The Winning of Canada: a Chronicle of WolfeWood, William
History
The Winning of Canada: a Chronicle of Wolfe
Wood, William
United States -- History -- French and Indian War, 1754-1763; Wolfe, James, 1727-1759
delight to have him so near them. I sometimes thought
I had lost poor Ned when I saw arms, legs, and heads
beat off close by him. A horse I rid of the colonel's,
at the first attack, was shot in one of his hinder
legs and threw me; so I was obliged to do the duty of
an adjutant all that and the next day on foot, in a
pair of heavy boots. Three days after the battle I
got the horse again, and he is almost well.
Shortly after Dettingen Wolfe was appointed adjutant and promoted to
a lieutenancy. In the next year he was made a captain in the 4th Foot
while his brother became a lieutenant in the 12th. After this they had
very few chances of meeting; and Edward, who had caught a deadly chill,
died alone in Flanders, not yet seventeen years old. Wolfe wrote home to
his mother:
Poor Ned wanted nothing but the satisfaction of seeing
his dearest friends to leave the world with the greatest
tranquillity. It gives me many uneasy hours when I
reflect on the possibility there was of my being with
him before he died. God knows it was not apprehending
the danger the poor fellow was in; and even that would
not have hindered it had I received the physician's
first letter. I know you won't be able to read this
without shedding tears, as I do writing it. Though it
is the custom of the army to sell the deceased's
effects, I could not suffer it. We none of us want,
and I thought the best way would be to bestow them on
the deserving whom he had an esteem for in his lifetime.
To his servant--the most honest and faithful man I
ever knew--I gave all his clothes. I gave his horse
to his friend Parry. I know he loved Parry; and for
that reason the horse will be taken care of. His other
horse I keep myself. I have his watch, sash, gorget,
books, and maps, which I shall preserve to his memory.
He was an honest and good lad, had lived very well,
and always discharged his duty with the cheerfulness
becoming a good officer. He lived and died as a son
of you two should. There was no part of his life that
makes him dearer to me than what you so often
mentioned--_he pined after me_.
It was this pining to follow Wolfe to the wars that cost poor Ned his
life. But did not Wolfe himself pine to follow his father?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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