Quebec and Struggle for North America
It is one of those marvels of history that the long struggle between Great Britain and France for control of North America was decided in a brief battle on a relatively small tract of land in Quebec City. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which was fought by British troops under the command of Gen. James Wolfe and French and Indian forces led by Gen. Marquis Louis Montcalm on the morning of Sept. 13, 1759, was part of the French and Indian War in North America, which was part of the larger Seven Years' War among the European great powers.
In the early 17th century, while Great Britain established permanent settlements in Virginia and New England, Samuel de Champlain founded “New France” at a strategically located area of the St. Lawrence Seaway—Quebec. The ensuing competition for more territory led to the construction of forts that dotted the landscape of North America from eastern Canada to Michigan, from the Hudson Valley of New York to Pennsylvania and beyond.
The British historian J.R. Seeley in his masterful book The Expansion of England (1901) accurately described the 18th century wars between Great Britain and France as “the great decisive duel ... for the possession of the New World,” and he identified the decisive event as the Seven Years’ War, the first truly global war in history.
The Seven Years’ War broke out in southwestern Pennsylvania in 1754, where British and French forces clashed over control of the Ohio Valley. George Washington, then a colonel in the Virginia colonial army fighting with the British, lost his first battle at Fort Necessity, south of Pittsburgh. British and French and Indian forces subsequently traded control over the fort where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet to form the Ohio River—Ft. Duquesne when under French control; Ft. Pitt under British control. Meanwhile, control of the Hudson Valley centered on battles for Ft. William Henry at the foot of Lake George and Ft. Carillion (later Ticonderoga) at the foot of Lake Champlain.
The French, however, could not be forced to surrender until their control over the St. Lawrence River was ended; and that control rested initially on the Fortress of Louisbourg near the Atlantic entrance and exit of the mighty river, and ultimately at Quebec City. In July 1758, after a six-week siege, the British captured Louisbourg, setting the stage for the battle for Quebec and ultimate control of the continent.
British strategy to seize the St. Lawrence began as a three-pronged attack. Forces under Gen. Amherst moved from Lake George and Lake Champlain to threaten Montreal. Other forces under Brig. Gen. Prideaux attacked Ft. Niagara. What turned out to be the decisive thrust, however, was made at Quebec by forces under Gen. Wolfe and Adm. Sir Charles Saunders.
Wolfe made the British camp at the Isle de Orleans, situated in the St. Lawrence diagonally opposite Quebec at Cape Diamond. Wolfe’s audacious plan was to land forces somewhere along the lower town, scale the cliffs, and force the French to fight on the heights of the city. Leading up to the amphibious landing, throughout much of August and early September, British batteries positioned directly across from Quebec at Pointe aux Peres, pounded much of the lower town and parts of the upper town situated on the heights, causing much destruction and some loss of life. Meanwhile, Wolfe had Adm. Saunders repeatedly sail warships up and down the river along the coast, feigning landings at several locations, which caused French commanders to be on alert for possible landings along a 30-mile portion of the coast.
Wolfe then selected the least likely place to stage the landing—the Anse au Foulon, which featured 175-foot cliffs and caught the French completely by surprise. Before dawn the morning of Sept. 13, the first of over 4,500 British troops came ashore. At about 5 a.m., the troops began the steep climb, with 24 volunteers leading the way as fire was exchanged between British and French guns. The lead climbers at the top silently attacked the sentries with bayonets. Then, one by one, British troops ascended the cliffs and reached the heights.
Wolfe swiftly deployed his troops in a line of battle on a tract of land called the Plains of Abraham, named after the farmer who owned the land. Wolfe at about 8 a.m., anticipating the tactic of the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, ordered the men to form a line two deep, lie down, and wait for the French to attack. Sometime later, Montcalm, unsure of the number of troops available to Wolfe, decided to attack.
French troops fired the opening volley at about 130 yards. Then, as French troops and their Indian allies continued to advance to within 40 yards of the British line, Wolfe ordered his troops to fire. As author Noel St. John Williams noted in his book Redcoats Along the Hudson: The Struggle for North America 1754-63, “The shattering double volley of several thousand musket balls at close range that followed ... was devastating in its precision and effect.” When the smoke cleared, he wrote, “nearly every man in the French front rank had fallen, like corn before a sickle.”
A second British volley further decimated the French ranks. Wolfe then gave the order to advance with bayonets causing most of the remaining French troops to flee the field. Both Montcalm and Wolfe suffered fatal wounds that day. Total casualties (dead, wounded, missing and prisoners) in the 30-minute battle were about 1,500 for the French and over 660 for the British. By the end of September, British troops had complete control of Quebec.
There was more fighting to do in the Seven Years’ War both in North America, Europe, and other places, but “in the end,” wrote the great British historian of war John Keegan, “everything does return to Quebec. It was there that the epic of French America began. It is here that it concluded in defeat and heartbreak.” Keegan concluded that the Plains of Abraham is the most dramatic battlefield in history.
