Blackwell Reference Online

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(13 September 1759) On 27 June 1759, a youthful British major-general, James Wolfe, landed on the Île d'Orléans near Quebec, with 9,000 regular soldiers who had been brought by flotilla from Louisbourg. Built partly on a rocky outcrop overlooking the St Lawrence River and its tributary, the Saint Charles, Quebec was defended by the Marquis de Montcalm (1712–59) with c .14,000 French regulars and militiamen and some 1,200 Indians. For two months Wolfe tried to breach the defences below the city before discovering upstream above Quebec, in the cliffs overhanging the St Lawrence, a path which Montcalm had left inadequately guarded as he thought it inaccessible. On the night of 12 September, Wolfe sent a battalion of light infantry up the path, followed by the greater part of his army. By early morning they were formed in battle order just outside the city on a piece of relatively open ground known as the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm attacked in haste, without waiting to concentrate all his available forces or a large part of his artillery. The superiority of the British musketry broke the French attack and forced the survivors back into Quebec. Both Wolfe and Montcalm fell in the action. Quebec surrendered on 18 September leading, in the following year, to the fall of French Canada. The capture of Quebec affords an excellent example of a successful amphibious operation. Full co-operation ... log in or subscribe to read full text