by Dan Snow
6. Wolfe’s ‘Family Journal’, PRONI, DOD 162/77 C, 17.
7. Ibid.
8. A Plan of Discipline Composed for the Use of the Militia of the County of Norfolk (2 vols, London, 1759) II: 19.
9. Ibid., II: 21-3.
10. A Plan of Discipline Composed for the Use of the Militia of the County of Norfolk, II: 22, 39.
11. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th (Fraser’s Highlanders) and Serving in that Campaign (Literary and Historical Society of Quebec: Historical Documents, Second Series, 1868), 20.
12. Ibid., II: 43.
13. ‘Extracts from Journal of the Particular Transactions during the Siege of Quebec’, in A. Doughty and G. Parmelee, eds., The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (6 vols., Quebec, 1901), V: 188.
14. Townshend to Pitt, Camp before Quebec, 20 September 1759, ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 216-17.
15. Knox, Journal, I: 488.
16. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 107.
17. Stuart Reid has pointed out that had they been drawn up on the usual frontage of twenty-four inches per file as laid down in 1756 Regulations then it ought to have been about eight hundred yards. Instead Johnson says they were thirty-six inches apart.
18. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 24.
19. ‘Morning State, 13 September 1759’, PRO, CO 5/51, fol. 102.
20. McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain, II: 168. Many of the 78th pipe reels and airs have survived because they were written down in 1816 by Simon Fraser of Knockie, the son of a 78th officer who had an extensive knowledge of Gaelic tunes.
21. ‘Letter from Quebec, 7 October 1759’, from the Derby Mercury, 30 November to 7 December 1759, quoted in S. Brumwell, Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe (London, 2006), 279.
22. ‘Extract of a Journal Kept at the Army Commanded by the Late Lt Gen de Montcalm’, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1039.
23. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 23.
24. ‘Letter of Holmes, Lowestoft off Foulon in the River St. Laurence, above Quebec 18 September 1759’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 297.
25. ‘A Journal of the Siege of Quebec by Brigadier Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 269.
26. Wolfe to Monckton, 6 August 1759, LAC, Monckton Papers, XXII, rl C-336.
27. Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 41.
28. Ibid., 41; ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 214.
29. ‘General Wolfe to his Army’, in the appendix to the Murray Journal, printed in Knox, Journal, III: 335-6.
30. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 102, 103-4.
31. Knox, Journal, II: 99.
32. ‘A Journal of the Siege of Quebec by Brigadier Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 269.
33. ‘An Account of the Action which Happened near Quebec 13th September 1759’, in S. Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748-65: Selected Documents from the Cumberland Papers in Windsor Castle (New York, 1936), 438.
34. Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 40, 42.
35. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 104.
36. Knox, Journal, II: 99.
37. Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec, the Capital of all Canada, and of the Retreat of Monsieur de Bourlemaque, 29-30.
38. ‘A Journal of the Siege of Quebec by Brigadier Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 269.
39. Williamson to Board of Ordnance, Quebec, 20 September 1759, LAC, rl A-573.
40. ‘Extract of a Journal Kept at the Army Commanded by the Late Lt Gen de Montcalm’, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1039.
41. R. Holmes, Redcoat: The British Solider in the Age of Horse and Musket (London, 2001), 241.
42. ‘Journal du siège de Québec’, in The Northcliffe Collection (Ottawa, 1926), XXX: 229.
43. Vaudreuil to Lévis, 13 September 1759, in H. R. Casgrain, eds., Collection des manuscrits du Maréchal de Lévis (12 vols., Montreal and Quebec, 1889-95), VIII: 106.
44. Montreuil to Belle Isle, Pointe aux Trembles, 22 September 1759, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1014.
45. Ibid.
46. ‘Extract of a Journal Kept at the Army Commanded by the Late Lt Gen de Montcalm’, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1039.
47. ‘Letter of Admiral Holmes, Lowestoft, River above Quebec, 18 September 1759’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 297.
48. Chevalier de Johnstone, A Dialogue in Hades (Literary and Historical Society of Quebec: Second Series, Quebec, 1868-71), 43.
49. R. Léger, ed., Le Journal de Montcalm (Montreal, 2007), entry for 13 September 1759, 500.
50. ‘An Account of the Action which Happened near Quebec 13th September 1759’, in Pargellis, Military Affairs in North America, 438.
51. Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec, the Capital of all Canada, and of the Retreat of Monsieur de Bourlemaque, 30.
52. ‘Extract of a Journal Kept at the Army Commanded by the Late Lt Gen de Montcalm’, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1039.
53. J. B. N. R. de Ramezay, Mémoire du sieur de Ramezay, commandant à Québec, au sujet de la reddition de cette ville, le 18 septembre 1759(Quebec, 1861).
54. Vaudreuil to Berryer, HQ St Augustin, 4 Leagues from Quebec, 21 September 1759, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1010.
55. A royal regiment like the Royal Roussillon had permission to use fleurs-de-lis. Its colour had quarters of blue, scarlet, buff, and green and in the white cross between them, a scattering of fleurs-de-lis. The connection of lilies with the royal house of France stretched back to the conversion of the Frankish king Clovis in 493; they were adopted as a symbol by Charlemagne and all subsequent French monarchs.
56. Knox, Journal, II: 101.
57. Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 42.
58. Léger, Le Journal de Montcalm, entry for 13 September 1759, 500.
59. Malartic to Bourlamaque, 28 September 1759, in C. P. Stacey, Quebec 1759: The Siege and the Battle (Toronto, 2002), 162.
60. R. Léger, ed., Le Journal du Chevalier de Lévis (Montreal, 2008), 156.
61. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 20-1.
62. B. P. Hughes, British Smooth Bore Artillery: The Muzzle Loading Artillery of the 18th and 19th Centuries (London, 1969), 52-3. The figures he cites are from a later period although the equipment remained essentially unchanged. They are corroborated by studies made by the Prussian army during the Seven Years War.
63. Charles-Joseph Fürst von Ligne, quoted in C. Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason (London, 1987), 199-200.
64. If a regiment was too full of raw recruits it was not ‘fit for service’. In 1755 the 5th and 7th Foot were brought to England and put on the British establishment from Ireland. After a few months around 50 per cent of both were recruits and both were reported ‘too full of recruits to be as yet fit for service’. They would remain unfit for a year to come. J. Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-1795(Oxford, 1981), 133.
65. Malartic to Bourlamaque
, 28 September 1759, in Stacey, Quebec 1759, 162.
66. Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 42.
67. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 20.
68. An Accurate and Authentic Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1759, by a Gentleman in an Eminent Station on the Spot (London, 1759), 41.
69. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 24.
70. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 104.
71. Frederick the Great, Règles de ce qu’on exige d’un bon commandeur de battalion (1773), in Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason, 240.
72. A Plan of Discipline Composed for the Use of the Militia of the County of Norfolk, I: 1; II: 6.
73. The temptation to dull fear with alcoholic befuddlement was nothing new. ‘Dutch courage’ was an expression born in the seventeenth century when English troops campaigned in the Low Countries. The local tipple provided inspiration when the men’s patriotism or sense of Protestant solidarity fell short.
74. Knox, Journal, II: 101.
75. ‘Battle of Quebec, 20 September 1759, Quebec’, in Letters of Colonel Alexander Murray 1742-59, in H. C. Wylley, ed., The Sherwood Foresters: Notts and Derby Regiment. Regimental Annual 1926 (London, 1927), 216.
76. A Plan of Discipline Composed for the Use of the Militia of the County of Norfolk, I: 16.
77. Two of the most senior officers on the field that day, Mackellar and Lieutenant Colonel Murray, both suggest that the British line, in the words of Murray, ‘advanced very slowly and resolutely’ towards the French attack and started platoon firing when they were in range. When the two sides were very close then they stopped and gave one massive battalion volley. See ‘Battle of Quebec, 20 September 1759, Quebec’, in Letters of Colonel Alexander Murray 1742-59 in Wylley, The Sherwood Foresters: Notts and Derby Regiment. Regimental Annual 1926, 216 and Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 42. Other accounts emphasize the unmoving wait for the French attack and the scale of the opening volley when it came.
78. Knox, Journal, II: 101.
79. The Prussian musket issued a generation after the Seven Years War was designed in such a way as to make it virtually impossible to aim.
80. ‘From an Officer at Quebec’, Scots Magazine, 21 (October 1759), 552 in LAC, MG 18 N18, vol. V.
81. The Prussians reckoned on 60 per cent of their musket balls hitting a line of enemy troops at seventy-five yards. A Norfolk militia regiment conducted the same experiment and only 20 per cent of their shots hit the target. At half that distance the well-drilled regiments of Wolfe’s army would have achieved significantly better results. For the figures from these two experiments see Houlding, Fit for Service: The Training of the British Army, 1715-1795, 262 and Holmes, Redcoat: The British Solider in the Age of Horse and Musket, 198. At the battle of Fontenoy in May 1745 the British foot guards, after much saluting and mutual insistence that the other side fire first, poured a volley into two battalions of the gardes françaises at fifty yards. Four hundred French guardsmen were hit.
82. Houlding, Fit for Service, 318.
83. Holmes, Redcoat, 219.
84. ‘Instructions for the 20th Regiment’, Canterbury, December 1755, General Wolfe’s Instructions to Young Officers (London, 1778), 49.
85. ‘Extracts from Journal of the Particular Transactions during the Siege of Quebec’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 188.
86. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 104.
87. Robert MacPherson (Caipal Mhor ) to Andrew MacPherson, Camp before Quebec, 16 September 1759, James Grant Papers, Library of Congress, reprinted in full in McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain, I: 185-6.
88. A Journal of the Expedition up the River St Lawrence (by a Sgt Major in Hopson’s Grenadiers) (Boston, 1759), 11.
89. Knox, Journal, II: 101.
90. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 104.
91. Wolfe’s ‘Family Journal’, PRONI, DOD 162/77 C, 18.
92. Knox, Journal, II: 114.
93. Wolfe’s ‘Family Journal’, PRONI, DOD 162/77 C, 18; Johnson, Knox, and Henderson all left descriptions of the next few minutes which chime with Wolfe’s ‘Family Journal’.
94. Knox’s description is in Knox, Journal, II: 114. Henderson was rewarded for his service to the General with a commission in Bragg’s 28th Regiment. John Johnson claimed that Wolfe’s last words were ‘Do they run already: then I shall die happy’; in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 105. There are several other versions such as Holmes’ letter on Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 298; his ‘Family Journal’ reports that on being given the news of the French retreat he ‘smiled and said ’twas as expected’; PRONI, DOD 162/77 C, 18.
95. ‘A Journal of the Siege of Quebec by Brigadier Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 269.
96. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 20.
97. ‘From an Officer at Quebec’, Scots Magazine, 21 (October 1759), 552, LAC, MG 18 N 18, vol. V.
98. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 20.
99. General Wolfe’s Instructions to Young Officers, 47.
100. ‘From an Officer at Quebec’, Scots Magazine, 21 (October 1759), 552 in LAC, MG 18 N 18, vol. V.
101. ‘Letter of Holmes, Lowestoft off Foulon in the River St. Laurence, above Quebec 18 September 1759’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 298.
102. Robert MacPherson (Caipal Mhor) to Andrew MacPherson, Camp before Quebec, 16 September 1759, James Grant Papers, Library of Congress, reprinted in full in McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain, I: 186.
103. Sergeant James Thompson Journal, quoted in McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain, I: 189.
104. ‘John Johnson’s Journal’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 105.
105. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 21.
106. ‘Genuine Letters from a Volunteer in the British Service at Quebec’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 23.
107. ‘Battle of Quebec, 20 September 1759, Quebec’, in Letters of Colonel Alexander Murray 1742-59 in Wylley, The Sherwood Foresters: Notts and Derby Regiment. Regimental Annual 1926, 216.
108. ‘Extract of a Journal Kept at the Army Commanded by the Late Lt Gen de Montcalm’, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1039.
109. Wolfe’s ‘Family Journal’, PRONI, DOD 162/77 C, 18.
110. Vaudreuil to Berryer, HQ St Augustin, 4 Leagues from Quebec, 21 September 1759, in O’Callaghan and Fernow, Documents, X: 1011.
111. Vaudreuil to de Lévis, 13 September 1759, in Casgrain, Collection des manuscrits du Maréchal de Lévis, VIII: 107.
112. Logs: Stirling Castle, 13 September 1759, in Wood, The Logs of the Conquest of Canada, 315.
113. Extract from a Manuscript Journal Relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, Kept by Colonel Malcolm Fraser, the Lt of the 78th, 22-4.
114. Wolfe’s artilleryman Colonel Williamson claimed that the French commander was hit by some rounds from a canister fired by one of his six pounders. It capped what he regarded as a victory won entirely by his men and guns. He wrote to a senior British officer that ‘we fired our cannon so briskly seconded by the regiments that we fairly beat them in the open field’. Williamson to Sackville, 20 September 1759, in LAC, rl A-573.
115. Townshend to Lady Ferrers, Camp before Quebec, 20 September 17
59, in ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 202.
116. ‘A Journal of the Siege of Quebec by Brigadier Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, IV: 270.
117. Townshend to Pitt, Camp before Quebec, 20 September 1759, in ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 218.
118. Bougainville’s Journal for 1759-60 in E. P. Hamilton, ed., Adventure in the Wilderness: The American Journals of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, 1756-1760(Norman, OK, 1990), 320-1.
119. Bougainville’s Journal for 1759-60 in ibid., 321.
120. Townshend to Pitt, Camp before Quebec, 20 September 1759, in ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 218.
121. Moncrief, A Short Account of the Expedition against Quebec Commanded by Major-General Wolfe in the Year 1759, 43.
122. Monckton to Pitt, River St Lawrence, Camp at Point Lévis, 15 September 1759, PRO, CO 5/51 fol. 88.
123. Townshend to Amherst, Camp before Quebec, 26 September 1759, ‘Letters and Papers Relating to the Siege of Quebec in the Possession of the Marquess of Townshend’, in Doughty and Parmelee, Siege of Quebec, V: 221.
Chapter Fifteen: ‘Our rejoicings are not yet over’
1. Siege of Quebec and Conquest of Canada: in 1759. By a Nun of the General Hospital of Quebec (Quebec, 1855), 9.
2. Sergeant James Thompson Journal, quoted in I. McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain: The Highland Regiments in the French and Indian War, 1756-1767(2 vols., Toronto, 2006), I: 189.
3. PRO, CO 5/51 fol. 97.
4. Robert MacPherson (Caipal Mhor) to Andrew MacPherson, Camp before Quebec, 16 September 1759, James Grant Papers, Library of Congress, reprinted in full in McCulloch, Sons of the Mountain, I: 186.
5. Vaudreuil to de Lévis, 13 September 1759, in H. R. Casgrain, ed., Collection des manuscrits du Maréchal de Lévis (12 vols., Montreal and Quebec, 1889-95), VIII: 106.