Battle of the Plains of Abraham
Wolfe took Quebec in a battle lasting about fifteen minutes on 13 September 1759, and both commanders died of it. The siege had run since June and had failed. Wolfe had some 8,500 men, a fleet in the St Lawrence, and a fortified city on a cliff that Montcalm had no need to leave; a frontal assault at Beauport in July cost 400 men and achieved nothing. Wolfe had spent the summer burning farms along the river in a deliberate campaign against the countryside, and was seriously ill. The autumn was closing and the fleet had to leave before the ice. The final attempt was a landing at a cove upstream, where a path led up a cliff to the plateau above the city. Some 4,500 men went up during the night of 12 September, overpowered a small picket, and were formed in line on the Plains of Abraham at dawn. Montcalm, who had troops beyond the city that he did not wait for, came out and attacked across open ground with a mixed force of regulars and militia. The British held their fire to about thirty paces and delivered two volleys that broke the line. Wolfe was hit three times and died on the field; Montcalm was hit in the retreat and died the next morning. The city surrendered on the 18th, Montreal fell in 1760, and France ceded Canada in 1763. Both men have a monument in Quebec, sharing one obelisk. The consequences ran further than Canada. Removing the French threat from North America removed the colonies' main reason to want British protection, and the debt the war left produced the taxes they rebelled over twelve years later.
- Year: 1759 CE
- Category: Military
