Image 1: Several of the thirteen ships from the Royal Navy set sail from Halifax, bound for Quebec, on May 5, 1759.
Image 1: Several of the thirteen ships from the Royal Navy set sail from Halifax, bound for Quebec, on May 5, 1759.
Image 2: General James Wolfe (shown above) was in charge of the British forces on land; Admiral Durell the naval siege.
Image 3: Defending Quebec was French general the Marquis de Montcalm.
Image 4: The French and Canadians sent blazing ships down the river to set the British ships on fire. General Wolfe apparently sent a letter to General Montcalm, stating: If you send any more fire-rafts, they shall be made fast to the two transports in which the Canadian prisoners are confined in order that they may perish by your own base invention.
Image 5: James Cook, ship’s master on Pembroke, charted difficult areas of the St. Lawrence River so that British warships would not run aground en route to Quebec. His logbook entry for September 13, 1759, states in part: “… our batteries at Priest Pt kept a continual fire against the town all night. At 8 A.M. the Adml made the sigl for all the boats man’d and unm’d to go to Point Levi … At 10 the English army, commanded by Genl Wolfe, atacked the French, under the command of Genl Montcalm, in the feilds of Aberham behind Quebec, and tottally defeated them …” In ships’ logs, short forms took the place of often-used words, such as sigl for signal, and spelling was not always consistent.
Image 6: British regulars boarded smaller boats to make landfall near Foulon, then sailors hauled cannons up the small road onto the Plains of Abraham, where they would face Montcalm’s forces.
Image 7: British regulars assemble on the Plains before the battle.
Image 8: A soldier is shown in the uniform of France’s Troupe de la Marine.
Image 9: A private of the 58th Foot wears his traditional uniform.
Image 10: As shown in this highly romanticized but famous painting, General Wolfe was mortally wounded during the battle on the Plains.
Image 11: The Royal Navy under sail was an imposing sight. Here, the fleet under Lord Howe sails from Spithead, England, towards the coast of France, in the late 1700s.
Image 12: New France in 1759, indicating the lands in dispute between Britain and France. The French colonists known as Acadians had been ruthlessly deported by the British, beginning in 1755.
Image 13: The Royal Navy took up positions all around Quebec. General Townsend in his official dispatch would write: “… how great a share the navy has had in this successful campaign.”
