Camp Cromwell Takes Quebec

After a spell of non-war travel with Chris & Irene in New York, Nova Scotia & Newfoundland, I left them in Truro for them to go east to Britain while I started my rail journey to Vancouver & home.  The overnight train dumped me at St Foye 12 km west of Quebec city at 6.15 am.  Following Wolfe's lead I decided to surprise the defenders of Quebec with a flank march walking along the riverside bike track to Fulton Cove where Wolfe landed before dawn on September 13 1759.  There I found a well sign posted walking trail following Wolfe's route up the cliff & across the top to the battlefield, arriving in the city in time for an excellent late breakfast in a sidewalk cafe.

Wolfe gambled all on an amphibious outflanking manoeure at night. Unusually for such adventures, it worked like clockwork.  Maybe a bit of throwing 6's was involved, but Wolfe also made his own luck with meticulous planning.   The track up the cliff from Fulton Cove was lightly defended as Montcalm overestimated the difficulty of scaling the cliff.  It is an imposing bluff, but really not that high. The initial landing party got past the first guard line by pretending to be a French supply convoy with some French speaking soldiers in the lead boats. A party stormed up the track while a party of light infantry scaled the cliff & outflanked the defence.  Wolfe landed about 4,000 men & 2 guns, got them to the top in the dark & deployed them for battle as he reconnoitred the ground. 

Montcalm's army was camped some miles away at Beauport east of Quebec.  He got it on the move & was able to deploy between Wolfe & Quebec on the so called plains of Abraham mid morning.  The Plains are now a park.  They are hardy "plains", being rolling ground with patches of woods.

Two lines of about 4,000 men faced each other.  Wolfe didn't try to bring his full force over the river to the action, but his force comprised his best regiments plus the grenadiers of the others.  The French probably couldn't believe that Wolfe could have got as many men as he did up the cliff in the dark as he did & they attacked as soon as they had deployed.  They fired a volley at too long a range & charged.  The British vets gave them one devastating volley at point blank range & counter-charged with the bayonet.  The French army broke & ran for the town.  After a night & half a morning of manoeuvre, that battle was over in minutes.  The only downside for the British was Wolfe's death on the battlefield.

With the British army on the Plains of Abraham in front of the city it was cut off from supply & had no alternative but surrender.

The battle was a very simple affair, but following the pre-battle manoeuvres made a very interesting morning, well worth doing.

The track up the cliff has been considerably improved - made into bike track.

The spot where Wolfe fell.

Another view of the "plains".  The pattern of the tree cover probably was probably quite different in 1759.