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

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  Speaker 1: Section sixty seven of Mont Carmen Wulf 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 three. Murray, kindling at the site, thought that so
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  Speaker 1: favorable a moment was not to be lost, and ordered
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  Speaker 1: an advance. His line consisted of eight battalions, numbering a
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  Speaker 1: little above two thousand. In the intervals between them, the
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  Speaker 1: cannon were dragged through slush and mud by five hundred men,
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  Speaker 1: and at a little distance behind, the remaining two battalions
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  Speaker 1: followed as a reserve. The right flank was covered by
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  Speaker 1: Dalling's light infantry, the left by Hazen's company of rangers
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  Speaker 1: and a hundred volunteers under Major mac Donald. They all
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  Speaker 1: moved forward till they were on nearly the same ground
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  Speaker 1: where Wolfe's army had been drawn up. Then the cannon
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  Speaker 1: unlimbered and opened on the French with such effect that Levis,
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  Speaker 1: who was on horseback in the middle of the field,
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  Speaker 1: sent orders to the core of his left to fall
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  Speaker 1: back to the cover of the woods. The movement caused
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  Speaker 1: some disorder. Murray mistook it for retreat and commanded a
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  Speaker 1: farther advance. The whole British line, extending itself towards the right,
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  Speaker 1: pushed eagerly forward, in doing which it lost the advantage
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  Speaker 1: of the favorable position it had occupied, and the battalions
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  Speaker 1: of the right soon found themselves on low grounds, wading
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  Speaker 1: in half melted snow, which in some parts was knee deep.
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  Speaker 1: Here the cannon could no longer be worked with effect.
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  Speaker 1: Just in front, a small brook ran along them a
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  Speaker 1: hollow through soft mud and saturated snow drifts, then gurgled
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  Speaker 1: down the slope on the right to lose itself in
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  Speaker 1: the meadows of the Saint Charles. A few rods before
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  Speaker 1: this brook stood the house and windmill of Dumont, occupied
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  Speaker 1: by five companies of French grenadiers. The light infantry at
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  Speaker 1: once attacked them. A furious struggle ensued till at length
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  Speaker 1: the French gave way, and the victors dashed forward to
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  Speaker 1: follow up their advantage, their ardor cost them dear. The
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  Speaker 1: core on the French left, which had fallen back into
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  Speaker 1: the woods, now advanced again as the cannon ceased to play,
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  Speaker 1: rushing on without order, but with the utmost impetuosity, led
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  Speaker 1: by a gallant old officer, Colonel Dalkyr of the battalion
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  Speaker 1: of Bayarne. A bullet in the body could not stop him.
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  Speaker 1: The Light Infantry were overwhelmed, and such of them as
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  Speaker 1: were left alive were driven back in confusion upon the
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  Speaker 1: battalions behind them, along the front of which they remained
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  Speaker 1: dispersed for some minutes, preventing the troops from firing on
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  Speaker 1: the advancing French, who thus had time to reform their ranks.
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  Speaker 1: At length, the light infantry got themselves out of the
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  Speaker 1: way and retired to the rear, where, having lost nearly
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  Speaker 1: all their officers, they remained during the rest of the fight.
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  Speaker 1: Another struggle followed for the house and mill of Dumont,
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  Speaker 1: of which the French again got possession, to be again
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  Speaker 1: driven out, and it remained, as if by mutual consent,
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  Speaker 1: unoccupied for some time by either party, for above an
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  Speaker 1: hour or more. The fight was hot and fierce. We
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  Speaker 1: drove them back as long as we had ammunition for
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  Speaker 1: our cannon, says Sergeant Johnson. But now it failed and
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  Speaker 1: no more was to be had, because, in the eccentric
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  Speaker 1: phrase of the regiment, the Tumbrils were bogged in deep
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  Speaker 1: pits of snow. While this was passing on the English right,
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  Speaker 1: it fared still worse with them on the left. The
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  Speaker 1: advance of the line was no less disastrous here than there.
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  Speaker 1: It brought the troops close to the woods which circled
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  Speaker 1: round to this point from the French rear, and from
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  Speaker 1: which the Canadians, covered by the trees, now poured on
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  Speaker 1: them a deadly fire. Here, as on the right, Levis
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  Speaker 1: had ordered his troops to fall back for a time,
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  Speaker 1: but when the fire of the English cannon ceased, they
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  Speaker 1: advanced again, and their artillery, though consisting of only three pieces,
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  Speaker 1: played its part with good effect. Hazen's rangers and MacDonald's
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  Speaker 1: volunteers attacked and took the two adjacent block houses, but
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  Speaker 1: could not hold them. Hazen was wounded, MacDonald killed, and
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  Speaker 1: their party overpowered. The British battalions held their ground till
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  Speaker 1: the French, whose superior numbers enabled them to extend themselves
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  Speaker 1: on both sides beyond the English line, made a furious
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  Speaker 1: attack on the left wing in front and flank. The
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  Speaker 1: reserves were ordered up, and the troops stood for a
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  Speaker 1: time in sullen desperation under the storm of bullets. But
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  Speaker 1: they were dropping fast in the blood stained snow and
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  Speaker 1: the order came at length to fall back. They obeyed
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  Speaker 1: with curses, damn it, what is falling back? But retreating.
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  Speaker 1: The right wing, also outflanked, followed the example of the left.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the old corps tried to drag off their cannon,
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  Speaker 1: but being prevented by the deep mud and snow, they
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  Speaker 1: spiked the pieces and abandoned them. The French followed close,
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  Speaker 1: hoping to cut off the fugitives from the gates of
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  Speaker 1: Quebec to Levis. Seeing that the retreat, though precipitate, was
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  Speaker 1: not entirely without order, thought best to stop the pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: The fight lasted about two hours and did credit to
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  Speaker 1: both sides. The Canadians not only showed their usual address
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  Speaker 1: and courage when under cover of woods, but they also
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  Speaker 1: fought well in the open field, and the conduct of
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  Speaker 1: the whole French force proved how completely they had recovered
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  Speaker 1: from the panic of the last autumn. From the first
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  Speaker 1: they were greatly superior in number, and at the middle
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  Speaker 1: and end of the affair, when they had all reached
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  Speaker 1: the field, they were more than two against one. The English,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, Besoire tsides the opportunity of attacking
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  Speaker 1: before their enemies had completely formed, had a vastly superior
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  Speaker 1: artillery and a favorable position, both which advantages they lost
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  Speaker 1: after their second advance. Some curious anecdotes are told of
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  Speaker 1: the retreat. Colonel Fraser of the Highlanders received a bullet
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  Speaker 1: which was no doubt half spent, and which with excellent precision,
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  Speaker 1: hit the base of his cue, so deadening the shock
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  Speaker 1: that it gave him no other inconvenience than a stiff neck.
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  Speaker 1: Captain Hazen of the Rangers, badly wounded, was making his
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  Speaker 1: way towards the gate, supported by his servant, when he saw,
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  Speaker 1: at a great distance a French officer leading a file
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  Speaker 1: of men across a rising ground, whereupon he stopped and
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  Speaker 1: told the servant to give him his gun. A volunteer
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  Speaker 1: named Thompson, who was near by and who tells the story,
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  Speaker 1: thought that he was out of his senses, but Hazen persisted,
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  Speaker 1: seated himself on the ground, took a long aim, and
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  Speaker 1: brought down his man. Thompson congratulated him. A chance shot
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  Speaker 1: may kill the devil, replied Hazen, and resigning himself again
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  Speaker 1: to the arms of his attendant, he reached the town,
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  Speaker 1: recovered from his wound, and lived to be a general
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  Speaker 1: of the revolution. The English lost above a thousand, or
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  Speaker 1: more than a third of their whole number, killed, wounded
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  Speaker 1: and missing. They carried off some of their wounded, but
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  Speaker 1: left others behind, and the greater part of these were murdered, scalped,
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  Speaker 1: and mangled by the Indians, all of whom were converts
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  Speaker 1: from the mission villages. English writers put the French loss
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  Speaker 1: at two thousand and upwards, which is, no doubt a
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  Speaker 1: gross exaggeration. Levis declares that the number did not exceed
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  Speaker 1: six or eight hundred, but afterwards gives a list which
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  Speaker 1: makes it eight hundred and thirty three. Marae had left
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  Speaker 1: three or four hundred men to guard Quebec when the
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  Speaker 1: rest marched out, and adding them to those who had
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  Speaker 1: returned scathless from the fight, he now had about twenty
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  Speaker 1: four hundred rank and file fit for duty. Yet even
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  Speaker 1: the troops that were rated as effective were in so
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  Speaker 1: bad a condition that the hyperbolical sergeant Johnson calls them
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  Speaker 1: half starved scorbutic skeletons. That worthy soldier, commonly a model
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  Speaker 1: of dutiful respect to those above him, this time so
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  Speaker 1: far forgets himself as to criticize his general for the
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  Speaker 1: mad enthusiastic zeal, by which he nearly lost the fruits
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  Speaker 1: of Wolfe's victory. In fact, the fate of Quebec trembled
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  Speaker 1: in the balance. We were too few and weak to
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  Speaker 1: stand an assault, continues Johnson, and we were almost in
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  Speaker 1: as deep a distress as we could be. At first
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  Speaker 1: there was some drunkenness and some plundering of private houses,
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  Speaker 1: but Murray stopped the one by staving the rum barrels
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  Speaker 1: of the sutlers, and the other by hanging the chief offender.
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  Speaker 1: Within three days, order, subordination, hope, and almost confidence were
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  Speaker 1: completely restored. Not a man was idle. The troops left
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  Speaker 1: their barracks and lay in tents close to their respective
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  Speaker 1: alarm post. On the open space by Saint Louis Gate.
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  Speaker 1: A crowd of convalescence were busy in filling sand bags
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  Speaker 1: to strengthen the defenses, while the sick and wounded in
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  Speaker 1: the hospitals made wadding for the cannon. The ramparts were
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  Speaker 1: faced with fachines, of which a large stock had been
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  Speaker 1: provided in the autumn. Cheveau de Free were planted in
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  Speaker 1: exposed places. An outwork was built to protect Saint Louis
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  Speaker 1: Gate and braziers were cut along the whole length of
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  Speaker 1: the walls, and the French cannon captured when the town
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  Speaker 1: was taken were planted against their late owners. Every man
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  Speaker 1: was tasked to the utmost of his strength, and the garrison, gaunt,
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  Speaker 1: worn besmirched with mud, looked less like soldiers than like
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  Speaker 1: overworked laborers. The conduct of the officers troubled the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of Sergeant Johnson. It shocked his sense of the fitness
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  Speaker 1: of things to see them sharing the hard work of
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  Speaker 1: the private men, and he thus gives utterance to his feelings.
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  Speaker 1: None but those who were present on the spot can
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  Speaker 1: imagine the grief of heart the soldiers felt to see
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  Speaker 1: their officers yoked in the harness, dragging up cannon from
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  Speaker 1: the lower town, to see gentlemen who were sent over
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  Speaker 1: them by his majesty to command and keep them to
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  Speaker 1: their duty working at the batteries with the barrow, pickaxe
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  Speaker 1: and spade. The effect, however, was admirable. The spirit of
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  Speaker 1: the men rose to the crisis. Murray no less than
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  Speaker 1: his officers had all their confidence, for if he had
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  Speaker 1: fallen into a fatal error, he atoned for it now
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  Speaker 1: by unconquerable resolution and exhaustless fertility of resource. Deserters said
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  Speaker 1: that Levis would assault the town, and the soldiers replied,
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  Speaker 1: let him come on, he will catch a tartar. Levis
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  Speaker 1: and his army were no less busy in digging trenches
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  Speaker 1: along the stony back of the butt an Aveaux. Every
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  Speaker 1: day the English fire grew hotter, till at last nearly
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty cannon vomited iron upon them from
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  Speaker 1: the walls of Quebec, and May was well advanced before
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  Speaker 1: they could plant a single gun to reply. Their vessels
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  Speaker 1: had landed artillery at the Ans de Foulon, but their
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  Speaker 1: best hope lay in the succors they daily expected from
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  Speaker 1: the river below. In the autumn, Levis, with a view
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  Speaker 1: to his intended enterprise, had sent a request to Versailles
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  Speaker 1: that a ship laden with munitions and heavy siege guns
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  Speaker 1: should be sent from France in time to meet him
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  Speaker 1: at Quebec in April, while he looked also for another
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  Speaker 1: ship which had wintered at Gaspe, and which therefore might
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  Speaker 1: reach him as soon as navigation opened. The arrival of
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  Speaker 1: these vessels would have made the position of the English
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  Speaker 1: doubly critical. And on the other hand, should an English
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  Speaker 1: squadron appear first, Levis would be forced to raise the siege.
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  Speaker 1: Thus each side watched the river with an anxiety that
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  Speaker 1: grew constantly more intense, and the English presently descried signals
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  Speaker 1: along the shore which seemed to say that French ships
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  Speaker 1: were moving up. The Saint Lawrence, meanwhile doing their best
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  Speaker 1: to compass each other's destruction, neither side forgot the courtesies
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  Speaker 1: of war. Levis heard that Murray liked spruce bear for
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  Speaker 1: his table, and sent him a flag of truce with
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  Speaker 1: a quantity of spruce boughs and a message of compliment.
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  Speaker 1: Marae responded with a Cheshire cheese, and Levis readj joined
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  Speaker 1: with the present of partridges bad and scanty fair. Excessive
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  Speaker 1: toil and broken sleep were telling ominously on the strength
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  Speaker 1: of the garrison. When on the ninth of May, Murray,
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  Speaker 1: as he sat pondering over the fire at his quarters
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  Speaker 1: in Saint Louis Street, was interrupted by an officer who
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  Speaker 1: came to tell him that there was a ship of
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  Speaker 1: war in the basin beating up towards the town. Murray
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  Speaker 1: started from his reverie and directed that British colors should
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  Speaker 1: be raised immediately on Cape Diamond, the halliards being out
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  Speaker 1: of order, a sailor climbed the staff and drew up
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  Speaker 1: the flag to its place. The news had spread, men
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  Speaker 1: and officers, divided between hope and fear, crowded to the
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  Speaker 1: rampart by the chateau, where Durham Terrace now overlooks the
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  Speaker 1: Saint Lawrence, and every eye was strained on the approaching ship,
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  Speaker 1: eager to see whether she would show the red flag
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  Speaker 1: of England or the white one of France. Slowly her
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  Speaker 1: colors rose to the mast head and unfurled to the
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  Speaker 1: wind the red cross of Saint George. It was the
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  Speaker 1: British frigate Lowestoff. She anchored before the lower town and
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  Speaker 1: saluted the garrison with twenty one guns. The gladness of
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  Speaker 1: the troops, says Knox, is not to be expressed. Both
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  Speaker 1: officers and soldiers mounted the parapet in the face of
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, and hazard with their hats in the air.
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  Speaker 1: For almost an hour, the garrison, the enemy's camp, the bay,
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  Speaker 1: and circumjacent country resounded with our shouts and the thunder
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  Speaker 1: of our artillery. For the gunners were so elated that
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  Speaker 1: they did nothing but load and fire for a considerable time.
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  Speaker 1: In short, the general all satisfaction is not to be
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  Speaker 1: conceived except by a person who had suffered the extremities
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  Speaker 1: of a siege and been destined, with his brave friends
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  Speaker 1: and countrymen to the scalping knives of a faithless conqueror
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  Speaker 1: and his barbarous allies. The lowestoff brought news that a
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  Speaker 1: British squadron was at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence
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  Speaker 1: and would reach Quebec in a few days. Levis, in
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  Speaker 1: ignorance of this, still clung to the hope that French
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  Speaker 1: ships would arrive strong enough to overpower the unwelcome stranger.
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  Speaker 1: His guns, being at last in position, presently opened fire
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  Speaker 1: upon a wall that was not built to bear the
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  Speaker 1: brunt of heavy shot, But an artillery better and more
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  Speaker 1: numerous than his own almost silenced them, and his gunners
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  Speaker 1: were harassed by repeated sallies. The besiegers had now no
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  Speaker 1: real chance of success unless they could carry the place
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  Speaker 1: by storm, to which end they had provided abundant scaling ladders,
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  Speaker 1: as well as petards to burst in the gates. They made, however,
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  Speaker 1: no attempt to use them. A week passed, when on
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  Speaker 1: the evening of the fifteenth the ship of the line
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  Speaker 1: Vanguard and the frigate Diana sailed into the harbor, and
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  Speaker 1: on the next morning the Diana and the lowestoff passed
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  Speaker 1: the town to attack the French vessels in the river above.
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  Speaker 1: These were six in all, two frigates, two smaller armed ships,
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  Speaker 1: and two schooners. The hull under command of the gallant Vocala,
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  Speaker 1: he did not belie his reputation, fought his ship with
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  Speaker 1: persistent bravery till his ammunition was spent, refused even then
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  Speaker 1: to strike his flag, and, being made prisoner, was treated
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  Speaker 1: by his captors with distinguished honor. The other vessels made
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  Speaker 1: little or no resistance. One of them threw her guns
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  Speaker 1: overboard and escaped. The rest ran ashore and were burned.
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  Speaker 1: The destruction of his vessels was a death blow to
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  Speaker 1: the hopes of Levis, for they contained his stores of
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  Speaker 1: food and ammunition. He had passed the preceding night in
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  Speaker 1: great agitation, and when the cannonade on the river ceased,
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  Speaker 1: he hastened to raise the siege. In the evening, desertus
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  Speaker 1: from his camp told Murray that the French were in
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  Speaker 1: full retreat. On which all the English batteries opened, firing
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  Speaker 1: at random through the darkness and sending cannonballs on ricochet,
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  Speaker 1: bowling by scores together over the plains of Abraham on
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  Speaker 1: the heels of the retiring enemy. Murray marched out at
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  Speaker 1: dawn of day to fall upon their rear, But with
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  Speaker 1: one hundred fifty cannon bellowing behind them, they had made
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  Speaker 1: such speed that though he pushed over the marsh to
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  Speaker 1: Old Lorette, he could not overtake them. They had already
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  Speaker 1: crossed the river of cap Rouge, while with numbers still superior,
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  Speaker 1: they went off in such haste it is hard to say.
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  Speaker 1: They left behind them thirty four cannon and six mortars,
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  Speaker 1: with petards, scaling ladders, tents, ammunition, baggage, intrenching tools, many
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  Speaker 1: of their muskets, and all their sickened wounded. The effort
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  Speaker 1: to recover Quebec did great honor to the enterprise of
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the French, but it availed them nothing, served only to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: waste resources that seemed already at the lowest ebb and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: gave fresh opportunity of plunder to Kudey and his crew,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: who failed not to make use of it. After the
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  Speaker 1: Battle of Saint Foix. Murray sent the frigate race horse
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  Speaker 1: to Halifax with news of his defeat, and from Halifax
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  Speaker 1: it was sent to England. The British public were taken
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  Speaker 1: by surprise. Who the deuce was thinking of? Quebec, says
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  Speaker 1: Horace Walpole, America was like a book one has read
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  Speaker 1: and done with. But here we are on a sudden
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  Speaker 1: reading our book backwards. Ten days passed and then came
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  Speaker 1: word that the siege was raised and that the French
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  Speaker 1: were gone, upon which Walpole wrote to General Conway, well,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Quebec is come to life again. Last night I went
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  Speaker 1: to see the holdernesses. I met my lady in a
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  Speaker 1: triumphal car drawn by a Manx horse thirteen little fingers high.
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  Speaker 1: With Lady Emma. Mister Millbank was walking by himself in
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  Speaker 1: Ovation after the car, and they were going to see
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  Speaker 1: the bonfire at the Ale house at the corner. The
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  Speaker 1: whole procession returned with me, and from the Countess's dressing
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  Speaker 1: room we saw a battery fired before the house, the
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  Speaker 1: mob crying God bless the good news. These are all
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  Speaker 1: the particulars I know of the siege. My Lord would
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  Speaker 1: have shown me the journal, but we amused ourselves much
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  Speaker 1: better in going to eat peaches from the new Dutch
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  Speaker 1: stoves hot houses. End of section sixty seven.