1759: The Fall of Canada

The military successes of 1758 in the French and Indian War (1754-63; known in Europe as the Seven Years' War) put the British in a strong position to launch an invasion of Canada the following year. British troops had captured Louis-bourg, the fortified city that guarded the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. This victory would allow British ships to sail up the river to attack the major Canadian cities of Quebec and Montreal. The British had also taken control of Lake Ontario and cut off communications between the eastern and western sections of New France. William Pitt (1708-1788; see entry), the British secretary of state, decided that the time had come to invade Canada. In 1759, he came up with a three-part plan to achieve this goal.

The first part of Pitt's plan involved attacking Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario, which stood between the British and several French forts to the west. In the second part of Pitt's plan, British and American forces under General Jeffery Amherst (1717-1797; see entry) would attack Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. The successful capture of this French stronghold would allow British forces to continue northward across the lake toward Montreal. Finally, the third part of Pitt's plan called for British forces under General James Wolfe (1727-1759; see entry) to move up the St. Lawrence from Louisbourg and attack Quebec, the capital of New France.

In preparation for the invasion of Canada, Pitt wrote to the governors of the American colonies asking for twenty thousand troops—the same level of support he had requested in 1758. By this time, the war had created shortages of money and men in the colonies. The governors had to pay high bounties (fees) to convince young men to serve in the army, but they finally managed to recruit seventeen thousand troops. Their efforts showed that they respected Pitt and felt like partners in his plans.

British take Fort Niagara and control the West

As part of their successful campaigns of 1758, the British had captured Fort Duquesne. Holding this French fort, located at the strategic point known as the Forks of the Ohio River (site of modern-day Pittsburgh), was key to the British gaining control of the Ohio Country. Once they seized the fort, the British immediately began building a huge new stronghold on the site. This new fort, which they called Fort Pitt, was ten times larger than Fort Duquesne. They planned to turn the fort into a center of trade in order to keep the Ohio Indians (Native Americans) on their side. In the meantime, French forces under Captain François-Marie le Marchand de Lignery (1703-1759) remained at Venango, a French stronghold on the Allegheny River north of the Forks. Lignery spent the winter of 1759 trying to convince the Indians to help him reclaim the Forks and reestablish French control of the Ohio Country.

But the continued British military success in 1759 ensured that Fort Pitt and the Ohio Country would remain the property of the king of England. As spring arrived, British and American forces under Brigadier General John Prideaux (1718-1759) launched an expedition to capture Fort Niagara. By mid-June, they had reached Oswego, a site on the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario that had held a British fort until it was destroyed by the French in 1756. Here they were met by William Johnson (1715-1774; see entry)—a British general and the king's official Indian representative—and one thousand Iroquois warriors. The Iroquois Confederacy had decided to provide direct support to the British in order to maintain their influence over the tribes of the Ohio Country. Prideaux left one thousand of his own troops at Oswego to begin rebuilding the fort. Then he continued across Lake Ontario toward Fort Niagara with Johnson and the Iroquois.

Prideaux's forces reached the fort on July 6. The commander of the French stronghold was Captain Pierre Pouchot (1712-1767). Confident that the Ohio Indians would warn him if the British came near, Pouchot had sent twenty-five hundred of his three thousand troops to Venango to help Lignery recapture the Forks. The French captain and his five hundred remaining troops were shocked when the British and Iroquois appeared and began preparing for a siege of the fort. In a siege, attacking forces surround their target and pound it with artillery fire until the defenses are weak enough for a full assault. The British spent several days digging protective trenches and then began shelling Fort Niagara on July 16. Prideaux was killed in the early days of the siege, forcing Johnson to take command of the British troops.

Pouchot was determined to hold the fort until reinforcements arrived from Venango. But the British knew that Lignery would bring his forces north to help defend Niagara. They built a log wall and an abatis (a defensive barrier that consists of felled trees with sharpened branches) to block the road to the fort. Lignery arrived on July 23 with a force of six hundred French soldiers and one thousand Indian allies. Before the battle began, the Indians on both sides held a conference and decided not to take part. Lignery's remaining force of six hundred French soldiers charged the British position in an attempt to break through to the fort. More than half of these men were killed or takenprisoner, and the others were forced to retreat. Pouchot surrendered Fort Niagara to Johnson two days later.

The capture of Fort Niagara gave the British control over the Ohio Country and much of the former French territory to the west. Without access to the road leading past Niagara Falls from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, the French could not get supplies through to their western forts. They had no choice but to abandon Fort Toronto on Lake Ontario, Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie, and Forts Le Boeuf and Machault (Venango) in the Ohio Country. The French maintained a few settlements in Illinois, and a few forts and trading posts in the upper Great Lakes, but these outposts could no longer communicate with the government of New France in Quebec.

Johnson, meanwhile, decided that the capture of Fort Niagara would be his last campaign. He resigned from the military to concentrate on his duties as the king's Indian representative. With Johnson gone, the British commander-in-British chief, General Jeffery Amherst, sent Major General Thomas Gage (1719- 1787) to take charge of the western posts.

Amherst captures Ticonderoga and Crown Point

The second part of Pitt's plan took shape at the same time as the siege of Fort Niagara. After spending months preparing for the attack, Amherst reached Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga on the south end of Lake Champlain on July 21. His ten thousand troops approached the fort in boats. Upon landing, they began digging trenches for a siege. But Amherst did not realize that the French had already abandoned the fort, leaving only a few soldiers to defend it. These soldiers destroyed Fort Carillon a few days after Amherst's arrival. The capture of the French stronghold cost Amherst the lives of five men and wounded thirty-one more. The outcome for the British was much better than a year earlier, when General James Abercromby (1706-1781) had suffered two thousand casualties (killed or wounded soldiers) in his failed attack on the fort.

After capturing Fort Carillon, Amherst moved his forces northward to Fort St. Frédéric at Crown Point on Lake Champlain. By the time the British forces arrived, however, the French had abandoned and destroyed that fort as well. This left only a couple of small and insignificant forts between Amherst and his ultimate target, the city of Montreal. But Amherst moved slowly and cautiously toward Montreal because he had not yet heard any news about the third part of Pitt's plan—Major General James Wolfe's attack on Quebec. If Wolfe had been defeated, then the French could transfer all of their forces to defend Montreal. By the time Amherst finally received a report on Wolfe's progress in mid-October, the approach of winter forced him to call off his expedition.

Wolfe and Montcalm battle for Quebec

Wolfe, a bold young officer who had taken part in the capture of Louisbourg in 1758, was thrilled to be asked to lead the attack on Quebec. In addition to twelve thousand British and American troops, Wolfe's expedition included a fleet of one hundred fifty ships and eighteen thousand sailors from the British Navy. Some of these ships were sent ahead to Louis-bourg to prevent the French from sending supplies and additional troops to Quebec via the St. Lawrence. Although the British Navy managed to turn back or capture some French ships, a few still managed to sneak through the blockade. One of theseships carried Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811; see entry), the top aide to French commander Louis-Joseph, marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran (1712-1759; see entry). Bougainville brought Montcalm a document that French soldiers had captured. The document, which had belonged to General Amherst, outlined the British plans for the 1759 invasion of Canada.

After looking over the British plans, Montcalm decided to focus on defending Quebec. The city sat atop high cliffs overlooking the St. Lawrence River and was surrounded by a wall that held many cannons. Montcalm felt confident that the guns along the cliffs would prevent the British from moving their ships past the city in order to cut off the French supply line from Montreal. He left two thousand soldiers within the walls of Quebec and arranged his remaining twelve thousand troops along the bank of the St. Lawrence. The French defensive line stretched east of the city for seven miles, between the St. Charles and Montmorency Rivers. Montcalm hoped that these forces would prevent the British from landing below the city. The French general understood that he did not have to defeat the British in battle in order to claim victory. He only needed to hold the city until October, when the arrival of winter would force the British to leave the area. Montcalm believed that if he defended Quebec successfully, the British would have to negotiate a peace treaty with France.

Meanwhile, Wolfe struggled to prepare his men for the expedition. Many of his troops came down with measles during their voyage from England. The general thus ended up sailing for Louisbourg with only eighty-five hundred men, rather than twelve thousand. Nevertheless, Wolfe's expedition sailed up the St. Lawrence on June 5. In order to confuse the people on shore, the British ships flew French flags. The Canadians were delighted to see French ships entering the river. Several pilots rowed out to meet the ships and help them make their way through the tricky entrance to the river. As soon as the pilots came on board, however, the British revealed their true identity and forced the pilots to cooperate at gunpoint.

The British fleet arrived at Quebec on June 26. They set up a base camp on the Île d'Orléans, a large island in the middle of the St. Lawrence about four miles below the city. When Wolfe saw the strategic location of the city and the impressive French defenses for the first time, he worried that he was about to attack "the strongest country in the world." A short time after the British fleet arrived, the governor of New France, Pierre François de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil (1698-1778; see box in chapter 5), ordered French troops to launch a sneak attack in hopes of chasing them away. Small groups of French soldiers towed boats full of explosives toward the anchored British ships in the middle of the night. Then they lit the boats on fire and rowed away quickly. But alert British sailors managed to row their own boats out and turn the burning boats around before they could damage the fleet. Montcalm reacted calmly when he heard about the mission's failure. He had not supported the plan and had actually expected it to fail.

On June 29, British soldiers climbed the cliffs at Point Levis, directly across the river from Quebec. They built fortifications on top of the cliff and hauled up cannons. On July 9, Wolfe ordered an attack on the east side of the French line, near the Montmorency River. British ships fired cannons to create a landing area for British troops, but the soldiers were turned back by heavy French gunfire. On July 12, the British forces began firing artillery shells from Point Levis into the city of Quebec. This bombing would continue off and on for the next two months. Some of the shells set fire to buildings and forced residents to leave their homes. On July 31, Wolfe ordered another attack on the French lines below the city. Once again, the French defenses turned back the attack, killing 210 British soldiers and wounding 200 more in the process.

Wolfe launches a desperate attack

Wolfe grew more and more frustrated at his inability to land troops on shore and set up a siege of Quebec. Like Montcalm, he understood that time was on the side of the French. At the first hint of winter, the British fleet would be forced to withdraw from the St. Lawrence, ending the expedition. Wolfe knew that his best hope of capturing Quebec would be to draw his enemy out of the city and into battle. He even sent British troops to conduct violent raids in the Canadian countryside, destroying fourteen hundred farms during the month of August. But Montcalm refused to allow Wolfe to provoke him into battle. "My antagonist [enemy] has wisely shut himself up in inaccessible entrenchments [defensive positions that are difficult to reach], so that I can't get at him without spilling a torrent of blood, and that perhaps to little purpose," Wolfe wrote in a letter to his mother. "The Marquis de Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him—but the wary old fellow avoids an action doubtful of the behavior of his army."

Another factor in Wolfe's frustration was his declining health. He suffered from painful kidney stones, as well as a terrible fever and cough. As he grew weaker, Wolfe became convinced that he was going to die. He decided that he would rather die a glorious death on the field of battle than die slowly from disease. Desperate to earn a reputation as a brilliant general before he died, Wolfe began planning a final attack on the French lines. This time, the British troops would attempt to land west of Quebec at a spot called L'Anse au Foulon, which later became known as Wolfe's Cove. An overgrown footpath led from the cove to the top of the cliffs a short distance upriver from the city. This path could give the British access to the Plains of Abraham, broad fields that stretched behind Quebec and provided an ideal place to set up a siege.

Historians have long wondered how Wolfe decided where to launch his attack. One story says that Wolfe spotted the path leading up the cliffs while scanning the French defenses through a telescope. Some historians claim that Wolfe learned about the path from Captain Robert Stobo (1727-c. 1772; see box in chapter 4), a British soldier who had been held in Quebec as a prisoner of war for several years and had recently escaped. Other historians think that corrupt French officials told Wolfe about the path because Montcalm was about to expose their illegal activities.

Wolfe chose to launch the attack on the night of September 12. Part of the British fleet bombed the coast east of the city in order to confuse the French. Meanwhile, the remaining British ships slipped past Quebec and dropped off 5,000 troops in Wolfe's Cove. These troops scrambled up the path to the top of the 175-foot cliff and quickly overtook a small group of French guards. Then they moved onto the Plains of Abraham and arranged themselves in battle formation.

Montcalm was fooled at first by the British action east of Quebec. By the time he arrived in the city itself, Wolfe had already moved his troops onto the field of battle. The French general decided to engage the British forces in battle before they had a chance to dig trenches and set up a siege. But Montcalm had only forty-five hundred troops with him, and they had less training and discipline than the British forces. In fact, many of the British troops facing him on the Plains had taken part in the 1758 campaigns and were among the most experienced soldiers in North America at that time.

As Montcalm's army crossed the Plains to begin the battle, Wolfe's forces stood their ground and waited until the enemy came within firing range. Then the British opened fire and devastated the French troops. Montcalm and most of his officers were killed, and approximately fourteen hundred French soldiers were killed or wounded. The inexperienced French troops then turned around and fled back toward the walls of the city. The British troops started to chase after them, but then Canadian and Indian forces opened fire from hidden positions in the woods and cornfields along the edges of the battlefield. Wolfe was seriously wounded and died a short time later. His second-in-command, Brigadier General George Townshend (1715-1769), called off the pursuit and gathered the remaining British troops together. Townshend got the British organized just in time to face two thousand French reinforcements under the command of Bougainville. Shocked to see that Montcalm had been defeated, Bougainville briefly exchanged fire with the British troops and then withdrew his forces from the battlefield.

Once the French troops had retreated, the British forces began digging trenches and preparing for a siege. Inside the city walls, the French troops and Canadian residents lacked leadership and direction without Montcalm. They became discouraged and worried. Governor Vaudreuil soon left Quebec with most of the remaining French troops. On September 18, the few remaining Canadians surrendered Quebec to the British. Townshend gave the Canadians generous terms of surrender that allowed residents to remain in the city if they swore an oath of loyalty to Great Britain. Then the British Navy sailed down the St. Lawrence and out to sea, leaving seven thousand British troops under Brigadier General James Murray (1721-1794) to hold Quebec over the long winter. Although the French still held Montreal, the British capture of Quebec meant that the result of the war in North America was no longer in doubt.

Royal Navy wins the Battle of Quiberon Bay

As the French and British forces struggled for control of Canada, the war continued in Europe and elsewhere. The British failed to capture the Caribbean island of Martinique because too many British sailors fell victim to tropical diseases. But they did manage to capture another French possession in the West Indies—the island of Guadeloupe. Valuable shipments of sugar and molasses from Guadeloupe helped the British pay for some of the huge costs of the war. In Europe, meanwhile, Prince Ferdinand (1721-1792) of Brunswick continued to push back the French, but King Frederick (1712-1786) of Prussia continued to face threats from Austria and Russia.

Perhaps the most significant battle to take place in 1759 was the Battle of Quiberon Bay. France had been planning to launch a naval attack against the British coast. After all, most regular British Army units had been sent to North America, leaving only poorly trained militia to defend Great Britain. Before the attack could take place, however, the Royal Navy engaged the French fleet in battle at Quiberon Bay off the coast of France. Admiral Edward Hawke (1705-1781) chased the French into the bay during a November storm. He then ordered his ships to attack at will, rather than trying to remain in battle formation. They ended up destroying or capturing several French ships and taking the lives of twenty-five hundred French sailors. In contrast, the British lost only two ships and three hundred sailors.

This pivotal naval battle destroyed the only remaining French squadron in the Atlantic Ocean. It thus ended the threat of a French invasion of the British coast. In addition, the victory allowed the Royal Navy to control the Atlantic until the end of the war. From this time on, the British fleet destroyed shipments of goods to and from France and prevented the French from sending troops to Canada. The combination of all of these British successes led people in England to call 1759 "the year of miracles."