Summary
After the French abandoned Crown Point, the British controlled the
western frontier. However, the French strongholds were further north, in Quebec
and Montreal. These were also the French cities and forts that were most
heavily supplied, funded, and protected.
William Pitt emphasized the importance of gaining Quebec in assuring
outright British victory; he gave the assignment of conquering the city to famed
general James Wolfe. Wolfe and Vice-admiral Charles Saunders organized a
team of ships and infantry to besiege the city. The battle began in June 1759
and lasted for three months. The ships ascended the St. Lawrence flawlessly and
held out against massive French assaults of fire and cannon.
Despite the romantic glaze that hangs over the Quebec campaign, it was a
desperate struggle that frequently became brutal. Wolfe, like Montcalm, was not
immune to terrorizing the civilian population, and one of his first orders to
scouting parties was to "burn and lay waste the country." Louis-Joseph de
Montcalm responded with equal brutality, threatening the frightened civilians
with "the savages" when they meekly appealed to him for surrender.
Because Quebec was so mighty and heavily fortified, Wolfe was forced
to starve the French out for two and a half months. The British forces were not
large enough to completely surround the city and cut off its supplies; though
French food and materiel were rapidly dwindling they were still enough to keep
the soldiers alive.
Finally, on September 13, Wolfe landed a small host of soldiers in the middle of
the night at l'Anse au Foulon, upstream of the city. Sheer luck played as much
a role as skill in this success--Wolfe was able to fool a sentry and a general
by speaking French and gathered the rest of his troops for the invasion.
Montcalm was so disoriented by this bizarre turn of events that he made many
mistakes in defending the city. First, he gathered his troops at the wrong
place—downstream of the city, in a place called Beaumont. When they finally
caught up to the British, Montcalm ordered them to charge instead of waiting for
reinforcements. The battle lasted only fifteen minutes and both Wolfe and
Montcalm were killed.
After the capture of Quebec, the rest of Canada quickly fell. The French
attempted a brief counter-siege from May 11-16, 1760, but quickly gave up.
Montreal capitulated in September 1760, and the British General Amherst and the
French Marquise de Vaudreuil signed letters of capitulation that finished the
surrender of Canada. On or around September 15, the British flag was hoisted
over the city of Detroit, effectively ending the war.
Commentary
The victory at Quebec can be attributed to many factors. Although Quebec was
heavily defended, the overall position of the French was extremely weak. They
had lost many of their Indian allies. The army was strained to the limit after
years of fighting against the greater resources of the British. British
victories at Fort Duquesne and Niagara cut off French communication with the
west, leaving the forces at Quebec without reinforcements of either men or
supplies. All of this combined with James Wolfe's tactics of terror made
the siege brutally effective.
It helped that Quebec's landscape was not twisted and wild like America's. The
British soldiers could exercise their disciplined techniques of columns and
volley fire without the threat of sniping and ambush that had worked so well for
the French in the American colonies. Wolfe was also fortunate to be aided by
several unflappable and highly skilled officers, including Saunders, who held up
the pillars of the final battle.
After the fall of Quebec, the rest of the war was almost an afterthought. The
French forces had been completely demoralized by a string of defeats, and the
British were in position to dominate both the West and Canada. After a feeble
attempt to win back Quebec, and a brave attempt to hold out against the British
at Montreal, the French capitulated and turned their attention to gaining the
best treaty possible.
