Battle for Empire: The very first world war 1756-63 by Pocock Tom

Author:Pocock, Tom [Pocock, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 185479390X
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2013-06-06T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

‘Come follow the Hero that goes to Quebeck’

Not since Generals Abercromby and Howe had led their armada up the length of Lake George a year before had the waterways of North America presented such a spectacle. The St Lawrence river was not much wider than the lake and, in June, 1759, it was crowded with 22 sail of the line, a dozen frigates, sloops, bomb-ketches and fireships. On board 119 transports were embarked an army of 9,200 men commanded by Major-General James Wolfe, who had led the assault on Louisbourg.

When that campaign had been successfully completed, Wolfe had been among the officers given command of small expeditions ordered to attack French settlements along the coast and near the mouth of the St Lawrence. As in the Scottish Highlands a dozen years earlier, villages and crops were burned and the villagers turned out of their homes. ‘We have done a great deal of mischief’, Wolfe reported to Amherst, ‘spread the terror of his Majesty’s arms through the whole gulf but have added nothing to the reputation of them.’1 Despite his ruthlessness, Wolfe had been appreciative of the remote beauty of his surroundings, writing in his journal: ‘The isles of d’Oiseau we saw also … wholly inhabited by Birds, many of whom came into our Ship, some with red heads, others with red and yellow rings round their necks, all extremely small. These islands look oddly with the roosting of so many thousand birds, the eggs of many very good, ships frequently load with them.’ There were strange mammals, too, such as ‘sea cows … who for horrid ugliness may vie with any other creatures’.2

As winter drew in, the expeditions had returned to Louisbourg, where Wolfe had embarked with Boscawen for England. On arrival at Portsmouth, he had rejoined his regiment at Salisbury and on 17 November gone on leave. James Wolfe had become something of a hero for his feats at Louisbourg and was lionised at home in Blackheath and at Bath. There, he again met Katherine Lowther, the self-possessed, cool and elegant sister of the heir to the earldom of Lonsdale, and they became engaged. In December, he was summoned to Whitehall for an interview with Lord Ligonier, who told him that the main attack would be made on Quebec in the following year. Again it would be from two directions: a second, northward, attempt via the lakes, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, to be led by Amherst himself, and a drive south-west, up the St Lawrence, to attack the capital of New France itself. The command of the attack upriver was offered to James Wolfe.

Suffering from chronic ill health, Wolfe had just complained to a friend: ‘I am in a very bad condition, both gravel and rheumatism, but I would much rather die than decline any kind of service that offers.’ So he accepted with alacrity, writing to Amherst: ‘They have put a heavy task on my shoulders and I find nothing encouraging in the undertaking but the warmest

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