The British Capture of Quebec on 13 September 1759 in a Short Battle on the Plains of Abraham in Which Both Commanding Generals Were Killed

The Seven Years War (1756-1763) was the first global war of the modern era. Britain and France fought for control of North America, the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean, and parts of West Africa. The North American theatre — the French and Indian War in American terminology — centred on the competition for the Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes, and the St Lawrence corridor.

The strategic key to French North America was the city of Quebec — the provincial capital and the bottleneck through which the entire St Lawrence trading system passed. The British expedition of 1759 under the 32-year-old Major-General James Wolfe arrived in the St Lawrence in June 1759 with approximately 8,500 troops and a naval squadron under Vice-Admiral Charles Saunders.

Wolfe besieged Quebec from late June. The French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm — who had defeated Wolfe’s predecessor James Abercromby at the 1758 Battle of Carillon — held the city with approximately 14,000 troops and colonial militia. The siege lasted approximately ten weeks without progress.

The cliff

On the night of 12-13 September 1759 Wolfe ordered approximately 4,500 of his troops to attempt a landing at a small unguarded cove (the Anse au Foulon) approximately 3 km upstream from the city. The cove was below a 50-metre cliff that the French had assessed as un-climbable. A small French guard post at the top had been withdrawn for provisioning duties.

The British troops climbed the cliff path through the night and assembled on the plateau above — the Plains of Abraham — by approximately 4 a.m. Wolfe formed his battle line approximately 1 km west of the city walls and waited.

The battle

Montcalm received word of the British landing at approximately 6 a.m. He chose to engage immediately rather than wait for reinforcements from the provincial militia at the Beauport encampment. The decision has been criticised in subsequent military analysis — waiting would have given Montcalm a numerical advantage; immediate engagement gave the British a tactical-discipline advantage.

The two armies met at approximately 10 a.m. The British army held formation in a thin line two ranks deep, fired a controlled volley at approximately 35 metres range, and then advanced into the French line. The French line, predominantly regulars supplemented by colonial militia, broke within approximately fifteen minutes. The entire engagement lasted approximately twenty minutes.

Both commanding generals were killed.

James Wolfe was hit by a musket ball in the wrist during the initial volley, then a second ball through the chest during the advance. He died approximately ten minutes later on the battlefield. His reported last words were “Now God be praised, I will die in peace” after a aide had reported that the French were running. He was 32.

Montcalm was hit by a musket ball in the lower back during the French retreat. He was carried into the city, survived approximately 13 hours, and died of internal haemorrhage on the morning of 14 September. He was 47.

What followed

The Quebec garrison commander Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Roch de Ramezay surrendered the city on 18 September 1759. The French attempt to recapture Quebec the following spring failed at the Battle of Sainte-Foy (28 April 1760), and Montreal surrendered to a three-pronged British invasion on 8 September 1760. French Canada passed to British control.

The 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War transferred all of French North America east of the Mississippi to Britain. France retained only the Caribbean sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and the small French Guiana enclave on the South American mainland.

The subsequent British administration of the newly-acquired French Canadian colony produced the 1774 Quebec Act, which recognised French Canadian Catholic civil law and language rights. The Act infuriated the Thirteen Colonies further south and contributed to the 1776 American Revolution.

The Wolfe and Montcalm joint monument was erected at the Governor’s Garden in Quebec City in 1828 — 69 years after the battle — with a inscription honouring both commanders. It is one of the few monuments in the Western Hemisphere that honours both commanders of a battle.