The British Open a Bombardment on Québec: July 19, 1759

This text comes from our book, Lands of Hope and Promise.

In France, Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, was piqued. King Friedrich the Great of Prussia had written some verses about her that were not at all flattering. In retaliation, Pompadour exerted her influence over Louis in favor of Prussia’s enemy, the Austrians. The Austrian ambassador, Count Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, had come to Paris to convince the king to abandon his alliance with Prussia and join forces with Austrian empress, Maria Theresia, who wanted to regain Silesia from Friedrich II. France had much to gain from a war with Prussia, argued Kaunitz — possession of the Prussian lands on the lower Rhine, contiguous with France. 

Pompadour and Kaunitz won out, and France joined an alliance with Austria. Meanwhile, Great Britain, already engaged in war with France in America, allied itself with Prussia. The resulting war, the Seven Years’ War, was one of the greatest ever fought in Europe to that time. In some ways, it was a world war, since the conflict raged in Europe and in Europe’s colonies in India and America. 

The first three years of the war in America witnessed a series of French victories, beginning in 1755, when Massachusetts’ Governor Shirley failed to take Fort Niagara. Though Shirley defeated the French at Lake George on September 8, the French were able to hold Crown Point on Lake Champlain and there raise a fortress — Fort Ticonderoga. In 1756, when this “Old French and Indian War” became but another theater of the Seven Years’ War, the British government replaced Governor Shirley with the Earl of Loudon as commander of the British forces in America. The war, however, still went badly for the British. Though George Washington and the Virginia militia were able with difficulty to hold the Shenandoah Valley, the French under the Marquis de Montcalm captured Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario and Fort William on Lake George. 

Battles and forts of the French and Indian War

The course of the war changed in 1758 when William Pitt became secretary of state and prime minister of Great Britain. Pitt saw how Britain could win the war in America. The population of the English colonies (about 1,000,000) dwarfed the population of New France (only about 60,000); thus, without reinforcements from France, New France must in the end fall to the British. To block reinforcements coming to French America, Pitt used Great Britain’s greatest advantage, her navy. Great Britain had the largest navy in the world. The French navy could not vie with it. 

Pitt appointed Jeffrey Amherst as commander-in-chief of the colonial forces in America. Serving as brigadier general under Amherst was the energetic James Wolfe. In July 1758, Wolfe, together with Amherst and the British fleet under Admiral Boscawan, captured Louisbourg. The same year, Colonel John Bradstreet and the New England militia took Fort Frontenac in Canada, near where the St. Lawrence flows from Lake Ontario. Fort Duquesne, too, finally fell to Brigadier General John Forbes, who renamed it Pittsburg, in honor of the prime minister. 

“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” General Wolfe recited this line from Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” as he led his men in what would prove to be the decisive strategic move in the battle for Québec. On June 27, 1759, Admiral Saunders of the British navy had landed on Île de Orléans in the Saint Lawrence River, three miles east of Québec. The French city was well defended. The Marquis de Montcalm had concentrated 14,000 troops within the walls on the north bank of the St. Lawrence. The guns of Québec commanded the approaches of the river. The British force, under General Wolfe, numbered only 4,000 (it would later be strengthened by reinforcements). Yet, daring and strategy (and luck) secured advantages for Wolfe. 

The luck came in when Wolfe discovered Montcalm’s failure to secure the southern shore of the St. Lawrence. Placing a contingent of his force on the north shore to divert Montcalm’s attention, Wolfe seized Point Levi on the south shore, 1,000 yards across the river from Québec. On July 19, the British opened a bombardment on Québec from Point Levi, and under cover of the bombardment, sailed 20 miles upstream from the city. The British now controlled the St. Lawrence River. 

A detail from "The Death of Wolfe" by Benjamin West

Québec, which sat perched on cliffs above the St. Lawrence, was well defended; but, the British discovered a narrow defile up the cliffs that Montcalm had not sufficiently guarded. The defile led to a plateau called the Plains of Abraham, outside the walls of the city. At 2 a.m. on September 13, Wolfe led 1,700 English up the defile and easily overcame the small French contingent guarding the approach. More boats came with reinforcements, so that, in the morning, the French saw 4,500 English deployed on the Plains of Abraham. 

By 10 a.m. on September 13, Montcalm had promptly moved about 4,000 troops from the north shore and arrayed them on the Plains of Abraham. The French, clad in white, with a cry of “Vive le Roi!” (long live the king!) advanced on the British. Wolfe waited till the enemy was only 40 yards away before he cried out the command, “fire!” A first volley rang out, then a second. Hundreds of French fell. Then the English, bayonets fixed, charged. The enemy broke and retreated. Wolfe, himself mortally wounded, ordered the cutting off of the enemy’s retreat — his last command. With the Marquis de Montcalm also wounded (he died the next day), Québec surrendered to the British. Together, both sides had lost about 650 killed and wounded; but the fortress of Québec and the Saint Lawrence, from the sea to Montreal, now belonged to the British.