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67 - Montcalm and Wolfe by Francis Parkman, Jr. · Montcalm and Wolfe

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  Speaker 1: Section sixty six of Mont Carmen Wolf by Francis Parkman.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty nine,
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  Speaker 1: Part two. Captain Hazen and his rangers soon after had
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  Speaker 1: a notable skirmish. They were posted in a house not
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  Speaker 1: far from the station at Lorette. A scout came in
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  Speaker 1: with news that a large party of the enemy was
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  Speaker 1: coming to attack them, on which Hazen left a sergeant
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  Speaker 1: and fourteen men in the house and set out for
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  Speaker 1: loret with the rest to ask a reinforcement. On the way,
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  Speaker 1: he met the French who tried to surround him, and
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  Speaker 1: he told his men to fall back to the house.
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  Speaker 1: They remonstrated, saying that they felt spry and wanted to
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  Speaker 1: show the regulars that provincials could fight as well as redcoats.
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  Speaker 1: Thereupon they charged the enemy, gave them a close volley
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  Speaker 1: of buckshot and bullets and put them to flight. But
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  Speaker 1: scarcely had they reloaded their guns when they were fired
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  Speaker 1: upon from behind. Another body of assailants had got into
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  Speaker 1: their rear in order to cut them off. They faced about,
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  Speaker 1: attacked them and drove them back. Like the first. The
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  Speaker 1: two French parties then joined forces, left Hazen to pursue
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  Speaker 1: his march and attacked the fourteen Rangers in the house,
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  Speaker 1: who met them with a brisk fire. Hazen and his
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  Speaker 1: men heard the noise and hastening back, fell upon the
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  Speaker 1: rear of the French, while those in the house sallied
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  Speaker 1: and attacked them in front. They were again routed, and
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  Speaker 1: the Rangers chased them two miles, killing six of them
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  Speaker 1: and capturing seven. Knock in whose eyes provincials usually find
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  Speaker 1: no favor, launches, this time into warm commendation of our
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  Speaker 1: simply honest New England men. Fresh reports came in from
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  Speaker 1: time to time that the French were gathering all their
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  Speaker 1: strength to recover Quebec, and late in February these stories
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  Speaker 1: took a definite shape. A deserter from Montreal brought Murray
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  Speaker 1: a letter from an officer of Rangers who was a
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  Speaker 1: prisoner at that place, warning him that eleven thousand men
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  Speaker 1: were on the point of marching to attack him. Three
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  Speaker 1: other deserters soon after confirmed the news, but added that
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  Speaker 1: the scheme had met with a check for as it
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  Speaker 1: was intended to carry the town by storm, A grand
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  Speaker 1: rehearsal had taken place with the help of scaling ladders
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  Speaker 1: placed against the wall of a church, whereupon the Canadians
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  Speaker 1: rushed with such zeal to the assault that numerous broken arms, legs,
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  Speaker 1: and heads ensued, along with ruptures, sprains, bruises, and dislocation.
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  Speaker 1: Insomuch said the story that they became disgusted with the attempt.
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  Speaker 1: All remained quiet till after the middle of April, when
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  Speaker 1: the garrison was startled by repeated assurances that at the
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  Speaker 1: first breaking up of the ice, all Canada would be
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  Speaker 1: upon them. Murray accordingly ordered the French inhabitants to leave
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  Speaker 1: the town within three days. In some respects, the temper
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  Speaker 1: of the troops was excellent. In the petty warfare of
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  Speaker 1: the past winter. They had generally been successful, proving themselves
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  Speaker 1: a match for the bush rangers and Indians on their
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  Speaker 1: own ground, so that, as Sergeant Johnson remarks in his
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  Speaker 1: odd way, very often a small number of our men
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  Speaker 1: would put to flight a considerable party of those Cannibals.
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  Speaker 1: They began to think themselves invincible. Yet they had the
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  Speaker 1: deepest cause for anxiety. The effective strength of the garrison
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  Speaker 1: was reduced to less than half, and of those that
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  Speaker 1: remained fit for duty. Hardly a man was entirely free
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  Speaker 1: from scurvy. The rank and file had no fresh provisions,
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  Speaker 1: and in spite of every precaution, this malignant disease, aided
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  Speaker 1: by fever and dysentery, made no less havoc among them
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  Speaker 1: than among the crews of Jacques Cartier at this same
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  Speaker 1: place two centuries before. Of about seven thousand men left
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  Speaker 1: at Quebec in the autumn, scarcely more than three thousand
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  Speaker 1: were fit for duty. On the twenty fourth of April,
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  Speaker 1: about seven hundred had found temporary burial in the snow drifts,
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  Speaker 1: as the frozen ground was impenetrable as a rock. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: vor Roy was still at Montreal, where he says that
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  Speaker 1: he arrived just in time to take the most judicious
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  Speaker 1: measures and prevent General Amherst from penetrating into the colony.
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  Speaker 1: During the winter, some of the French regulars were kept
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  Speaker 1: in garrison at the outposts, and the rest quartered on
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants, while the Canadians were dismissed to their homes,
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  Speaker 1: subject to be mustered again at the call of the governor.
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  Speaker 1: Both he and Levis were full of the hope of
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  Speaker 1: retaking Quebec. He had spies and agents among Murray's soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: and though the citizens had sworn allegiance to King George,
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  Speaker 1: some of them were exceedingly useful to his enemies. Vordroy
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  Speaker 1: had constant information of the state of the garrison. He
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  Speaker 1: knew that the scurvy was his active and powerful ally,
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  Speaker 1: and that the hospitals and houses of Quebec were crowded
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  Speaker 1: with the sick. At the end of March, he was
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  Speaker 1: informed that more than half the British were on the
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  Speaker 1: sick list, and it was presently rumoured that Murray had
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  Speaker 1: only two thousand men able to bear arms. With every
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  Speaker 1: allowance for exaggeration in these reports, it was plain that
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  Speaker 1: the French could attack their invaders in overwhelming force. The
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  Speaker 1: difficulty was to find means of transportation. The depth of
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  Speaker 1: the snow and the want of draft animals made it
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  Speaker 1: necessary to wait till the river should become navigable, but
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  Speaker 1: preparation was begun at once. Levis was the soul of
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  Speaker 1: the enterprise. Provisions were gathered from far and near. Cannon
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  Speaker 1: mortars and munitions of war were brought from the frontier posts,
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  Speaker 1: and butcher knives were fitted to the muzzles of guns.
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  Speaker 1: To serve the Canadians. In place of bayonets. All the
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  Speaker 1: workmen about Montreal were busied in making tools and gun carriages.
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  Speaker 1: Stores were impressed from the merchants, and certain articles which
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  Speaker 1: could not otherwise be had, were smuggled with extraordinary address
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  Speaker 1: out of Quebec itself. Early in spring, the militia received
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  Speaker 1: orders to muster for the march. There were doubts and discontent,
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  Speaker 1: but says a contemporary, sensible people dared not speak, for
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  Speaker 1: if they did, they were set down as English. Some
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  Speaker 1: there were who in secret called the scheme Levis's folly.
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  Speaker 1: Yet it was perfectly rational, well conceived, and conducted with
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  Speaker 1: vigor and skill. Two frigates, two sloops of war, and
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  Speaker 1: a number of smaller craft still remained in the river
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  Speaker 1: under command of Vocalis, the brave officer who had distinguished
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  Speaker 1: himself at the siege of Louisbourg. The stores and cannon
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  Speaker 1: were placed on board these vessels. The army embarked in
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  Speaker 1: a fleet of batteaux, and on the twentieth of April
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  Speaker 1: the Hall set out together for the scene of action.
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  Speaker 1: They comprised eight batteries of troops of the line and
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  Speaker 1: two of Colony troops with the Colonial artillery three thousand
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  Speaker 1: Canadians and four hundred Indians when they left Montreal. Their
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  Speaker 1: effective strength besides Indians is said by Levis to have
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  Speaker 1: been six thousand, nine hundred and ten, a number which
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  Speaker 1: was increased as he advanced by the garrison of Jacques
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  Speaker 1: Cartier des Chambeau and Point ou Tromblais, as well as
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  Speaker 1: by the Canadians on both sides of the Saint Lawrence
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  Speaker 1: below three rivers. For voor Droy had ordered the militia
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  Speaker 1: captains to join his standard with all their followers, armed
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  Speaker 1: and equipped, on pain of death. These accessions appear to
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  Speaker 1: have raised his force to between eight and nine thousand.
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  Speaker 1: The ice still hung to the river banks. The weather
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  Speaker 1: was bad and the navigation difficult, but on the twenty
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  Speaker 1: sixth the army landed at Saint Auguste, crossed the river
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  Speaker 1: of cap Rouge on bridges of their own making, and
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  Speaker 1: moved upon the English outpost at Old Laurette. The English
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  Speaker 1: abandoned it and fell back to Saint Foix. Levis followed.
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  Speaker 1: Night came on with a gale from the southwest, a
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  Speaker 1: driving rain and violent thunder, unusual at that season. The road,
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  Speaker 1: a bad and oken one led through the marsh called
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  Speaker 1: Las Suade. Causeways and bridges broke down under the weight
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  Speaker 1: of the marching columns and plunged the men into water,
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  Speaker 1: mud and half thawed ice. It was a frightful night,
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  Speaker 1: said Levis, so dark that but for the flashes of lightning,
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  Speaker 1: we should have been forced to stop. The break of
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  Speaker 1: day found the vanguard at the edge of the woods
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  Speaker 1: bordering the farther side of the marsh. The storm had abated,
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  Speaker 1: and they saw before them, a few hundred yards distant
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  Speaker 1: through the misty air, a ridge of rising ground, on
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  Speaker 1: which stood the parish church of Saint Foix, with a
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  Speaker 1: row of Canadian houses stretching far to right and left.
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  Speaker 1: This ridge was the declivity of the Plateau of Quebec,
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  Speaker 1: the same which, as it approaches the town, some five
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  Speaker 1: or six miles towards the left, takes the name of
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  Speaker 1: Cote Debraham and Cote de Saint Genevieve. The church and
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  Speaker 1: the houses were occupied by British troops, who, as the
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  Speaker 1: French debouched from the woods, opened on them with cannon
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  Speaker 1: and compelled them to fall back. Though the ridge at
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  Speaker 1: this point is not steep, the position was a strong one.
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  Speaker 1: But had Levis known how few were as yet there
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  Speaker 1: to oppose him, he might have carried it by an
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  Speaker 1: assault in front. As it was, he resolved to wait
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  Speaker 1: till night and then flank the enemy by a march
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  Speaker 1: to the right along the border of the wood. It
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  Speaker 1: was the morning of Sunday, the twenty seventh. Till late
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  Speaker 1: in the night before. Murray and the Garrison of Quebec
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  Speaker 1: were unaware of the immediate danger, and they learned it
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  Speaker 1: at last through a singular stroke of fortune. Some time
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  Speaker 1: after midnight, the watch on board the frigate race horse,
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  Speaker 1: which had wintered in the dock at the lower town,
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  Speaker 1: heard a feeble cry of distress from the midst of
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  Speaker 1: the darkness that covered the Saint Lawrence. Captain McCartney was
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  Speaker 1: at once informed of it, and through an impulse of humanity,
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  Speaker 1: he ordered a boat to put out amid the drifting
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  Speaker 1: ice that was sweeping up the river with the tide.
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  Speaker 1: Guided by the faint cries, the sailor found a man
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  Speaker 1: lying on a large cake of ice, drenched and half
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  Speaker 1: dead with cold, and taking him with difficulty into their boat,
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  Speaker 1: they carried him to the ship. It was long before
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  Speaker 1: he was able to speak intelligibly, but at last, being
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  Speaker 1: revived by cordials and other remedies, he found strength to
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  Speaker 1: tell his benefactors that he was a sergeant of artillery
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  Speaker 1: in the army that had come to retake Quebec, that
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  Speaker 1: in trying to land, and a little above cap Rouge,
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  Speaker 1: his boat had been overset, his companions drowned, and he
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  Speaker 1: himself saved by climbing upon the cake of ice where
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  Speaker 1: they had discovered him. That he had been borne by
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  Speaker 1: the ebb tide down to the island of Orleans, and
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  Speaker 1: then brought up to Quebec by the floe, and finally
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  Speaker 1: that Levis was marching on the town with twelve thousand
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  Speaker 1: men at his back. He was placed in a hammock
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  Speaker 1: and carried up Mountain Street to the quarters of the general,
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  Speaker 1: who was roused from sleep at three o'clock in the
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  Speaker 1: morning to hear his story. The troops were ordered under arms,
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  Speaker 1: and soon after daybreak Murray marched out with ten pieces
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  Speaker 1: of cannon and more than half the garrison. His principal
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  Speaker 1: object was to withdraw the advanced posts at Saint Foix,
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  Speaker 1: cap Rouge, Sillery and Austere Foulon the storm had turned
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  Speaker 1: into a cold, drizzling rain, and the men, as they
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  Speaker 1: dragged their cannon through snow and mud, were soon drenched
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  Speaker 1: to the skin. On reaching Saint Foix, they opened a
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  Speaker 1: brisk fire from the heights upon the woods, which now
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  Speaker 1: covered the whole army of Levis, and, being rejoined by
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  Speaker 1: the various outposts, returned to Quebec in the afternoon, after
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  Speaker 1: blowing up the church, which contained a store of munitions
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  Speaker 1: that they had no means of bringing off. When they
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  Speaker 1: entered Quebec, a jill of rum was served out to
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  Speaker 1: each man. Several houses in the suburb of Saint Roch
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  Speaker 1: were torn down to supply them with firewood for drying
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  Speaker 1: their clothes, and they were left to take what rest
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  Speaker 1: they could against the morrow. The French meanwhile took possession
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  Speaker 1: of the abandoned heights, and while some filled the houses,
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  Speaker 1: barns and sheds of Saint Foix and its neighborhood, others,
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  Speaker 1: chiefly Canadians, crossed the plateau to seek shelter in the
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  Speaker 1: village of Sillery. Three courses were open to Murray. He
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  Speaker 1: could defend Quebec, fortify himself outside the walls on the
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  Speaker 1: Butte anaveaux or fight levice at all risks. The wars
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  Speaker 1: of Quebec could not withstand a cannonade, and he had
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  Speaker 1: long intended to intrench his army on the boots as
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  Speaker 1: a better position of defense. But the ground frozen like
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  Speaker 1: a rock, had thus far made the plan impracticable. Even now,
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  Speaker 1: though the surface was thawed, the soil beneath was still
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  Speaker 1: frost bound, making the task of fortification extremely difficult, if
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  Speaker 1: indeed the French would give him time for it. Murray
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  Speaker 1: was young in years, and younger still in impulse. He
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  Speaker 1: was ardent, fearless, ambitious, and emulous of the fame of Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: The enemy, he soon after wrote to Pitt, was greatly
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  Speaker 1: superior in number. It is true, But when I considered
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  Speaker 1: that our little army was in the habit of beating
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, and had a very fine train of field artillery,
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  Speaker 1: that shutting ourselves at once within the walls was putting
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  Speaker 1: all upon the single chance of holding out for a
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  Speaker 1: considerable time a wretched fortification, I resolved to give them battle,
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  Speaker 1: And half an hour after six in the morning, we
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  Speaker 1: marched with all the force I could muster, namely three
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  Speaker 1: thousand men. Some of these had left the hospitals of
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  Speaker 1: their own accord in their eagerness to take part in
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  Speaker 1: the fray. The rain had ceased, but as the column
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  Speaker 1: emerged from Saint Louis Gate, the scene before them was
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  Speaker 1: a dismal one. As yet there was no sign of spring.
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  Speaker 1: Each leafless bush and tree was dark with clammy moisture.
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  Speaker 1: Patches of bare earth lay oozy and black on the
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  Speaker 1: southern slopes, but elsewhere the ground was still covered with
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  Speaker 1: snow in some places, piled in drifts, and everywhere sodden
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  Speaker 1: with rain, while each hollow and depression was full of
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  Speaker 1: that half liquid, lead colored mixture of snow and water
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  Speaker 1: which New England schoolboys call slush. For all drainage was
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  Speaker 1: stopped by the frozen sub soil. The troops had with
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  Speaker 1: them two howitzers and twenty field pieces, which had been
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  Speaker 1: captured when Quebec surrendered, and had formed a part of
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  Speaker 1: that very battery which Ramsy refused to mount calm at
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  Speaker 1: the Battle of the Autumn before. As there were where
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  Speaker 1: no horses, the cannon were dragged by some of the soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: while others carried picks and spades. For as yet, Murray
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  Speaker 1: seems not to have made up his mind whether to
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  Speaker 1: fortify or fight. Thus they advanced nearly half a mile
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  Speaker 1: till reaching the Butte Aneuveaux. They formed in order of
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  Speaker 1: battle along their farther slopes, on the same ground that
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  Speaker 1: Montcalm had occupied on the morning of his death. Murray
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  Speaker 1: went forward to reconnoiter. Immediately before him was a rising ground,
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  Speaker 1: and beyond it a tract of forest called sillery Wood.
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  Speaker 1: A mile or more distant nearer, on the left, he
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  Speaker 1: could see two block houses built by the English in
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  Speaker 1: the last autumn, not far from the brink of the plateau,
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  Speaker 1: above the Austere Foulon where Wolf climbed the heights. On
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  Speaker 1: the right, at the opposing brink of the plateau was
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  Speaker 1: a house and a fortified windmill belonging to one Dumont.
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  Speaker 1: The block houses, the mill, and the rising ground between
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  Speaker 1: them were occupied by the vanguard of Levis's army, While
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  Speaker 1: behind he could descry the main body moving along the
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  Speaker 1: road from Saint Foix, then turning battalion after battalion, and
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  Speaker 1: rapidly marching across the plateau along the edge of cillery Wood.
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  Speaker 1: The two brigades of the leading column had already reached
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  Speaker 1: the block houses by the Anse de Filons and formed
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  Speaker 1: themselves as the right wing of the French line of battle,
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  Speaker 1: but those behind were not yet in position. End of
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  Speaker 1: Section sixty six