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
double-breasted coats were made to button across, except at the top,
where the lapels turned back, like the cuffs and coat-tails. All these
'turnbacks' and the breeches were blue. The very long gaiters, the waist
and cross belts, the neckerchief and hat piping were white. Wearing this
distinctively plain uniform, and led by their buglers and drummers in
scarlet and gold, like state trumpeters, the Royal Americans could not,
even at a distance, be mistaken for any other regiment.
On June 6 Saunders and Wolfe sailed for Quebec with a hundred and
forty-one ships. Wolfe's work in getting his army safely off being over,
he sat down alone in his cabin to make his will. His first thought was
for Katherine Lowther, his _fiancee_, who was to have her own miniature
portrait, which he carried with him, set in jewels and given back to
her. Warde, Howe, and Carleton were each remembered. He left all the
residue of his estate to 'my good mother,' his father having just died.
More than a third of the whole will was taken up with providing for his
servants. No wonder he was called 'the soldier's friend.'
There was a thrilling scene at Louisbourg as regiment after regiment
marched down to the shore, with drums beating, bugles sounding, and
colours flying. Each night, after drinking the king's health, they had
drunk another toast--'British colours on every French fort, port, and
garrison in North America.' Now here they were, the pick of the Army
and Navy, off with Wolfe to raise those colours over Quebec, the most
important military point on the whole continent. On they sailed, all
together, till they reached the Saguenay, a hundred and twenty miles
below Quebec. Here, on the afternoon of June 20, the sun shone down on
a sight such as the New World had never seen before, and has never seen
again. The river narrows opposite the Saguenay and is full of shoals and
islands; so this was the last day the whole one hundred and forty-one
vessels sailed together, in their three divisions, under those three
ensigns--'The Red, White, and Blue'--which have made the British Navy
loved, feared, and famous round the seven seas. What a sight it was!
Thousands and thousands of soldiers and sailors crowded those scores
and scores of high-decked ships; while hundreds and hundreds of swelling
sails gleamed white against the sun, across the twenty miles of blue St
Lawrence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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