-
where British enterprise miscarried. The Duke of
Cumberland was defeated by the French at Kloster-
zeven ; the French in America under Montcalm
captured Fort William Henry and added a shocking
chapter to the story of the struggle for empire in
which the savage has taken part ; Lord Loudon and
Admiral Holborne set out bravely to recapture
Louisbourg, and were so impressed with its formidable
works and the fleet in its splendid harbour that they
retired without firing a shot, and an expedition sent
under Admiral Hawke and Sir John Mor daunt to
harry the French coast returned with one feeble fort
to its account instead of a record of Rochefort and
Havre and other places laid under heavy contribution.
WOLFE'S NEW POST 93
Who but Pitt could have withstood such a series of
harassing and contemptible failures ?
Wolfe was with the abortive Rochefort expedition, The
and it happens that it serves as a fine example alike R°chefort
of the methods then thought adequate to the mainte-
nance of Britain's naval and military reputation, of
the manner in which Wolfe stood out from the
general rut, and of the sure instinct with which Pitt
discovered the men who could execute his high
commands. The expedition was to be a joint naval
and military affair ; Sir John Mordaunt, by the
King's wish, was placed at the head of ten thousand
men who were assembled on the Isle of Wight ; the
Hon. H. S. Conway and Cornwallis were respectively
second and third in command, and Wolfe, who was
appointed Quartermaster-General, came fourth.
Horace Walpole, who was Conway's relative and great
admirer, said of Wolfe on this occasion, " The world
could not expect more from him than he thought
himself capable of performing. He looked upon
danger as the favourable moment that would call
forth his talents." Walpole was more correct in that
judgment than in a good many. If Pitt proclaimed
himself the one man to save the country, Wolfe
conceivably would have advanced the rider " And
I am the one man who can be trusted to carry out
your orders." However, Wolfe was quite happy :
there was fighting to be done and he was to be with
his old friend Mordaunt. The troops were ready
long before the transports. Instead of sailing in
August they did not get off till the 8th of September,
owing to the misconduct of certain contractors. No
one knew the destination of the force until it was
at sea. When Hawke opened his sealed orders he
94
GENERAL WOLFE
Mordaunt's
instruc-
tions.
found that he was to make for Rochefort. Informa-
tion had reached Pitt through a Captain Clark who
had recently been travelling on the west coast of
France that Rochefort was so ill-prepared for defence
that it might be taken by a coup de main.
Pitt saw here an opportunity for creating a diversion
in the interests of Prussia at the same time that he did
something to cripple the naval position of France.
Sir John Mordaunt's instructions were to assist the
vigorous prosecution of this " just war " by an attack
on the French coast, it being expedient and of urgent
necessity to cause a diversion and disturb the credit
of the enemy in Europe. The Government were
persuaded that nothing could more speedily and
effectually annoy and distress France than the
destruction of docks, shipping, magazines, and
arsenals. After Rochefort, if the condition of the
fleet permitted, Sir John Mordaunt was to turn his
attention to other places with as much rapidity as
possible in order to create " a warm alarm along the
maritime provinces of France." There was every
prospect of five or six weeks' sharp work here, but
unfortunately the instructions also provided for the
holding of councils of war, and councils of war
invariably mean resolutions embodying cumulative
caution rather than cumulative courage. The expedi-
tion speedily became a farce, and a very melancholy
farce for poor Wolfe. In the Bay of Biscay he
suffered tortures. Arrived off the Isle of Oleron on
the 20th September, the expedition spent two days
in futility before Captain Howe in the Magnanime
attacked a fort on the Isle of Aix, which he reduced
with an ease that should have been an encouragement
to other captains. The force which took possession
CONTRARY COUNCILS 95
of the island behaved disgracefully, to Wolfe's infinite
disgust. The English, knowing little how to win
battles, seemed to have forgotten how to behave
in the hour of victory, however insignificant that
victory might be.
On the 23rd Hawke sent out a reconnoitring Councils of
party up the river with a view to a landing and two war-
more days were lost. Wolfe himself, by special
permission of his chief, had already examined the
position and made a report on which both Hawke
and Mordaunt were prepared to act. But Conway
had been interviewing certain prisoners, and their
not wholly disinterested representations were not in
accord with Wolfe's ideas. The attempt would be
full of hazard, and a council of war, at which Wolfe,
of course, was not present, declared the project to be
impracticable and inadvisable if practicable. Part
of a naval force sent to bombard Rochefort got
aground with some bomb-ketches, and when events
lent colour to Conway's view, it was suddenly decided
to act on Wolfe's. Troops were ordered to be in
readiness to land, and another council of war decided
that they should attempt the " impracticable " and
the " inadvisable." On the 28th the landing was to
take place after dark ; the men were crowded into
boats which were tossed about for hours whilst
waiting for the order to go, and at last the order came
— to return to the ships !
If this were not well-attested history it would be Wolfe's
incredible. Hawke grew impatient, refused to attend seyere
any more councils of war, and the whole force returned cnticism"
to England less than a month after it started, having
done nothing. It is pretty certain that it might
have done everything required of it if there had been
96 GENERAL WOLFE
any enterprise on the part of Mordaunt, Conway or
Cornwallis, and we know from French memoirs of
the time with what apprehension even the smallest
success was anticipated. The historian who fixes
his attention on the military side only says that on
the whole the troops were sent on a fool's errand,
that Pitt was solely to blame, and that " military
opinion was against the expedition from the first." x
The utter inability of the great bulk of contemporary
military opinion to rise to the level of Pitt's concep-
tion of the strategic needs of an empire based on the
sea could not be more concisely stated. Wolfe took
a very different view both as to the military operations
themselves and the nature of the errand. 2 He told
his mother that he was ashamed to have been of the
party. " The public could not do better than
dismiss some six or eight of us from the service : no
zeal, no ardour, no care or concern for the good and
honour of the country." To his uncle Walter he
wrote a full and particular account of the affair in
which he described how " the lucky moment in war "
was lost beyond recovery —
" ' Nous avons manqui un beau coup,' as the French prisoners
told us, after we had loitered away three or four days in
consultations, deliberations, and councils of war. The
season of the year and nature of the enterprise called for the
quickest and most vigorous execution, whereas our proceed-
ings were quite otherwise. We were in sight of the Isle of
Rhe the 20th September, consequently were seen by the
enemy (as their signals left us no room to doubt), and it was
the 23rd before we fired a gun. That afternoon and night
slipped through our hands, — the lucky moment of confusion
and consternation among our enemies. The 24th, Admirals
1 Fortescue : History of the British Army, vol. ii, p. 38.
a Lord Chesterfield to his son : " Your friend Colonel
Wolfe publicly offered to do the business with 500 men and
three ships only." Correspondence of Chatham, vol. i, p. 279.
A GREAT CHANCE LOST 97
and Generals consult together, and resolve upon nothing
between them but to hold a council of war. The 25th, this
famous council sat from morning till late at night, and the
result of the debates was unanimously not to attack the place
they were ordered to attack, and for reasons that no soldier
will allow to be sufficient. The 26th, — the Admiral sends a
message to the General, intimating that if they did not
determine to do something there he would go to another
place. The 27th, — the Generals and Admiral view the land
with glasses, and agree upon a second council of war, having
by this time discovered their mistake. The 28th, — they
deliberate, and resolve to land that night. Orders are issued
out accordingly, but the wind springing up after the troops
had been two or three hours in the boats, the officers of the
navy declare it difficult and dangerous to attempt the landing.
The troops are commanded back to their transports, and so
ended the expedition 1 The true state of the case is, that our
sea-officers do not care to be engaged in any business of this
sort, where little is to be had but blows and reputation ; and
the officers of the infantry are so profoundly ignorant, that
an enterprise of any vigour astonishes them to that degree
that they have not strength of mind nor confidence to carry
it through.
" I look upon this as the greatest design that the nation has
engaged in for many years, and it must have done honour to
us all if the execution had answered the intentions of the
projector. The Court of Versailles, and the whole French
nation, were alarmed beyond measure. ' Les Anglais onl
attrapS notre foible,' disent-ils. Alas ! we have only discovered
our own. I see no remedy, for we have no officers from the The officers
commander-in-chief down to Mr. Webb and Lord Howe ; responsible
and the navy list is not much better. If they would even
blunder on and fight a little, making some amends to the
public by their courage for their want of skill ; but this
excessive degree of caution, or whatever name it deserves,
leaves exceeding bad impressions among the troops, who, to
do them justice, upon this occasion showed all the signs of
spirit and goodwill."
This last opinion notwithstanding, he could not
forget the shameful exhibition on the Isle of Aix.
Caustic at the expense of the egregious blunderers
" on both sides — sea and land," and ready to recog-
nise the desire for employment of common soldier
8— (2213)
98
GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's
" golden
utterance '
and common sailor alike, Wolfe, writing to his father,
expressed the hope that " these disappointments
won't affect their courage ; nothing I think can affect
their discipline — it is at its worst. They shall drink
and swear, plunder and massacre with any troops in
Europe, the Cossacks and Calmucks themselves not
excepted ; with this difference that they have not
quite so violent an appetite for blood and bonfires."
For Rickson's benefit he elaborated a series of
axioms, which show how he endeavoured to turn even
failure to account. Mr. Corbett describes this letter
as a " priceless document." Amidst so much
recrimination there stands out this " one golden utter-
ance " from the pen of Wolfe, who gathered from the
failure " all the lessons it could teach, laid them
quietly to his heart, and wove from them to his lasting
honour the reputation of being the greatest master
of combined warfare the world had seen since Drake
took the art from its swaddling clothes."1 Here is
the letter —
" One may always pick up something useful from amongst
the most fatal errors. I have found out that an Admiral
should endeavour to run into an enemy's port immediately
after he appears before it ; that he should anchor the trans-
port-ships and frigates as close as he can to the land ; that
he should reconnoitre and observe it as quick as possible,
and lose no time in getting the troops on shore ; that previous
directions should be given in respect to landing the troops,
and a proper disposition made for the boats of all sorts,
appointing leaders and fit persons for conducting the different
divisions. On the other hand, experience shows me that,
in an affair depending upon vigour and dispatch, the Generals
should settle their plan of operations, so that no time may be
lost in idle debate and consultations when the sword should
be drawn ; that pushing on smartly is the road to success, and
more particularly so in an affair of this nature ; that nothing
is to be reckoned an obstacle to your undertaking which is
1 England in the Seven Years' War, vol. i, p. 221.
THE LESSON WOLFE LEARNT
99
not found really so upon trial ; that in war something must
be allowed to chance and fortune, seeing it is in its nature
hazardous, and an option of difficulties ; that the greatness
of an object should come under consideration, opposed to
the impediments that lie in the way ; that the honour of
one's country is to have some weight ; and that, in particular
circumstances and times, the loss of a thousand men is rather
an advantage to a nation than otherwise, seeing that gallant
attempts raise its reputation and make it respectable ;
whereas the contrary appearances sink the credit of a country,
ruin the troops, and create infinite uneasiness and discontent
at home.
" I know not what to say, my dear Rickson, or how to
account for our proceedings, unless I own to you that there
never was people collected together so unfit for the business
they were sent upon — dilatory, ignorant, irresolute, and some
grains of a very unmanly quality, and very unsoldier-like
or unsailor-like. I have already been too imprudent ; I have
said too much, and people make me say ten times more than
I ever uttered ; therefore, repeat nothing out of my letter,
nor name my name as author of any one thing. The whole
affair turned upon the impracticability of escalading Roche-
fort ; and the two evidences brought to prove that the ditch
was wet (in opposition to the assertions of the chief engineer,
who had been in the place), are persons to whom, in my mind,
very little credit should be given ; without these evidences
we should have landed, and must have marched to Rochefort,
and it is my opinion that the place would have surrendered,
or have been taken, in forty-eight hours. It is certain that
there was nothing in all that country to oppose 9,000 good
Foot, — a million of Protestants, upon whom it is necessary
to keep a strict eye, so that the garrison could not venture
to assemble against us, and no troops, except the militia,
within any moderate distance of these parts. Little
practice in war, ease and convenience at home, great incomes,
and no wants, with no ambition to stir to action, are not the
instruments to work a successful war withal ; I see no
prospect of better deeds. I know not where to look for them,
or from whom we may expect them. Many handsome things
would have been done by the troops had they been permitted
to act."
The wrong
instru-
ments.
Quite in keeping with the spirit of the proceedings Fixing
before Rochefort, each of the two services impartially lMS-?£nsi"
attempted to fix responsibility on the other. An "
100 GENERAL WOLFE
official inquiry before which Wolfe had to appear
wrung from him the comment : " Better and more
honourable for the country if one half of us had gone
the road of mortality together than to be plagued
with inquiries and censures and the cry of the world."
The officers who held the inquiry decided that if
Wolfe's plan had been adopted '' it must certainly
have been of the greatest utility " towards the
attainment of the object in view. General Mordaunt
was then tried by court-martial ; no special blame
was attached to anyone, " so that this grand expedi-
tion miscarried without a cause " * — a fittingly
illogical conclusion to the whole business. " And
there," to quote Wolfe's own words, which he
described as " insolent," " ended the reputation of
three bad generals." Two people at least kept
Wolfe's record at this time in mind : one was Horace
Walpole, who hated him for the reflections his
evidence had cast on Conway, the other was Pitt.
To make assurance doubly sure no less a person than
Admiral Hawke drew attention to Wolfe's conduct.
Within a fortnight of his return to England Wolfe
heard that the King had been pleased to give him
the rank of colonel. Only four days previously he
had announced his surrender of the Irish appoint-
ment, but in response to representations from influ-
ential quarters he held his hand, though he persisted
that he would not go to Ireland in any case without
his colonelcy. Now that he had got the step he
wanted — a step he prized all the more because it
followed on the Rochefort fiasco — he was not to take
up the Irish post. He soon learned that he was wanted
1 John Campbell : Naval History of Great Britain, vol. iv,
p. 373.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1758 101
elsewhere, and for a bigger if less remunerative
enterprise.
Pitt was spurred to greater efforts than ever by Pitt's
the mishaps of the past year. It was not his habit Plans*
to bring new mischiefs on by mourning those that
were past and gone. His plans grew bigger as the
rebuffs multiplied, and he faced his country's enemies
in exactly the same spirit that he had faced his
personal enemies in Parliament for so many years.
He set himself now not merely to defeat the French,
but on and beyond the seas to break them altogether.
In America they were making steady headway.
They must be driven out and never again be allowed
to enter. His plan of campaign was triple in char-
acter. He would send three expeditions, one to
take Fort Duquesne, one to Ticonderoga and Crown
Point, and one to Louisbourg, the three working up
to the grand finale at Quebec. He recalled Loudon
and appointed Abercromby, who proved to be no
better than Loudon, to the command of his Majesty's
forces in America, giving him as brigadier Lord Howe,
one of the best officers in the army, from whom Wolfe
expected " handsome performances." If Howe had
been appointed to command the Ticonderoga expedi-
tion instead of Abercromby the initial performance
would have been very different. As it was,
Abercromby suffered a serious reverse, and Lord
Howe, " a complete model of military virtue in all
its branches," as Pitt said, was sacrificed. Pitt had
not yet weeded out all the incompetents in command.
For the Duquesne expedition he selected Forbes, a
young officer whose abilities were in inverse ratio
to his health, and ill as he was, Forbes drove the
French from the fort after a most arduous expedition.
102
GENERAL WOLFE
Preparing
for
Louisbourg.
The attack on Louisbourg, the big job of the three,
was to be led by Lord Amherst, whom Pitt summoned
from Germany. With Amherst, Wolfe was to go as
brigadier. In the command of the fleet wh'ch was
to co-operate, was placed Admiral the Hon. Edward
Boscawen. Preparations were hurried forward, and
Wolfe in Exeter, on January 7th, 1758, received a
letter which brought him to town post-haste. Riding
through the night, he accomplished the distance, 170
miles, in twenty hours. For the next fortnight he
was busy fixing up his personal and professional
affairs, and by the end of the month he expected to
be at sea. How he looked forward to the time when
possibly he might be able to take a voyage without
enduring inexpressible pain — pain which was not
lessened by the consciousness that dignity and sea-
sickness are incompatible. During the interval in
London, he made Blackheath his head-quarters ;
his parents, whose health occasioned him much
concern, were at Bath, and there was no cheery
send-off. His letters do not, however, suggest that
he was very miserable. Work is misery's antidote,
and Wolfe had plenty to do. Two references
in his correspondence with his mother have
some bearing on his ideas as to his future : one
is to the youngest of his mother's neighbours
at Bath, probably the Miss Lowther who was to take
the place of Miss Lawson in his heart ; the other,
dated the 25th January, is this : "Of late, no
thought of matrimony ; I have no objection to
it but differ much from the general opinion about
it. The greatest consideration with me is the
woman, her education and temper. Rank and
fortune never come into any competition with the
PORTSMOUTH TO HALIFAX 103
person. Any bargain on that affair is base and
mean. I could not with any satisfaction consider
my children as the produce of such an unnatural
union."
Wolfe left for Portsmouth on the 1st February, Portsmouth
and was impatient as usual to be off. On the 11th in I757«
he wrote to his mother : " Delays are not only pro-
ductive of bad consequences, but are very tiresome
and very inconvenient, as every unhappy person whose
lot is to be confined for any time to this place can
certify. The want of company and of amusement
can be supplied with books and exercise, but the
necessity of living in the midst of the diabolical
citizens of Portsmouth is a real and unavoidable
calamity. It is a doubt to me if there is such another
collection of demons upon the whole earth. Vice,
however, wears so ugly a garb that it disgusts rather
than tempts. ' ' Wolfe was not sparing in his criticisms
of the places in which he found himself . On the 12th
he went on board the Princess Amelia; three days
later he was at sea, and by the 22nd he was off
Plymouth Sound in such bad weather that one
important vessel was wrecked on a sandbank. It was
six weeks before the fleet reached Halifax. " From
Christopher Columbus' time to our days there perhaps
has never been a more extraordinary voyage. The
continual opposition of contrary winds, calms or
currents baffled all our skill and wore out all our
patience."1 What a place Halifax must have been
to Brigadier James Wolfe : full of activity and
excitement, with ships and troops gathered from
1 Letter to Lord George Sackville : His. MSS. Com., IX,
iii, p. 74. Von Ruville (vol. ii, p. 257) mistakes this voyage
of 1758 for that of 1759.
104
GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's
" amphi-
bious
scheme. ' '
many parts in readiness for the grand coup to be
delivered at Louisbourg.
Admiral Boscawen was indefatigable on the naval
side, and the army only awaited the arrival of General
Amherst. In conformity with instructions from Pitt,
Boscawen and Governor Lawrence in the interval
proceeded to devise a plan for the reduction of the
fortress. The plan adopted was probably Wolfe's :
" it was elaborate and strongly redolent of his theory
of combined operations," says Mr. Corbett. 1 " The
general idea, as always with him, was based on the
advantage of their amphibious flexibility. Wolfe,
with three battalions of his favourite Light Infantry,
was to land in Mire Bay, about ten miles to the north
of Louisbourg, and to march thence towards Gabarus
Bay with the intention presumably of taking in
reverse the landing-place at Cormorant Cove which
the French had now strongly entrenched." Monckton
was to descend on a cove between Louisbourg and
Mire Bay, Boscawen with his fleet was to demonstrate
at the mouth of the harbour, and a third force was to
slip ashore at Gabarus Bay beyond the French works.
" Nothing," wrote Wolfe to Lord Sackville on May
24th, " is yet fixed nor will be till we see the object
[objective], and perhaps General Amherst may arrive
in the meanwhile, time enough to improve the present
plan."2 Amherst did arrive in time. He sighted
Halifax on the 28th, the very day that Boscawen put
to sea, and Wolfe's plan did not commend itself to him.
" We can well believe that the division of force which
it entailed and which was always the essence of
Wolfe's conduct of amphibious operations was rank
1 England in the Seven Years' War, vol. i, p. 318.
2 His. MSS. Com. IX, iii, p. 75.
AMHERST AND WOLFE 105
heresy to a Continental strategist." 1 The very spirit
of originality in Wolfe's scheme was enough to give
Amherst pause. There was none better than Amherst
on conventional lines, and there was none less likely
to adhere to conventional lines than Wolfe.
1 England in the Seven Years' War, vol. i, p. 321.
CHAPTER VIII
THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOURG
Louisbourg. By the 1st June the fleet was in Gabarus Bay ; on the
2nd a fog which had enveloped the fortress, the
Dunkirk of America, lifted as though to give the
British an idea of the task before them. What Wolfe
felt when he first caught sight of Louisbourg, what
Amherst and Boscawen felt, can only be matter of
conjecture. Situated on the south east of the Isle
of Cape Breton, provided by nature with defences
which the science of the French engineers had done
its best to make impregnable, it had long been recog-
nised by American Governors, as well as French and
English Governments, as the key to New Canada's
main entrance. Known by the French before the
Treaty of Utrecht as Havre a l'Anglais and by the
English as English Harbour, directly that Treaty was
signed France took possession. What she had
hitherto done from the banks of Newfoundland she
now intended to 'do from the fine harbour of Louis-
bourg. It served the purpose of empire and of
commerce ; it was a naval base, at once a protection
to the St. Lawrence and a refuge for her fleets against
superior British forces and the storms of the Atlantic ;
it was a first-rate point from which to attack the
English colonies on the Atlantic front, and it became
the centre of the French fishing industry. To New
England, Louisbourg was an ever-present source of
annoyance ; that the men of Massachusetts had
managed to take possession of it must have given
106
THE FRENCH FORCES 10?
Amherst and Wolfe cause for thought ; that the
place once secured should have been given up on
any consideration must have made them marvel at
the genius of statesmanship for throwing away what
the soldier and sailor had won. In the ten troubled
years that had elapsed since the Treaty of Aix-la-
Chapelle no effort had been spared to make it im- Formidable
possible Louisbourg should ever again be captured, defences.
The town was built on the tongue of land to the west
of the harbour's mouth : on the seaward side frowning
cliffs and a rock-bound shore cast defiance at stressful
billow and determined invader : on the land side
formidable works stood between a marsh and the
town, and for miles the shore was commanded by
masked batteries. In the centre of the harbour
mouth was an island1 well fortified, on the opposite
point where the lighthouse stood were more defences,
and across the harbour, on the north side, were the
Grand Battery and other works. Louisbourg at this
time was in charge of Governor Drucour ; its popula-
tion was some 2,000, and he had with him 2,500 regular
troops, 600 burghers and Canadians, and some 3,000
sailors belonging to a fleet of seven ships of the line,
and five frigates which lay in the harbour. 2 Amherst's
force, composed largely of picked bodies of troops
1 This island is variously spoken of as Battery Island and
Goat Island. Parkman calls it Goat Island both in his text
and on his map. Mr. Bradley speaks of it as Goat Island,
but his map (The Fight with France for North America) shows
Goat Island not to be Battery Island at all. Sir John
Bourinot also calls Battery Island Goat Island, but his map
(Cape Breton and its Memorials) seems to make it clear that
Battery Island and Goat Island were distinct places.
2 Captain Mahan ( The Influence of Sea Power on History,
p. 293) says there were only five ships in the harbour —
obviously a mistake. Bourinot (Cape Breton, p. 73) accounts
for fourteen, of which two got clear away.
108 GENERAL WOLFE
from many regiments and from the volunteers of New
England, was 12,000 strong ; Boscawen's fleet con-
sisted of thirty-nine battleships, 118 transports, two
fire ships — a magnificent Armada, an earnest of
Pitt's resolve to give France no chance now of
successfully disputing with Great Britain the Empire
of the West.
The The first thing to be done was to reconnoitre ; late
landing. 0n the afternoon of the 2nd of June when the fleet
was safely anchored in Gabarus Bay, Amherst, with
Wolfe and Lawrence and other officers, got into the
boats and made as minute a study of the shore as a
rough sea, the treacherous rocks and the vigilance of
the French posted behind concealed guns would
allow. From Freshwater Cove away on the west past
Flat Point and White Point to Black Point near
the town, they found, said Wolfe, " some works
thrown up at the places which appeared practicable
to land at, and some batteries."1 But Amherst took
his decision. He would endeavour to effect a landing
on the left, that is, at Freshwater Cove, some four
miles from the town, whilst making a pretence at
landing at other points nearer. Everything was
made ready for the morrow. The weather was,
however, unfavourable. For three days wind and
surf alternated with fog and swell, and the Admiral
had reluctantly to confess that he could not land the
troops. There was talk of a Council of War, but that
discredited expedient was happily not resorted to.
On the 6th of June the weather moderated ; the
boats were promptly got out, and the men ordered
into them, but the fog and swell returned before they
were ready to put off, and Amherst had to order them
1 Correspondence of Pitt, vol. i, p. 271.
THE SEVENTH OF JUNE, 1758
109
to return to the ships, " first acquainting them with
the reason for so doing," he says significantly. Wolfe
could not have failed to remember Rochefort, and
Amherst was not inclined to allow his officers and
men to think for a moment that similar demoralising
influences were at work now. All the same, we know
enough of Wolfe by this time to be sure that he was
not taking this delay with absolute resignation — a
delay which everyone was aware the enemy would
turn to the best possible account. Once more on the
7th there was promise, this time not to be disap-
pointed, of a change for the better. A number of
sloops were sent off to the other side of the harbour
entrance, and early on the following morning three
divisions were ready in the boats for the landing. At
three points, frigates opened a sharp cannonade as
though they were covering the landing parties, and
110 GENERAL WOLFE
to the roar of guns — music in the ears of men em-
barked on a life and death struggle — hundreds of
boats were pulled with all the vigour which the
British bluejacket could put into the work, towards
the shore. In his graphically simple, soldier-like way,
Amherst reports1 —
Amherst's " When the fire had continued about a Quarter of an Hour,
report. the Boats upon the left rowed into the Shore under the
Command of Br. General Wolfe, whose Detachment was
composed of the four eldest Companys of Grenadiers, followed
by the Light Infantry, (a Corps of 550 Men chosen as Marks-
men from the different Regiments to serve as Irregulars, and
are commanded by Major Scott, who was Major of brigade), (2)
and Companys of Rangers, supported by the Highland
Regiment, and then by the Eight remaining Companys of
Grenadiers.
"The Division on the right under the Command of Br.
General Whitmore consisted of the Royal, Lascelles,
Monckton, Forbes, Anstruther, and Webb, and rowed to
our right by the White Point as if intending to force a landing
there. The center Division under the Command of Br.
General Lawrence was formed of Amherst's, Hopson's.
Otway's, Whitmore's, Lawrence's, and Warburton's, and
made at the same time a shew of landing at the fresh-water
Cove : (3) this drew the Enemy's attention to every part and
1 Correspondence of Pitt, vol. i, pp. 273-4.
(2) The Light Infantry, specially dressed and armed, were
an idea of Wolfe's. The smartness of their movements
induced an officer to say that they reminded him of the
Carduchi who harassed Xenophon in his retreat over the
mountains. " You are right," said Wolfe, " I had it thence ;
but our friends are astonished at what I have shown them
because they have read nothing." — (Wright, p. 442 : quoted
from James's Military Dictionary.)
(3) As Parkman's map (Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii) shows
Freshwater Cove to be on the extreme left where Wolfe landed
and as Bourinot (Cape Breton and its Memorials, p. 70) says
Wolfe made the real attack there, Amherst possibly meant
to write Flat Point Cove, which would be the centre. Mr.
Doughty speaks of Lawrence at Freshwater Cove (vol. i,
p. 104), This is only another geographical discrepancy
defying settlement.
SURF, ROCK AND FIRE 111
prevented their troops posted along the Coast from joining
those on their Right.
" The Enemy acted very wisely, did not throw away a Shot
till the Boats were near in Shore, and then directed the whole
Fire of their Cannon and Musketry upon them ; the Surf
was so great, that a place could hardly be found to get a boat
on shore ; notwithstanding the fire of the Enemy, and the
violence of the surf, Brigadier Wolfe pursued his point and
landed just at the left of the cove,^) took post, attacked the
Enemy and forced them to retreat. Many Boats overset,
several broke to Pieces, and all the Men jumped into the
Water to get on shore.
"As soon as the left Division was landed, the first Detach-
ments of the center rowed at a proper time to the left and
followed, then the remainder of the Center division as fast as
the boats could fetch them from the Ships and the right
Division followed the Center in like Manner.
" It took up a great deal of time to land the Troops, the
Enemy's Retreat, or rather Flight, was through the roughest
and worst Ground I ever saw, and the Pursuit ended with
a Cannonading from the town which was so far of use, that it
pointed out how near I could encamp to invest it ; on which
the Regiments marched to their ground and lay on their
Arms, the wind encreased, and we could not get any thing
on shore."
From other sources we get more detail of the event. The first
Wolfe leading the left got near the shore only to be battery-
received with so hot a fire that he speedily came to
the conclusion no man could scramble through the
surf and up the rocks with a chance of living. He
ordered that the signal to stand away from the shore
should be hoisted, but the mast which carried it was
instantly smashed by a shot. At that moment he saw
that a couple of other boats in charge of subalterns
had found protection behind a projecting rock, and
that men were actually leaping into the surf. In an
instant he was with them followed by his Grenadiers,
(x) The spot where Wolfe landed is known to-day as Wolfe's
Rock (Ochiltree Macdonald : Last Siege of Louisbourg, p. 169).
112 GENERAL WOLFE
his Highlanders, and his Light Infantry.1 Cane in
hand — not sword, as the would-be laureate2 of the
siege says — he had no time to think of boats smashed,
of luckless men swept away ; he rapidly formed up
those who were with him, and in the teeth of the
enemy's fire charged for the first battery. Not a
man should have lived to tell the story if the guns
had been properly served. Wolfe, when he came to
review events quietly, was convinced that the cost
to the British should have been heavy even though
the affair had not ended in irretrievable disaster.
" An officer and thirty men," he told Rickson later,
' would [he meant should] have made it impossible
to get ashore where we did."
Montcalm, when he heard of it, was amazed that
the British had succeeded in gaining a footing on
what had hitherto been regarded as an inaccessible
coast for military purposes. How was it, he asked,
that troops charged with the defence of the entrench-
ments at this point, did not march after the first
discharge of artillery and musketry, with bayonets
fixed, upon the English whom they should have
destroyed. 3 One answer is that the bravest defenders
are apt to lose heart when the attack does the
1 An eye-witness quoted by Mr. Ochiltree Macdonald
{The Last Siege of Louisbourg, p. 167) said the French fire
was so severe the men quailed before it. Wolfe and Lawrence
leapt ashore, crying " Follow me, my boys : this is for
England's glory," and the example inspired the troops.
Lawrence was not with Wolfe at the moment of landing.
The situation is sufficiently dramatic to lose by melodramatic
imaginings.
2 Mr. Ochiltree Macdonald, whose little book contains
some shocking doggerel and much that is curious about
Louisbourg.
3 Casgrain : Journal du Marquis de Montcalm, p. 383.
THE FRENCH PANIC 113
seemingly impossible. Whatever the explanation the
French, or as some say, the Volontaires Etrangers;
a contingent of German mercenaries, did not care to
risk cold steel ; they were fearful of being cut off,
and the movements to the centre and right did as
much perhaps to win the day as Wolfe's and his
companions' daring. Wolfe was in possession of the
abandoned battery when Amherst and the other
Brigadiers joined him. The enemy abandoned seven-
teen guns, four mortars, four swivells, with ammuni-
tion, tools, stores, food, wine, brandy — all of which
were of immediate use. Meanwhile the pursuit was
hot. It was only stayed when the guns on Louis-
bourg's bastions warned the British that advantage
had been pushed to its limits. The panic spread
round the harbour. Every outpost was abandoned.
Whilst the British were making themselves secure,
the French outside the fortress destroyed their works,
spiked their guns, and retreated as fast as boats and
legs could carry them. Even the fleet soon had reason
to wish itself anywhere but in the harbour. The
Admiral, days before, would have taken it to the
comparative safety of the high seas, but Governor
Drucour, who had an idea that it might be of material
assistance to the defence, objected. He and the
Admiral were both right. The fleet was in a trap, but
so long as it lasted it was of great service.
Amherst's operations for some days were impeded At Light-
by bad weather, which prevented the landing of siege hoHse
guns and other heavy material. Boscawen reported Point
that he lost no fewer than 100 boats in thirteen days
between the fleet and the shore. But Amherst did
not waste his time. He familiarised himself with
the ground, he reconnoitred " places from which he
9— (2213)
114 GENERAL WOLFE
could most sensibly insult the enemy's works,"1 he
built redoubts, and threw up earthworks. The first
important decision was to send Wolfe with 1,200
men to take possession of Lighthouse Point as the
most convenient position from which to attempt the
destruction of the men of war and to silence the
island battery. The distance round the harbour was
some seven or eight miles, and to get to Lighthouse
Point Wolfe had to lead his detachment through
ambuscades of lurking Indians.2 They could not
have been in great force or he would not have
reached the point unmolested, as he did. Wolfe
found Lighthouse Point abandoned, but commanded
by the island battery. From the north-east corner
of the harbour to the Lighthouse he established
entrenched posts and batteries ; he worked away
with spade and pickaxe till his parties were able to
inflict the maximum amount of damage with the
minimum of risk to themselves. To get near enough
to the point to silence the island battery without
heavy loss to his own men was the problem Wolfe
set himself to solve. His conduct on this occasion
stamped him for the intrepid, cautious, and skilful
leader he was. His disposition of and care for his
men, his precautions against surprise either from the
French garrison and fleet, or the Canadians and the
Indians who were prepared to pounce upon him from
the hills and woods, his elaborate instructions for the
guidance of the officers in charge of the batteries, his.
concern for the efficiency and vigilance of the various
working parties, enabled him to say to Amherst by
1 Knox : Historical Journal of the Campaign in North
America.
2 Macdonald, p. 168.
THE AMERICAN IRREGULAR 115
the 19th : " My posts are now so fortified, I can
afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more
as they are better for ranging and scouting than
either work or vigilance." Wolfe at times used
strong language about the American irregular. x He
may have shared some of the costly prejudices of
Imperial officers like Braddock, but he was too
enterprising and progressive a soldier himself to have
retained the prejudice when experience proved it
misplaced. " Are you not surprised," he continued,
" to find that I have a battery here ? " that is in the
north-east harbour. " The ground upon which I
propose to erect a formidable battery against island
battery is so much exposed that I must wait for a
dark night or a fog to get it up." He believed the
French ships were in " a confounded scrape ; that
is if our bombardiers are worth a farthing." The
conditions he desired came that night, for by the 20th
he had advanced his principal battery sufficiently to
begin pummelling away at the island. The ships
fired away at Wolfe's batteries on shore ; the batteries
kept up a duel with the ships and the island ; and
Amherst's main body and the defenders worked their
guns incessantly. On the 25th the island battery
was silenced and Wolfe, leaving a sufficient contingent
to man Lighthouse Point and prevent the restoration
of the demolished battery, returned to his chief.
Amherst was making steady, if laborious, progress. Wolfe's
The British lines were being gradually pushed nearer enerey«
the fatal city. Redoubts, epaulement, roads, trenches,
had to be made through country swept not only by
the guns of the fortress, but by those of a ship in the
harbour. The Arethuse had pluckily taken up a
1 Letter to Sackville, His. MSS. Com. IX, iii. p. 77.
116 GENERAL WOLFE
position in the western corner known as the Barachois,
and was able to rake the British lines in a way which
made her fire more troublesome than that of the
fortress itself. Wolfe's return had the effect of
putting more spirit into the safe and somewhat stolid
movements of the besiegers. Of course, Amherst's
difficulties were great, and in a letter to Pitt he said
that his approach had not been as rapid as he could
wish owing to the necessity of landing everything in
" an almost continual surf, the making of roads,
draining and passing of bogs and putting ourselves
under cover." But for Wolfe difficulties existed to
be overcome and if possible transferred to the enemy.
The Brigadier was everywhere, now superintending
the erection of a battery, which was to make the
Barachois untenable for the Arethuse, at the same
time that it cleared the way to the West Gate of the
City ; now directing the works away to the far right.
He did so much that there is perhaps a tendency to
give him credit for more than he actually accom-
plished. What is certain is that the enemy never
knew from evening to morning where a fresh battery
would spring up in order to enable the main army
to " carry on their approaches with the greater
security and more expedition. Some People of the
Garrison, to express their Surprize at this and some
other Instances of the Suddenness of Brigadier Wolfe's
Motions from one Place to another, and their Senti-
ments of the Effect of his Operations, used to say —
There is no Certainty where to find him — but,
wherever he goes, he carries with him a Mortar in one
Pocket and a 24-pounder in the other."1
1 " A Spectator," quoted by Doughty : Siege of Quebec,
vol. i, p. 117.
FEARS OF VENGEANCE 117
Such efforts told apace. The day after Wolfe Complaints
silenced the island battery, the French in order to and
prevent Admiral Boscawen from entering the harbour,
sank four of their battleships at the mouth. Getting
desperate, the defenders made more than one sortie,
and were repulsed after considerable loss on both
sides. Wolfe's batteries made themselves more and
more felt, * and a note of his to Amherst suggests that
the French were beginning to complain. He wrote :
" When the French are in a scrape they are ready to
cry out in behalf of the human species : when fortune
favours them none more bloody, more inhuman.
Montcalm changed the very nature of war and has
forced us in some measure to a deterring and dreadful
vengeance." The allusion here of course is to such
unhappy incidents as the massacre of the English
after the surrender of Fort William Henry for which
Montcalm must be held in part responsible. The
French in Canada always had the horror of that day
on their consciences and dreaded the vengeance
British victory might bring with it. In the siege of
Louisbourg chivalry and humanity went hand in
hand with the stern arbitrament of shot and shell.
Drucour offered Amherst the services of a skilled
physician should he be in need of one ; Amherst
acknowledged the courtesy by sending some pine
apples from the West Indies for the acceptance of
Madame Drucour, who was with her husband, and
was the good angel of the hard-pressed garrison ;
Madame made grateful return in the shape of a case
of excellent wine.
Personal amenities only threw professional ardour Disaster on
on both sides into stronger relief. Daily the British disaster.
1 Even the Ships' Logs bear witness to Wolfe's special energy.
118 GENERAL WOLFE
pressed their advantages home. The Arethuse was
badly hit and left her moorings : that was an immense
gain. She repaired her injuries and then escaped
through the obstructions at the entrance of the
harbour, intending to carry news of Louisbourg's
plight to France. She enjoyed no better luck than
another vessel which got away much earlier with the
idea of making for Quebec. Both fell into the hands
of British vessels which patrolled the seas wherever
it might be expected the French would appear. l On
the 21st July a bomb fell on U Entreprennant, which
carried seventy-four guns ; there was a big explosion,
and the vessel burst into flames ; the flames spread
to the Capricieux and the Celebre (sixty-four guns
each) and all three were burnt out. 2 Disaster
followed disaster. A fire broke out in the citadel, and
to prevent its being properly dealt with the besiegers
pounded away at other points ; after the citadel the
barracks, a structure mainly wooden which the New
Englanders had erected during their occupation a
dozen years earlier, were consumed in the same way.
The French shooting became of the wildest, and old
iron or any missile that could be hurled from the guns
was used for shot. Wolfe's energy seemed to grow
with the enemy's demoralisation. Writing from the
" Trenches at Daybreak " on the 25th, he requested
that he should be " indulged " with six hours' rest
in order that he might serve in the trenches at night.
1 Bourinot ( Cape Breton, p. 73) says the ArSthuse reached
France and was taken subsequently whilst cruising in the
Channel.
2 Parkman, Bradley and Doughty say the explosion was
on the CSlibre. Boscawen's report (Correspondence of Pitt,
vol. i, p. 308) shows that they have reversed the order of
events.
THE CROWNING DISASTER 119
That night of the 25-6th was to put the crowning
touch to French troubles. Admiral Boscawen sent the
boats of his squadron in two divisions under Captains
Laforey and Balfour into the harbour to capture
or burn the Prudent, seventy-four guns, and the
Bienfaisant, sixty-four guns, the only ships remaining
of the French fleet. It was " a particular gallant
action," as Boscawen says. The sailors in the dark,
which was intensified by fog, silently reached and
surrounded the two warships, clambered up their sides
almost before the alarm could be given, and after a
few minutes of sharp work overwhelmed the crews in
charge. As the Prudent was aground, she was set
alight ; the Bienfaisant was got safely away, and
towed to the north-east harbour. A few hours later
Boscawen was prepared to send his own battleships
in. But it was unnecessary ; the last big gun on the
walls was silenced by Amherst just about this time,
and the end was very near.
The white flag was hoisted and Drucour sent out Thecapitu-
1 4-*
to learn what terms would be granted if he capitulated. 26th Tulv
He asked that he might be accorded those given by 1758.
the French to the English garrison of Minorca.
Amherst and Boscawen decided without a second's
hesitation that the garrison must surrender as
prisoners of war ; the surrender to be agreed upon
within an hour, otherwise the city would be attacked
' on all sides. Drucour protested ; the only answer
he got was that he might accept the conditions or
not as he chose, and he must now say Yes or No
within half an hour. His brief response was that his
final resolution remained unaltered ; he would take
the consequences of the attack. His messenger had
barely left when the civil authorities intervened in
120 GENERAL WOLFE
order to avert the horrors of an assault. The prayers
of an intimidated people were that they might not,
to satisfy military glory, " be delivered over to
carnage and the rage of an unbridled soldiery, eager
for plunder and impelled to deeds of horror by
pretended resentment at what has formerly happened
in Canada." How long these impassioned repre-
sentations occupied, how it happened that they
occurred simultaneously with the despatch of
Drucour's defiant message, we need not inquire too
curiously. Drucour listened to reason, and a second
messenger was sent to bring back the first. As
Parkman suggests, it is evident the first was in no
hurry to deliver the momentous note, for he had
scarcely got beyond the fortifications when he was
overtaken. Within the half-hour the English terms
had been accepted and by midnight the articles of
capitulation involving the fate of the whole Island
of Cape Breton and other places had been signed.
The British took possession of Louisbourg on the
27th July. The first of the series of heavy blows which
were to drive the Bourbon colours from Canada had
been delivered, and in its delivery the hand that
was to direct the decisive if not the final blow was
at least as conspicuous as that of the General himself.
The advantages of combined operations were fully
borne in upon Wolfe by Louisbourg. " The Admiral
and General," he wrote to Lord George Sackville,
" have carried a public service with great harmony,
industry and union. Mr. Boscawen is an
excellent back hand at a siege."1 As on Wolfe
had devolved so much of the hard work of invest-
ment, so now he was called upon to see that order
1 His, MSS. Com. IX, iii, p. 76,
ABERCROMBY'S DEFEAT 121
was preserved so far as was possible after the trying
ordeal to both sides of the past seven weeks. He
posted sentinels on the ramparts whilst Brigadier
Whitmore received the surrender of arms and colours
on the esplanade from between five and six thousand
men. In a note to his mother, the first he had written
home since the siege began, Wolfe said he had been
into Louisbourg to pay his " devoirs " to the ladies.
They were pale and thin and had been heartily
frightened but no real harm had befallen any. To
his father he expressed a hope that " there will be
fine weather enough for another blow " — he was
thinking of Quebec — and to his uncle Walter he wrote
at some length in the same characteristically critical
spirit that marked his letter to Rickson. 1 The
" attempt " to land was " rash and ill-advised " and
succeeded only by " the greatest of good fortune
imaginable." The operations, he said, were " slow
and injudicious." The Indians he speaks of as
" contemptible canaille — a dastardly set of bloody
rascals. We cut them to pieces whenever we found
them in return for a thousand acts of cruelty and
barbarity. I do not penetrate our General's inten-
tions. If he means to attack Quebec he must not
lose a moment."
Barely was Louisbourg in British hands before news Ticonde-
arrived which chastened the joy of the victors, and roga.
to some extent tempered the bitter reflections of the
vanquished. Abercromby had been beaten at
Ticonderoga by Montcalm, and among those whose
lives had been sacrificed was the gallant young Howe,
" the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my
time," said Wolfe, " and the best soldier in the army.
1 Ante, p. 112,
122 GENERAL WOLFE
Heavens ! what a loss to the country : the bravest,
worthiest, and most intelligent man among us." In
the midst of getting off prisoners to England and
disposing of the innumerable details which demanded
his attention, Amherst had to decide what he would
do next. How could he best help Abercromby ?
Should he take ship at once to the south with
reinforcements, or should he try to draw Montcalm
off by an expedition up the River St. Lawrence in
fulfilment of the original intention of the campaign ?
He was deliberate as usual, much to Wolfe's annoy-
ance. " We are gathering strawberries and other
wild fruits of the country with a seeming indifference
about what is doing in other parts of the world," he
wrote impatiently on August 7th, and he pressed
Amherst for some hint of his intentions. Amherst
was undecided ; the Admiral and he were of opinion
that they could not go to Quebec but must do some-
thing in General Abercromby's favour ; so they
advertised for pilots to go up the St. Lawrence, * where
they had little intention of even attempting to go.
Wolfe wrote to Amherst on August 8th a letter which,
to say the least, was not wanting in directness —
Wolfe to " Au accounts agree that General Abercromby's army is
Amherst. cu^ deep, and all the last advices from those parts trace the
bloody steps of those scoundrels, the Indians. As an English-
man, I cannot see these things without the utmost horror
and concern. We all know how little the Americans are to
be trusted ; by this time, perhaps, our troops are left to
defend themselves, after losing the best of our officers. If
the Admiral will not carry us to Quebec, reinforcements
should certainly be sent to the continent without losing a
moment's time. The companies of Rangers, and the Light
Infantry, would be extremely useful at this juncture ; whereas
here they are perfectly idle, and, like the rest, of no manner
of service to the public. If Lawrence has any objection to
1 Amherst (Correspondence of Pitt, vol. i, p, 313).
WOLFE'S PROPHECY 123
going I am ready to embark with four or five battalions, and
will hasten to the assistance of our countrymen. I wish we
were allowed to address the Admiral, or I wish you yourself,
Sir, would do it in form. This d d French garrison takes
up our time and attention, which might be better bestowed
upon the interesting affairs of the continent. The transports
are ready, and a small convoy would carry a brigade to Boston
or New York. With the rest of the troops we might make
an offensive and a destructive war in the Bay of Fundy and
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I beg pardon for this freedom,
but I cannot look coolly upon the bloody inroads of those
hell-hounds the Canadians ; and if nothing further is to be
done, I must desire leave to quit the army."
General Amherst took this strong language in good The future
part, explained that it was his original intention to of America,
go to Quebec, but that events now seemed to make it
advisable to go to Abercromby, to send five or six
battalions to the Bay of Fundy, and another force
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He invited Wolfe to
propound any scheme which might assist matters.
Such communication, he said, " will be of much more
service than your thoughts of quitting the army which
I can by no means agree to, as all my thoughts and
wishes are confined at present to pursuing our
operations for the good of his Majesty's service, and
I know nothing that can tend more to it than your
assisting in it." Wolfe soon learned that he was to
command three regiments which were to be sent with
a fleet under Sir Charles Hardy to Gaspe and other
places in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to destroy French
stores, drive out the settlers, and incidentally induce
a belief that Quebec was to be attacked. Whilst
preparing for the expedition, which Wolfe regarded
with some contempt as one to " rob fishermen of
their nets," he wrote a letter to his mother which
gave her his view as to the character of the British
possessions in America and the climate of " this fine
124 GENERAL WOLFE
continent." He foreshadowed the time when it
would be "a vast Empire, the seat of power and
learning. Nature has refused them nothing, and
there will grow a people out of our little spot England
that will fill this vast space and divide this great
portion of the globe with the Spaniards who are
possessed of the other half." A little luck and the
sparing of " that great man " — Lord Howe — "would
have already laid the corner stone of this great fabric.
It is my humble opinion that the French name
would soon have been unknown in North America,
and still may be rooted out if our Government will
follow the blows they have given and prosecute
the war with the vigour it requires."
A great The expedition to the Gulf of St. Lawrence set out
de.al 5? , on the 28th August ; it anchored off Gaspe" on the
5th September, and was back at Louisbourg again
on the 29th. Wolfe reported to General Abercromby,
to Pitt and to Amherst. His letter to Pitt1 is an
admirable summary of the operations conducted by
the fleet and detachments of the army against the
settlements at Gaspe, Baye de Chaleurs, and Mira-
michi. Wolfe was anxious to go much further than
Sir Charles Hardy cared to take his fleet at that
season. They captured a sloop with passengers from
Quebec and learnt that great scarcity of provisions
and distress prevailed in the city ; " that (although
the magazines for the army were full and the best
harvest for many years) bread sold at a shilling a
pound ; that both the troops and the inhabitants
had been reduced in the winter to eat horseflesh and
that the colony must be ruined unless very early and
very powerful assistance were given." Wolfe added
1 Correspondence, vol. i, p. 379,
BRADSTREET'S MASTER-STROKE 125
that as the British found no enemy in a condition to
oppose them they could add nothing to the reputation
of His Majesty's arms. They had destroyed the
fishery, " a material article of subsistence to the
Canadians." He could not conceal his disgust. " All
their houses, stages, magazines, shallops, nets, stores,
and provisions are burnt, one hundred and forty of
the inhabitants brought off, and the rest of these
miserable poeple will in all probability be forced to
abandon their settlements and retire to Quebec."
Early next summer, he said, forty ships were expected
in the River St. Lawrence with provisions, stores,
etc. Having thus done " a great deal of mischief,"
as he said to Amherst, Wolfe took note of what was
happening elsewhere.
Amherst had gone to Abercromby with 3,000 To relieve
men, but Abercromby with four times that number ^™L
already had done nothing beyond entrenching
himself and quietly exchanging " his former role of
an irresistible invader of Canada to that of the
defender of a threatened frontier." x The solitary
piece of news after Wolfe's own heart which had come
to hand was of Bradstreet's daring seizure of
Frontenac with a small force which he had induced
Abercromby to give him. It was a master-stroke
and commanded Wolfe's admiration. " An offensive
daring kind of war," he told Amherst, " will awe the
Indians and ruin the French. Blockhouses and a
trembling defensive, encourage the meanest scoundrels
to attack us. . . . If you will attempt to cut up
New France by the roots I will come back with
pleasure to assist." Meantime he was preparing to
return to England apparently in the hope that he
1 Fight with France for North America, p. 261.
126 GENERAL WOLFE
would be employed on the continent. To Lord
George Sackville he said that he thought the English
Ministry did not understand the value of the Isle of
Aix. He undertook, if they would give him 4,000
men, a good quantity of artillery, fascines and sand-
bags to establish himself so effectually that the French
would exchange Minorca or anything to get him out. l
A mysterious letter of Wolfe's, written on the
6th June, 1759, and preserved in the Public Record
Office, seems to throw some light on the personal side
of affairs at this time. It is addressed to a peer whose
identity is uncertain and runs —
" My Lord,
" I have had the honour to receive two letters from your
Lordship, one concerning my stay in this country to which
I shall only say that the Marshal told me I was to return at
the end of the Campaign, and as General Amherst had no
other Commands than to send me to winter at Halifax under
the orders of an officer [Governor Lawrence (8)], who was but
a few months put over my head, I thought it was much better
to get into the way of service and out of the way of being
insulted, and as the style of your Lordship's letter is pretty
strong I must take the liberty to inform you that though
I should have been very glad to have gone with G. Amherst
to join the army upon the Lakes, and offered my services
immediately after the reduction of Louisbourg to carry a
reinforcement to Mr. Abercromby if Quebec was not to be
attacked ; yet rather than receive orders in the Government
[of Nova Scotia] from an officer younger than myself (though
a very worthy man) I should certainly have desired leave to
resign my commission for as I neither ask nor expect any
favour, so I never intend to submit to any ill-usage
whatsoever."
From which one thing is clear : that it was proposed
to reward Wolfe's services by supercession and that
Wolfe would not submit to it. Was Amherst, who
was anxious he should remain, in any way responsible ?
1 His. MSS. Com. IX, iii, p. 77.
(2) Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 202.
CHAPTER IX
PREPARING FOR THE ST. LAWRENCE
Wolfe, to be known for a while, until a greater A great
achievement eclipsed his Cape Breton performances, year-
as the hero of Louisbourg, came back to England
with Admiral Boscawen in the Namur. The country
rejoiced, and Parliament voted its cordial thanks to
the Admiral and General Amherst. Wolfe's portion
was something approaching hero-worship : everybody
knew what he had done ; everybody seemed to be
singing his praises ; and the only person who seemed
unconscious that he was a hero was — himself. When
he reached Portsmouth on the 1st November, he went
straight to Salisbury to join the 67th Regiment whose
Colonel he now was, there to await leave to repair to
town. Leave came in a few days ; he was at Black-
heath on the 17th writing to his uncle Walter : "I
wish I could say that my health was such as a soldier
should have. Long passages and foggy weather have
left their natural effects upon me. The people here
say I look well. No care shall be wanting to get
ready for the next campaign. They can propose no
service to me that I shall refuse to undertake unless
where capacity is short of the task." The next
campaign ! Pitt was already busy with plans for
1759. The year now drawing to a close had gone
splendidly for England. The French coast had
suffered severely from British expeditions ; French
fleets had been held in check or crushed altogether
127
128 GENERAL WOLFE
by Hawke and Osborn ; Pitt had rendered Frederick
invaluable service by his subsidies and Prince
Ferdinand had been appointed to command the
British Hanoverian forces in place of the Duke of
Cumberland ; Fort St. Louis in Senegal and the
Island of Goree had been captured ; the Isle of Cape
Breton was British ; Bradstreet had by his one
brilliant stroke neutralised Montcalm's victory at
Ticonderoga and made the way easier for Forbes to
capture Duquesne, as he did in November, renaming
it Fort Pitt, to become in time that hive of industry,
Pittsburg. Pitt had no reason to be dissatisfied
with his work in 1758, qualified though it might
be by Ticonderoga and one or two smaller
reverses.
An With genuine concern Wolfe learned that Pitt had
annoying intended to continue him on service in America. He
wrote at once to the Minister explaining that it was
understood by Lord Ligonier, the Commander-in-
Chief and Amherst, that from the condition of his
health and other circumstances, he would return to
England at the end of the campaign. The discovery
was particularly annoying because none had been so
anxious as he to carry the campaign to the St.
Lawrence. " I take the freedom," he said to Pitt,
" to acquaint you that I have no objection to serving
in America and particularly in the River St. Lawrence
if any operations are to be carried on there. The
favour I ask is only to be allowed a sufficient time to
repair the injury done to my constitution by the
long confinement at sea, that I may be the better
able to go through the business of the next summer."
Back again at Salisbury he wrote to his friend
Rickson a long letter in which he reiterated many
discovery.
AT PITT'S DISPOSAL 129
of the points as to Louisbourg familiar in other
letters. The British force in America, he said, " was
so superior to the enemy's that we might have hoped
for greater success. But it pleased the Disposer of
all things to check our presumption by permitting
Mr. Abercromby to hurry on that precipitate attack
on Ticonderoga." He expected to hear any day that
a new attempt had been made, " and I can't flatter
myself that they have succeeded, not from any idea
of the Marquis de Montcalm's abilities, but from a
very poor opinion of our own." As for himself, he
added, he had signified to Mr. Pitt that he might
" dispose of my slight carcass as he pleases, and that
I am ready for any undertaking within the reach and
compass of my skill and cunning. I am in a very bad
condition both with the gravel and rheumatism, but
I had much rather die than decline any kind of service
that offers. If I followed my own taste, it would
lead me into Germany ; and if my poor talent was
consulted, they would place me in the cavalry, because
nature has given me good eyes, and a warmth of
temper to follow the first impressions. However, it
is not our part to choose, but to obey. My opinion
is, that I shall join the army in America, where, if
fortune favours our force and best endeavours, we
may hope to triumph."
Wolfe watched events in Germany the more closely Wolfe as
because his old Regiment was doing excellent work disciplina-
with Prince Ferdinand — an earnest of better things nan*
to come when Kingsley's men should cover themselves
with glory at Minden. He told one of his old captains
how pleased he was that the discipline they had
helped to establish was producing " the natural effects
whenever it comes to the proof." The Prince's
10 — (2213)
The
130 GENERAL WOLFE
abilities he rated very high. " It is my fortune to be
cursed with American service ; yours to serve in an
army commanded by a great and able prince where
I would have been if my choice and inclinations had
been consulted." During the short time spent with
the 67th, he seems to have left the same impression
on its discipline that he left on the 20th. The greatest
compliment was paid to its abiding influence some
years later, when a Russian General asked leave to
borrow two or three privates in order to drill his own
men in the way of the 67th. Major Campbell then
in command said the only merit due to himself was
the attention and strictness with which he had
followed the system introduced by Wolfe. x
For the benefit of his health, Wolfe went to Bath
Quebec on the 7th December, and a week or ten days later
command, received a summons to London from Pitt. The great
Minister and the young soldier both had Quebec in
mind, but with the difference that whilst Wolfe had
urged the importance of an expedition to the St.
Lawrence in which he might serve under another,
Pitt had decided that Wolfe himself was to command
that most hazardous portion of a new tripartite
campaign. Only a Pitt would have dared propose
for such an enterprise a soldier whose very age was
not equal to the length of other veterans' services.
Pitt knew his man. After the interview Wolfe kept
his own counsel, though naturally rumours of
important developments were soon afloat. Even to
his old friend Warde he did not divulge the facts when
he wrote on the 20th December to ask if he might
mention Warde's name for distant, difficult, and
1 Memoirs of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglass, quoted
by Wright, p. 470.
SELECTING HIS STAFF 131
disagreeable service such as would make a call on all
his skill and abilities. " If the employment of
Adjutant-General or perhaps of Quartermaster to a
very hazardous enterprise be to your taste, there are
people who would be extremely glad of your assist-
ance. There is no immediate advantage arising from
it. That of being useful to the public at the expense
of your health and constitution is a recommendation
that cannot be strongly urged. " Warde was ready to
serve under his whilom playmate of Squerryes, but
anticipated opposition in certain quarters. His
willingness to fall in with Wolfe's suggestion is clear
from Wolfe's reply that his " readiness " encouraged
him to hope their united efforts might be useful and
that he would desire to be excused from these Wh did
" dangerous honours " if he could not have his own George
men. For some reason Warde did not go to Quebec Warde n°t
with Wolfe. That reason must have been ample — J
more ample than Mr. Bradley suggests when he says
that " Warde in spite of his sincere regard for his
friend, not unnaturally as a horse soldier, preferred
the battlefields of Europe, whither he was shortly
sent, to the siege of an American fortress, howsoever
important. ' ' x Perhaps Warde's inclinations combined
with official objections to determine the matter.
There is no ground for suggesting that Warde volun-
tarily rejected an offer on his acceptance of which
Wolfe set so high a value. Wolfe told " the leading
men " that if they charged a young soldier with
weighty responsibilities they must give him the best
assistance. He knew in which direction to look for
such assistance. He had another friend in mind —
Guy Carleton. It was unfortunate that Carleton was
1 Wolfe, p. 131.
132
GENERAL WOLFE
The
Townshend
appoint-
ment.
out of favour with the king. He had spoken dis-
respectfully of the Hanoverians, and the king punished
him. He refused him permission to join Wolfe at
Louisbourg, and now when Wolfe included Carleton's
name in his staff it was struck out by the royal quill.
But Wolfe was as firm on the one side as the king on
the other. After Louisbourg he expressed the view
that if Carleton had been there the business might
have been much expedited. " So much depends upon
the abilities of individuals in war that there cannot
be too great care taken in the choice of men for the
different offices of trust and importance."1 He
was determined to have his own men now, and it
was only after a strenuous fight against the king's
prejudices, during which Pitt strongly urged Wolfe's
claim, and Lord Ligonier had several animated
audiences in support of it, that Carleton was included
as Quartermaster-General. As Pitt said, to refuse
compliance with the General's request was to make
it impossible to hold him responsible if he should
fail.
Wolfe made more than one exceptional appoint-
ment ; he had as sharp an eye for merit as had Pitt
in selecting himself. His three Brigadiers were to be
Robert Monckton, son of Viscount Galway, who had
seen service in Germany, Flanders, and America ;
George Townshend, eldest son of Viscount Townshend ;
and James Murray, son of Lord Eli bank in whose
capacity for command Wolfe had the greatest
confidence. Townshend was not one of Wolfe's men.
In temperament they were unlike, and Townshend had
1 Letter to Lord G. Sackville.
p. 76.
His. MSS. Com, IX, iii,
SOCIAL INFLUENCE 133
possibly been spoiled by admiring friends. His
appointment is generally said to have been the direct
result of social influence. He held an immoderate
idea of the claims of birth over abilitiy ; if that idea
could have been eliminated, such is the impression
conveyed, he would have made a better colleague.
What his critics said, Horace Walpole summarised in
a caustic sentence : "A very particular young man
who with much address, some honour, no knowledge,
great fickleness, greater want of judgment, and with
still more disposition to ridicule, had promised once
or twice to make a good speaker." In Walpole's
view, after the appointment, Townshend, so far as
wrong-headedness went, was " very proper for a
hero." Townshend's shortcomings are easy to detect ;
if we respect him only in the degree to which he loved
Wolfe he will not command much esteem, but he was
a good soldier and if Wolfe had not been assured on
that side Townshend would never have formed one
of his staff. Wolfe would not have taken the risk.
To suggest that he would have allowed social claims
to over-ride professional considerations is to reflect
sharply on himself. Wolfe's difficulties were indi-
cated in a letter to Major Alexander Murray, whom
he wished to serve. He was opposed by " a torrent
of family interest " which tended to bear down
justice itself. But the most careful reading between
the lines of Townshend's life lends little colour to the
suggestions of his enemies. Townshend had seen
service as Wolfe had at Dettingen and Laffeldt and
Culloden, and after the fall of Louisbourg he wrote
to Pitt to ask to be employed in some expedition
against France. Lord Ligonier mentioned the matter
to the King and the letter Townshend received from
134 GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe hardly bears out Walpole's too ready
depreciation —
"To Colonel the Honble. George Townshend. (x)
" Sir,—
" 1 came to town last night and found the letter you
have done me the honour to write. Your name was mentioned
to me by the Mareschal, and my answer was that such an
example in a person of your rank and character could not
but have the best effects upon the troops in America, and
indeed upon the whole military part of the nation ; and I
took the freedom to add that what might be wanting in
experience was amply made up in an extent of capacity and
activity of mind, that would find nothing difficult in our
business. I am to thank you for the good opinion you have
entertained of me and for the manner in which you have
taken occasion to express your favourable sentiments. I
persuade myself that we shall concur heartily for the public
service — the operation in question will require our united
efforts and the utmost exertion of every man's spirit and
judgment.
"I conclude we are to sail with Mr. Saunders' squadron.
Till then you do what is most agreeable to yourself. If I
hear anything that concerns you to know, be assured of the
earliest intelligence.
" I have the honour to be with the highest esteem, Sir, your
"Most obedient and faithful humble servant,
London, 6th Jan., 1759."
" J. Wolfe.
Miss After his interview with Pitt, Wolfe went back to
Lowther. g^ to recruit ms health, to mature his plans, and
to enter on a campaign of another sort. His precise
relations with Miss Katherine Lowther, the sister of
Sir James Lowther, who was to become first Earl of
Lonsdale, must be left to the imagination, 2 Clues
(*) Military Life of George Townshend, p. 143.
* Thackeray's account in The Virginians of Wolfe's love
for Miss Lowther is purely imaginary if it be true that there
was no engagement till the winter of 1758-9.
PITT TO AMHERST 135
followed up by ardent desire to know all that is
possible of everything affecting James Wolfe have
yielded little. We may conjure up any idyllic story
we choose of the second surrender of this brilliant,
high souled, ailing young warrior just appointed to
the command of an expedition of world-wide signifi-
cance, taking to heart a woman of whom it was said
that rank and large fortune were among her least
recommendations. All that is certain is that she now
entered definitely into Wolfe's life, but no tangible
evidence to that effect is forthcoming until the fateful
day which gave Great Britain a new dominion and
cost her one of her noblest sons.
Whatever the facts may be, Wolfe can have had Plan of
little time for the duties of suitor nor opportunity for campaign
that perfect rest which he sought. Pitt would have
given him plenty to keep him busy. The Secretary
of State's letter to Amherst, who had succeeded
Abercromby as Commander-in-Chief in America,
announced Wolfe's appointment as Major-General for
purposes of the American campaign. Amherst
himself was to command an expedition which was to
make its way by Ticonderoga and Crown Point to the
St. Lawrence, Montreal, and Quebec, a third expedi-
tion advancing via Niagara. Forbes would have
commanded the last, but the Duquesne Campaign
had left him a complete physical wreck and Brigadier
Prideaux was appointed in his stead. Amherst was
instructed at great length as to the steps he was to
take in preparation for Wolfe's arrival at Louisbourg
in April or early in May. Pitt's letter was a masterly
guide to the means by which a great end was to be
accomplished. * It left to the initiative of the man
1 Correspondence of Pitt, vol. i, p. 432-442.
136
GENERAL WOLFE
Parsimony
and public
service.
on the spot only those things which the responsible
Minister could not possibly determine. Wolfe's
commission was signed on the 12th January, 1759.
The local character of that commission, which meant
that he was plain Colonel Wolfe at home, Major-
General in America, and until he should join hands
with Amherst, Commander-in-Chief on the St.
Lawrence, involved embarrassing financial con-
siderations. Amherst, as Commander-in-Chief in
fact, received £10 a day and £1,000 for expenses, but
Wolfe, as a practically independent commander for
some time to come with equal claims upon his purse,
received £2 a day and no allowance for expenses. It
was of course ludicrously inadequate and he told
Lord Barrington, the Secretary for War, that he
would have to borrow from his father unless some
allowance from the public purse were made. Lord
Barrington reassured him. Representations were
made to the King, £500 was granted without demur,
and more was promised if it should be necessary.
Munificent treatment for one on whom the fate of an
Empire hung ! Economy there must be somewhere —
such was the plea : then why not economise in regard
to essential public enterprises whilst unessential
workers grew fat at the public expense ? In view
of what happened when officialism was called upon
to make pecuniary acknowledgment of Wolfe's
inestimable service in the days to come, one can but
recognise the generosity shown in anticipation. Pitt
himself was so superior to considerations of hard cash
that he certainly would have made no attempt to
gauge Wolfe's worth in pounds, shillings and pence.
Wolfe's services, like his own, were patriotically
speaking priceless.
SUFFICIENT FOR THE MOMENT 137
Nor did Wolfe complain, though he must have been Wolfe's
conscious that he was expected to do the big job of modesty,
the campaign on slender resources. He said he
thought £500 would be ample. What he wanted
now as ever was to be left free to do the work in hand
without having to bother about immediate ways and
means. Love is not the only thing which flies out
when poverty enters, and a nature such as Wolfe's
would worry more about inability to discharge a
small debt than about failure to compete successfully
with less able men in the acquisition of material
gains. Lord Barrington may well have been
" touched " by his modesty : it was a quality little
in evidence among the placemen of the eighteenth
century. If Wolfe knew that his own abilities were
a good deal in advance of those of many of the
leading military men with whom he was brought in
contact, he regarded the fact more in sorrow than
in pride. On the 29th January, he wrote to his
uncle Walter : "I am to act a greater part in this
business than I wish or desire. The backwardness of
some of the leading officers has in some measure forced
the Government to go so low. I shall do my best
and leave the rest to fortune as perforce we must
when there are not the most commanding abilities.
... If I have health and constitution enough for the
campaign I shall think myself a lucky man ; what
happens afterwards is not of great consequence."
Two anecdotes recorded of Wolfe in the interval Misunder-
between his appointment and his sailing again for **ood ^7
America are eloquent of the average politician's ticians.
inability to understand him. Pitt's nominal chief,
Newcastle, took occasion to inform the King that
Wolfe was mad. The King replied : " Mad, is he ?
138 GENERAL WOLFE
Then I hope he will bite some of my generals."
George II was a soldier and prepared to take the
consequences of any amount of such madness. The
other story had its origin, not in stupidity, but in a
quality less amiable. It relates to a little dinner
given by Pitt to Wolfe on the eve of his departure.
Lord Temple was the only other guest. " As the
evening advanced Wolfe, heated perhaps by his own
aspiring thoughts and the unwonted society of
statesmen, broke forth into a strain of gasconade
and bravado. He drew his sword, he rapped the
table with it, he flourished it round the room, he
talked of the mighty things which that sword was
to achieve. The two ministers sat aghast at an
exhibition so unusual from any man of real sense and
real spirit. And when at last Wolfe had taken his
leave, and his carriage was heard to roll from the
door, Pitt seemed for the moment shaken in the high
opinion which his deliberate judgment had formed
of Wolfe ; he lifted up his eyes and arms and
exclaimed to Lord Temple : ' Good God ! That I
should have entrusted the fate of the country and
the administration to such hands.' "* In order to
allow Wolfe no chance of escape, we are solemnly
told that he was none the worse for wine. This
absurd story I have seen illustrated in popular
works in order, I suppose, to enable the people of
England the better to estimate so fine a specimen of
transpontine military swagger. Wright chivalrously
examines the evidence at considerable length in
disproof of the story. 2 Its real disproof is the
character of the chief witness and the character of
1 Mahon's History of England, vol. iv, p. 228.
* Life of Wolfe, pp. 483-487.
THE EXPEDITION SAILS 139
Wolfe himself. Two sentences from the brief note
to his mother in which he sought to avoid " the
formality of leave-taking " proclaim the man : "I
shall carry this business through with my best
abilities. The rest you know is in the hands of
Providence, to whose care I hope your good life and
conduct will recommend your son."
A fleet of sixty transports, six sail of the line and Pitt's
nine frigates, sailed from Portsmouth under Rear- anticipa-
Admiral Holmes in the middle of February to be
followed on the 17th by a squadron under Admiral
Saunders, who was to command the fleet in the St.
Lawrence. Wolfe was with the Admiral on board
the Neptune, which carried ninety guns. Weather
was against the precise ordering of events as usual.
Wolfe intended to make straight for Louisbourg, but
the harbour was ice-bound, and the Neptune went
instead to Halifax. They put into port ten days
later than was originally contemplated. In America,
Admiral Durell had been energetically advancing
preparations on the naval side, and Amherst,
Lawrence, and others had been hard at work on the
military. Pitt's instructions were that Amherst was
to have all ready for Wolfe to start from Louisbourg
by the 12th May, but it was some days later than that
before the fleet could even move from Halifax to
Louisbourg. Amherst was to hurry up with his own
arrangements so that operations might begin by the
1st. If Amherst were moving by the beginning
of May he would possibly make the way easier for
Wolfe at Quebec, and when Wolfe attacked Quebec
forces would certainly be drawn from elsewhere.
They would thus be mutually helpful. It has been
said that Pitt never anticipated that Wolfe would
140 GENERAL WOLFE
capture Quebec without the immediate co-operation
of Amherst, who it was hoped would arrive on the
St. Lawrence in the course of the summer. Secret
instructions issued to Wolfe make it clear that Pitt
foresaw the possibility of Wolfe's success before he
got into touch with Amherst. He was given general
directions as to what he should do "in case by the
Blessing of God upon our arms " he should make
himself master of Quebec ; " ulterior operations " were
left to his and Saunders' discretion. x
The According to Pitt's calculations, Wolfe was to
strength of commanci 12,000 men, but when the number
the Army. '
assembled at Louisbourg was totalled, it was found
that there were only 8,635, or less than 75 per cent.
of the number Pitt intended. As Wolfe was originally
of opinion that 12,000 would not be a sufficient force,
the actual numbers with which he embarked on this
great enterprise were barely half what he would have
taken if he could. Writing to Pitt from Halifax
Harbour the day after he arrived, he expressed his
satisfaction with what had been done in other
respects. He pointed out that every man in Canada
was a soldier. " Our troops are good and very well
disposed. If valour can make amends for want of
numbers we shall probably succeed. Any accident
on the river or sickness among the men might put us
in some difficulties." Whilst waiting at Halifax he
drew up various orders for the guidance of the troops
in circumstances of urgency during the voyage up
the St. Lawrence, and for the better preservation of the
men's health whilst on board ship. Personal sorrow
came to him shortly after he reached Louisbourg :
his father died at Blackheath on the 26th March,
1 Doughty, vol. ii, p. 19.
"A VERY NICE OPERATION" 141
and the sense of bereavement was intensified by the
thought of his mother's loneliness. In a letter to his
uncle from Louisbourg on the 19th May he gave a
lengthy account of the military and naval position as
he saw it within a fortnight of his departure for
Quebec.
" We are ordered to attack Quebec — a very nice operation.
The fleet consists of twenty-two sail of the line and many
frigates ; the army of 9,000 men ; — in England it is called
12,000. We have ten battalions, three companies of Grena-
diers, some Marines (if the Admiral can spare them), and
six new-raised companies of North American Rangers — not
complete, and the worst soldiers in the universe ; a great
train of artillery, plenty of provisions, tools, and implements
of all sorts ; three Brigadiers under me, — all men of great
spirit ; some Colonels of reputation, Carleton for Quarter-
master-General, and upon whom I chiefly rely for the
engineering part. Engineers very indifferent, and of little
experience ; but we have none better. The regular troops
in Canada consist of eight battalions of old Foot — about 400
a battalion — and forty companies of Marines (or colony
troops) — forty men a company. They can gather together
8,000 or 10,000 Canadians, and perhaps 1,000 Indians. As
they are attacked by the side of Montreal by an enemy of
12,000 fighting men [Amherst's force] they must necessarily
divide their force ; but, as the loss of the capital implies the
loss of the colony, their chief attention will naturally be there,
and therefore I reckon we may find at Quebec six battalions,
some companies of marines, four or five thousand Canadians,
and some Indians, altogether not much inferior to their
enemy."
As a matter of fact, the force with which Montcalm Wolfe's
opposed Wolfe was some 13,000 or 14,000 strong ; so confidence,
that numerically Montcalm had a heavy advantage.
Wolfe explained to his uncle how Rear-Admiral Durell
had gone up the river with ten sail to cut off succours
for Quebec — which, unfortunately for the subsequent
operations, he only partially succeeded in doing —
and to seize islands where the navigation was most
142 GENERAL WOLFE
dangerous. He was to push with his squadron as
far up the river as possible " that all might be free
and open behind." The Commander-in-Chief of the
fleet Wolfe described as " a zealous brave officer " —
a just tribute to Admiral Saunders and a proof of the
excellent relations between the two services. Wolfe
said : " It is the business of our naval force to be
masters of the river both above and below the town.
If I find the enemy is strong, audacious and well
commanded, I shall proceed with the utmost caution
and circumspection, giving Mr. Amherst time to use
his superiority. If they are timid, weak and ignorant,
we shall push them with more vivacity that we may
be able before the summer is gone to assist the
Commander-in-Chief. I reckon we shall have a
smart action at the passage of the river St. Charles,
unless we can steal a detachment up the river St.
Lawrence and land them three, four, five miles or
more above the town, and get time to entrench so
strongly that they won't care to attack." Especially
significant is this last sentence in view of the develop-
ments of the next three months. It indicates
Wolfe's original idea. Again, he referred to the army
under his command as " rather too small for the
undertaking, but it is well composed." Finally, he
told his uncle : " You may be assured that I shall
take all proper care of my own person, unless in case
of the last importance where it becomes a duty to
do otherwise. I never put myself unnecessarily into
the way of danger. Young troops must be encouraged
at first. What appears hazardous sometimes is really
not so to people who know the country " — as he had
proved by the small losses among his own men at
Louisbourg ten months previously.
THE BRITISH TOAST 143
The troops waiting to put to sea were in high spirits, incidental
Wolfe reviewed them battalion by battalion on shore, difficulties,
and to an officer's apology for his men's deficiency in
a new exercise he is said to have made response :
" Poh ! poh ! new exercise — new fiddlestick ! if
they are otherwise well disciplined and will fight
that's all I require of them." Among the novelties
in the composition of the army was a body of Louis-
bourg Grenadiers, whom Wolfe had specially formed
as a recognition of the men's excellent service in the
previous year's siege. They were commanded by
Alexander Murray. It was one of Wolfe's happy
thoughts as had been the formation of the Light
Infantry for Louisbourg. The army, its shortage
notwithstanding, was slow in assembling owing to
fog and the difficulties of transport, and it was the
first of June when the fleet began to move. For
nearly a week the sailings of the troopships, com-
prising seventy-six vessels, seventeen flat-bottomed
boats, 122 cutters, and thirteen whaleboats, continued.
" British colours on every French fort, port and
garrison in America,"1 was the toast in favour with
the officers, and the men by their shouts and cheers
as the ships cleared the harbour, echoed the sentiment.
Wolfe's report to Pitt of the little accidents that had
delayed departure was sent off from the Neptune on
the 6th. Several transports had not joined them ;
some of the companies of Rangers provided by the
Colonies were very bad ; the camp equipage of three
regiments was missing ; certain of the Boston Militia
wanted as pioneers refused an invitation to go : "It
seldom happens that a New England man prefers
service to a lazy life," said Wolfe, and money for
1 Knox : Journal, vol. i, p. 279.
144 GENERAL WOLFE
which he had written to Amherst was not forthcoming.
" This is one of the first sieges perhaps that ever was
undertaken without it." But these little troubles
were incidental. Wolfe's confidence as to the issue
was complete. " WTe expect to find a good part of
the force of Canada at Quebec, and we are prepared
to meet them. Whatever the end is, I flatter myself
that his Majesty will not be dissatisfied with the
behaviour of the troops."
CHAPTER X
FROM CHAMPLAIN TO MONTCALM
Never did a great country throw away Empire more Quebec's
recklessly than France in America. History can heroic .
memories
supply few more striking instances of flaunting
ambition o'erleaping itself. The St. Lawrence was,
so far as record tells, hers by discovery ; it was
certainly hers by right of occupation. Car tier was
the first European to find his way up the mighty
river which for hundreds of miles is a veritable arm
of the sea, and Champlain was the founder of Quebec.
The great promontory which thrusts " its scarped
front into the surging torrent " was for a century and
a half the pivot of French fortunes in North America,
and for a century and a half has perhaps been the
most romantic spot in the British Empire. " Here,"
as Parkman said, " clothed in the majesty of solitude,
breaking the stern poetry of the wilderness, rose the
cliffs, now rich with heroic memories"1 — heroic
memories which belong to France, to Great Britain,
to the United States of America, memories of
Frontenac and Montcalm, of Wolfe and Carleton, of
Montgomery and Arnold.
When England and France both woke up to French and
transatlantic possibilities at the end of the sixteenth "^j .
and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, France, a contrast
roughly speaking, took the northern and less hos-
pitable half of the eastern coast of North America,
and England the southern and generally more
1 Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 207.
145
ii— (3213)
146 GENERAL WOLFE
inviting stretch. Antagonists and rivals as France
and England were, their very lines of communication
over-seas crossed. In origin and objects the colonies
were dissimilar. The English colonies were founded
now for liberty's sake, now for purposes of agriculture
and commerce, now for the profits of proprietors or
to further some royal or patriotic end. The French
colonies were intended to secure an Empire beyond
the seas, the monopoly of rich trades such as the fur,
the conversion of the heathen, incidentally maybe
to discover the great western water route to the east
which for so long was believed to exist. The English
colonies whatever their difficulties and dangers,
internal or external, prospered ; New France lan-
guished. Bound in the swaddling clothes of red tape
made and tied in Paris, limbs that might have been
healthy and strong were impoverished and dwarfed.
France sent gallant sons to the St. Lawrence to settle,
to explore, to fight the wilderness, to become involved
in native strife ; she sent priests to martyrdom ; and
she sent soldiers and statesmen on that most heart-
breaking of all missions — to construct an Empire
without material resources. Jealous of English
expansion, she handicapped her own people in
competition, and, instead of free men, too often
selected for colonists the sweepings of the streets
and gaols of her great towns.
Absolut- Everything was controlled by the King or his
ism. ministers at a distance of four or five thousand miles ;
between the despatch and receipt of instructions
months elapsed and situations changed. A Frontenac
was the creature of uncompromising absolutism ;
coureurs de bois, who should have been encouraged,
were outlawed, and La Salle and other intrepid
QUEBEC A MENACE 147
explorers acted in defiance of orders from home. 1
Yet if orders had been obeyed New France might
have been saved, La Salle's voyages being mainly
responsible for the attempt to hem the English
colonies in between the Alleghanies and the sea.
New countries cannot, however, be built up without
enterprise, and the French settlers had not too many
inspiring and animating examples. The French
colonial system was nicely calculated to foster
enterprise in the wrong direction. Fortunes were
made at the expense of people who had no voice in
their own affairs. By the middle of the eighteenth
century, the population of New France, Indians apart,
did not exceed some eighty to ninety thousand.
With such a population so ruled, France proposed to
take possession of a continent, the extent of which
was unknown and to leave a coast strip to rivals whose
numbers were as far in excess of her own as was their
virility.
From the first Quebec had been a menace to the The
English, which as early as 1628 they took measures EnSllsh
to remove. The Kirkes led an English fleet up the Quebec.
St. Lawrence, did a certain amount of damage, gave
the habitants a bad fright and retired. Champlain's
rude fort was not in a condition to withstand serious
attack. Nor the following year, when the Kirkes
re-appeared, were the people in a mood for fighting.
Champlain had difficulty in feeding his tiny garrison
and defence was not to be thought of. The terms of
capitulation were made easy and the English flag
floated over Quebec for the first time in 1629. England
and France had concluded a peace before the Kirkes
entered Quebec, and the place should have been
1 Douglas : Old France in the New World, p. 390 .
148 GENERAL WOLFE
restored immediately. Charles I held it for three
years against the balance of his Queen's dowry, which
the French King had not paid. When half a century
later the great Frontenac became Governor, he sys-
tematically harried the English settlements at the
same time that he gave special attention to the
defences of Quebec. In 1690 the colony of Massa-
chusetts decided to strike at the city in the name of
King William. They sent a fleet under Sir William
Phipps who haughtily demanded that Quebec should
be surrendered within an hour " upon the peril that
would ensue." He was met by an equally haughty
response that the Prince of Orange was a usurper and
that Frontenac the servant of Louis XIV would
answer with the mouths of his cannon. Phipps found
him as good as his word, and after a week's fighting
by land and water the English, badly battered,
disappeared once more. During the war of the
Spanish succession Quebec was to be attacked by
England and her colonies jointly. An army was to
march overland from New England, whilst a fleet
under Sir Hovenden Walker was to co-operate on the
St. Lawrence. The fleet was unable to navigate the
river, some battleships and several hundred lives were
sacrificed, the enterprise was abandoned and the
overland force was recalled. Phipps and Walker
succeeded in giving Quebec a sense of security which
it was to enjoy till Wolfe and Saunders dispelled all
illusions.
^fjiMii> The state of Canada at the time that the campaign
of 1759 was opened by Amherst and Wolfe was
pitiable. Neglected by the Mother Country whose
hands were over full in Europe, battened on by officials
who made fortunes out of her misery, deficient in food
Frippone.
BIGOT 149
supplies and in regular defenders, her councils were
torn by dissensions between those whom her mis-
fortunes should have made one. Vaudreuil, a
Canadian by birth, was governor, Montcalm, com-
mander-in-chief, Bigot, intendant. Vaudreuil's vanity
and jealousy, combined with Bigot's colossal venality,
made the task of the man charged with the military
defence of the colony one of extraordinary difficulty.
Poor colony ! the sport of Pompadour and Louis XV
in Europe, and of Vaudreuil and Bigot in America !
Bigot's record as given by Parkman, who devoted
patient examination to all the documents in French
and Canadian archives, is almost incredible. * His
position placed the commerce, the finance and the civil
administration entirely at his mercy, and trust was
never more shamelessly abused. With the assistance
of many accomplices, he bought at an absurdly low
rate for an establishment run by himself, which came
to be known as La Frippone, or the Cheat, goods
belonging to the King and re-sold them to the King
at more than double the price. When Bigot sent in
his bills to Paris, Ministers examined them curiously
and made some sharp reflections which hurt the poor
sensitive intendant. Minister Berryer seems to have
seen through his not very subtle practices, but instead
of insisting on his dismissal, put some very plain
questions and urged him to give these things his
serious attention. " What has become of the
immense quantity of provisions sent to Canada last
year ? I am forced to conclude that the King's stores
are set down as consumed from the moment they
arrive and then sold to his Majesty at exorbitant
prices. Thus the King buys stores in France, and
1 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, chap. xrii.
150
GENERAL WOLFE
Montcalm
and Wolfe
a parallel.
then buys them again in Canada. I no longer wonder
at the immense fortunes made in the colony." Well
might Montcalm, who was instrumental in bringing
knowledge of Bigot's transactions to the French
Ministry, exclaim : " What a country ! Here all the
knaves grow rich and the honest men are ruined."
Vaudreuil filled a peculiarly perverse role. He hated
Montcalm and, at whatever risk to the Canada he
loved, placed every obstacle in his way, denounced
any miscarriage as due to Montcalm's refusal to take
his advice, and appropriated credit for every success.
He held Bigot in high regard and at a time when
the intendant's malefactions were the most obvious
thing in Canada, found words in his defence. He
supported the man who was ruining Canada and
opposed the one man who might have saved her.
Yet Vaudreuil was not regarded as a rogue. He was
rather the high placed tool of rogues. He did not
share their ill-gotten millions, and when years after
he and Bigot and the rest were brought to trial in
France, Vaudreuil was acquitted whilst they were
subject to heavy penalties.
What strikes one about the Marquis de Montcalm
is, allowing for the difference of nationality and
circumstances, the similarity between his views and
work, and the record of Wolfe with whom his name
is indissolubly connected in history. Montcalm was
born in the Chateau de Candiac near Nimes on the
29th February, 1712, and after a few years under a
tutor named Dumas, entered the army at fifteen.
He seems to have been sufficiently brilliant to make
M. Dumas anxious that he should do better than he
did. In a letter to his father, Montcalm set out his
aims as a young man in explicit terms : ' To be an
MONTCALM'S EARLY DAYS 151
honourable man of good morals, brave, and a
Christian. To read in moderation ; to know as much
Greek and Latin as most men of the world ; also the
four rules of arithmetic, and something of history,
geography, and French and Latin belles lettres as
well as to have a taste for the arts and sciences ; to
be fond of intellectual accuracy if I do not possess it
myself. And, above all, to be obedient, docile and
very submissive to your orders, and those of my
dear mother, and to defer to the advice of M. Dumas.
To fence and ride as well as my small abilities will
permit." With Montcalm as with Wolfe a good
mother's influence was in evidence through life. He
fought in the war brought about by the struggle for
the Polish throne between the Elector of Saxony
and Stanislaus, and whilst in camp learnt German
and " read more Greek, thanks to my loneliness, than I
had done for three or four years." At twenty-two
he married — at about the age when Wolfe was
passionately in love with Miss Lawson. He fretted
under inaction as Wolfe did and finding that his
regiment was to take no part in the war of the
Austrian succession, he secured himself a special
appointment. He was as keen for promotion and to
justify it by efficiency as Wolfe was, and held positions
in advance of his official rank. Major Wood points
out that though Montcalm had been more carefully
educated than Wolfe, both had " that sympathetic
insight into life which craves expression in the fittest
words and naturally stimulates a man both to read
the best in literature and to find a true style for
himself when he comes to write." * Montcalm's
letters are as remarkable as Wolfe's, in a literary way
1 The Fight for Canada, p. 126.
commis-
sion
152 GENERAL WOLFE
more remarkable perhaps. When a first-rate officer
was wanted to command the French forces in Canada,
the Minister for War recommended Montcalm and
early in 1756 he was appointed with the Chevalier
de LeVis as his second in command and M. de
Bourlamaque third.
M^^*lm'8 ^s commission, unhappily for him, was not on
all fours with that given to Wolfe. He was to be
commander, with the rank of Major-General, and to
act under the authority of the Governor-General,
M. de Vaudreuil ! "As the said Marquis de Montcalm
is to command only under the Governor's authority
and be subordinate in all matters, M. de Montcalm
shall only execute and see that the troops under his
command execute all the Governor's orders." In
times of peace, even such warlike peace as existed
in America, these conditions were necessary to
civil supremacy, but when war came they were the
very handcuffs of military efficiency. They cost
Montcalm many a pang, and it was not until affairs
in America had reached a most critical stage that
M. de Vaudreuil, to his infinite chagrin, was told to
conform in military matters to Montcalm's views.
Montcalm in America, the Governor's attitude not-
withstanding, was not long in making his energetic
and able presence felt on the confines of the British
Colonies ; Oswego, Fort William Henry, and Ticon-
deroga were samples of his soldierly enterprise and
resource. His reputation would stand even higher
than it does if it were possible wholly to disclaim his
responsibility for the atrocious misdeeds of his
Indians. Better have shot down his allies and taken
the risks it involved than allow the tomahawk to do
its ghastly work among defenceless men and women.
BOUGAINVILLE'S MISSION 153
Otherwise Montcalm's escutcheon is untarnished.
His patriotism was high above that of his fellows ;
he was as clean handed in the very heart of corruption
as Wolfe or Pitt. Anxious to leave Canada after
his defeat of Abercromby, he was equally eager, after
Bradstreet had captured Frontenac, to remain, in
order to repair the affairs of the colony, or at least
retard their ruin. " I wish my intentions may be
seconded," he added significantly.
Both Montcalm and Vaudreuil sent urgent appeals Appeals to
to France for help during the latter part of 1758. France.
Bougainville, one of the envoys, explained to the
court the desperate plight of the colony and begged
for men and munitions, for food and for ships to
hold the entrance of the St. Lawrence. France
could do little. Her resources were being drained
in Europe and the British swept the seas. If she
could have afforded to part with troops and supplies
she was afraid to send them lest they should be
captured by the English. Yet she realised that Pitt's
main effort was directed on America. As Pitt had
laid his plans to conquer France in Europe by
defeating her in America, so France decided on one
bold stroke which might have the effect of saving
Canada by turning the tables on England within her
own boundaries. Big fleets were prepared at Havre
and Brest and Toulon in 1759 with a view to a descent
in force on England and Ireland. A blow at the very
heart of the British Empire if not decisive would
change the whole aspect of the war. There were no
troops in England capable of meeting a French force
if it were once landed. The navy saved England
from this distracting effort. Vigilant as daring, her
commanders never gave the French fleets a chance
154 GENERAL WOLFE
of concentrating. They were always on hand,
whatever the conditions of the weather. Boscawen
resolved the Toulon fleet into its elements oft Lagos ;
Rodney destroyed every vestige of boat at Havre
and a large part of the town itself ; Hawke watched
Conflans at Brest for months and finally disposed
of him in Quiberon Bay. There is something almost
uncanny in the unerring instinct which enabled
British admirals to anticipate the movements of the
French fleets. They left Wolfe and Saunders free
to do their great work on the St. Lawrence.
All Bou- A proper appreciation of the probabilities
gainville made the French Ministers chary of attempting to
brought. , . , _, • n , i i T-i
comply with Bougainville s demands. Iney sent,
however, plenty of advice and instructions. " As
we must expect the English to turn all their force
against Canada," wrote Belleisle to Montcalm in
February, 1759, * " and attack you on several sides
at once, it is necessary that you limit your plans of
defence to the most essential points and those most
closely connected, so that being concentrated within
a smaller space, each part may be within reach of
support and succour from the rest. How small soever
may be the space you are able to hold, it is indis-
pensable to keep a footing in North America, for if
we once lose the country entirely its recovery will be
almost impossible." Montcalm was urged to go to
almost any extreme rather than submit to conditions
as shameful as those imposed at Louisbourg, the
memory of which he was expected to obliterate.
Montcalm vowed that he would save " this unhappy
colony " or perish. Bougainville's mission was not
1 Quoted by Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii,
pp. 84-5.
news.
VAUDREUIL'S BOAST 155
absolutely wasted. He returned with several vessels
laden with provisions, an addition to the fighting
strength of Canada of 326 men, and a generous
complement of decorations for those who had distin-
guished themselves in the service of France. He
reached the St. Lawrence just in time to escape with
some of his store-ships the attentions of Admiral
Durell. What he brought was gratefully received, for
as Montcalm said, " to those who have nothing, a
little is precious."
But he brought something more than a few provi- Stupefying
sions and men and gewgaws and words of advice.
He brought news of the preparations of Great Britain
— news of an army and a great fleet, of which the
advance guard under Durell was already within eighty
or ninety miles of Quebec. All Canada was stupefied.
Montcalm hurried to Quebec ordering Bourlamaque
to make the best stand he could at Ticonderoga
against Amherst ; the militia were called to the
defence of the capital, and every able-bodied man
and youth was pressed into the bearing of arms.
Vaudreuil as usual blustered and boasted and breathed
great things. He was not to be scared even though
the enemy were at every door. x He proclaimed the
wicked designs of the English — " leur pro jet etant se
massacrer tout ce qui est Canadienne sans distinction de
sexe ni d'age." 2 But, he said, Canada would bury her
children under her ruins before they would surrender ;
there was no ruse, no zeal, nor resource which patriotic
ingenuity might suggest that should not be forth-
coming to ensnare the invader ; what ardour could do
to defeat the ambitious designs of the English would
1 Casgrain : Journal du Marquis de Montcalm, p. 534
a Doughty, vol. ii, p. 48.
156 GENERAL WOLFE
be done. He would hold his ground even to annihila-
tion. Gasconade of this sort was entirely absent
from Montcalm, who set about the task of preparing
for the struggle with soldier-like energy and resource
and entire loyalty to the wishes of the government
at home. Vaudreuil obstructed when he should have
assisted and acted when too late. " Apr&s le mort,
U medecin," complained Montcalm bitterly.
CHAPTER XI
BEFORE QUEBEC
Three weeks after leaving Louisbourg Wolfe set eyes Navigating
for the first time on the frowning fortress in the St. \he St
Lei wrcnc^.
Lawrence whose name is to his what Waterloo is to
Wellington's, what Trafalgar is to Nelson's. It was
a time full of incident and excited expectancy. Every
mile of the gulf and river contained possibilities of
surprise and disaster. The French fondly believed
the St. Lawrence was unnavigable by the English
unaided — a belief in itself a sufficient tribute to the
hazards run. The Kirkes and Phipps had negotiated
its currents and its surfs successfully, but Admiral
Walker had gone to pieces off Anticosti. The
French by landmarks and watermarks had made
navigation reasonably safe, but every one of these
guides had been removed in anticipation of the
British approach. The voyager to-day who ascends
the well-lighted and well-marked course can have
little conception of the anxieties which beset naviga-
tion in the eighteenth century. Durell with his
advance squadron had reached the He aux Coudres
in safety, but Saunders, with a vast collection of
transports carrying troops on whom everything
depended, had very different responsibilities.
The French made their calculations without
allowance for the wiles and the skill of the British
sailor.
157
pilots.
158 GENERAL WOLFE
Astonishing Durell, by running up the French flag had lured
lnl£rencl1 French pilots on board. A most amusing account is
given by Knox of the fury of these patriotic guides
compelled to assist the navigation of the English
ships. One of them raged and swore that the
English would never get through ; in a few days the
walls of Quebec would be decorated with their scalps.
With Vaudreuil, he believed that the English could
not pass a war-fleet where the French, with 150 years'
experience of the St. Lawrence, would not dare take
a vessel of 100 tons burden without the most elaborate
precautions. The gallant Master of the transport —
a Trinity House veteran — on which the pilot found
himself, was doubtful whether the Frenchman might
not run them into difficulties even at the sacrifice
of his life. Without a moment's hesitation therefore
the Master took matters into his own hands, snapped
his fingers at French menaces, and steered the vessel
safely through the most treacherous channel known
as the Traverse. In the hearty style of the British
tar, he said he knew a thousand worse places in the
Thames, and he'd convince the pilot, whose storming
was silenced in sheer amazement, that an Englishman
would go where a Frenchman dare not show his
nose. Every now and then he would shout, " Ay,
ay, my dears, mark it down — ' A damn dangerous
navigation.' If you do not make a sputter about it
you will not get credit in England." Whatever he
might get in England, he got plenty of credit on the
St. Lawrence. When the pilot learned that the
Master was a stranger to the river he lifted " his
hands and eyes to heaven with astonishment and
fervency."1
1 Knox : vol. i.
OPPOSITE QUEBEC 159
Vaudreuil has been blamed for neglecting to occupy Vaudreuil's
a position at the Traverse from which he could pour neglect,
shot into the English fleet as it approached ; his
answer was that he believed the English could never
pass the Traverse. Bigot endorsed the excuse by
saying that the enemy made child's play of navigation,
which to the French was always an anxious business. l
The Chief Pilot of Quebec said that soundings had
not been taken for twenty-five years ; when he
proposed to take them the necessary expenses were
refused. As the expedition moved up the river the
soldiers had plenty to interest them apart from the
risks of navigation : the fine river and the fine
scenery, the deserted villages and the bonfires which
heralded the British advance. In the afternoon
of the 26th June the Island of Orleans was reached.
As the western end of the island juts its nose out into
the river right opposite the Quebec headland, it
might have been thought worth while to make some
show of defence, but, again by Vaudreuil's orders, the
1,200 Canadians and Indians who held it, decamped
and left Wolfe free to land. Everyone was charmed
with the country, which was well-cultivated and
homelike. " A bountiful island," said Sergeant
Johnson. " A most agreeable prospect," said Knox ;
" windmills, watermills, churches, chapels, compact
farm houses, all built with stone and covered some
with wood and some with straw."
It was not till the following day that Wolfe was Quebec.
able to get the greater part of his troops on to the
island, but in the company of his engineer-in-chief,
Major Mackellar, he hastened to take stock of Quebec
across the intervening basin. Mackellar, who knew
1 Doughty, vol. ii, p. 61.
160 GENERAL WOLFE
the city, and had been assiduous in picking up scraps
of information which enabled him to give the General
a fairly complete account of its natural and artificial
defences, had prepared him for the impressive
spectacle now revealed by his glass. x A city of many
churches, colleges, and public buildings, perched on
a magnificent promontory and guarded by batteries,
it was out of reach of any gun carried by vessels in
the waters below. At the base of the cliff, on the
stretch of shore between it and the river was the
Lower Town, " by much the richest part of the whole,
being chiefly taken up with the dwellings, warehouses
and magazines of the principal merchants." At
Quebec the St. Lawrence narrowed : Quebec
apparently being a corruption of a native word
meaning the narrowing of the river. The southern
bank was formed by another headland called Point
Levi, whilst immediately to the right of Quebec as
Wolfe looked at it was the River St. Charles.
Between the St. Charles and the Montmorency to
the north of the point on which he stood, was
Beauport, its church a conspicuous landmark. The
shore was a series of low-lying cliffs rising to the
Montmorency.
Guarding If Wolfe had not ascertained already he learned
Charles. now ^at ^e would not fight Montcalm in Quebec at
all. The shore between Quebec and the Montmorency
Falls was one long line of strongly defended works,
behind which Montcalm had posted 11,000 or 12,000
men, 2,000 being left under de Ramesay to look after
the city. Montcalm was in fact in possession of the
very ground over which, judging from his letter to his
1 Mackellar's report is given in full by Doughty, vol. ii,
Appendix.
THE GENERAL'S PROBLEM 161
uncle, x Wolfe had thought of marching with a view
to the investment of Quebec. Curiously enough, as
Wolfe's idea was to attack Quebec by crossing the
St. Charles, so it was Montcalm's first idea to hold
the St. Charles, but his second thoughts were
strategically best. Montcalm realised the danger so
thoroughly that a vessel was sunk at the mouth of
the St. Charles lest any attempt should be made to
utilise it. Had Wolfe been able to throw men across
that river and attack Quebec from the country — the
plains of Abraham — between it and the St. Lawrence,
whilst Saunders kept the enemy busy from the
Quebec basin, even perhaps got men up the St.
Lawrence as was ultimately done, the story of the
siege would have been very different from what it
was. The question was whether ships could pass
Quebec, swept as the river was by the French guns.
With all his spirit and enterprise the Admiral would
conceivably have refused to incur risks involving not
only his fleet but the army. Mackellar's conviction
was that on the land side Quebec's defences were
weak, and Wolfe's problem was how to get at them.
Quebec certainly could not be taken from the river
side. As Mackellar said, the men-of-war could
annoy, even destroy, the Lower Town, but the
besieger would be as far as ever from possession of the
Upper Town. Wolfe's stout heart must have beat
a little more quickly as he took stock of Quebec, of
the miles of earthworks, of redoubts and floating
batteries. Almost unexampled in history, says Mr.
Doughty, 2 were the activity and determination of
the defenders of Canada. And how little it availed
them !
1 Ante p. 142. » Vol. ii, p. 28.
12— (2213)
tion.
162 GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's By midday on the 27th, Wolfe's army was on the
proclama- Island of Orleans. On the door of a church was
found a letter addressed by the local priest to " The
Worthy Officers of the British Army " asking them
to protect the church and his house, and regretting
they had not arrived before the asparagus ran to
seed. Wolfe on his part drew up a proclamation to
the Canadians which was translated into French. x I
give the English version, 2 because the English version
is what Wolfe actually wrote —
"By his Excellency James Wolfe, Esq., Colonel of a Regiment
of Infantry, Major -General and Commander-in-Chief of
his Britannic Majesty's Forces in the River St. Lawrence,
etc.
"The formidable sea and land armament which the people
of Canada now behold in the heart of the country, is intended
by the King, my master, to check the insolence of France,
to revenge the insults offered to the British colonies and
totally to deprive the French of their most valuable settlement
in North America. For these purposes is the formidable
army under my command intended. The King wages no
war with the industrious peasant, the sacred orders of religion,
or the defenceless women and children ; to these in their
distressful circumstances, his royal clemency offers protection.
The people may remain unmolested in their lands, inhabit
their houses and enjoy their religion in security. For these
inestimable blessings I expect the Canadians will take no
part in the great contest between the two Crowns. (3) But if,
by a vain obstinacy and misguided valour, they presume to
appear in arms, they must expect the most fatal consequences —
their habitations destroyed, their sacred temples exposed to
an exasperated soldier}', their harvest utterly ruined, and the
1 Mr. Doughty gives the French version, vol. ii, pp. 67-70.
2 Wright, p. 517.
(3) The French version contains this important modification
Je leur promets ma protection, et je les assure qu'ils pourront
sans craindre les moindres molestations, y jouir de leurs biens,
suivre le culte de leur religion, en un mot jouir au milieu de
la guerre de toutes les douceurs de la paix, pourvu qu'ils
s'engagent a ne prendre directement ou indirectement aucune
part a une dispute qui ne regarde que les deux Couronnes."
A WARNINCx TO CIVILIANS 163
only passage for relief stopped up by a most formidable fleet.
In this unhappy situation, and closely attacked by another
great army, what can the wretched natives expect from
opposition ?
' ' The unparalleled barbarities exerted by the French against
our settlements in America might justify the bitterest revenge
in the army under my command, but Britain breathes higher
sentiments of humanity, and listens to the merciful dictates
of the Christian religion. Yet should you suffer yourselves
to be deluded by an imaginary prospect of our want of
success ; should you refuse these terms and persist in opposi-
tion, then surely will the law of nations justify the waste of
war, so necessary to crush an ungenerous enemy ; and then,
the miserable Canadians must in the winter have the mortifica-
tion of seeing their very families, for whom they have been
exerting but a fruitless and indiscreet bravery, perish by the
most dismal want and famine. In this great dilemma let
the wisdom of the peoples of Canada show itself. Britain
stretches out a powerful yet merciful hand ; faithful to her
engagements and ready to secure her in her most valuable
rights and possessions. France, unable to support Canada,
deserts her cause at this important crisis, and during the
whole war has assisted her with troops, who have been
maintained only by making the natives feel all the weight of
grievous and lawless oppression.
"Given at Laurent in the Island of Orleans, this 28th day
of June, 1759."
This proclamation had no effect. Wolfe could Loyal
hardly have looked for any. But it was worth trying. Canadians.
He had heard much of the discontent among the
Canadians and there was just a chance that they might
prefer to remain neutral when not compelled to fight
for the maintenance of the old regime. It was the
old story : loyalty to an unnatural mother, if indeed
that is not too harsh a term, rather than assistance
to the most benevolent of strangers in arms against
her. In any case Wolfe's proclamation was a warning
to civilians not to start irregular warfare : if they
wanted to fight they must join the fighting lines.
French historians have said the document reflects
164 GENERAL WOLFE
no honour on its author : a view which is certainly
partial.
Flood and Wolfe had barely got his men on to the Island when
a storm burst over the St. Lawrence and played havoc
with much of the shipping. It was so violent that the
sailors regarded the escape of the fleet as of happy
augury for the operations about to begin. On the
night of the 28th they were faced with another peril,
not this time either wind or water, but fire. Mackellar
said the French had long since let it be known that
if an expedition was got up to Quebec they had at
command an infallible invention for the destruction
of ships. This " invention " took the form of
radeaux d feu — or fire-rafts. The idea was to bind
huge logs of timber together to coat them with in-
flammable composition, and float them down among
the shipping, which would soon be in a blaze. That
something of the sort would be attempted was
therefore to be expected, and if it were attempted
successfully, there must have been a bonfire of British
hopes. Admiral Saunders was on his guard, but the
sentries on duty on shore were taken unawares.
Late at night seven of the eight vessels which Bigot
had purchased from confederates for the good round
sum of 1,000,000 livres according to Montcalm, were
floated into mid-stream. Out of the darkness the
British sentries suddenly detected these ships moving
silently and stealthily towards them. They lost
their nerve, and bolted, and for a time there was
a small panic in the British camp — a panic which led
to the arrest of the officer in command, whom Wolfe
subsequently pardoned on account of his excellent
character. But the General was severe : " Next to
valour," he said, " the best qualities in a military
"GRANDEST FIREWORKS" 165
man are vigilance and caution." The British sentries
were not the only people whose nerves gave out that
night. The foremost fire-ship was in charge of a
young officer whose courage and patience evaporated
as he approached the danger zone. He set light to
his vessel, loaded as it was with explosives and
combustibles, prematurely : his action was the signal
for others, and all except one who saw the mistake
they were making, applied the torch and sought their
own safety. The brave fellow who tried to avert the
miscarriage of the enterprise was sacrificed with two
companions to the demons of their own creation. A
lovely starlit night, almost as by magic, was turned
to an inferno. The flames shot up so brilliantly
that the stars could not be seen, missiles were hurled in
every direction, and explosion alternated with the
hissing of water. The French crowded every building
and eminence to get a sight of the destruction which
Vaudreuil and his friends had promised, and the
British watched the steady approach of the infernal
machines with anxious eyes. The scene beggars
description, those who saw it being least able to put
their sensations into fitting words. Knox says " they
were certainly the grandest fireworks that could
possibly be conceived " — awful yet beautiful. * Again
the French had reckoned without the British
"sailor man." Across the flame-reflecting water
rowed boat after boat straight for the burning
death-dealing monsters. The tars, armed with
grappling hooks got a grip of the vessels, and,
heedless of their own peril, beached them all, leaving
them, mere impotent demons, to fizzle away through
the night.
1 Journal, vol. i, p. 298.
166 GENERAL WOLFE
Point Levi. French nerves had a very important bearing not
only on the fireship stratagem but in other directions.
Reports reached Vaudreuil and Montcalm that
Wolfe's army was 20,000 strong and to meet such a
force they concentrated every available man either
behind the St. Charles-Montmorency works or in
Quebec, to the neglect of vital spots elsewhere. One
was the Point Levi where Montcalm would have
placed three or four thousand men but for Vaudreuil's
objections. Wolfe's survey showed him at once that
if the headland could be secured, he would be able
to inflict serious damage on Quebec, would at least
divide command of the river at that point with the
French batteries, and might induce Montcalm to
make fresh dispositions from which everything might
be hoped. Moreover Saunders was alive to the
danger his fleet might run from an enemy posted on
Point Levi.1 On the 29th therefore Monckton's
brigade and some Light Infantry were ferried across
the river ; they had a sharp bout with a body of
Canadians and Indians, who took a dozen scalps and
one prisoner. The prisoner was sent to Vaudreuil,
and under cross-examination confirmed Vaudreuil's
belief that Wolfe intended to attack Beauport.
Promptly the Governor ordered the men still on Point
Levi to cross the river to assist in the defence of the
North Shore and the way was left for Wolfe to begin
the construction of batteries at Pointe aux Peres just
to the left of Levi. The work was carried on under
a galling fire from Quebec. It is strange the French
should have deluded themselves with the belief that
Wolfe's guns would not carry into the town. They
discovered their mistake, when on the 12th Wolfe fired
1 Wright, p. 517.
THE HEROIC TEST 167
a rocket as a signal to the forty guns and mortars1 he
had erected on Point Levi, to open the bombardment.
Some days before the batteries were complete the
citizens of Quebec waited upon Vaudreuil with a
proposal that a volunteer force should attempt to
re-take a position that ought never to have been
abandoned. After some demur Vaudreuil assented.
There were volunteers in plenty, including burghers,
Indians, youths from the Seminary and regulars, the
whole amounting to 1,400 or 1,500. They were to
be led by one of Montcalm's officers, Captain Dumas.
It was intended to make the attempt on the very night
that the batteries opened, but after the expedition
had started the booming and flash of the big guns
suggested a postponement. The party returned to
Quebec and waited another twenty-four hours.2
Marching to Cap Rouge, the volunteers crossed the
river and proceeded in two columns, which soon lost
touch3 towards the unsuspecting British encamp-
ment. What they would have accomplished if they
had ever reached the neighbourhood of the batteries
may be imagined from what actually happened. The
first column, while still some three miles distant from
Levi, were startled by a noise or movement of some
sort in a wood, took fright, and retreated ; as they
doubled back they made the second column believe
the British were upon them. The second column
fired and the first had just enough spirit left to return
the volley. Once more the nerves of self-appointed
heroes proved unequal to the heroic test ; M. Dumas
1 Bradley : Fight with France, p. 303.
2 Doughty, vol. ii, p. 101. Parkman (Montcalm and
Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 225) dates the actual attempt the 12th.
3 Wood, p. 186.
168 GENERAL WOLFE
found :t impossible to restore order the men — ade
:':: Tie ::i:5 V-7 tie z:i-.'ir.: :: lintel sleep
and by six o'clock in ; i - ~ - f : :
overwhelmed, says Parkman, with despair and shame.
Within a conple of days, Quebec was crumbling up
under the fierce storm ; the cathedral and other build-
ing . burnt out by bursting shells, mar
re lost, and the non-combatants found the place
too hot for them,
v.'c'.fe s AD this as ione under Wolfe's immediate direc-
sr--*7 tion ; vet he was not inactive elsewhere. He seemed
not only " ampfaibioas but ubiquitous. At one
moment he was with the men on the Island of Orleans,
at another with those on the south of the 5:
Lawrence, at a third v. miral Saunders. Body
and brain rivalled each other in energy, des;
- indifferent health. He sent an envoy on
a flag of truce to Yaudreuil to tell him that the town
would be attacked on behalf of His Britannic Maje; :
but he hoped that the war would be carried on v
humanity, and that tie revolting practice of scalp-
taking would not be permitted. If it were he would
have no alternative but revenge. The appeal was
fruitless is '.rere Ami. erst ? :::::: it 7.::r. ier: ri ::
lessen the horrors of which the native allies of the
7: ere guilry. To ius troops Wolfe explained1
fliat the object of the campaign was to complete the
conquest of Canada and so finish the war in America ;
he intended to carry on the operati: os
loss as possible, and expected his men to work cheer-
fully and without unsoldierlike complaint. TJffkers
were warned against surprise and false alarms ;
"tnertv -5 r.:t :: :e iestr:yei .t:.:_t :rier=
- r.'-i
AN IMPORTANT MOVE 169
and all persons remaining in their homes were to be
treated humanely. " If violence be offered to a
woman the offender shall be punished with death."
Persons convicted of robbing officers' or soldiers' tents
would be executed ; there was to be no drunkenness
or licentiousness, and if rum or spirits of any kind
were needed by men who were wet or fatigued,
the general would order the quantities he thought
good for them. He would be as keen to reward
distinguished service as to punish misconduct.
The great event which marked the interval between j^e Mont,
the seizure of Point Levi and the opening of the morency
bombardment was the occupation of the heights to heiehts«
the east of the Montmorency. Unable either to put
his original plan into execution or to get at the enemy
from the water, Wolfe made careful study of the
possibility of striking at him from lower down the
north bank of the river. There had been much
discussion on the French side as to the wisdom of an
attack on the Orleans force, which was thought to
have been seriously depleted in order to make the
Levi position secure. But it was only one of many
discussions of which discretion was the invariable
concomitant. The strategy by which the heights
east of Montmorency were seized was perfect. On
the 9th Monckton began to move a considerable body
of men up the river bank from Point Levi ; simul-
taneously Saunders sent several vessels in near the
north shore to open a furious fire upon the section of
the works held by the Chevalier de Levis near the
Montmorency, and under cover of these feints 3,000
men under Murray and Townshend were got over
during the night from the Island to the north shore.
Wolfe himself led the way, and the movement was
no
GENERAL WOLFE
Towns -
hend's
complaints.
accomplished with very small loss, the only opposition
being a party of Canadians and Indians who were
driven off. In taking this step Wolfe hoped to draw
Montcalm to a battle, or if not, then to get at him by
a ford some way up the Montmorency. In any case
from the heights of Montmorency he would be able
to bombard Montcalm's left. He took risks, but
unless he were to sit down and wait on the Island of
Orleans whilst Monckton hammered away at Quebec,
what was he to do but take risks ? If we were to
take Brigadier Townshend's view Wolfe placed himself
in jeopardy and neglected the elementary precautions
of good generalship.
What had happened to create the atmosphere which
clearly now existed between the General and his
second Brigadier ? Had Townshend been too assertive
for Wolfe's patience ? Had he indulged too freely
a gift for caricature which offended as often as it
amused ? It is said that on one occasion Townshend
made Wolfe his victim at the dinner-table, and Wolfe,
pocketing the caricature and the affront, said that
if he lived this matter should be enquired into, but
first they had to beat the enemy. The business in
hand did not admit of the immediate adjustment of
personal differences. Townshend's papers are full
of complaints of Wolfe's proceedings. When
Townshend landed on the north shore there was
nothing to indicate the direction Wolfe had taken ;
he made a point of finding the baggage of the advance
body unprotected in the meadows. He stayed to
collect it and put a guard over it : which Wolfe
probably considered unnecessary, particularly as it
involved delay. Then Townshend complained that
he was not given time to examine certain copses and
STRAINED RELATIONS 171
he was dissatisfied with the position Wolfe occupied :
he said that it placed their front to their friends on
the Isle of Orleans, their right flank to the enemy
and a ford between the Falls and the St. Lawrence,
and exposed them to incursions of savages from woods
to the rear and fords higher up the Montmorency. 1
On the face of it there would seem to be something
in this point, and we learn from French memoirs2
that the irregulars with Montcalm were eager to be
led to the attack, but before anything could be done
there was the inevitable council of war and nothing
was done. In his anxiety Townshend fortified his
camp, so that a night attack was provided against,
and his biographer says that the breastworks were
constructed in a way which showed Townshend to be
far more advanced in his views than Wolfe himself.
However that may be, Wolfe was not very compli-
mentary when he saw what Townshend had done.
He evidently thought that the Brigadier had gone
beyond the requirements of the case, and said Towns-
hend had indeed made himself secure for he had
made a fortress. 3 Townshend's cup came near to
overflowing when Wolfe removed two of his cannon
" to grace the park of artillery the General chose to
ornament his quarters with upon the descent of the
hill," leaving " our whole right and front without
any."4 Wolfe even "rather laughed" at Towns-
hend's apprehensions when he reported that an
officer with an escort, who might be Montcalm, had
been seen examining the British camp. Their
1 Military Life of Townshend, p. 175.
2 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, ii, pp. 227-8.
'■'■ Townshend, p. 177.
* Ibid., p. 179.
172 GENERAL WOLFE
strained relations resulted a day or two later in a rebuff
which Townshend himself records. Wolfe had left
the camp at Montmorency to go over to Orleans
without giving instructions. Townshend ran after
him and caught him at the water's edge.
" He received me in a very stately manner, not advancing
five steps. I told him that if I had suspected his intention of
going over I had waited on him for his commands which I
should be glad to receive and execute to his satisfaction.
1 Sir,' says he, very drily, ' the Adjutant-General has my
orders : permit me, Sir, to ask, are the troops to encamp now
on their new ground, or not do it till the enemy's battery
begins to play ? ' "
No word of Wolfe's exists to throw light on this
purely personal matter, but it is clear that he had
come to regard Townshend as a pretentious busybody,
whatever his soldierlike qualities, and was determined
that only the most formal official relations should
subsist between them.
Sea-power Wolfe's forces were now divided into three sections :
miniature Montmorency, Orleans and Levi. His dispositions
have been sharply criticised, and the French them-
selves at times talked of attempting to overwhelm
him piecemeal. Parkman says : " The left wing of
his army at Point Levi was six miles from the right
wing at the cataract and Major Hardy's detachment
on the Point of Orleans was between them separated
from each by a wide arm of the St. Lawrence."1
Colonel Townshend talks of Wolfe's " error in frit-
tering away his forces." 2 Such a remark shows that
Colonel Townshend entirely fails to grip either the
situation or Wolfe's genius for utilising joint land
and water opportunities. It is often said that
1 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. li, p. 229.
8 Military Life of Townshend, p. 181.
MONTCALM AS LIMPET 173
Saunders' part in the operations has been inadequately
recognised. Here is surely a case in point. Wolfe
had the fleet in the Quebec Basin as the connecting
link between his three camps. In reality they were
not divided at all, as a recent historian of the Empire
points out. The Quebec Basin and its south, east
and north-east shores formed Wolfe's camp. The
river, " the best of all roads," enabled him, says Mr.
Pollard, to move his men hither and thither at his
ease. x It was indeed an object lesson in miniature
in that sea-power which was being enforced so
splendidly by Hawke and Boscawen and Rodney in
European waters.
If Wolfe took risks, Montcalm took none. His Montcalm
instructions were to cling to Quebec, whatever else tempted/
was surrendered, and he held to his works like a limpet.
No ruse could tempt him from the position which
he was confident the British could never take by
assault, and Wolfe had reluctantly to abandon the
idea of getting at him from the rear. But what
Wolfe intended Montcalm never knew. Wolfe's own
men did not know. He issued orders only to counter-
mand them ; his plans, so far as proclamation was
concerned, were changed almost as soon as made.
These changes coincided remarkably, says Mr.
Doughty, with the escape of deserters, 2 from whom
Montcalm learned little : " Deserteurs, verbiage,
aucune lumie're," was his significant comment.8
Wolfe was capable of keeping his own counsel even
to the mystification of his brigadiers. " Every
step he takes is wholly his own. I'm told he asks
1 A. F. Pollard : The British Empire, p. 258.
a Vol. ii, p. 78.
• Journal du Marquis de Montcalm, p. 584.
174 GENERAL WOLFE
no one's opinion and wants no advice, and therefore
as he conducts without an assistant the honour
or . . . will be in proportion to his success."1 The
days went wearily by, and nothing was accomplished.
" You may demolish Quebec," said a messenger from
the French camp who had come in under a flag of
truce. " You will never get inside it." " I will
take Quebec if I stay here till November," replied
Wolfe.
It was on the 18th July that an event happened
which had an important bearing on the ultimate
issue. Saunders tried an experiment. He sent the
Sutherland with a frigate and some smaller vessels to
test the possibility of getting up the river beyond
Quebec. To the amazement of the French, the ships
got through practically untouched, although Bougain-
ville and others were quite certain that the batteries
of Quebec would make any such attempt merely
quixotic. But then Bougainville had spoken without
thought that there might be British batteries at
the Point Levi to lend invaluable assistance. On
the following day a fleet of boats was dragged over
Point Levi and launched above Quebec. Montcalm,
unwilling though he was to part with men, was
compelled forthwith to send a strong detachment to
guard the shore between Quebec and Cap Rouge.
The event was a surprise to both combatants. It
has induced some wise-after-the-event commentators
to ask why ships were not sent up the river at first ?
Major Wood supplies the answer. " The success of the
experiment by no means proves that Wolfe should
have gone straight past the town on his arrival. It
would have been absurdly foolhardy to have run the
1 James Gibson, quoted by Doughty, ii, p. 112.
ABOVE QUEBEC 175
gauntlet of a passage little more [or less (?)] than a
mile wide with over 100 crowded ships."1 When
once Wolfe had boats above Quebec and was able to
move men on the river, he kept the French in a state
of nervous anticipation. Carleton on the 20th took
600 men, according to Parkman, 2 4,000 according to
the French, 3 eighteen miles above Quebec, made
a descent on Pointe aux Trembles in the hope of
capturing persons and papers of importance, and
decamped with a large number of ladies and a few
men who had taken up their residence out of the din
and danger from the batteries. Wolfe entertained
the ladies at supper, talked to them pleasantly of the
circumspection of their generals and expressed his
surprise that they had not taken advantage of the
favourable opportunities he gave them for attack.
He offered to return the ladies safely to their friends
if the Quebec batteries would allow a vessel conveying
sick and wounded to pass the city. The compact was
made and faithfully carried out, but the French said
afterwards that Wolfe had seized the chance to get
cattle and provisions, which they quite erroneously
believed he needed, down the river also. A day or
two later Vaudreuil did gain time to repair some
damaged works by despatching an envoy to Wolfe
with acknowledgments of his courtesy in another
matter : Wolfe had sent into Quebec some cases of
wine taken from a captured French vessel, and
Vaudreuil asked the General and Saunders to do him
the honour of accepting a few cases in return.
1 Wood : p. 187.
a Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 224.
3 Doughty, vol. ii, p. 113.
176 GENERAL WOLFE
Sterner Wolfe began to feel that more extreme measures
measures, would have to be taken ; the Canadians had not
responded to his overtures, and he was especially
incensed by the discovery that many of them fought
in the disguise of Indians. There was a vigorous
interchange of views between him and Montcalm
regarding scalping and he issued a significant order
strictly forbidding " the inhuman practice except
when the enemy were Indians or Canadians dressed
like Indians." In a new proclamation on the 25th
July he said the Canadians had shown themselves
unworthy of the offers he had made them ; he had
therefore issued orders that his troops should overrun
their country, seize the inhabitants, and their flocks,
and destroy whatever they should consider necessary.
As, however, he was ashamed to go to the barbarous
extremities of which the Canadians and their Indian
allies had set the example, he proposed to defer his
reprisals till the 10th August in the hope that the
Canadians would submit. Whatever severities
Wolfe's proclamations might suggest, it is certain
that he never permitted any cruelty or hardship to
be inflicted on the people who were at his mercy,
unless he deemed harsh measures essential in the
interests of his army. The French, whose privations
were growing daily, and who saw the summer rapidly
progressing with no prospect of harvesting their
crops, became desperate and once more Vaudreuil
determined to try the effect of fire-rafts. On the
27th no fewer than seventy-two were sent down the
river en masse. It seemed impossible the ships could
escape this time. Two were actually caught by the
flames, which, however, were put out before much
damage had been done. Once more the sailors came
WOLFE'S THREAT 177
to the rescue, cheerfully, as one of them said, taking
Hell in tow. Wolfe did not consider that fire-ships
were part of the game, and took strong measures to
stop the nuisance. " If," he told Vaudreuil, " you
presume to send down any more fire-rafts they shall
be made fast to the two transports in which the
Canadian prisoners are confined, in order that they
may perish by your own base inventions." There
were no more fire-ships.
tick. . ,
•3— (2813)
CHAPTER XII
THE MONTMORENCY REVERSE
How to A month of manceuvrings and bombardment, of
Montcalm ? skirmishings and reconnoitring, of excursions and
alarums, and for all practical purposes Wolfe was as
far off the capture of Quebec as on the day when
he landed on the Island of Orleans. As day by day
went by he became more and more impressed with
the urgency of compelling Montcalm to come out and
fight. As to the issue of a fair and square battle, he
entertained not the slightest misgiving ; he under-
stood, as did Montcalm, that the troops behind the
Beauport ramparts were no match in the open for his
seasoned veterans. Quality and numbers were in
inverse ratio. Wolfe had to think of Amherst and
Pitt, as well as of his own and his army's reputation.
But what could he do ? Amherst was making no
progress which served to draw off any of Montcalm's
men. England, on the other hand, expected Wolfe
to strike a blow which would assist Amherst's move-
ments, and he found himself engaged in a more or
less futile interchange of shot and shell with the
enemy. The examination of the river above Quebec
had not appeared to offer much more prospect of
getting at the city from that direction than did the
fords up the Montmorency and the wooded country
to Montcalm's rear. Montcalm shared his view about
the St. Lawrence, and from the force which Wolfe
could bring to bear on the Montmorency side ^
anticipated no serious attack. To do nothinp "6
178
A PERILOUS PROJECT 179
however, to Wolfe intolerable, and if to do something
involved frightful odds, the odds must be given.
There was more than usual stir in the British ranks The
on the 29th and 30th July. Precisely what was fhe0ar"port
intended only Wolfe and Saunders, and perhaps the
Brigadiers, knew. Wolfe had decided to try to pierce
the left of the French defences near the Montmorency
held by the Chevalier de Levis. If the idea was des-
perate it was also resourceful and was based on the
most minute study of the physical conditions which
so far had been possible. The attack was to be partly
by land, partly by water. Between the cliffs behind
which Montcalm had thrown up his entrenchments
and the water's edge at high tide is a stretch of shore
some 200 yards wide. When the tide is out there
is exposed a stretch of oozy gully-riven mud. A
redoubt had been built on the shore just above the
high-water mark, but its exact distance from the
entrenchments Wolfe had never been able to ascertain.
A second redoubt stood nearer the Falls. These posts
would make any attempt to land a matter of extreme
peril. Even after they had been disposed of there
was the strand to be crossed under point blank fire
from the shelter of the works on the cliff. At low
water the Montmorency below the Falls was easily
fordable, and Wolfe's plan was to run in on the high
tide a couple of armed flat-bottomed transports,
called catts, as near the first redoubt as the range
permitted, to get the Centurion carrying sixty guns
in a position near the Falls from which to bombard
the batteries and the redoubt on the French left,
whilst a powerful battery in the English camp played
upon them from across the Montmorency. At low
tide the catts would be aground and able to assist the
180 GENERAL WOLFE
landing of the troops which Wolfe intended himself
to direct ; whilst Townshend with a couple of
thousand men would move across the ford beneath
the Falls. A preliminary movement of Townshend's
up the Montmorency was made to suggest that a
simultaneous attack would be delivered to the north,
and activity on the southern shore was to render
uncertainty doubly uncertain.
July 31st. By 10 o'clock on the morning of the 31st Wolfe was
afloat with several regiments from both Points Levi
and Orleans ; the catts and the Centurion took up
their allotted places, and fire was opened from the
Levi and Montmorency batteries, as well as from the
vessels. Wolfe, nearer the French lines than he had
ever been, saw that the redoubts were commanded
by the French batteries and realised more strongly
than had been possible hitherto the character of the
undertaking. Some students of that historic day
have thought that his object was perhaps little more
than what is euphemistically called a reconnaissance
in force, but no one who reads his despatch to Pitt 1
can doubt that his intention at starting was to attack
the French entrenchments. Otherwise, from the
nature of the enterprise, there would be much to be
said in favour of Mr. Bradley's view that the General,
having inspected the position, would do little more
than make a demonstration on the water. 2 As the
day proceeded, Montcalm for once thought the
occasion demanded outside action on his part, and
actually ordered a detachment to cross the up river
fords to take Townshend's men in the rear. The
movement was noticed by Wolfe, and he promptly
signalled to the Point Levi that some men should be
1 Appendix I. 2 Wolfe, p. 166.
THE LONG WAIT 181
sent westward along the south shore ; the effect of
this counter move was instantaneous, and Montcalm's
resolution failed him. The fact that Wolfe did not
strike at once but moved his boats, laden with eager
soldiery, for hours up and down the river to the greater
bewilderment of the enemy seems to have encouraged
the idea that he hesitated. It was a hot July day,
the air was heavy with electricity, and the trial to
both British and French was severe. " The cause
of the delay is not apparent," says Mr. Doughty1 ;
" the attempt after long and close inspection, seemed
too desperate to be justifiable," says Mr. Bradley.2
The explanation surely is that the two catts had to
go in at high tide in order to ground as near the
redoubts as possible at low tide, and that until low
tide the Montmorency ford was impracticable. To
land the troops at high tide was out of the question ;
yet to secure the assistance of the catts, operations
must begin at high tide ; the plan was ingenious and
Wolfe had Saunders' cordial co-operation.
" At a proper time of the tide," Wolfe signalled The first
to the Brigadiers to make a forward move, though
what that proper time was I cannot determine. Mr.
Doughty 3 and Major Wood4 say it was " past three " ;
Mr. Bradley, that " it was past four o'clock before
Wolfe made up his mind " ; 5 Parkman, that the crisis
came at half-past five. 6 Having delayed so long it
was vital now that every movement should be
executed with smartness and in good order. Wolfe's
calculations were to be upset this day by a check
when he wanted to advance, and by a precipitate
1 Vol. ii, p. 136. 2 Wolfe, p. 167
3 Vol. ii, p. 136. 4 p. 192.
5 Wolfe, p. 166. 6 Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 240.
embarrass-
ment.
182 GENERAL WOLFE
rush forward when there should have been delibera-
tion. The boats suddenly struck a shoal, from which
they were got off with some difficulty ; Wolfe made
a considerable point of the delay thus caused, and was
at first inclined to lay blame on the sailors who should
have saved him from his temporary embarrassment.
The accident was the more grievous seeing that
Saunders was present in person doing his best to make
the operations a success.1 Having got clear of the
obstacle and found a place to land, Wolfe going in
first with some naval officers to make sure this time,
the Grenadiers were put on shore, followed by the
Royal Americans ; the Grenadiers were to form up
in four distinct bodies, and with the support of
Monckton's Brigade in their rear, and of Townshend
and Murray now moving across the Ford, were to
lead the attack on the redoubt.
Xhe What possessed the Grenadiers at that critical
Grenadiers ' moment ? They were Wolfe's veterans on whose disci-
wild dash. pHne he WQuld haye staked all yet like a trusted
high mettled horse, who for once in his life takes the
bit between his teeth, the Grenadiers, without waiting
for orders, dashed wildly forward ; whether they
thought they had orders one cannot tell ; whatever
the explanation, " they made one of those un-
accountable blunders that will sometimes happen
with the best troops in the heat of action."2 ^They
went straight for the redoubt which the French
abandoned, but as it was open at the rear, it could
not be used as a support for the attack on the entrench-
ments. 3 For a moment they were checked by a
terrific fusillade ; and then, away they went again as
though they imagined alone they could carry the
1 Wood, p. 193. a Ibid. * Ibid,
DISASTER AND RETREAT 183
enemy's works. Heavy clouds had been collecting,
and now to the thunder of cannon and crack of
musket was added the thunder of the elements. A
storm burst, and the rain destroyed any sort of
foothold the Grenadiers might have found in their
wild attempt to reach the heights behind which lay
thousands of well protected Frenchmen, Canadians
and Indians. The Grenadiers who started on that mad
heroic rush were 1,000 strong ; they were not stopped
till nearly half their number lay dead or wounded
on the ground between the redoubt and the entrench-
ments. Some French writers have argued that the
storm saved Montcalm ; others that it saved Wolfe.
English authorities are equally divided. If the
Grenadiers had ever reached the French lines their
chances were as twenty to one. After what had
happened, Wolfe saw there was nothing for it but
to call them back. Townshend's advance was stayed
by signal, and as the tide was turning, the General
ordered the men into the boats. Four hundred and
fifty gallant fellows lay stretched on the shore ;
Indians in large numbers burst out from the woods
with scalping knives to do their hideous work ; the
78th Highlanders were sent forward to bring off as
many of the wounded as they could find ; there were
many acts of individual devotion, which a century
later would have commanded the Victoria Cross, 1 and
the French in at least one instance showed a
humanity which was not always forthcoming on
either side.
1 The thrilling oft-told story of Ensign Peyton's refusal to
leave Captain Ochterloney who lay wounded and at the
mercy of the first tomahawk, forms Chapter VII of Mr.
Doughty's 2nd volume.
184 GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's Wolfe got his army back into the boats, together
comments. w^n ^e WOunded who had been rescued, and
Townshend's men retreated in perfect order, waving
their hats in defiance at the enemy on the heights,
who even at this critical moment dare not come out
and fight. As the various regiments made their
way to their quarters in the three camps, Wolfe's
ruminations were bitter as the exhilaration in the
French lines was excessive. Vaudreuil boasted and
hoped that M. Wolfe would repeat his mad enterprise.
" I have no more anxiety about Quebec," he wrote.1
Wolfe's critics in his own camps were not sparing,
though naturally they took care to confine their views
to private papers, but the General himself promptly
made his own thoughts public. He issued orders in
which he expressed the hope that the check which the
Grenadiers had met with would be a lesson to them :
' Such impetuous, irregular, and unsoldier-like pro-
ceedings destroy all order, make it impossible for
their commanders to form any disposition for an
attack, and put it out of the General's power to
execute his plan. The Grenadiers could not suppose
that they alone could beat the French army, and
therefore it was necessary that the corps under
Brigadier Monckton and Brigadier Townshend should
have time to join, that the attack might be general ;
the very first fire of the enemy was sufficient to repulse
men who had lost all sense of order and military
discipline ; Amherst's and the Highland regiments
alone by the soldier-like and cool manner they were
formed in, would undoubtedly have beat back the
whole Canadian army, if they had ventured to attack
them. The loss, however, is inconsiderable, and may
1 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 243.
CRITICISMS OF WOLFE 185
be easily repaired when a favourable opportunity
offers, if the men will show a proper attention to their
officers."
These reflections were described by one chronicler The
of the campaign as "a cruel aspersion " on the view
Grenadiers, and an officer of " knowledge, fortune and
interest " — it sounds curiously like Townshend — was
heard to say that " the attack then and there was
contrary to the advice and opinion of every officer."
Townshend 's biographer says that " the confidence
of the troops in Wolfe was much shaken by this
disaster. For nothing in war is so bad as failure and
defeat : " a statement which every incident in the
remainder of the campaign flatly contradicts, unless
we are to accept the few malcontents in Wolfe's
camps as wholly trustworthy witnesses. Colonel
Townshend does not believe that the men advanced
in spite of orders. " I feel convinced that the cause
of this disaster as in so many other cases was a
burning thirst for battle on the part of the troops,
officers and men alike, such as one sees in men who,
never having been on active service before, are
impatient to find themselves engaged";1 in other
words Colonel Townshend confirms the impression left
by Wolfe's own words that splendid veterans on this
occasion acted like raw troops eager to show their
spirit and courage. Wolfe loved his Grenadiers, and
his rebuke was based on immediate observation ;
his critics spoke at second-hand. The General was at
special pains to show that he considered the officers
free from blame : he visited personally during the
night every wounded officer and invited the survivors
1 Military Life of Townshend, p. 196,
186 GENERAL WOLFE
to dine with him. l The morale of the men them-
selves was in no way destroyed by their mistake and
its heavy punishment. " The survivors re-formed at
once, the discipline which had been lost for those few
fatal minutes was restored, and the next day all ranks
were as fit for service as ever."2 That day Wolfe
wrote to Monckton : " This check must not dishearten
us: prepare for another and better attempt."3
Tfh thPart Why Wolfe combined a land and sea attack is not
fleet. plain to Colonel Townshend, 4 nor to Mr. Doughty,
who sees " disadvantages in union," when Wolfe
might have confined himself to a land attack and used
his boats to distract the enemy's right. 5 What they
see a century and a half after the event Wolfe saw
directly experience had proved theory to be mislead-
ing. A long letter to Saunders makes this point quite
clear. Before sending his despatch of the 2nd
September to Pitt, 6 Wolfe submitted it to his naval
colleague. Something in that despatch referring to
the part played by the navy in the attempt on
Montmorency was not approved by Saunders and
Wolfe promptly struck it out. From his reply to the
Admiral we get an excellent insight into Wolfe's
thoughts concerning the whole business : "I am," he
said, " sensible of my own errors in the course of the
campaign ; see clearly wherein I have been deficient ;
and think a little more or less blame to a man that
must necessarily be ruined, of little or no conse-
quence." He denied that he attributed all his diffi-
culties to the two catts not being so placed as "to
1 Bradley : Wolfe, pp. 170-1.
2 Wood, p. 194.
8 Dictionary of National Biography : Monckton.
4 p. 197. » Vol. ii, p. 135. 6 See Appendix I.
THE ESSENTIAL MATTER 187
annoy the two small batteries with their guns " ; on
the contrary, they did all that could be expected, and
yet " the upper battery was not abandoned by the
enemy but continued firing till the Grenadiers ran like
blockheads up to it." It seems that Captain James
Cook, the navigator, who was one of Saunders'
Captains, believed he could get within forty or fifty
yards of the redoubts, and Wolfe would have been
satisfied with 150 or 200 yards if the upper redoubt
had been as far from the entrenchments as it appeared
to be from the British camp. From the lower redoubt
so brisk a fire was kept up that Wolfe himself had
a narrow escape. " I was no less than three times
struck with splinters, and had my stick knocked
out of my hand with a cannon-ball." The blame of
" that unlucky day " he took entirely upon his own
shoulders. " Accidents cannot be helped. As much
as the plan was defective falls justly upon me," and
it was of no great consequence whether the catts fired
ill or well, lost time in landing or not. " In none of
these circumstances the essential matter resides.
The great fault of that day consists in putting too
many men in the boats, who might have been landed
the day before, and might have crossed the ford with
certainty while a small body remained afloat and the
superfluous boats of the fleet employed in a feint that
might have divided the enemy's force. A man sees
his errors often too late to remedy." If Wolfe's plan
had been ideal the action of the Grenadiers would
have thrown it completely out of gear.
Wolfe now thought of trying to get into touch with Murray's
Amherst, or at any rate to open a way which might °Perations«
make communication possible in the near future.
Whilst the French fleet was in the river between
188 GENERAL WOLFE
Quebec and Montreal no such communication was
possible. General Murray, therefore, with 1,200 men
was ordered to join Admiral Holmes up the river ;
they were to get at and destroy the French ships, if
possible, and Murray was to invite Bougainville to
battle by attacking French posts whenever it could
be done on " tolerable terms." The ships could not
be got at and Murray made two attempts to land at
Pointe aux Trembles which were repulsed with the
loss of some eighty men, but he outwitted Bougainville
at Deschambault, where he landed, destroyed valuable
stores of ammunition, clothing and other necessaries,
secured some useful papers and prisoners, and was
back in the boats before Bougainville could reach the
spot in force. Murray's operations had the effect of
compelling Montcalm to detach as many as 1,600 to
act under Bougainville, and his failure at Pointe aux
Trembles brought some compensation by inducing
the belief that the more difficult heights nearer the
city were at any rate secure. The French conceived
more than one enterprising project by way of turning
the tables on Holmes and Murray, but for various
reasons they did nothing. Bougainville thought of
crossing to the south bank and attacking Murray's
camp, but bad weather was a sufficient excuse for
delay. Another officer was prepared to make an
attack on one of Holmes' ships, but jealousy inter-
vened, and before anything could be done Saunders
had sent up reinforcements. It was on the 5th August
that Murray started up the river ; he was away nearly
three weeks, much to Wolfe's annoyance. " By his
long stay above and detaining all our boats Murray
is actually master of the operations, or rather puts
an entire stop to them," said the General, and on the
DISCONTENT AND DISTRESS 189
24th rockets were sent up to show Holmes that
something was wanted.
Both armies were feeling the strain ; in the French Laying the
camp there was scarcity of food and of ammunition : cou"try
in the British there was much sickness. The French
loss during the operations had not been many more
than half that of the British — so that the numerical
disproportion of the forces was greater than ever.
All told, Wolfe had lost over 800 men. But the state
of his army was in every way superior to that which
Montcalm and Vaudreuil controlled. Among the
French, discontent was rampant and desertions
numerous. The Canadians saw a plentiful harvest
being wasted whilst they were on duty behind
Montcalm's earthworks ; a wasted harvest meant
privation and ruin when the campaign was over.
Wolfe continued to lay the country bare, torches were
placed beneath homesteads whose owners refused to
be neutral, and the crops which the Canadian hoped
to garner for himself were appropriated by the British.
Some barbarous things were done in carrying out
Wolfe's orders, notably by a brother of the Richard
Montgomery who died in the attempt to take Quebec
during the War of Independence. Montgomery had
prisoners killed in cold blood. There were some signal
deeds of heroism, too, such as the holding at bay by
a sergeant and a dozen men of 100 Canadians and
Indians for two hours till relief came. Wolfe was
quick to reward any special act of this sort, and
instantly gave, or promised to give, the sergeant a
commission. When the luckless habitant applied to
Vaudreuil to know what he should do he was urged
to fight for his country more energetically than ever
because the English would disappear with the end of
190 GENERAL WOLFE
August. Poor wretch : if he fought, Wolfe punished
him ; if he failed to fight he was treated as a traitor
by his own people. And the assurances that the
British were defeated and maintaining a hopeless
struggle carried as little weight with him as with the
Indians, who began to lose confidence and said they
would believe that the French had triumphed when
the English were driven back to their ships. " Are
they not as unconcerned in their camps as if nothing
had happened ? " Vaudreuil and Montcalm were
encouraged by the reports of deserters that the British
fleet would shortly sail and that Wolfe contemplated
breaking up his camps. News reached Quebec early
in the month that Amherst had captured Ticonderoga,
and that Niagara also had fallen. But Bourlamaque
wrote that he had taken up an impregnable position
at Isle aux Noix, x and from the capture of two officers
carrying despatches from Amherst to Wolfe Montcalm
learned that Amherst's operations would depend upon
the success Wolfe met with at Quebec. 2
Wolfe's health was a sore trial during this month of
August. The Montmorency failure told upon him
more than he cared perhaps to admit. He was
haunted by the feeling that he would not accomplish
what Pitt expected of him, and he loathed the thought
of returning to England to hear the criticisms of the
ignorant. When Townshend wrote to his wife,
" General Wolfe's health is but very bad : his general-
ship in my poor opinion is not a bit better,"3 he was
only saying what a good many others were either
thinking or preparing to think. About the 18th or
1 Parkman : Vol. ii, p. 276.
* Doughty : Vol. ii, p. 226.
3 Military Life of Townshend, p. 210.
THE PUBLIC SERVICE 191
19th August Wolfe began to be seriously ill ; by the
20th he was prostrate with fever, and for a day or two
it was a question whether he would be fit to resume
the command. Knox wrote on the 22nd that it was
with the greatest concern the army learned of " our
amiable general being very ill of a slow fever. The
soldiers lament him exceedingly and seemed appre-
hensive of this even before we were ascertained of it
by his not visiting the camp for several days." He was,
as we have seen, sufficiently recovered by the 24th to
interest himself in Murray's return, and on the 25th
Knox noted that " General Wolfe is on the recovery
to the inconceivable joy of the whole army " — a
sufficient commentary on the suggestion that a single
reverse had cost Wolfe his popularity with the rank
and file.
Ill as he had been Wolfe's thoughts were all for the The
public service. He told his doctor that he knew he brigadiers
could not cure his complaint but begged to be patched consult*
up so that he might be without pain for a few days
and able to do his duty. " That is all I want." As
he lay helpless on his bed he fretted at his inability
to urge matters forward to a definite issue ; every day
brought him appreciably nearer the season when it
would be possible to do nothing. He had already
in his mind the idea of taking up winter quarters on
the Isle aux Coudres, though that was a prospect
little more inviting than absolute failure. For the
first time, therefore, he called upon his Brigadiers " to
meet and consult for the public utility and advan-
tage."1 How best could the enemy be attacked?
1 The Abbe Casgrain says (Wol e and Montcalm, p. 154)
that Wolfe " handed the command over to the three
Brigadiers " ; he did nothing of the sort.
192 GENERAL WOLFE
Defeat of the French army, he concluded, would mean
the immediate surrender of the town, badly provi-
sioned as it was. He suggested for their consideration
three methods all turning on the Beauport entrench-
ments, from either the rear or the shore or both in
combination. The Brigadier's reply to this invitation
was responsible for a controversy in the mists of
which the great achievement which was the outcome
has sometimes been obscured. Recently published
papers enable one to form a judicial and final opinion
on the merits of the case. " The natural strength of
the enemy's situation between the Rivers St. Charles
and Montmorency now improved by the art of their
engineers makes the defeat of their army, if attacked
there, very doubtful," wrote the Brigadiers. " Late
experience " made them shy of repeating the attack
of the 31st July. They pointed out that if Montcalm
were defeated, he would still have it in his power to
dispute the passage of the St. Charles. " We are
therefore of opinion that the most probable method
of striking an effectual blow is by bringing the troops
to the south shore and directing our operations above
the town. When we have established ourselves on
the north shore, of which there is very little doubt,
the Marquis de Montcalm must fight us on our own
terms ; we are between him and his provisions, and
betwixt him and the French army opposing General
Amherst. If he gives us battle and we defeat him,
Quebec must be ours and what is more all Canada
must submit to his Majesty's arms, a different case
from any advantage we can hope for at Beauport."
On the question of an immediate attack, or a post-
ponement till the ruin of the harvest had completed
the ruin of the Colony, " or with a view of facilitating
THE BRIGADIERS' PLAN 193
the operations of our armies now advancing into the
heart of the country," the Brigadiers could not take
upon themselves to advise, " although we cannot but
be convinced that a decisive affair to our disadvantage
must enable the enemy to make head against the army
under the command of General Amherst already far
advanced by the diversion this army has made on
this side." The Brigadiers proposed a plan, but with
the same dip of ink cast doubts on the expediency of
carrying it out. If they had been men of less grit
and less worthy soldiers, one might be forced to
unpleasant conclusions.
Townshend's friends, somehow, have managed to Towns-
fix all the credit for the plan on himself. Martin 1 and hend 's
Warburton, 2 sixty years ago, like Colonel Townshend
six years ago, treated the matter as conclusive.
" After having maturely deliberated, the brigadiers
agreed," says Warburton, " in recommending the
remarkable plan which Wolfe unreservedly adopted.
The merit of this daring and skilful proposition
belongs to Colonel George Townshend, although long
disputed or withheld by jealousy or political
hostility." To that statement Wolfe's own words3
would lend some colour if the facts were not now
placed deyond dispute. To Townshend probably
belongs an even smaller part of " the merit " than
to the other Brigadiers, and Miss Kimball says it is
doubtful if Townshend did not protest against the
plan as too hazardous. 4 It remained only for Colonel
C. V. F. Townshend to clench the errors of other
1 Martin's British Colonies, Div. I, p. 13.
2 Conquest of Canada, vol. ii, p. 322.
3 Appendix : "I have acquiesced in their proposal."
4 Correspondence of Pitt, vol. ii, p. 164.
14 — (2213)
194
GENERAL WOLFE
Wolfe's
prompt
action.
writers by giving " the plan of operations which was
adopted in consequence of the Brigadier's answer " —
the plan which was not that eventually carried out
by Wolfe at all — and to append an extract from a
letter by Wolfe to Townshend which he assumed
belonged to the plan as drawn up, but which had
nothing to do with it. Colonel Townshend got his
papers muddled and fell into a trap of his own making. x
He says in his preface : "It will be seen that the
unexpected and surprising manner in which Quebec
was taken was the plan of the Brigadiers and not of
Wolfe. That Wolfe put into happy execution the
plan of others is no disparagement to his glorious
happy memory — such things are not unknown to
students of military history."
The Brigadiers' reply was dated the 29th August.
Their views were a reversion to Wolfe's earlier idea,
mentioned in his despatch to Pitt, of carrying the
operations up the river, an idea which he abandoned
because the formidable nature of the cliffs, the ease
with which they could be defended by a handful of
men against an army, and the difficulties of getting
men and supplies past Quebec seemed to make the
task more hopeless than an attack on the Beauport
lines. " My ill state of health hinders me from
executing my own plan," said Wolfe to Saunders on
the 30th ; " it is of too desperate a nature to order
others to execute. The generals seem to think alike
as to the operations ; I therefore join with them, and
perhaps we may find some opportunity to strike a
blow." His decision taken, he began to give effect
to it with a spirit which was in striking contrast with
the hesitancy of the Brigadiers' last words, and within
1 Doughty : vol. ii, p. 243.
THE SITUATION IN A NUTSHELL
195
twenty-four hours he had told Saunders that it
would be necessary " to run as many small craft by
the town as possible with provisions and rum for six
weeks for about 5,000, which is all I intend to take."
In the midst of his preparations he wrote to his Last letter
mother. It was the last letter she had from him, t0 h*s
and it is as significant on account of what it omits as
of what it says.
'* Banks of the St. Lawrence,
0 "315/ August, 1759.
" Dear Madam, —
' ' My writing to you will convince you that no personal
evils worse than defeats and disappointments have fallen
upon me. The enemy puts nothing to risk and I can't, in
conscience, put the whole army to risk. My antagonist has
wisely shut himself up in inaccessible entrenchments, so that
I can't get at him without spilling a torrent of blood, and
that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is
at the head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at
the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing
so much as to fight him ; but the wary old fellow avoids an
action, doubtful of the behaviour of his army. People must
be of the profession to understand the disadvantages and
difficulties we labour under, arising from the uncommon
natural strength of the country.
" I approve entirely of my father's disposition of his affairs,
though perhaps it may interfere a little with my plan of
quitting the service, which I am determined to do the first
opportunity — I mean so as not to be absolutely distressed
in circumstances, nor burdensome to you or anybody else.
I wish you much health and am, dear Madam,
"Your obedient and affectionate son,
" Jam : Wolfe.
" If any sums of money are paid to you of what is due to my
father from Government, let me recommend you not to
meddle with the funds, but keep it for your support until
better times."
CHAPTER XIII
THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM
Removing Wolfe's first business was to get his men safely away
a camp. from Montmorency : the task was a supremely diffi-
cult and delicate one. It would provide the French
with an opportunity for mischief for which they had
been on the look-out during several weeks. Knox
as early as the 5th August recorded in his journal :
" Scarce a day passes but we hear of some brilliant
coup which the French intend to strike at one or other
of our three encampments. Now we are told by
deserters that they will wait until General Wolfe is
obliged to withdraw his troops from the north camp —
then fall on him with their whole force and cut the
flower of his army to pieces." Wolfe was here as
elsewhere more than a match for his wily and cautious
opponent. The transference was accomplished by
tactics which completely deceived Montcalm as to
their real purpose. Montcalm early discovered that
some great movement was afoot, but the movement
was chiefly upon the water and the south shore.
Preparations were being made obviously for a new
attack, but whether the attack was to be on the
Beauport lines or on the other side of Quebec he
had no means of discovering. There was a great
demonstration by boats, the Point Levi batteries
kept up a ceaseless fire, and the signs were all in
favour of something happening very different from
the thing that did happen. As the boats stood in to
the Montmorency shore, the enemy's belief that the
196
A CHANCE MISSED 197
men of a new attacking force were to be taken off
grew, and in their anxiety to be ready at all points
they missed the chance of delivering a blow that
must have been heavy. Early in the morning of the
3rd September, the whole Montmorency camp was
transferred without the loss of a single man.
What the French felt as they watched the boats Amusing
with a well-timed movement withdraw instead of the enemy«
advance may be gleaned from French journals and
letters. Montcalm was blamed, and all he and his
officers could say in justification was that they
detected 2,000 men lying on their faces in the British
entrenchments at the very moment that they were
supposed to have crossed over to the Island of Orleans.
"There was danger of falling into some snare,"1
they said. Wolfe next removed all save 600 men,
whom he left under Carleton, from the Island to the
south shore ; 1 ,600 men were left on Point Levi under
Colonel Burton, and the rest, as far as could be by
night, marched in detachments under Monckton,
Murray, and Townshend to spots where boats were
waiting to carry them to the ships between Sillery and
Cap Rouge. Wolfe joined the fleet up the river on
the 5th, and Admiral Holmes began to " amuse "
the enemy by sailing his vessels backwards and
forwards. Montcalm had sent de Levis to Montreal
with reinforcements in view of Amherst's advance ;
he strengthened Bougainville and held himself in
readiness to go to any point at any moment danger
threatened. He shifted his main camp from the
Montmorency to La Canardiere much nearer Quebec,
and was prepared for the appearance of Wolfe at
Cap Rouge or higher up, or on the Beauport shore.
1 Doughty : vol. ii, p. 264.
198 GENERAL WOLFE
How many men Wolfe had transferred above Quebec
there was nothing to indicate, a clever show of
strength being maintained in both the camps across
the water. Montcalm dared not reduce the numbers
already depleted by the detachments given to de
LeVis and Bougainville, and he was confident that the
latter could meet any force that might attempt a
landing anywhere between Quebec and Pointe aux
Trembles. That the attempt if made would be
between Cap Rouge and Pointe aux Trembles, in
accordance with the plan of the Brigadiers, was the
opinion of Montcalm. The one man who had other
views was Wolfe. Montcalm ought to have known
by this time that the British General never did the
obvious thing, and the more attention Wolfe paid to
a particular stretch of coast the less likely was he
to strike there.
A respite Wolfe conferred with the Brigadiers on the 7th
anH SOITIG
doubts. as to the best method of attack ; the next day the
Brigadiers reconnoitred and proposed to land at
Pointe aux Trembles * on the 9th. The plan, if it was
entertained, was defeated by a heavy storm, which
lasted over two days, during which operations were
suspended. The men cooped up in the transports
were suffering from their confinement and Wolfe sent
half the number on shore to refresh themselves and
stretch their limbs. He took advantage of the
respite himself to write a long letter to the Earl of
Holderness, the Secretary of State for the Southern
Department. Some points in his letter, which was
dated " The Sutherland at Anchor off Cape Rouge,
September 9, 1759," are an interesting supplement
to the despatch sent a week earlier to Pitt. 2 If
1 Wood, p. 215. 2 Appendix I.
AWAITING AN OPPORTUNITY 199
Montcalm had shut himself up in Quebec, Wolfe said,
it would have been long since captured. He described
the Canadians as " extremely dissatisfied but, curbed
by the force of the Government and terrified by the
savages that are posted round about them, they are
obliged to keep together to work and man the en-
trenchments." Referring to the French vessels which
got up the river before Admiral Durell arrived, and
were now out of the reach of the British men-of-war,
he said : " These ships serve a double purpose ; they
are magazines for their provisions and at the same
time cut off all communication between General
Amherst's army and the corps under my command,
so that we are not able to make any detachment to
attack Montreal or favour the junction or by attacking
the fort of Chambly or Boulemarque's Corps behind
open the General's way into Canada." He paid a
compliment to the unceasing hard work which his
" poor soldiery " had done without murmuring ; he
indicated the nightly risks they ran from surprise
and murder, and the difficulties of the ships during
" the most violent ebb tide when they often drag
their anchors by the mere force of the current. Our
fleet blocks up the river above and below the town,
but can give no manner of aid in an attack on the
Canadian army. x We are now here with about 3,600
men waiting an opportunity to attack them when
and wherever they can best be got at. The weather
has been extremely unfavourable for a day or two,
so that we have been inactive. I am so far recovered
1 The Abbe Casgrain (Wolfe and Montcalm, p. 167)
says : " It is curious that Wolfe should state that the fleet
could give no manner of aid in an attack on Quebec." Wolfe
obviously meant that the ships could not get at the enemy ;
he did not intend to imply that the naval forces were useless.
au Foulon.
200 GENERAL WOLFE
as to do business, but my situation is entirely ruined
without the consolation of having done any consider-
able service to the State or without any prospect of
it." Touches always of doubt — touches which throw
the event now so near into more dramatic relief.
The^Anse When the stormy conditions passed, and everyone
anticipated that the critical hour had arrived, the
General did more reconnoitring. With Admiral
Holmes and certain officers, all dressed as Grenadiers,
he dropped down the river, examining every inch of
the cliff with keen eye as he went, and ultimately
took up his position on the south shore opposite the
Anse au Foulon. By whom Wolfe's attention was
originally drawn to this particular cove, or whether
its advantages over others were detected by the
General himself, is matter of speculation. Credit is
generally given to one Major Stobo, a Scotch officer
who was one of Washington's hostages after Fort
Necessity ; Stobo, taken to Quebec, gave his parole,
broke it and escaped to convey information to the
British at Louisbourg. Biographers of Washington
refer to Stobo as though there were no question as
to Wolfe's indebtedness to him ; but Stobo has been
associated on the strength of his own representations
with much in which he had no hand. Mr. Doughty,
for instance, has disproved his claim to have been one
of the heroes with Wolfe in the final attack ; he left
the St. Lawrence on the 7th September nearly a week
before the event. x The essential fact is that twenty-
four hours after the Brigadiers imagined that the
assault was to be made on the enemy's position many
miles higher "up river, Wolfe was studying the spot
within two miles of Quebec which ever since has been
1 The Siege of Quebec, vol. ii, p. 114.
PREPARATIONS FOR A LANDING 201
known as Wolfe's Cove. Information must have
reached him that whilst Montcalm, Vaudreuil, and
Bougainville were running hither and thither in order
not to be taken unawares either above Cap Rouge or
below Quebec, the Anse au Foulon was weakly held
by an officer named Vergor who had already proved
v his worthlessness if not his actual treachery. There
is hardly a movement at this juncture which is not
the occasion of controversy. Major Wood and others
say that it was by Vaudreuil's own orders that Vergor
was allowed to hold the post ; the Abbe Casgrain says
that Bougainville's action in placing it in the hands
of such a man was unpardonable. x Then Vergor
should have been supported by the Guyenne Regiment
which Montcalm had allotted for that purpose, but
the Regiment was elsewhere. Vergor had allowed
most of his men to go to their farms on the under-
standing that they should look after his own : it is
suggested that he trusted to the Guyenne Regiment
in the event of any attempt being made.
Whatever the explanation Wolfe discovered how Orders and
weak the defence was at this point, and for the next intentlons-
two days the apparent preparations for a landing in
the direction of Pointe aux Trembles and at Beauport
kept the French on the alert at both ends. Montcalm
urged Bougainville to watch every movement of the
enemy afloat, and to take every possible precaution
against surprise. For a week or more the state of
Montcalm's mind was reflected in one sentence. " II
est certain que la conduite des ennemis est aussi
embarrassante qu'equivoque." If any information
of Wolfe's intentions reached Montcalm it was to the
1 Wolfe and Montcalm, p. 178.
202 GENERAL WOLFE
effect, as Admiral Holmes wrote after the battle, that
a plan to land four leagues above the town was afoot.
Wolfe as usual kept his own counsel : he did not, it
is generally agreed, say a word to his Brigadiers as
to the decision he had taken ; they seem to have
learned no more than was contained in the General
Orders issued on the 11th — orders which went into
detail on every point except as to the spot at which
the attack was to be made. Nor was it even men-
tioned in further orders on the 12th.1 " The troops
will land where the French seem least to expect it.
The first body that gets on shore is to march directly
to the enemy and drive them from any little post
they may occupy. The battalions must form on the
upper ground and be ready to charge whatever
presents itself. The officers and men will remember
what their country expects of them." The Brigadiers
were only less in the dark than the French them-
selves. Late on the 12th all three wrote to ask
Wolfe to give them more explicit instructions for the
operations which were to take place in a few hours'
time. " We must beg leave to request of you as
distinct Orders as the nature of the thing will admit
of, particularly of the place or places we are to attack.
This circumstance (perhaps very decisive) we cannot
learn from the public orders, neither may it be in the
power of the naval officer who leads the Troops to
instruct us."
Wolfe and And these were the Brigadiers whose plan Wolfe is
hi? . supposed to have adopted : this was the plan whose
nga iers. "unexpected and surprising character," Warburton
and Townshend said, was the Brigadiers' and not
Wolfe's ; this was " the daring and skilful proposition"
1 Wood, p. 221.
COLONEL BURTON INFORMED 203
of which the " merit " belonged to George
Townshend. Could confession of ignorance be more
absolute ? Wolfe's answer was to the effect that the
attack would be at the Foulon about two miles from
Quebec. But he reminded the Brigadiers that it was
not usual in public orders to indicate the direct spot
of an attack " nor for any inferior officers not charged
with a particular duty to ask instructions on that
point." To the best of his knowledge and abilities
he had fixed upon that spot where they could act
with the most force and were most likely to succeed.
"If I am mistaken I am sorry for it and must be
answerable to his Majesty and the public for the
consequence." Mr. Doughty says that " Wolfe's
sudden rejection of the plan of the Brigadiers after
all the details had been arranged naturally caused a
feeling of resentment at the moment and protests
were made. This may be the reason why Wolfe did
not disclose his plan more fully to his officers at the
time."1 It is a remarkable fact that what Wolfe
kept from his Brigadiers he communicated to Colonel
Burton commanding Webb's Regiment at Point Levi
on the 10th September —
" Sixteen hundred of our men are upon the south shore
to clean and refresh themselves and their transports ; and
indeed to save the whole army which must have perished if
they had continued forty-eight hours longer on board.
To-morrow the troops re- embark, the fleet sails up the river
a little higher, as if intending to land above upon the north
shore, keeping a convenient distance for the boats and armed
vessels to ' fall down to the Foulon ; and we count (if no
accident of weather or other prevents) to make a powerful
effort at that spot about four in the morning of the 13th.
At ten or eleven or twelve at night, sooner or later as it may
be necessary, on Wednesday the 12th, we get into our boats.
If we are forced to alter these measures you shall know it ;
1 The Siege of Quebec, vol. ii, p. 248.
204 GENERAL WOLFE
if not it stands fixed : be you careful not to drop it to any,
for fear of desertion, and it would not be amiss for Carleton
to pass his troops [from Orleans] in the beginning of Wednes-
day night. Crofton can file along the shore to his right, and
meet you at the post you take ; let the men have their
blankets and let the tents be struck, bundled up and ready to
bring over. If we succeed in the first business, it may produce
an action, which may produce the total conquest of Canada ;
in all cases it is our duty to try the most likely way, whatever
may be the event." (J)
This letter seems to have been overlooked in the
discussion of the question of Wolfe's independent
action. Why should Wolfe have told Burton what
he refused to tell Monckton and Murray ? That he
should withhold information from Townshend was
not altogether inexplicable, and perhaps in Townshend
we have the key to the mystery.
Fore- What " harbinger preceding still the fates," what
bodings. « precurser of fierce events," on this 12th night of
September was it that affected both Wolfe and
Montcalm ? What made the one feel he would not
survive that night's enterprise, the other that irre-
trievable disaster was impending ? Among Mont-
calm's great anxieties was the problem of provisions :
Quebec and his army, before the English secured so
complete a command of the river, had been fed by
both the land route and the water route. Latterfy
supplies had come by water as far as St. Augustine,
thirteen miles from Quebec,2 whence they had been
taken overland. Now the recent bad weather had
made the roads almost impassable, and there was
nothing for it but to risk sending down boats in the
dead of night in the hope that they might, by hugging
the northern shore, get safely past the vessels lying
(*) Wright, p. 569.
2 Kingsford, vol. iv, p. 260.
WOLFE'S WILL 205
in mid-stream. From deserters Wolfe learned this
very night that the provisions were to go down with
the ebb-tide. The information was invaluable, and
he turned it to account in a manner not less masterly
than everything else associated with these historic
hours. At the turn of the tide his boats, filled with
men, were to put off from the vessels and float with
the stream towards the city ; they must now antici-
pate the provision boats, and if by good luck he
gained the heights before the mistake was discovered,
his daring project would already be far on the way to
success.
Everything was ready : the men on shore as well as The turn
the men on the transports were taking what rest they of the tide,
could get before the signal should be hoisted in the
Sutherland's main-top shrouds which would start
them on their momentous trip. Wolfe found time
at this hour to visit a couple of young officers who
were on the sick list, one of those little attentions in
which he never failed. Then he thought of himself,
and summoned to his cabin on board the Sutherland,
Jack Jervis, who was in charge of the Porcupine sloop.
How these two had become such intimate friends there
is nothing in the papers of either of them that I have
been able to trace to show ; may be the fact that
they had been under the same schoolmaster, though
not at the same time, was the first link in the chain of
which the last was now to be forged. Wolfe handed
over to his friend for disposal in case the presentiment
which had seized him should be realised, his papers
and a miniature of Miss Lowther, which he wore
beneath his waistcoat. In his will he desired that
the picture might be set in jewels to the value of £500
and returned to her by Jervis ; he made various
206 GENERAL WOLFE
legacies, asked Admiral Saunders to accept his light
service of plate " in remembrance of his guest," left
his papers and books to Carleton, made various money
presents to certain officers, friends, and servants, and
the residue to his " good mother entirely at her
disposal." There remained nothing now to be done
but to await the turn of the tide, the turn of the tide
in every sense of the word for Wolfe, for Montcalm,
for Canada, for America, for two great Empires.
Midnight was approaching when a single lantern
conveyed the order that Monckton's and Murray's
men were to take their place in the boats : the night,
hitherto lighted only by the stars, had become misty ;
the movement would therefore be shrouded from the
sharpest watch on shore even if it were kept, and the
men who had been warned to maintain silence made
the least possible noise. Before the tide ceased to flow
part of Holmes' fleet began to move up the river ; it
was his custom to go up and down with the tide, and
no suspicion that any special development was at
hand was started in the minds of the French, if they
detected the big ships making the usual movement.
For an attack they were prepared. Away on the
other side of Quebec the fleet under Saunders was
active,1 and the Levi batteries flashed and boomed.
The signal About two o'clock a second signal was given and
the boats, the first of which contained Wolfe, his staff,
and twenty-four men who had been selected to lead
what might prove to be a forlorn hope, set out in a
1 An Edinburgh Reviewer (July, 1903), who has examined
the ships' logs preserved in the Public Record Office, disputes
the activity of both Holmes and Saunders as commonly
reported, but I can see nothing in the ships' records to disprove
that Holmes moved up the river to deceive Bougainville, or
that Saunders demonstrated to deceive Montcalm.
THE "ELEGY" INCIDENT 207
procession which it is estimated took an hour to pass
a given point. As the boats were carried swiftly
but silently on the ebb tide, Wolfe is said to have
revealed his own forebodings by reciting to his
companions the verse from Gray's Elegy which
ends —
' ' The paths of glory lead but to the grave, ' ' General and
poet,
and to have made the comment that he would rather
have been the author of those lines than take Quebec.
The anecdote in its traditional form, accepted for
long as true, is not credible ; it was subject to search-
ing examination by Dr. E. E. Morris ; 1 and it is
reasonably certain that if Wolfe did recite Gray's
Elegy and make any such comment, it was not on this
occasion. Is it conceivable that he should break the
rule of silence he had laid down, by so unnecessary
a proceeding as even a whispered recitation, or that
he should tell men who were embarking on a life and
death errand that their and his work was of less
account than the poet's ? The original story is based
on a statement made by a midshipman named
Robison, and is to be found in a letter from Sir
Walter Scott to Southey dated September 22nd, 1830,
discovered by Mr. Augustine Birrell some years ago.
Scott knew that Southey had in mind the publication
of the life and letters of Wolfe, and recounted the
anecdote, which he got first hand, for Southey's
benefit.
" On the night when Wolfe crossed the river with his small
army they passed in the men-of-war's long boats and launches,
and the General himself in the Admiral's barge. The young
midshipman who steered the boat was John Robison,
1 English Historical Review, 1900, p. 125.
208 GENERAL WOLFE
afterwards Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University
of Edinburgh, a man of high scientifick attainments. I have
repeatedly heard the Professor say that during part of the
passage Wolfe pulled out of his pocket and read to officers
around (or, perhaps, repeated), Gray's celebrated Elegy in
a Country Churchyard. I do not know if the recitation was
not so well received as he expected, but he said, with a good
deal of animation, " I can only say, Gentlemen, that, if the
choice were mine, I would rather be the author of these verses
than win the battle which we are to fight to-morrow morning."
It must not be supposed that this was a matter of serious
election, but it was a strong way of expressing his love
of literature. I have (heard) Mr. Robison tell the story
repeatedly, for his daughter became the wife of my intimate
Friend Lord Erskine."
This letter, Mr. Birrell said in communicating it to
the Times, " seems to prove the truth of the story
as conclusively as human testimony can prove
anything." What it does seem to prove is that Wolfe
recited the lines, not when floating down the river,
but a good many hours previously. Either that or
Scott confused his facts.
Wolfe's .. Many reasons have been given why Wolfe was
peculiarly lucky in this supreme adventure. Parkman
discovers seven ; x the Abb6 Casgrain discovers ten 2
and they all amount to this : that if the French had
been as competent, as loyal, and as vigilant as the
circumstances demanded, the path of glory would
have been the path of crushing disaster. In Wolfe
the French had to deal with a genius for war that
was quite exceptional, and the Abbe Casgrain's
editors sum the matter up admirably when they say :
' Wolfe had good luck, it is true, but the good luck
which accompanies excellent strategy." His good
luck was much more in the immediate circumstances
than in those antecedent to the stratagem itself ;
1 Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 296.
2 Wolfe and Montcalm, pp. 184-5.
luck.
THE SENTRY'S CHALLENGE 209
with the immediate circumstances in his favour, as
they were, Wolfe's gallant twenty-four might still have
effected a successful coup and the developments
would have been pretty much what they were. When
Wolfe's boat was opposite the Samos shore and
consequently nearing his objective, a sentinel's voice
broke the stillness of those anxious moments : " Qui
vive ! " A captain of Fraser's Highlanders, who
knew French, answered " La France ! " Parkman
says that the question, " A quel regiment? " followed,
and the captain, knowing that part of the corps was
with Bougainville, answered : " De la Reine."1 The
Abbe Casgrain says that the sentinel, thinking it was
the convoy of provisions, the order for which had
been countermanded though the guards had not been
so informed, allowed the boats to pass without
demanding the password or assuring himself of the
truth. 2 A little later the challenge was repeated,
and in response to the question, " Pourquoi est-ce que
vous ne parlez plus haul? " the captain enjoined the
sentry not to make a noise ; the sloop, Hunter, was
near, and they might be overheard. The presence of
the Hunter, thus turned to such excellent account,
had very nearly involved a mishap that would have
been fatal. The captain had been misled as to the
provision boats also. As Wolfe got within half a
cable's length, he noticed that the Hunter's crew
were running to quarters and training their guns on
his boat. He was only just in time to hail her
and prevent the probable failure of the whole
enterprise. 3
1 Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p.*298
2 Wolfe a^A Montcalm, p. 180.
3 Wood, p. 229.
'5— (&»3)
210 GENERAL WOLFE
The The boats, safely past the second sentry, were
landing. carried so swiftly down by the current that Wolfe
presently found himself overshooting the precise spot
at which he wished to land. How they ever found
their way at all and how they avoided hopeless
confusion in the dark is sheer mystery. Led by
Captain Delaune the first volunteers jumped ashore ;
the narrow path to the top had been protected by
an abatis of fallen trees, but the men never hesitated.
With their guns slung on their backs they began to
pull themselves up the steep face of the cliff with the
aid of the bushes and anything that afforded foothold
or handhold. A larger detachment followed, and
all got up safely without so much as a challenge.
Admiral Saunders described the difficulty of gaining
the top as " scarcely credible " j1 it was hardly less
credible that the inevitable cracking of branches of
trees, the rolling down of stones and the involuntary
mutterings of men who found themselves in danger
of pitching headlong back to the shore should not
have reached the ears of anyone in Vergor's camp.
Wolfe remained below straining every nerve for the
first indication of what might happen. He had
his men now rapidly arriving ready to follow if the
volunteers succeeded in overwhelming the guard ; if
they failed they knew they would be sacrificed, but
Wolfe would not have sacrificed his army. As Mr.
Doughty suggests, 2 this view is borne out by the letter
he wrote to Townshend a few hours previously :
" General Monckton is charged with the first landing
and attack on the Foulon. If he succeeds you will
be pleased to give directions that the troops afloat
1 Correspondence of Pitt, vol. ii, p. 170.
2 The Siege of Quebec, vol. iii, p. 83.
CAUGHT NAPPING 211
be set on shore with the utmost expedition as they are
under your command."
Events moved rapidly ; when the leaders reached Up the
the top they made a dash for the rear of the white
tents which were visible in the dark ; coming upon
a picket Captain Macdonald, who also, fortunately,
spoke French perfectly, was challenged and replied
that he was bringing reinforcements from Beauport ;
almost as the sentries discovered their mistake and
gave the alarm by firing wildly at the apparitions
rushing upon them, they were overpowered. Vergor,
asleep in his tent, was startled by the firing and made
his appearance only to be shot in the heel. Most of
the picket escaped in the dark to the thickets and
cornfields near. Again disaster was narrowly averted.
Some of Wolfe's Light Infantry got up the cliff to the
left by pre-arrangement, but the volunteers had done
their work unaided so thoroughly that the friends
whose coming might have been invaluable were
forgotten. But for their splendid discipline and nerve
the volunteers would certainly have fired. If they
had, they would have disposed of many of Fraser's
Highlanders. A loud cheer told Wolfe that all was
well, and while the men already on top took several
prisoners and gave vigorous chase to others, the forces
in the boats were quickly disembarked ; the ob-
structions on the cliff path were cleared away ; the
boats went out to the ships which had now also
dropped down the river as far as the Foulon bringing
more men, and Colonel Burton from the opposite
shore joined Wolfe with Webb's Regiment. The
General himself with an energy which in one who had
recently suffered so much was unnatural, pulled him-
self up the cliff and formed his men in lines as they
212 GENERAL WOLFE
arrived. Away on the left some few hundred yards
distant was the battery of Samos which had opened a
heavy fire on the boats and done some damage ; a
little further still was the battery at Sillery, which
fired vigorously on the squadron. Wolfe, Murray
with the 58th Regiment, and Colonel Howe with the
Light Infantry, went to capture the Samos battery ;
this was accomplished after a smart skirmish, and then
the battery at Sillery was attacked and silenced also.
Selecting The British, numbering now between three and four
tne thousand, stood undisputed masters of what were
^ittle field
believed to be inaccessible cliffs. As the morning
broke, cloudy and misty, and Wolfe surveyed the
cornfields and the woods and the undulating country
rising away towards Quebec, who shall say, who can
for an instant understand, what his feelings were ?
He knew that the apparently impossible having been
accomplished the feat was the beginning of the end
either for his army or Montcalm's. But he went
about his business as coolly as ever he paraded his
men at Inverness or at Dover. Behind him were the
cliffs of the St. Lawrence rendering retreat out of the
question ; on his left already attracted by the firing
was Bougainville, with a force almost half as strong
as his own ; on his right lay Quebec, with Vaudreuil
and Montcalm and de Ramesay ; straight in front
the very land lying between the St. Lawrence and
the Charles which in his letter to his uncle three
months before he had contemplated occupying at
the opening of the campaign. He was no doubt as
familiar with every inch of the ground as any man
could be who had never had the opportunity of looking
upon it before. A little reconnoitring and he made
up his mind where he would take his stand for the
THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 213
battle which he felt Montcalm must at last fight.
He wheeled his army towards Quebec and marched
to the plains of Abraham — a table-land from which
Quebec was hidden by rising ground. The first sign
of the enemy was a detachment of the Guyenne
Regiment on the ridge between the British and the
city. Wolfe halted his men, and made his disposi-
tions ; Monckton was towards the St. Lawrence,
Murray towards the St. Charles, Wolfe himself in the
centre. To prevent any flanking movement from the
St. Charles, Townshend was placed at right angles
facing the river ; Burton had Webb's Regiment in
reserve, Howe occupied the position in the rear from
which the French had so recently been driven, and a
battalion was in charge of the Foulon. All told
Wolfe had some 4,000 men, the estimates varying
from 3,500 to 4,800. x The number actually in the
firing line was 3, 1 1 1 . 2
Montcalm's first intimation that something was The alarm
amiss induced him to believe that the British had raised-
successfully attacked the provision convoy on the
safe arrival of which so much depended ; the idea
seemed to account for some part of his agitation
throughout the night. When a messenger arrived
with the news that the British had forced the Foulon
the man was regarded as a lunatic ; it was believed
that his brain had been turned by sheer fright, 3 and
he was not believed. But when Montcalm rode out
in the early morning behind the Beauport lines until
he got in view of the Plains across the St. Charles and
there saw for himself the line of redcoats, he knew
the business was serious as he said to the Chevalier
1 Appendix III. 2 Wood, p. 235.
3 Casgrain : Journal du Marquis de Montcalm, p. 611.
214 GENERAL WOLFE
Johnstone, who was with him. He despatched
messengers to bring up troops, and in headlong haste
there pressed over the bridge of the St. Charles into
and through the narrow streets of the almost ruined
town " troops of Indians in scalp-locks and warpaint,
a savage glitter in their deep-set eyes ; bands of
Canadians whose all was at stake — faith, country
and home ; the colony regulars ; the battalions of
old France, a torrent of white uniforms and gleaming
bayonets, La Sarre, Languedoc, Roussillon, Beam,
victors of Oswego, William Henry, and Ticonderoga.
So they swept on, poured out upon the plain, some
by the gate of St. Louis, and some by that of St. John,
and hurried, breathless, to where the banners of
Guyenne still fluttered on the ridge."1
Montcalm's To the rear there had been heard renewed firing.
A detachment of Bougainville's men had come upon
Colonel Howe and been repulsed. Bougainville
himself by this time had probably been informed, and
was moving to the assistance of Quebec with what
haste he could. Montcalm called a council of war,
and the decision was taken to give battle forthwith.
Vaudreuil had not appeared on the scene and de
Ramesay was not prepared to part with the guns
for which Montcalm asked. Why did not Montcalm
wait till he had gathered sufficient strength at any
rate to give him a great numerical advantage ? The
arrival of Bougainville in due course would have
improved the chances of victory incalculably. Some
say Montcalm was anxious to fight before Vaudreuil
should interfere ; some that he was eager to snatch
the laurels of this great day single-handed ; others
that he felt the instant necessity of driving Wolfe
1 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, pp. 303-4.
decision.
MONTCALM'S CHOICE 215
back before he could entrench himself across the
French line of communications. In a letter to
Bougainville a week earlier he said : " Je crains
toujours la communication coupee." If the enemy
should steal a march on Bougainville, it would, he
wrote, be for him to see that they did not entrench
themselves. That is the secret. If further explana-
tion be necessary it may be found in the simple desire
of a gallant leader to dispose out of hand of a great
menace. Whatever the cause, Montcalm did the one
thing which Wolfe had invited him to do during eleven
weary weeks. He came out into the open and fought.
Indeed it is the opinion of the soldier as opposed to
that of the layman that Montcalm had little choice.
" Once Wolfe had gained the Heights in force,
Montcalm was compelled to fight immediately for
his very existence."1 Mr. Corbett emphasises this
point when he says : " Could every general who
suffers an enemy to pierce his centre wait till he could
combine a front and rear attack with his several
wings, then interposition as a tactical stroke would
lose the deadly character it has earned."2
Wolfe watched and awaited developments with a The French
patience which was none the less perfect because he advance,
knew now that a few hours must determine the fate
of both armies ; a few hours and the news would be
on its way to Amherst and Pitt that a bold stroke
had either succeeded brilliantly or failed disastrously.
Montcalm was not long in making his dispositions ;
he sent Indians and Canadians to worry Wolfe's
flanks, and well they knew how to take advantage
of every inch of cover afforded by a clump of trees, a
1 Wood, pp. 247-8.
2 England in the Seven Years' War, vol, i, p. 470.
216 GENERAL WOLFE
bush or a break in the ground. There was sharp
fighting on the left and Townshend's men were
hotly engaged in taking and losing and retaking
some houses which afforded excellent shelter for
sharpshooters. Montcalm advanced steadily, his
colonials on either wing ; his army was about equal
to Wolfe's in numbers. As it moved forward, its
weapons gleaming in occasional bursts of sunlight, it
presented a spectacle of blue and white uniforms in
striking contrast with the red lines waiting to meet it.
Montcalm had several field pieces which did a con-
siderable amount of damage, but Wolfe had only a
couple of light guns which Saunders' blue -jackets,
the handy men then as ever, had managed to haul
up the Foulon path. Montcalm rode at the head of
his men ; Wolfe moved freely along the lines, giving
his last instructions. He had, with the weakness of
more than one famous general, donned a brand new
uniform for the occasion, and his tall figure was
conspicuous. For their better protection, Wolfe
for a time kept most of his men lying at full length
on the ground. Now that the enemy was actually
approaching he had his ranks two deep — " this was
the first occasion in history that one European army
had stood two deep to face another on a flat and open
battlefield " ; 1 every musket was to be loaded with
two balls, and not a shot was to be fired until he gave
the word. The French came on shouting wildly,
Indian fashion, and firing as they came. Wolfe
moved his men a little forward as though to encourage
and incite the attack ; then they halted and stood
to be shot at without a sign that they meant
to reply.
1 Wood, p. 236.
AT FORTY PACES 217
It was a trying few minutes for men whose battle The
blood was up and made them as eager to get at the victory,
foe as a hound to break away from the restraining
leash ; the discipline which failed at Montmorency
was unshakeable in face of a galling shower which
left gaps in the British ranks. Wolfe at that moment
seemed to pervade his army ; every detail seemed to
be under his immediate control and he had a word
of encouragement for those who waited so loyally
for his commands, a word of sympathy for those who
fell martyrs to discipline. As Wolfe surveyed the
enemy, declared one who observed him closely, his
expression became " radiant and joyful beyond
description." Some slight confusion and a momen-
tary pause was caused in the French ranks by the
action of the irregulars who true to the practice of
Canadian as well as New England rangers — a practice
that might have saved Braddock's force from anni-
hilation if it had not been misunderstood — threw
themselves on the ground after firing in order to
re-load. The French regulars were apparently as
little prepared as Braddock for the movement. But
they swept on until they were within some forty paces.
Then Wolfe's command came, and the British muskets
rang out as one : " the most perfect volley ever heard
on a battlefield " sounding to British and French
alike as if fired from " a single monstrous weapon."
There were few British bullets which did not find a
billet in that point-blank discharge. Montcalm's
army reeled before it. As the smoke cleared away
it revealed the hideous writhing chaos of human
agony ; in the brief interval the British had reloaded
and again they fired. It was more than flesh and
blood could stand, and Montcalm attempted in vain
218 GENERAL WOLFE
to stay the headlong flight of the survivors. Wolfe
ordered the charge, and the Highlanders, with a yell
rivalling that of Red Indians, the Grenadiers and the
rest drove the panic-stricken remnant of the French
army back into Quebec or across the St. Charles ; the
pursuit was checked only by the guns on the walls
or the Canadians and Indians who lurked in the
woods.
How The victory was complete, but costly : only less
Wolfe died. COstly in personnel to the British than to the French.
Wolfe and Monckton were both wounded early in the
engagement ; the General's wrist was torn by a
bullet, but he bound up the wound with a handker-
chief ; he was next hit in the groin, but refused to
retire for an instant ; he continued to direct the fight
until the moment when the French gave way before
his terrific fire. Then placing himself at the head of
the Grenadiers he led the charge. But he did not get
far. A bullet entered his chest, he reeled and was
only saved from falling by two officers who saw him
stagger. " Don't let my brave fellows see me fall,"
he said, as though he understood in that supreme
moment what his presence meant to his army. It
was the solicitude of the true captain. He was
carried to the rear and knew that the surgeon's skill
was useless. "I'm done for," he murmured, as he sank
into a state of semi-consciousness. He revived for a
second when he heard the cry : " They run ! " " Who
run ? " " The French, Sir, they give way every-
where." Wolfe opened his glazed eyes and the master
spirit gave its final orders : " Then go to Colonel
Burton and tell him to take Webb's Regiment and
cut off their retreat by the St. Charles." He turned
on his side, a smile broke upon his pain-contracted
WOLFE'S LAST WORDS 219
face, and in words variously given but all to one
effect, breathed his last : " God be praised : I die
content." ..." At 11," so runs the simple, eloquent
entry in the master's Log of the Lowestoft, " came
on board the corpse of General Wolfe."
On the French side the General also was among Montcalm
those wounded unto death : he was shot in the effort mortally
to rally his broken soldiery, and was supported back wounded-
to Quebec on his charger. Wolfe died happy in the
hour of victory : Montcalm happy that he would not
be a witness of the surrender of Quebec. He survived
till the following morning. He was forty-seven ;
Wolfe thirty-two.
By a stroke of inscrutable fate the command Townshend
devolved on Townshend ; he completed the work in
begun by Wolfe ; Bougainville appeared in force, command-
but when he found that all was over, retreated and
Townshend paid Wolfe's choice of a battle-ground the
compliment of refusing to leave it even to deliver a
blow at Bougainville's dismayed and retiring army.
Townshend entrenched himself ; five days later the
capitulation was signed ; the French marched out
from Quebec with the honours of war ; the British
entered into possession for the second time ; and
though Murray the following year nearly contrived
to lose it again to de Levis, it has remained British
during 150 years — a monument to British prowess
ranking with Gibraltar and the Ridge at Delhi. Once
only since the Treaty of Paris confirmed the surrender
of Canada has it been seriously challenged, and that
was by the American rebels who sent Arnold and
Montgomery to capture it. But Carleton, Wolfe's
friend, held it for England against the very men in
whose interests it had been wrested from France.
220 GENERAL WOLFE
Montcalm is credited with a prophecy1 that if
England took Canada she would lose America ;
whether the document embodying that prophecy is
genuine or not — and Parkman after exhaustive
inquiry declared it an imposture2 — it was not a
solitary view, and within ten years of the signature of
the Treaty which ended the career of New France,
New England was claiming privileges the assertion
of which drove British authority from the English
section of America, leaving it intact only in Canada.
So speedy and so mighty were the results attending
Wolfe's independent daring when he decided to try
his fortunes at the Anse au Foulon.
1 Appendix II.
2 Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. ii, p. 39.
CHAPTER XIV
WOLFE'S ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHARACTER
Admiral Saunders, for none but he could have taken Brought to
so important a decision, arranged forthwith that the England,
body of Wolfe should be embalmed and sent to
England. It was his tribute, the most significant
and eloquent he could pay, to the loss sustained by his
country in the death of his military colleague ; he
and Wolfe for the past six months had lived and toiled
together, discussed great strategic problems, evolved
great schemes in the most trying circumstances,
faced the fortunes of war in positions of joint responsi-
bility, and to appreciate Wolfe's quality both as man
and as soldier none was better placed than the master
of the co-operating fleet. Whilst the mortal remains
of Wolfe were being encased for transference to his
native land, those of his opponent found sepulchre
in a cavity made beneath the floor of the Ursuline
convent by a British shell.
British and French alike mourned their heroes now A joint
at rest, and posterity in both countries as in Canada memorial,
itself, has honoured the vanquished with the victor.
The Wolfe-Montcalm monument which stands on
Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, is surely an unique
memorial to rival heroes.
MORTEM VIRTUS COMMUNEM
FAMAM HISTORIA
MONUMENTUM POSTERITAS
DEDIT.
221
war
222 GENERAL WOLFE
At the moment that Montcalm was breathing his
last Townshend was issuing General Orders, of which
the first two lines speak for themselves —
" 14 Sept., 1759 — Plains of Abraham.
" Parole — Wolfe. Countersign — England."
The pathos In England the news of the victory and death of
ofglorious Wolfe f0rjowed quick on the despatch to Pitt in which
he had indicated his difficulties in a way to make the
Government and the nation feel that the task set
him was beyond his powers, if indeed it was not
beyond the powers of any man. The revulsion of
feeling from the dull acceptance of disappointment
to the realisation that a triumph had been achieved
equal to the highest hopes, that a brilliant coup had
wiped failure completely from the record, carried
the nation into transports which Horace Walpole
described in his own vivid way. 1 It was Horace
Walpole who, exactly twenty years earlier, had said
that the people who were ringing their bells would
soon be wringing their hands ; now the process was
reversed and people who were preparing to wring
their hands rang their bells, lighted their bonfires,
and almost buried the king under an avalanche of
congratulatory addresses. But the joy was chastened
by the recollection that Wolfe had paid the price of
victory with his life. To two hearts at least the event
brought deepest sorrow ; there was the widowed
mother, of whom he was ever so thoughtful, and there
was the lady to whom he had so recently become
engaged. 2 Few are the joys that do not bring with
1 Memoirs of George IT, vol. ii, p. 384.
2 Miss Lowther in due time married the Duke of Bolton.
Mr. Doughty records practically all that is known of her,
which is very little.
PORTSMOUTH, 17 NOV., 1759 223
them some secret sorrow, and the happiness of a
nation is fertilised by the salt tears of individuals.
When leaders themselves fall, the public conscious-
ness of homes bereaved is quickened. The pathos
of glorious war was borne in upon the masses at
Portsmouth who awaited the signal from the Royal
William on Saturday, the 17th November, 1759,
for the removal of the body. At eight o'clock it was
lowered into a twelve-oared barge, which was towed
by two twelve-oared barges and attended in solemn
procession by twelve twelve-oared barges. Grief, we
are told, made every man and woman mute, and for
an hour the minute guns of the ships alone broke the
hush. The body was received on shore by a regiment
of invalids and a company from the garrison ; it was
put on a hearse, and with flags half-mast on the fort,
with the arms of the men in the train reversed, to
the ringing of muffled bells and the booming of guns,
the hearse, followed by a solitary mourning coach
specially sent from London, passed through the
weeping crowd on its way to the family vault at
Greenwich. *
If Wolfe had lived ! From the emotion of the hour a great
when his body arrived at Portsmouth we may conceive theme,
what would have happened had he been spared to
return the Conqueror, the hero. As it was, neither
oratory nor poetry was quite equal to an occasion,
than which none more inspiring, it might be thought,
could be desired. Pitt's glowing eulogy in Parliament
was apparently so carefully prepared that it failed to
satisfy ; according to Walpole at least it had not the
true ring ; the versifier perpetrated lines that hardly
reached the lyrical level demanded for a third-rate
1 Annual Register, 1759/ p. 282-3.
224
GENERAL WOLFE
music-hall ballad ; no poet has taken Quebec for
his theme, and the one outstanding poetic reference
to Wolfe's achievements and abiding influence is to
be found in Cowper —
" England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.
Time was when it was praise and boast enough
In every clime, and travel where we might,
That we were born her children. Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.
Wolfe, where'er he fought,
Put so much of his heart into his act
That his example had a magnet's force,
And all were swift to follow whom all loved." (*)
Unhappy
recrimina-
tions.
It is matter for profound regret that personal
recriminations should have challenged Wolfe's title
to the chief glory in the conquest of Quebec, recrimina-
tions in their way as unworthy as those with which
Vaudreuil and his peculiar friends pursued the
memory of Montcalm. What Townshend's ambitious
designs began the loyalty of a descendant has unfortu-
nately revived, and Colonel Townshend's action has
been supported in quarters from which a more
intimate knowledge of the facts might have been
expected. It is impossible to escape the conclusion
that Townshend was anxious to appropriate the
laurels ; he addressed a despatch to Pitt in which his
only reference to Wolfe was : "It was then our
General fell at the head of Braggs'." He sent a copy
of that despatch to Amherst with a covering letter
which comments on the battle but makes no mention
(!) The Task, Book II.
TOWNSHEND'S ACTION 225
of Wolfe. In his orders to the troops on the 14th
September he struck a note which came perilously
near the contemptuous when he said that the general
officers wished " that the person who lately com-
manded them had survived so glorious a day." From
whom did Warburton get his view that Townshend
was not only the author of the plan by which Quebec
was taken but was actually entitled to the credit for
scaling the cliff,1 when as a matter of fact the cliff
had been secured before Townshend was even on his
way with the boats ? Townshend, with all his
presumption, could not be responsible for that because
his despatch to Pitt refers to his waiting till " the
second disembarkation." But Townshend's ambition
may be seen from a letter of Monckton's on the
day when the capitulation of Quebec was signed.
Monckton was ignored in the negotiations and pro-
tested that he did not imagine any arrangement
would be signed without consultation with him. He
was Townshend's superior, and as within three days
of the battle he was rapidly recovering from his
wounds, there was no reason why he should not have
been considered. Townshend, held in check by the
master-mind of Wolfe during a campaign of which
he had grown heartily tired, revelled in the freedom
of a self-sufficiency which left no room even for
common courtesy to a disabled colleague. As early
as the 3rd October Horace Walpole spoke of Lady
Townshend as " the conqueror's mother. ... I
hear she has covered herself with more laurel leaves
than were heaped on the children in the wood."
Thus the idea that Townshend's was the principal
part in the business was already abroad. The
1 Conquest of Canada, vol. ii, p. 322.
i6— (2213)
opinion.
226 GENERAL WOLFE
meanness of it all is just what might be expected
from one who would have disclaimed every shred of
responsibility for failure.
Private In 1760 the Townshend pretension induced a satirist
versus of the time to address an open letter to " an honour-
able Brigadier-General Commander in Chief of His
Majesty's Forces, Canada " — a title which the writer
said was given by the Compilers of the Court Calendar
to Brigadier-General T — d. The letter is in this
vein : " Your understanding was not to be dazzled
by Mr. Wolfe's foolish passion for glory. He had
precipitately ventured beyond all possibility of
retreating. He had no other chance but that of death
or victory, especially after you had entered your
solemn protest against his plan for attacking the
enemy." This document was responsible for a
controversy in the true eighteenth-century manner,
and Townshend sought to disprove the case against
himself by publishing a letter to someone unknown
which he was supposed to have written on the 25th
September containing the words : "In General Wolfe
I have lost but a friend," and " We lost poor General
Wolfe who fell in the warmest part of the engage-
ment." Strange that these references should appear
only in a private document where usually prejudices
hold greater sway than in public ! Walpole, for
instance, in his history judged Wolfe in very different
vein from that of his letters. Walpole was obsessed
by his love for Conway, whose part at Rochefort
Wolfe had dared to criticise. Writing to Conway on
the 18th October, 1759, Walpole says—
" Wolfe as I am convinced has fallen a sacrifice to his rash
blame of you. If I understand anything in the world
his letter that came on Sunday said this : Quebec is
THE COUNTRY'S DEBT 227
impregnable, it is flinging away the lives of men to
attempt it. I am in the situation of Conway at Rochefort,
but having blamed him I must do what I now see he was in
the right to say wrong and yet what he would have done,
and as I am commander, which he was not, I have the
melancholy power of doing what he was prevented doing.
Poor man ! his life has paid the price of his injustice and as
his death has purchased such benefit to his country I lament
him as I am sure you do who have twenty times more courage."
Wolfe's place in our national history is secure, and Official
the judgment of Pitt is the judgment of impartial ingratitude,
posterity. Parliament voted him a monument in
Westminster Abbey, and the country and the Govern-
ment owed him so much and acclaimed his achieve-
ments so gratefully, that it would be incredible were
the evidence not conclusive, that his mother was
point-blank refused assistance when she asked to be
placed in a position to comply with the not very
excessive commands contained in his will. Red tape
left her to do from her own slender resources what
should have been done by the nation without the
asking. Wolfe gave England an Empire at the cost
of his life, and official gratitude having no further
favours to come, was callous to all claims which
conflicted with official convention. It was unworthy
of Pitt, and in strict conformity with the spirit of
the time. Wolfe in his short life had done more
for England than any soldier, except Clive, since
Marlborough ; his brilliant soldiership was manifest
almost from the very hour that he received his
commission ; his one mistake at Montmorency would
not have been costly if his men had given him the
chance of discovering it before it was too late ; nor
possibly need that mistake ever have been made
had Amherst seen his way to forge ahead as he pro-
bably would have done had Wolfe been at his elbow
228 GENERAL WOLFE
as he was at Louisbourg. Amherst had not the genius
for sweeping difficulties aside ; he proceeded to
remove them. The historian of Canada blames him
for the slow progress which enabled Montcalm so
long to keep the bulk of his forces intact. Possibly
he believed Wolfe must fail. 1
Wolfe as When it became necessary to despatch de Levis
general. ^0 Montreal as a precaution in case Bourlamaque was
driven from Isle aux Noix, and to give Bougainville a
substantial force about Cap Rouge in order to prevent
any landing there, Wolfe saw how to use both his own
and Saunders' resources to the fullest advantage.
It is a favourite view with those who know their Wolfe
superficially or their Thackeray thoroughly that
Wolfe took the gambler's chance. " Is merit or
madness the patron of greatness?" asks Thackeray.
"Is it Frolic or Fortune ? " Thackeray vows that
he scarce knows whether in the last act of the hero's
life to admire the result of genius, invention, and
daring or the boldness of a gambler winning surprising
odds. " Suppose his ascent discovered a half-hour
sooner, and his people, as they would have been
assuredly, beaten back ? Suppose the Marquis de Mont-
calm not to quit his entrenched lines to accept that
strange challenge ? Suppose these points — and none of
them depend upon Mr. Wolfe at all — and what becomes
of the glory of the young hero, of the great minister who
discovered him, of the intoxicated nation which rose
up frantic with self-congratulation at the victory ? "2
Except in so far as the element which some men call
Luck, which Wolfe regarded as the intervention of an
Inscrutable Power, enters into all human affairs,
1 Kingsford : vol. iv, p. 269.
2 The Virginians, chap. Ixxiv.
CHARACTER OF WOLFE 229
there was little left to chance on that September
morning. Everything did depend on Wolfe. He
was utilising his extreme mobility and obeying a sound
strategical law, x and he had taken such precautions
that if the strategical law had failed him he would have
withdrawn with his forces practically intact. That
was not the gambler's part. Wolfe from the moment
he watched the operations at Rochefort, seized the
significance and possibilities of combined, or as Mr.
Corbett calls them, amphibious operations ; he set
an example by which others were to profit, as any
reader of Mr. Corbett's pages will easily understand.
To study the history of the War of Independence
which Wolfe's generalship did so much to make
possible, is to start one speculating as to the chances
of the revolt if a Wolfe had been at hand to take
charge of the earlier movements of the campaign.
One historian of Canada during that time2 finds it
impossible to keep the thought of what Wolfe would
have done from his pages. There would at least have
been no Saratoga ; and if Washington had triumphed
ultimately he would have held a still bigger place
in history.
In James Wolfe England lost one of the rare char- ^ rare
acters that no community of men would willingly let character,
die and that the eighteenth century could spare less
perhaps than any. His virtues were as high above
the spirit of the age as his military abilities, his insight,
his energy, his grip were beyond those of commanders
whose opportunities were greater. " I may with strict
truth," says Knox,3 "advance that Major-General
1 Corbett, vol. i, p. 460.
2 Lucas : A History of Canada, 1763-1812.
3 Historical Journal, vol. ii, p. 73.
230 GENERAL WOLFE
James Wolfe by his great talents and martial dis-
position which he discovered early in life was greatly
superior to his experience in generalship, and was by
no means inferior to a Frederick, a Henry, or a
Ferdinand." What he accomplished was done in the
years when the ordinary mortal is learning his busi-
ness ; he was to war what William Pitt, the son of
the great commoner who sent him to Quebec, was
later to politics, what Keats was to literature. x Self-
educated to a very large extent alike in his profession
and in letters, a right knowledge both of books and
men came to him as by the sort of instinct which
directs some men to their destination in strange
localities where the majority would go astray. As
Colonel Lambert told Warrington, Wolfe was " a
good scholar as well as a consummate soldier " ; and
with it all there was about him " a simplicity, a
frankness, and a sort of glorious bravery," to quote
Warrington himself, which made it as natural for him
to command troops of friends as to command his
seniors in the field. Smollett truly said—
" Had his faculties been exercised to their full extent by
opportunity and action, had his judgment been fully matured
by age and experience, he would, without doubt, have
rivalled in reputation the most celebrated captains of
antiquity." (2)
His moral courage went hand in hand with his
physical : and surely physical courage is never greater
than when it rises superior to such wracking pains
and chronic ill-health as Wolfe's. " A delicate
constitution, and a body unequal to that vigorous and
enterprising soul that it lodged," said Edmund
Burke. 3 He resisted nepotism and favouritism to the
1 Beckles Willson : Nineteenth Century, Sept. 1908.
(2) History of England (1790 Edn.), vol. ii, p. 71.
3 Annual Register, vol. ii, p. 39.
MEMORIAL TABLET 231
incompetent even when the petitioner was his dearly-
loved mother, and the enemies he made only serve
to point Emerson's saying, that " the sun were
insipid if the world were not opaque." Stern disci-
plinarian though he was, he was loved by his men, and
one of his captains on the day of the battle which
ended his brilliantly brief career spoke of him as " the
gentleman who commands in chief and who in his
military capacity is perhaps equalled by few and
surpassed by none." x He was " The Officer's Friend ;
the Soldier's Father."2 Devotion is the only word
that sums up his life : devotion to parents, to friends,
to profession, to country, to truth. His very failings,
his constant complaints, his strong dislikes, his
impatience of stupidity and slackness buttressed by
convention, his uncompromisingly harsh judgments
on occasion, only emphasise the essential sweetness
of his nature, the integrity of his patriotism, the
readiness to sacrifice self for the common weal. A
marble tablet placed in Westerham Church by his
co-mate Warde bears the lines —
" While George in sorrow bows his laurell'd head
And bids the artist grace the soldier dead ;
We raise no sculptur'd trophy to thy name.
Brave youth ! the fairest in the list of fame
Proud of thy birth, we boast th'auspicious year,
Struck with thy fall, we shed a general tear ;
With humble grief inscribe one artless stone
And from thy matchless honours date our own.
I Decus I Nostrum."
What belongs to Westerham belongs to the Empire,
and with the men of Kent the men of Great and
Greater Britain may say as they close the story of
Wolfe's life : " His glory is ours."
1 Quoted by Wood, p. 238.
2 Doughty, vol. iii, p. 236.
APPENDIX I
Headquarters at the Camp of Montmorenci,
River of St. Lawrence,
Sept. 2d, 1759.
Sir —
I wish I could, upon this occasion have the honour of
transmitting to you, a more favourable Account of the
progress of His Majesty's Arms ; But the Obstacles we have
met with in the Operations of the Campaign, are much greater
than we had reason to expect or could foresee. Not so much
from the number of the Enemy (tho' superior to us) as from
the natural strength of the country, which the Marquis de
Montcalm seems wisely to depend upon.
When I learnt that succours of all kinds had been thrown
into Quebec, That five Battalions of regular Troops com-
pleated from the best of the Inhabitants of the Country, Some
of the Troops of the Colony, and every Canadian that was able
to bear Arms, besides several Nations of Savages, had taken
the Field in a very advantagious situation ; I could not flatter
myself that I should be able to reduce the Place : I sought
however an occasion to attack their Army, knowing well
that with these Troops I was able to fight, And hoping that
a Victory might disperse them.
We found them incamp'd along the Shore of Beauport,
from the River St. Charles to the Falls of Montmorenci, &
intrench'd in every accessible part. The 27th of June we
landed upon the Isle of Orleans ; But receiving a message
from the Admiral, that there was Reason to think the Enemy
had Artillery & a Force upon the Point of Levi, I detach'd
Brigadier Monckton with four Battalions to drive them from
thence. He pass'd the River the 29th, at Night, & march'd
the next Day to the Point ; He obliged the Enemy's Irregulars
to retire & possess' d himself of that Post ; The advanced
Partys upon this occasion had two or three skirmishes with
the Canadians and Indians with little loss on either side.
Colonel Carleton march'd with a Detachment to the Wester-
most point of the Isle of Orleans, From whence our Operations
were likely to begin.
233
234 APPENDIX I
It was absolutely necessary to possess these two Points &
fortify them ; Because from either the one or the other, the
Enemy might make it impossible for any Ship to lye in the
Bason of Quebec, or even within two miles of it.
Batterys of Cannon & Mortars were erected with great
Dispatch, on the Point of Levi, to bombard the Town and
Magazines and to injure the Works and Batterys : the
Enemy perceiving these Works in some Forwardness, pass'd
the River with 1,600 men, to attack & destroy them : Un-
luckily they fell into Confusion, fired upon one another, &
went back again. By which we lost an Opportunity of defeat-
ing this large Detachment. The Effect of this Artillery has
been so great (tho' across the River), that the Upper Town
is considerably damaged, & the Lower Town entirely destroy'd.
The works for the security of our Hospitals and Stores on
the Isle of Orleans being finished : on the 9th of July at night
we pass'd the North Channel & encamp'd near the Enemy's
left, the River Montmorenci between us. The next morning,
Capt. Danks's company of Rangers posted in a wood, to cover
some Workmen, were attack'd & defeated by a Body of
Indians ; And had so many killed & wounded as to be almost
disabled for the rest of the Campaign. The Enemy also
suffer'd in this Affair & were in their turn driven off by the
nearest Troops.
The Ground to the Eastward of the Falls seem'd to be (as
it really is) higher than that on the Enemy's side, to
command it in a manner which might be made usefull to us : —
There is besides a Ford below the Falls, which may be pass'd
for some hours in the latter part of the Ebb, & beginning of
the Flood Tide ; and I had hopes that possibly, means might
be found of passing the river above, so as to fight the Marquis
de Montcalm upon terms of less disadvantage, than directly
attacking his Intrenchments. In reconnoitring the River
Montmorenci, we found it fordable at a place about three
miles up, But the opposite Bank was intrench'd & so steep &
woody, that it was to no purpose to Attempt a Passage there ;
The Escort was twice attacked by the Indians, who were as
often repulsed, But in these Rencounters we had forty (Officers
& Men) kill'd & wounded.
The 18th of July, two Men of War, two arm'd Sloops, & two
Transports with some Troops on board, pass'd by the Town
without any Loss, & got into the Upper River ; This enabled
me to reconnoitre the Country above, where I found the same
attention on the Enemy's side & great difficultys on ours.
Arising from the Nature of the Ground, & the Obstacles to
our Communication with the Fleet. But what I feared most,
APPENDIX I 235
was, that if we should land between the Town & the River
Cap Rouge, the Body first landed could not be reinforced
before they were attack'd by the Enemy's whole Army.
Notwithstanding these difficultys I thought once of attempting
it at St. Nicholas, about three miles above the Town ; But
perceiving that the Enemy were jealous of the design, were
preparing against it, and had actually brought Artillery &
a Mortar (which, being so near to Quebec, they could increase
as they pleased) to play upon the Shipping ; And as it must
have^been many hours before we could attack them (even
supposing a favourable night for the Boats to pass by the
town unhurt) It seem'd so hazardous that I thought it best
to desist.
However, to divide the Enemy's force, & to draw their
attention as high up the River as possible, And to procure
some Intelligence I sent a detachment under the Command
of Colonel Carleton, to land at the Point de Trempe, * to
attack whatever he might find there, bring off some Prisoners,
& all the usefull Papers he could get. I had been inform'd,
that a Number of the Inhabitants of Quebec had retired to
that Place, and that probably we should find a Magazine
of Provisions there.
The Colonel was fired upon by a Body of Indians, the
Moment he landed, but they were soon dispersed, & driven
into the Woods : He search'd for Magazines, but to no
purpose, brought off some Prisoners, & return'd with little
loss. After this business I came back to Montmorenci, where
I found that Brigadier Townshend had by a superior fire
prevented the French from erecting a Battery on the bank of
the River, from whence they intended to cannonade our
Camp. I now resolved to take the first opportunity which
presented itself of attacking the Enemy, tho' posted to great
advantage, & everywhere prepared to receive us.
As the Men of War cannot (for want of a sufficient depth of
Water) come near enough to the Enemy's Intrenchments to
annoy them in the least ; The Admiral had prepared two
Transports (drawing but little water) which upon occasions
could be run aground, to favour a Descent. With the help
of these Vessels, which I understood would be carry'd by the
Tide close in shore, I proposed to make myself Master of a
detach'd Redoubt near to the Water's Edge, & whose situation
appear'd to be out of Musquet Shot of the Intrenchment upon
the Hill : If the Enemy supported this detach'd piece, it would
necessarily bring on an Engagement, what we most wish'd
for ; And if not, I should have it in my Power to examine their
1 Pointe Aux Trembles.
236 APPENDIX I
Situation, so as to be able to determine where we could best
attack them.
Preparations were accordingly made for an Engagement,
The 31st of July, in the forenoon, the boats of Fleet were
fill'd with Grenadiers & a part of Brigadier Monckton's
Brigade from the Point of Levi ; The two Brigades under
Brigadiers Townshend & Murray, were order'd to be in
readiness to pass the Ford when it should be thought
necessary. To facilitate the passage of this Corps, the
Admiral had placed the Centurion in the Channel, so that she
might check the fire of the lower battery, which commanded
the Ford ; This Ship was of great use, as her fire was very
judiciously directed. A great Quantity of Artillery was
placed upon the Eminence, so as to batter & enfilade the left
of their Intrenchments.
From the vessel which run aground nearest in I observed
that the Redoubt was too much commanded, to be Kep't
without very great loss. And the more as the two arm'd
Ships could not be brought near enough to cover both with
their Artillery & Musquetry, Which I at first conceived they
might. But as the Enemy seem'd in some Confusion, and
we were prepared for an Action, I thought it a proper time to
make an attempt upon their Intrenchment. Orders were
sent to the Brigadiers General, to be ready with the Corps
under their Command, Brigadier Monckton to land, And the
Brigadiers Townshend & Murray to pass the Ford. At a
proper time of the Tide, the signal was made. But in rowing
towards the Shore, many of the Boats grounded upon a Ledge
that runs off a considerable distance. This accident put us
into some Disorder, lost a great deal of time, & obliged me
to send an Officer to stop Brigadier Townshend's march,
whom I then observed to be in motion. While the Seamen
were getting the Boats off, the Enemy fired a number of
Shells & Shot, but did no considerable damage. As soon as
this Disorder could be set a little to Rights, & the Boats were
ranged in a proper Manner, some of the Officers of the Navy
went in with me to find a better place to land ; we took one
Flat-bottom'd Boat with us to make the Experiment, & as
soon as we had found a fit part of the Shore, the Troops were
ordered to disembark ; Thmking it not yet too late for
the Attempt.
The thirteen companys of Grenadiers & 200 of the second
Royal American Battalion got first on shore ; the Grenadiers
were ordered to form themselves into four distinct bodys &
to begin the Attack, supported by Brigadier Monckton's
Corps, As soon as the other Troops had pass'd the Ford, &
APPENDIX I 237
were at hand to assist. But whether, from the Noise & hurry
at landing, or from some other Cause, the Grenadiers, instead
of forming themselves as they were directed, ran on im-
petuously towards the Enemy's Intrenchments in the utmost
Disorder & Confusion, without waiting for the Corps which
were to sustain them, & join in the Attack : — Brigadier
Monckton was not landed, & Brigadier Townshend was still
at a considerable Distance, tho' upon his march to join us,
in very good Order.
The Grenadiers were check' d by the Enemy's first Fire, &
obliged to shelter themselves in or about the Redoubt,
which the French abandon'd upon their Approach. In this
Situation they continued for some time, unable to form under
so hot a fire, & having many gallant officers wounded, who
(careless of their Persons) had been solely intent upon their
Duty : I saw the Absolute Necessity of calling them off, that
they might form themselves behind Brigadier Monckton' s
Corps, which was now landed, & drawn up upon the Beach
in extream good Order. By this new Accident & this second
Delay, It was near Night ; A sudden Storm came on, & the
Tide began to make, so that I thought it most advisable not
to persevere in so difficult an Attack, lest (in case of a
Repulse) the Retreat of Brigadier Townshend's Corps might
be hazardous & uncertain.
Our Artillery had a great effect upon the Enemy's left,
where Brigadiers Townshend & Murray were to have attacked,
And it is probable that, if those Accidents I have spoken of,
had not happen' d, We should have penetrated there, Whilst
our left & center, more remote from our Artillery, must have
bore all the violence of their Musquetry.
The French did not attempt to interrupt our March ; some
of their Savages came down to murder such wounded
as could not be brought off, And to scalp the Dead, as their
Custom is.
The Place where the Attack was intended, has these
Advantages over all others hereabout — Our Artillery could
be brought into use — the greatest Part, or even the Whole
of the Troops, might act at once — And the Retreat (in case
of a Repulse) was secure, at least for a certain time of the
Tide. Neither one, nor other of these Advantages can any
where else be found. — The Enemy were indeed posted upon
a commanding Eminence — The Beach upon which the Troops
were drawn up, was of deep Mud, with Holes, and cut by
several Gullys — The Hill to be ascended, very steep, & not
every where practicable — The Enemy numerous in their
Intrenchments & their fire hot — If this attack had succeeded,
238 APPENDIX I
our loss must certainly have been great, and their's incon-
siderable from the shelter which the neighbouring Woods
afforded them. — The River St. Charles still remained to be
passed, before the Town was invested — All these circum-
stances I considered, But the Desire to Act in Conformity
to the King's intentions induced me to make this Trial,
Persuaded that a victorious Army finds no Difficultys.
The Enemy have been fortifying ever since with Care, so
as to make a second attempt still more dangerous.
Immediately after this Check, I sent Brigadier Murray
above the Town with 1,200 men, Directing him to assist
Rear-Admiral Holmes in the Destruction of the French Ships
(if they could be got at) in order to open a Communication
with General Amherst. The Brigadier was to seek every
favourable Opportunity of fighting some of the Enemy's
detachments, provided he could do it upon tolerable Terms,
And to use all the Means in his Power to provoke them to
attack him. He made two different attempts to land upon
the North Shore, without success ; but in a third was more
fortunate. He landed unexpectedly at Dechambaud & burnt
a Magazine there, in which were some Provisions, some Ammu-
nition, and all the spare Stores, Cloathing, Arms, & Baggage
of their Army. Finding that their Ships were not to be got
at, & little Prospect of bringing the Enemy to battle, He
reported his Situation to me, & I order'd him to join the Army.
The Prisoners he took informed him of the Surrender of the
Fort of Niagara, And we discovered by intercepted Letters,
that the Enemy had abandoned Carillon1 & Crown Point,
were retired to the Isle aux Noix, And that General Amherst
was making Preparations to pass the Lake Champlain, to
fall upon Monsieur de Bourlemaque's Corps, which consists of
three Battalions of Foot, & as many Canadians as make
the whole amount to 3,000 Men.
The Admiral's Dispatches & mine would have gone eight
or ten Days sooner, If I had not been prevented from writing
by a Fever ; I found myself so ill, & am still so weak, that I
begg'd the General Officers to consult together for the Publick
Utility. They are all of opinion, that, (as^more" Ships &
Provisions have now got above the Town) they should try, by
conveying up a Corps of 4 or 5,000 Men, (which is nearly
the whole strength of the Army, after the Points of Levi and
Orleans are left in a proper State of Defence) to draw the
Enemy from their present Situation, & bring them to an
Action. I have acquiesced in their Proposal, & we are
preparing to put it in Execution.
1 Ticonderoga.
APPENDIX I 239
The Admiral and I have examin'd the Town, with a view
to a general Assault, but after consulting with the Chief
Engineer who is well acquainted with the interior parts of it,
and after viewing it with the utmost attention, we found, that
tho' the Batterys of the lower Town might be easily silenced
by the Men of War, Yet the Business of an Assault would be
little advanced by that, since the few Passages that lead from
the lower to the Upper Town are carefully intrench'd, And
the upper Batterys cannot be affected by the Ships which
must receive considerable Damage from them & from the
Mortars.
The Admiral would readily join in this or in any other
Measure for the Publick Service, But I could not propose to
him an undertaking of so dangerous a Nature & promising so
little Success.
At my first coming into the Country, I used all the Means
in my Power, to engage the Canadians to lay down their Arms,
by offers of such Protection & Security for themselves, their
Property and Religion as was consistent with the known
mildness of His Majesty's Government. I found that good
treatment had not the desired Effect, so that of late I have
changed my Measures & laid waste the Country ; partly to
engage the Marquis de Montcalm to try the Event of a Battle
to prevent the Ravage, And partly in Return for many Insults
offer'd to our People by the Canadians, As well as the frequent
Inhumanitys exercised upon our own Frontiers. It was
necessary also to have some Prisoners as Hostages for their
good Behaviour to our People in their Hands, whom I had
reason to think they did not use very well. Major Dalling
surprized the Guard of a village & brought in about 380
Prisoners, which I keep, not proposing any Exchange till the
end of the Campaign.
In case of a Disappointment, I intended to fortify Coudres
& leave 3,000 Men for the Defence of it ; But it was too late
in the Season, to collect Materials sufficient for covering so
large a Body.
To the uncommon strength of the Country, the Enemy
have added (for the Defence of the River) a great Number of
Floating Batteries & Boats. By the vigilance of these, and
the Indians round our different Posts, it has been impossible
to execute anything by surprize. We have had almost daily
skirmishes with these Savages, in which they are generally
defeated, But not without Loss on our Side.
By the List of disabled officers (many of whom are of Rank)
you may perceive, Sir, that the Army is much weaken'd —
By the Nature of the River, The most formidable part of the
240 APPENDIX I
Armament is deprived of the Power of acting ; Yet we have
almost the whole Force of Canada to oppose. — In this situa-
tion, there is such a Choice of Difficultys, that I own myself
at a Loss how to determine. The Affaires of Great Britain, I
know, require the most vigorous Measures ; But then the
Courage of a Handfull of brave Men should be exerted, only
where there is some Hope of a favourable Event. However
you may be assured, Sir, that the small part of the Campaign
which remains, shall be employ'd (as far as I am able) for the
Honour of His Majesty & the Interest of the Nation, In which
I am sure of being well seconded by the Admiral & by the
Generals. Happy, if our Efforts here can contribute to the
Success of His Majesty's Arms in any other Parts of America.
I have the honour to be with the greatest Respect, Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble Servant,
Jam : Wolfe.
APPENDIX II
Extracts from Montcalm's letter dated " Du Camp
devant Quebec, 24 d'Aout, 1759," and addressed to
' M. de Mole, Premier President au Parlement de
Paris." The letter is in the British Museum, and is
reprinted in full by Mr. Doughty, vol. ii, pp. 280-7.
Me voici, depuis plus de trois mois, aux prise avec Mons.
Wolfe : il ne cesse, jour & nuit de bombarder Quebec, avec
une furie, qui n'a gudres d'exemple dans le siege d'un place,
qu'on veut prendre & conserver. . . Aussi apres trois mois
de tentative, n'est-il pas avance dans son dessein qu'au pre-
mier jour. II nous ruine, mais il ne s'enrichit pas. ... II
semble qu'apres un si heureux prelude, la conservation de la
colonie est presque assure. II n'en est cependant rien : la
prise de Quebec depend d'un coup du main. Les Anglois
sont maitres de la riviere ; ils n'ont qu'a erfectuer une
descente sur la rive, ou cette ville, sans fortifications and sans
defense, est situee. Les voila en etat de me presenter la
bataille, que je ne pourrai plus refuser & que je ne devrai
pas gagner. M. Wolfe, en effet, s'il entend son metier, n'a
qu'a essayer le premier feu venir ensuite a grand pas sur mon
armee, faire a bout parlant sa decharge, mes Canadiens, sans
discipline, sourds a la voix du tambour & des instrumens
militaires, deranges par cet escarre, ne scauront plus reprendre
eurs rangs. . . . Une assurance que je puis vous donner,
c'est que je ne survivrois pas probablement a la perte de la
colonie. II est des situations ou il ne reste plus a un general,
que de perir avec honneur ; je crois y etre ; &, sur ce point,
je crois que jamais la posterite n'aura rien a reprocher a ma
memoire ; mais si la Fortune decida ma vie, elle ne decidera
pas de mes sentimens — ils sont Francois & ils le seront, j usque
dans le tombeau, si dans le tombeau on est encore quelque-
chose. Je me consolerai du moins de ma defaite, & de la
perte de la colonie, par Tin time persuasion ou je suis, que
cette defaite vaudroit un jour a ma patrie plus qu'une victoire
and que le vainqueur en s'aggrandissant, trouveroit un
tombeau dans son aggrandissement meme. . . . Toutes ces
colonies Angloises auroient, depuis longtemps, secoue le jong,
241
17— (2213)
242 APPENDIX II
chaque province auroit forme une petite republique inde-
pendante, si la crainte de voir les Francois a leur porte n'avoit
ete un frein qui les avoit retenu. ... Si l'ancienns Angle-
terre, apres avoir conquis le Canada scavoit se l'attacher par
la politique & les bienfaits & se le conserver a elle seule, si
elle le laissoit a sa religion, a ses loix, a son langage, a ses
coutumes, a son ancien gouvernement, le Canada, divise
dans tous ces points d'avec les autres colonies, formeroit
toujours un pais isole qui n'enteroit jamais dans leurs
interets, ni dans leurs vues, ne fut ce que par principe de
religion : mais ce n'est pas la la politique Britannique. Les
Anglois font ils une conquete, il faut qu'ils changent la
constitution du pays, ils y portent leurs loix, leurs facons de
penser, leur religion meme, qu'ils font adopter sous peine, au
moins, de privation des charges ; e'est-a-dire, de la privation
dc la qualite de citoyen. . . . En mot, etes-vous vaincus,
conquis par les Anglois ? II faut devenir Anglois ! Mais les
Anglois ne devroient-ils pas comprendre que les tetes des
hommes ne sont pas toutes des tetes Angloises & sur tout
d'esprits. . . . Chaque pays a ses arbres, ses fruits, ses
richesses particuliers ; vouloir n'y transporter que les arbres,
que les fruits d'Angleterre, seroit une ridicule unpardonable.
1 1 est de meme des loix, qui doivent s'adapter aux climats ;
parce que les hommes aux-memes tienne beaucoup des climats
.... Sur ce pied le Canada pris une fois par les Anglois,
peu d'annees suffiroient pour le faire devenir Anglois. Voila
les Canadiens transformes en politiques, en negocians, en
hommes infatues d'une pretendue liberte, qui chez la populace
tient souvent en Angleterre de la licence, and de l'anarchie.
Adieu, done, leur valeur, leur simplicite, leur generosite, elur
respect pour tout ce qui est rcvetu de l'autorite, leur frugality,
leur obeissance & leur fidelite ; e'est a-dire, ne seroient
bien-tot plus rien pour l'ancienne Angleterre &. qu'ils seroient
peut-etre contre elle. Je suis si sur de ce que j'ecris que je
donnerai pas dix ans apres la conquete de Canada pour en
voir raccomplissement.
APPENDIX III
The total strength of Wolfe's army present at the
battle on the Plains of Abraham was 4,829 of all
ranks, and 2 guns. Major Wood (The Fight for
Canada, p. 225) gives the following interesting
table —
Major-General . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Brigadiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Divisional Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Louisbourg Grenadiers. — From 1st Royals ; 17th, 22nd,
40th and 45th Regiments 241
15th — " Amherst's." Now East Yorkshire Regiments 406
28th—" Bragg's." Now 1st Bn. Gloucestershire . . 421
35th—" Otway's." Now 1st Bn. Royal Sussex . . 519
43rd — " Kennedy's." Now 1st Bn. Oxfordshire Light
Infantry 327
47th—" Lascelles' " Now 1st Bn. Loyal North
Lancashire . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
48th— " Webb's." Now 1st Bn. Northamptonshire. . 683
58th — " Anstruther's." Now 2nd Bn. Northampton-
shire 335
2nd — Bn. Royal Americans — " Monckton's." Now
2nd Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps . . . . 322
3rd Bn. Royal Americans. — " Lawrence's." Now 3rd
Bn. King's Royal Rifle Corps 540
78th—" Fraser's." Now 2nd Bn. Seaforth Highlanders 662
4,829
243
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wright : Life of Wolfe.
Bradley : Wolfe.
Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe. 2 vols.
Casgrain : Wolfe and Montcalm.
Townshend : The Military Life of the First Marquess
Townshend.
Knox: Historical Journal of the Campaign in North America.
2 vols.
Bourinot : Cape Breton and Its Memorials.
Macdonald : The Last Siege of Louisbourg.
Doughty : The Siege of Quebec. 6 vols.
Kingsford : The History of Canada. Vol. iv, 1756-1763.
Bradley : The Fight with France for North Ameri
Wood : The Fight for Canada.
Warburton : The Conquest of Canada. 2 vols.
Corbett : England in the Seven Years' War. 2 vols.
Waddington : La Guerre de Sept Ans.
Mante : History of the Late War.
Hassall : Balance of Power, 1715-1789.
Lecky : England in the 18th Century. Vol. ii.
Seeley : The Expansion of England.
Von Ruville : William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Vol. ii.
Kimball : Correspondence of William Pitt with Colonial
Governors, etc. 2 vols.
Correspondence of the Earl of Chatham.
Casgrain : Guerre du Canada (Journals and Correspondence
of Montcalm, Bougainville, de Livis, etc.) 12 vols.
Walpole : Letters, 1757-1759.
Memoirs of George II.
Fortescue : A History of the British Army. Vol. ii.
Beckles Willson : Nineteenth Century, Sept. 1908, and
Connoisseur, Jan. 1909.
The Annual Register, 1759 ; Dictionary of National Biography ;
Additional MSS. British Museum; Historical MSS.
Com. Reports ; Amherst Papers and Ships' Logs Record
Office.
INDEX
Abercromby, General, 101, 121,
122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 129,
135, 153
Abraham, Plains of, 213-219, 222
Aix, Isle of, 94, 97, 126
Aix-la-Chapelle, 38, 42, 71
Amherst, General, 102, 104,
105, 106, 108, 109, 110-1, 113,
115, 116, 119, 122, 123, 124,
125, 126, 127, 128, 135, 136,
139, 140, 142, 144, 155, 168,
178, 187, 190, 194, 197, 199,
215 227-8
Army! The, 12, 60, 70, 82-3, 98
Augustus Fort, 59
Banff, 49, 52
Barrington, Lord, 136, 137
Belleisle, Marshal, 26, 154
Bigot, 149, 150, 159, 164
Birrell, Mr. Augustine, 207-8
Boscawen, Admiral, 51, 73, 102,
104, 106, 108, 113, 117, 119,
120, 124, 156
Bougainville, 153, 154, 174, 188,
197, 198, 201, 206, 212, 214,
215, 219, 228
Bourlamaque, 152, 155, 190,
199, 228
Boyne, The, 62
Brigadiers' Plan for attacking
Quebec, 191-194
Braddock, 73, 77, 82, 115, 217,
Bradstreet, 125, 128, 153
Burton, Col., 197, 203, 204, 211,
213 219
Bury,' Lord, 48, 57-58, 63, 67,
76, 80, 91
Byng, Admiral, 74, 85, 86, 87
Carleton Guy, 65, 66, 131-2,
141, 145, 175, 196, 204, 206,
219, 233, 235
Cartagena Expedition, 7, 9
Cartier, 1, 145
Champlain, 1, 145
Chesterfield, 90, 96
Clive, Robert, 51, 72, 74, 92,
227
Conway, Hon. H. S., 93, 95,
96, 100, 226-227
Cook Captain, 187
Cope, Sir John, 26
Cornwallis, Hon. E., 43, 48, 87,
93, 96
Culloden, 31-33, 52, 57, 62, 133
Cumberland, Duke of, 15, 24,
31-35, 36, 37, 38, 57, 67, 91,
92
Delaune, Capt., 210
Dettingen, 18-21, 133
Devonshire, Duke of, 75, 91
Drucour, Governor, 107, 113,
117, 119, 120
Dublin, in 1752, 60, 61, 62
Dumas, Capt,* 167
Dupleix, 74
Duquesne, Fort, 72-3, 82, 101,
128
Durell, Admiral, 139, 141, 155,
157, 158, 199
Falkirk, 29-30, 31
Ferdinand, Prince, 128, 129-130
Fire-ships, 164, 176-7
Fontenoy, xi, 24
Forbes, Brigadier, 101, 128, 135
Forbes, Duncan, 91
Forbes, Mrs. John, 56
Foulon, Anse au, 200-1, 203, 21 1 ,
126
Fraser, Simon, 92
Fraser's Highlander and the
Sentry, 209
Frederick the Great, 14, 16, 17,
74, 86, 89, 90, 128
Frontenac, 1, 145, 146, 148
245
246
INDEX
George II, 6, 14, 15, 18, 19,
74, 75, 132, 136, 137
Ghent, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24
Glasgow, 29, 44, 45, 46, 48, 55,
59, 68, 69
Grammont, Due de, 18, 19
Gray's " Elegy," 207-8
Greenwich, Wolfe's days at, 5
Grenadiers, 111 ; Wild rush at
Montmorency, 182-3 ; Plains
of Abraham, 218
Halifax, 103, 104, 139
Hamilton, Duchess of, 69
Hardy, Sir Charles, 123, 124
Hawke Admiral, 51, 73, 92,
93,95, 100, 128, 153
Hawley " Hangman," 29, 30
Highlanders, 27-34, 43, 51, 81,
91-2, 183, 184, 209, 211, 218
Holborne, Admiral, 92
Holderness, Earl of, 198
Holmes, Rear-Admiral, 139,
188, 200, 202, 206
Honeywood, Col., 80, 81
Howe, Capt., 94
Howe, Col., 212, 213, 214
Howe, Lord, 97, 101, 121, 124
Inverness, 35, 52, 55
Jervis, Jack, 5, 205
Kingsley, Col. W., 81, 129,
Kirkes, The, 147, 157
Lacey, Miss, 36-7, 41
Laffeldt, 37-38, 133,
La Salle, 146, 147
Lawrence, Governor, 104, 108,
110, 122
Lawson, Miss, 41, 45, 49, 66,
77, 102, 151
Levi. (See Point Levi.)
Levis, de, 152, 169, 179, 197,
198, 219, 228
Ligonier, Sir John, 38; Lord,
128, 132, 133
Loudon, Lord, 92, 101
Louis XV, 16, 24, 25, 28, 36,
37, 38, 63, 74, 149
Louisbourg, 42, 92, 101, 102,
106-121, 139, 142, 154
Lowther, Miss, 102, 134, 205,
222
Mackellar, 159-160, 161, 164
Maestricht, 36, 38
Maria Theresa, 14, 16, 37, 74
Minorca, 74, 85-6, 119, 126
Monckton, Brigadier Robert,
105, 132, 166, 169, 170, 182,
184, 186, 197, 204, 210, 213,
218, 225
Mordaunt, Sir John, 77, 78, 92,
93, 94, 95, 96, 100
Montcalm, 1, 74, 92, 112, 117,
121, 122, 128, 129, 141, 145,
149, 150-156, 160, 161, 164,
166, 170, 173, 174, 178, 180-1,
189, 190, 192, 195, 196, 197,
198, 199, 201, 204, 206, 212,
213, 214, 216, 219, 220,
221-2, 224, 228, 241-242
Montgomery, 145, 189, 219
Montmorency, 160, 166, 169-172
178-180 196-7, 234, 235, 237
Murray, Brigadier, 132, 169,
182, 188, 191, 197, 204, 212,
213, 219, 236
Murray, Lord George, 32, 33
Murray, Major Alexander, 133,
143
Navy, The, 8, 84, 154
Newcastle, Duke of, 75, 91, 137
Noailles, Due de, 16, 18, 19
Nova Scotia, 48, 50-51
Orleans, Island of, 159, 162,
168, 197
Ostend, 15, 16, 22
Oswego, Fort, 75, 152
Paris, 65-7
Pelham, 42, 50
Phipps, Sir William, 148, 157
Pitt, 75, 90-93, 100, 102, 104,
124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 135.
138, 139, 140, 153, 180, 216,
223, 227
INDEX
247
Point Levi, 160, 166-168, 174,
196, 197
Portraits of Wolfe, 11
Pompadour Madame de, 64-5,
74, 149
Prestonpans, 26
Quebec, 72, 101, 118, 121, 122,
123, 124, 125, 130, 135, 140,
145, 147-8
Ramesay, de, 160, 212, 214
Richmond, Duke of, 65-6
Rickson, Capt. William, 46, 48,
52, 81, 91, 99, 121, 128
Rorhefort, 92, 93-100
Robison, Prof. John, 207-8
St. Lawrence, Navigation of,
157-9
St. Vincent. (See Jack Jervis).
Sackville, Lord G., 42, 47, 104,
120, 126
Saunders, Admiral, 51, 134, 139,
142, 153, 157, 164, 166, 168,
169, 173, 174, 179, 181, 182,
186, 188, 194, 195, 206, 210,
221
Saxe Marshal, 22, 24, 36, 37,
38
Scalping, 166, 176, 183
Scott, Sir Walter, 35, 207-8
Sea Power, 154 ; In Miniature,
172
Spain, War with, 6-7
Stair, Earl of, 15, 16, 18
Stobo, Major, 200
Stuart, Charles, 23-4, 26-33
Swinden, Rev. S. R, 5, 10
Temple, Lord, 137
Ticonderoga, 101, 121, 128, 135,
152, 155, 168, 190
Townshend, Brigadier, 132-4,
169, 170-2, 180, 182, 184, 185,
190, 193-4, 197, 203, 204, 210,
213, 216, 219, 222, 224-6
Townshend, Henry, 87
Vaudreuil, 149, 150, 152, 153,
155-6, 158, 159, 165, 166,
167, 168, 175, 184, 189, 190,
201, 212, 214, 224
Vergor, 201, 210
Wade, General, 22, 26, 27
Walker, Sir Hovenden, 148, 157
Walpole Horace, 7, 63, 93, 100,
133, 222, 223, 225
Walpole Sir R., 5-6, 42
Warde, George, 4, 10, 130-131,
231
Washington, George, 9, 72, 82,
200, 229
Westerham, 1-2, 4, 231-2
William Henry, Fort, 117, 152
Whitmore, Brigadier, 110, 121
Wolfe, Colonel Edward, 3, 7,
27, 140
Wolfe, Edward, 4, 17, 18, 21 ;
Death of, 22-23
Wolfe, General James : Rival
birthplaces, 1 ; Westerham,
1-2; Birth, 2; Ancestry, 3;
School-days, 5 : a Volunteer
at thirteen, 7 ; Duty and love,
8 ; First Commission, 10 ;
Portraits, 11; Ensign, 12;
Flanders, 12-13; in Ghent,
16-17, 22, 24; Adjutant
at sixteen, 17 ; Dettingen,
18-21 ; Lieutenant, 21 ;
with Wade at Newcastle,
27 ; with Hawley at Falkirk,
29 ; with the Duke at
Culloden, "31-35 ; Flanders
Again, 35 ; Laffeldt, 37-38 ;
21st birthday, 38 ; Desire to
Travel, 40, 48 ; Major of the
20th, 42 ; Stirling, 42-44 ;
Glasgow, 44-48 ; Lieut. -Col.,
48 ; Banff, 49 ; Inverness,
52 ; Reflections on 25th
birthday, 53 ; Mathematics,
54 ; Words and Action, 55 ;
Wolfe and the Common
Soldier, 60; In Ireland, 61-
63 ; in Paris, 63-67 ; Return
to Scotland, 68 ; March to
Dover, 69-70_; Dover, 75-7 ;
in Exeter, 77-8 ; A Course of
IMS
INDEX
Wolfe, General — (contd.)
Reading, 87 ; Irish Ap-
pointment, 89 ; the _J£oche-
fort Expedition,2^- 100 ;
Louisbourg, 102, 106-121;
Gulf of St. Lawrence, 123-5 ;
Colonel of the 67th, 100, 127;
Appointed to the Quebec
Command, 130; His Modesty,
137; "two Anecdotes, 137-9;
Preparing for Quebec, 14U-4 ;
Quebec, 157-169; Mont-
morency, 169-172, 178, 187,
196-7 ; Last Letter to his
Mother, 195 ; Proclamations
162-3, 176; t Despatch to
Pitt, 186, 194, 198, 233-9 ;
Illness, 190-1 ; Brigadiers
. Cons ul-tr— 191 ; thaif — Plan,
192-4,; Anse au Foulon,
200-1 ; Gray's " Elegy," 207-
8 ; the Plains of Abraham,
213-18; Death, 218; Charac-
ter, 228-31.
Wolfe, Major Walter, 33, 60,
96, 127, 137, 141
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