Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and presentLe Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
History
Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present
Le Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
Québec (Québec) -- Description and travel; Québec (Québec) -- Suburbs
"The two engagements," says Chauveau, "that of the 15th September,
1759, and that of the 28th of April, 1760, occupied nearly all the
plateau hereinbefore described. The first, however, it would seem, was
fought chiefly on the St. Louis road, whilst the second took place on
the Ste. Foye road. Each locality has its monument, one erected in the
honour of Wolfe, on the identical spot where he fell; the other in
1855, to commemorate the glorious fate of the combatants of 1760,
where the carnage was the thickest, viz: on the site where stood
Dumont's mill (a few yards to the east of the dwelling of J. W.
Dunscomb, Esq.)
"The victory of 1759 was a fitting reward of Wolfe's valour, punished
the infamies of the Bigot _régime_ and withdrew Canada from the
focus of the terrible chastisement which awaited France soon after--in
the Reign of Terror--for her impiety and immorality. The victory of
April, 1760, was a comforting incident--a species of compensation to a
handful of brave and faithful colonists, for the crushing disaster
which had befallen their cause, the preceding September. It was the
crowning--though bootless victory--to the recent brilliant, but
useless success of the French arms at Carillon, Monongahela, Fort
George, Ticonderoga, Beauport Flats. It was, moreover, the last title,
added to numerous others, to the esteem and respect of their
conquerors."
Of the second battle of the Plains, that of 28th April 1760, called by
some writers "The battle of Ste. Foye," by others "The battle of Sillery
Wood," so bloody in its results, so protracted in its duration, we have in
_Garneau's History_ the first complete account, the historian Smith
having glossed over with striking levity this "French victory." The loss
of the rival Generals, at the battle of the Plains, of September, 1759,
though an unusual incident in warfare, was not without precedent Generals
Braddock and DeBeaujeu in 1755, had both sealed on the battlefield their
devotion to their country with their blood on the shores of the
Monongahela, in Ohio; in this case as in that of Wolfe and Montcalm, he
whose arms were to prevail, falling first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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