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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16724-h.zip b/16724-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6d3261 --- /dev/null +++ b/16724-h.zip diff --git a/16724-h/16724-h.htm b/16724-h/16724-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d27025 --- /dev/null +++ b/16724-h/16724-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1325 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Campaign of 1760 in Canada, by Chevalier Johnstone. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes { /* only use is for border, background-color of block */ + border-width: medium; border-style: solid; color:#000000; + background-color: #EEE; + padding: 0 1em 1em 1em; + } + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Campaign of 1760 in Canada, by Chevalier Johnstone + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Campaign of 1760 in Canada + A Narrative Attributed to Chevalier Johnstone + +Author: Chevalier Johnstone + +Release Date: September 19, 2005 [EBook #16724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPAIGN OF 1760 IN CANADA *** + + + + +Produced by Alison Hadwin, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> +<h1>THE<br /> +CAMPAIGN of 1760 in CANADA</h1> + +<h4> </h4> +<h4>A NARRATIVE ATTRIBUTED TO</h4> +<h2>CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE.</h2> + +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4>Published under the Auspices of the</h4> +<h3>Literary and Historical Society of Quebec</h3> + + + +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4>QUEBEC:</h4> +<h4>PRINTED AT THE "MORNING CHRONICLE" OFFICE</h4> + +<h4>1887.</h4> + +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4> </h4> +<h4>[<span class="smcap">Published under the Auspices of the Literary and Historical Society<br /> + of Quebec</span>.]</h4> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Campaign of 1760 in Canada.</span></h2> + +<h3>A Sequel</h3> + +<h4>ATTRIBUTED TO CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE.</h4> + +<p>Hope that heavenly, healing balm, that gift from Providence, blended +with persecutions to blunt the sharpness of their sting and hinder the +unfortunate from being overwhelmed, and sinking under the load of +their afflictions, never dies out—never abandons the distressed. "We +don't believe in dangers," says Machiavel, "until they are over our +heads; but we entertain hopes of escaping them when at a great +distance." Hope does not abandon the pale, dying man: in his agony he +still fells life, and in his thoughts he does not detach himself from +it. Death strikes, before his heart has realized that he could cease +to live. Search in the prisons: hope dwells there with the wretch who +next day is to undergo his sentence of death. Every time the bolts +rattle, he believes his deliverance entering with the jailer. Whole +years of slavery have not been able to wear out this consoling +sentiment. These contradictions,—these differences of seeing,—these +returns,—this stormy flow and ebb, are so many effects of hope, which +plays upon us and never ceases. It is inherent in human nature to hope +in adversity for a favorable change of fate, however the appearances +may be ill-grounded of an end to its pain and suffering.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span></p> + +<p>The Canadians, without the least apparent reason, still flattered +themselves to save their country, and did not lose the hope of +retaking Quebec, though without artillery and warlike stores. All +minds were occupied during the winter in forming projects of capturing +that town, which were entirely chimerical, void of common sense, and +nowise practicable. No country ever hatched a greater number—never +projects more ridiculous and extravagant; everybody meddled. The +contagion spread even to my Lord Bishop and his seminary of priests, +who gave their plan, which, like all the others, lacked only common +sense and judgment. In short, a universal insanity prevailed at +Montreal. Amongst thousands of the productions of these distempered +brains, that of surprising Quebec by a forced march in winter and +taking it by escalade, was the only one where there was the least +chance of success. This project was for some time agitated so +seriously, that workmen were employed in making wooden ladders; but +having always looked upon it as a wild and extravagant fancy of +priests and old women, I constantly argued against it whenever they +spoke of it, and it was continually the topic of conversation.</p> + +<p>The Upper Town of Quebec lies upon the top of a rock, about two +hundred feet high, almost perpendicular in some parts of it, and +everywhere extremely steep and inaccessible, excepting towards the +<i>Hauteurs d'Abraham</i>, which is a continuation of the same hill, that +begins at Quebec and ends at Cap Rouge, diminishing gradually in +height in the space of these three leagues. The Lower Town is a narrow +piece of ground, from a hundred to four or five paces<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> broad, +between the foot of the rock and the St. Lawrence.</p> + +<p>There is a street which goes up to the Upper Town without a +continuation of houses; it is impossible to climb up the rock from the +Lower Town, as I was employed three weeks upon it with miners and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> +other workmen, to render all the footpaths impracticable; we finished +only a few days before the arrival of the English fleet (in 1759). A +town built upon a vast extent of ground, which would require an army +to defend it, such as Ghent in Flanders, and which might be approached +on all sides at the same time, in order to divide the troops of the +garrison equally over all the town, may be surprised and taken by +escalade, and in our desperate situation might have been attempted by +risking all for all. A surprise in a dark night must naturally spread +universal terror, disorder and panic amongst those who are taken +unawares, and must soon be communicated through all the quarters of +the town. The soldiers are so much the more terrified that they know +not where they are most in danger; not like during a siege, where the +place for the assault is marked by the breach. Their heads turn, and, +deprived of judgment, coolness and reflection, they think rather of +escaping the slaughter that ensues when a town is being captured in +this manner, than of defending the ramparts. But Quebec being +accessible only on that side of it which faces the heights of Abraham, +and having nothing to fear elsewhere, the moment an alarm is sounded, +all the force of the garrison must naturally be there. Thus the +English having seven thousand men in the town—almost as many as our +army proposed for the escalade to invest all that part of the town +open to attack—it is likely that we should have lost the half of our +army in the attempt, and at last, after a horrible slaughter of men, +have been obliged to return ignominiously from whence we came. +Besides, supposing that we had even taken the Lower Town by escalade, +we would not have been further advanced. The English, in half an hour +afterwards, by burning it, by throwing down from the Upper Town upon +the roofs of the houses fire pots, shells and other combustible +matter, could have soon chased us out of it, or buried <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>us under its +ruins. This project, after having furnished for a long time matter for +the daily conversations of Montrealers, was at last considered by M. +de Levis, and classed as it deserved, amongst the vagaries of bedlam; +he substituting a scheme in its place which was reasonable, well +combined, doing honor to his ability and talent.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The four or five paces of 1760 have now attained seven or +eight acres.—(L)</p></div> + +<p>M. de Levis, in giving an account to the Court of the loss of all our +artillery and stores at Quebec, gave likewise all possible assurances +that he would re-take the town in the spring and save the colony, +provided they would send to him from Europe a ship loaded with +field-pieces and ammunition, to set sail from Europe in the month of +February, in order to be in the St. Lawrence river before the arrival +of the English, and near Quebec in the month of April. He collected +our army as soon as the season permitted; got together about twelve +pieces of old cannon, which had been laid aside for many years, and +with a small quantity of gunpowder and very few bullets, he set out +from Montreal with his army towards the beginning of April, the snow +being as yet upon the ground; and he conducted his march so well that +the army arrived at Cap Rouge, three leagues from Quebec, without the +enemy having any information of their having left Montreal. He did not +flatter himself to be able to take Quebec with such a despicable train +of artillery, and his design was only to invest the town; to open the +trenches before it; to advance his approaches, and be in a position, +the moment the ships he had asked from the Court should arrive, to +land the cannon, placing them instantly upon the batteries ready to +receive them, and without loss of time to batter the town immediately.</p> + +<p>Fortune favored him to the height of his wishes, and if the ships had +arrived with the artillery he expected from France, that town could +scarce have held out for four and twenty hours, by which means he +would have had the glory of preserving to his country the colony of +Canada, then reduced to its last gasp.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> + +<p>The English got the news of our army's being at Cap Rouge by a most +singular accident, which greatly manifests the predominant power of +Fortune in military operations, and shows that the greatest general +cannot guarantee success or put himself out of the reach of those +events which human understanding cannot foresee, whereby the best +combined and well-formed schemes are frustrated in their execution. In +all appearance we would have taken Quebec by surprise had it not been +for one of Fortune's caprices, that have often as much share in the +events of war as the genius and talents of the greatest generals.</p> + +<p>The Athenians were not in the wrong to paint Timotheus asleep, whilst +Fortune, in another part of the picture, was spreading nets over towns +to take them for him.</p> + +<p>An artillery boat having been overturned and sunk by the sheets of +ice, which the current of the St. Lawrence brought down with great +force, an artilleryman saved himself on a piece of ice that floated +down the river with him upon it, without a possibility of his getting +to land, when he was opposite to the city.</p> + +<p>The English, so soon as they perceived that poor distressed man—moved +with humanity and compassion—sent out boats, who with difficulty +saved him (the river being covered with fields of ice), and brought +him to town with scarce any sign of life. Having restored him with +cordials, the moment he began to breathe and recover his senses, they +asked him from whence he came, and who he was? he answered, +innocently, that he was a French cannonier from M. de Levis' army at +Cap Rouge. At first they imagined he raved, and that his sufferings +upon the river had turned his head; but, after examining him more +particularly and his answers being always the same, they were soon +convinced of the truth of his assertions, and were not a little +confounded to have the French army at three leagues from Quebec, +without possessing the smallest information <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>of the fact. All their +care proved ineffectual for the preservation of life; he expired the +moment he had revealed this important secret. What a remarkable and +visible instance of fortune fighting for the English—equal at least +to the cloud of rain that saved General Wolfe's army the year +preceding at his attack of 31st of July, at Montmorenci. Had it not +been for this most unaccountable accident, to all appearance M. de +Levis would have captured all the English advanced posts, which were +said to amount to fifteen hundred men, who retired to the town +immediately after setting fire to the magazine of powder in the church +of St. Foy, which ammunition they had not the time to carry with them.</p> + +<p>Nor would it have been surprising if M. de Levis, at the gates of +Quebec with his army, without being discovered, had taken it by +surprise. It is certain that luck has more or less share in all the +events of life, and this is more particularly visible in the +operations of war. Hazards may be constantly in the favor of a general +blindly protected by that goddess, against an adversary with far +superior talents. Everybody must acknowledge Prince Eugene's +superiority of genius, when compared with the Duke of Marlborough; but +Marlborough was always as fortunate in having continually unforeseen +accidents in his favor, as Prince Eugene was unlucky to have them +against him to thwart and cross the execution of the best-combined +projects, which extorted admiration, and seemed to have only need of +Fortune's standing neuter to be successful. The fate of an army,—can +it depend upon the personal good fortune of the General who commands +it? Cardinal Mazarin seemed to be of this opinion, since he never +failed to ask those who recommended persons to him to head +expeditions, "is he lucky?"—<i>est-il heureux</i>? Can it be surmised that +fortune acts with her favorite sons at the head of armies, as she does +at gambling tables? However it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>may be, a great General will always +watch vigilantly the chapter of accidents—seize rapidly that which is +favorable to him, and, by his prudence, foresight and circumspection, +will ward off and correct what is contrary to his interests. The +smallest things are not unworthy of his attention; they often produce +the greatest events, and the neglecting what at first view might +appear trivial, has often overturned the best-calculated schemes. The +most trifling of our actions becomes often a first cause which +produces an endless chain of effects—linked to each other—of the +greatest importance. The boat sunk by the ice, at Cap Rouge, was a +first cause. The cannonier, by this accident, was upon a sheet of ice +in the middle of the St. Lawrence, opposite to Quebec; this inspired +with pity the English to save his life. This humane action of the +English in saving the unhappy cannonier, saved Quebec from being taken +by surprise, which probably would have been the case without his +information, that M. de Levis' army was at Cap Rouge. If taken by M. +de Levis, it would have deterred the English from any further attempt +upon Canada, and peace would have soon ensued. But by the cannonier's +declaration, it was not taken, and consequently the war was prolonged.</p> + +<p>Quebec in possession of the English rendered the conquest of Canada +inevitable and sure. The possession of that vast country of Canada, +after so much blood, and such immense expenses it had cost the English +in these different expeditions, excited too much the cupidity of the +English to consent to a peace upon reasonable conditions, and induced +them to extend their conquest to other French colonies.</p> + +<p>The possession of so many French and Spanish colonies by the English +brought about the shameful peace that France and Spain were obliged to +receive at the hands of the English, upon the hardest terms, as laws +of the conqueror.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> + +<p>The boat upset and sunk at Cap Rouge was the primary cause and the +first link of the chain which had the greatest influence over all the +affairs of Europe. If M. de Levis had saved the cannonier at Cap +Rouge, what a multitude of events would have been nipped in the bud! +Perhaps even Great Britain would have been forced to receive the peace +from France instead of granting it on her own conditions.</p> + +<p>There is scarcely any human action that is not the beginning of a +chain of results.</p> + +<p>The French army took possession of the village of St. Foye the moment +the English went out of it, retiring to Quebec, and passed there the +night between the 27th and 28th of April. Next morning M. de Levis +being informed that the English army was come out of the town, and +that they were drawn up in battle upon the same ground that the French +army had occupied the year before at the battle of the 13th September, +he drew out his men and advanced in order of battle to meet the +English army. Though fully persuaded that the English general would +not risk a battle out of his town, where he had a great deal to lose +in being beat, and could gain little by a victory, he was fully +persuaded that he would return at the approach of the French army.</p> + +<p>General Murray, who does the greatest honor to his country by his +great knowledge of the art of war, good sense and ability, had come +out of the town in order to cover that place with a retrenchment, +which was very evident from the prodigious quantity of working tools +that were taken by the French; and the vast rapidity with which the +French army advanced in all appearance, deprived him of the +possibility of getting back into Quebec without leaving a part of them +to be cut to pieces by the Canadians.</p> + +<p>The English army had the advantage of position. They were drawn up in +battle upon rising ground, their front armed with twenty-two brass +field-pieces—the Palace <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>battery which De Ramsay refused to Send to +M. de Montcalm. The engagement began by the attack of a house +(Dumont's) between the right wing of the English army and the French +left wing, which was alternately attacked and defended by the Scotch +Highlanders and the French Grenadiers, each of them taking it and +losing it by turns. Worthy antagonists!—the Grenadiers, with their +bayonets in their hands, forced the Highlanders to get out of it by +the windows; and the Highlanders getting into it again by the door, +immediately obliged the Grenadiers to evacuate it by the same road, +with their daggers. Both of them lost and retook the house<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> several +times, and the contest would have continued whilst there remained a +Highlander and a Grenadier, if both generals had not made them retire, +leaving the house neuter ground. The Grenadiers were reduced to +fourteen men—a company at most. No doubt the Highlanders lost in +proportion. The left of the French army, which was in hollow ground, +about forty paces from the English, was crushed to pieces by the fire +of their artillery loaded with grape-shot. M. de Levis, perceiving +their bad position, sent M. de La Pause, Adjutant of the Guienne +Regiment, with orders for the army to retire some steps behind them, +in order to occupy an eminence parallel to the rising ground occupied +by the English; but whether this officer did not comprehend M. de +Levis' intentions, or whether he delivered ill the orders to the +different regiments, by his stupidity the battle was very near being +lost irremediably. He ran along the line, ordering each regiment to +the right about, and to retire, without any further explanation of M. +de Levis' orders. Some of the left of the French army being so near as +twenty paces to the enemy, the best disciplined troops in that case +can scarce be expected to be able to retire without the greatest +disorder and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>confusion, or without exposing themselves evidently to +be defeated and slaughtered. Upon this movement, the English, +believing them in flight, quitted their advantage of the rising ground +in order to pursue them, complete their disorder, and break them +entirely. M. Dalquier, who commanded the Bearn Regiment, with the +troops of the colony upon the left of the French army, a bold, +intrepid old officer, turned about to his soldiers when La Pause gave +him M. de Levis' order to retire, and told them, "It is not time now, +my boys, to retire when at twenty paces from the enemy; with your +bayonets upon your muskets, let us throw ourselves headlong amongst +them—that is better." In an instant they fell upon the English +impetuously—with thrusts of bayonets hand to hand, got possession, +like lightning, of their guns; and a ball which went through +Dalquier's body, which was already quite covered with scars of old +wounds, did not hinder him from continuing giving his orders. +Poularies, who was on the right flank of the army, with his regiment +of Royal Roussillon, and some of the Canadian militia, seeing Dalquier +stand firm, and all the troops of the centre having retired in +disorder, leaving a space between the two wings, he caused his +regiment with the Canadians to wheel to the left, in order to fall +upon the left flank of the English army, the French army extending +further to their right beyond the English left wing. The enemy no +sooner perceived Poularies' movement, than they immediately fled with +precipitation and confusion, and were so panic-stricken that not an +English soldier could be rallied by their officers, several of whom +were taken prisoners. The French troops who had retired advanced +immediately, and all the French army pursued so hotly the English, +that if the cry had not been raised to halt, it is very doubtful if +they would not have got into Quebec pell-mell with the fugitives, +being near the town-gates when this cry began. Thus Quebec would have +been retaken in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>a most singular manner,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> unforeseen and +unpremeditated. I know nothing worse than ill-disciplined troops; +certainly a brave militia, with its simple, ancient way of fighting, +even not drilled, is preferable to a force having a crude notion of +discipline—a science entirely neglected in Canada amongst French +regular troops; so that the French regiments there might be looked +upon as differing very little from the Canadian militia. The method of +managing militia and well-disciplined regular troops appears to be +quite as different as they differ in nature. A cool, phlegmatic, +undaunted bravery is the fruit of an excellent discipline, rendering +the soldiers capable, when repulsed, to return several times to the +assault, and rally of their own accord. But the strength and merit of +the militia resembles a hot, ardent, raging fire, that must be +suffered to blaze until it dies out of itself: it is a flash, an +explosion, that often works prodigies, and which, when stifled, there +is no possibility of preventing the immediate disorder that must +ensue, nor any means of bringing it back a second time to face the +enemy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Note</span>.—The preceding winter had been employed in skirmishing +around Quebec.—(J.M.L.)</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Dumont's Mill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> "On the night of the eighteenth of March, two hundred +light infantry were detached from the Garrison of Quebec, with three +days' provisions, and a company of Grenadiers, marched the next day to +Lorette Church, being the place of rendezvous. The whole proceeded to +Calvaire, accompanied by a French deserter in a British uniform. In +this route they surprised an advanced post of the French, and made the +party prisoners, consisting of a corporal and nine privates; having +secured these, they pushed forward with the greatest speed, fearing +that a straggling peasant, whom they met, should mar their further +views by alarming the country. The light infantry having reached the +wished for object, which was a strong camp or entrenchment of logs and +timber, with a house detached at a small distance from it, they +carried the dwelling house With their accustomed bravery, killed four +and took the rest, being twenty in number, some of whom were wounded. +The main body of the French by this time had manned their works, which +were breast high, and environed with an abattis of wood, to the +distance of about three hundred yards, whence they fired a few random +shots and shouted as usual. Capt. McDonald, who commanded this +detachment, seeing the French advantageously situated, and perceiving +their officers very active in encouraging their men, expected a warm +dispute, and therefore made a disposition to attack them in form. As +soon, however, as the light infantry advanced to the charge, the +French threw down their arms and took to flight, when near eighty of +them were made prisoners. In the attack the English had only six +wounded; but the French lost five killed and thirteen wounded. Capt. +McDonald destroyed the post, three corn-mills, granaries, and other +houses contiguous thereto. The French prisoners were brought to +Quebec, except the wounded, who were left in charge of the peasants, +with directions to conduct them to Jacques Cartier. Near one hundred +soldiers of the English detachment were frost-bitten, and were brought +back to the garrison on sleighs. Capt. Herbin, the commanding officer, +escaped; but his watch, hat, and feather, 'fille de joie,' with a cask +of wine and case of liqueurs, were taken. +</p><p> +"The Governor of Quebec (General Murray) sent the Town Major to the +Mother Abbess of the Convent of Hotel Dieu, to acquaint her with the +reasons that induced him to destroy their mills and tenements at +Calvaire: namely, on account of her having transmitted intelligence to +the French, of the last detachment's being ordered to be in readiness +to march out; for having actually carried on a correspondence with the +French army in the whole course of the winter, whereby they were +informed of all movements, proceedings, and every other occurrence +that happened within the walls: the Governor also signified to her, +that if either she or her sisters should presume to correspond in +future with the French, either directly or indirectly, or in any +respect act contrary to good faith and the duty they owed to the King +of Great Britain, they should, without further ceremony, be banished +from Quebec, and their convent be converted into a barrack for the +troops. As Madame de St. Claude, who was sister to M. de Ramsay, and +Superior of the General Hospital, had always been inimical to the +English in propagating falsehoods, and in encouraging the Canadians to +resist, General Murray sent the Brigade-Major to signify to this lady +that she should desist from such conduct; and that as she appeared to +take a great interest in the affairs of this world, and seemed tired +of her seclusion, he would enlist her as a Grenadier, which from her +stature (full six feet) she was qualified to be, and that he would +promote her the first opportunity that presented <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>itself."—(<span class="smcap">Smith</span>.)</p></div></div> + +<p>The French had about two thousand killed and wounded in this battle of +the 27th (? 28th) of April, of which number there was an hundred and +ten officers of the regular troops, besides a great many officers of +the Canadian militia: so they might say with Pyrrhus, the day of his +victory over the Romans—"Again such another victory, and I would be +undone!"</p> + +<p>M. de Levis opened the trenches the same night before Quebec, and they +were carried on with such activity that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>his batteries were soon ready +to receive the guns necessary to make a breach.</p> + +<p>But the most considerable of his bad pieces was a twelve pounder, +which he mounted upon batteries, firing at times with the greatest +economy, as he had but a small store of gunpowder. There needed only +the arrival of a ship from France with artillery and ammunition to +crown M. de Levis with glory. The English in Quebec confessed that the +first flag that would appear in the St. Lawrence would decide the +question, if Canada should remain in possession of the English or +return to the French.</p> + +<p>No ships arrived from France with artillery. The fate of Canada was at +last settled by the appearance of three English men-of-war, on the 7th +of May. They ascended immediately the St. Lawrence without stopping at +Quebec. They attacked the small French frigates—at the Ance du +Foulon, about a mile above the town—which had passed the winter in +Canada; took some of them, burned others, and, in short, destroyed in +an instant all the French marine. This unlooked-for arrival, instead +of the vessel which M. de Levis expected from France, so astonished +and terrified the French army, that they immediately raised the +siege—and that without any necessity for it. They again left as a +present for the English their tents and their baggage, as they had +done previously on retiring from Beauport, after the battle of the +13th September. Such was their consternation that, as if struck by a +thunderbolt, they fled with the utmost precipitation, as if the +English were pursuing them after the loss of a battle. De Vauquelin +alone distinguished himself by a truly heroic bravery. He commanded +one of the small French frigates of about sixteen guns, and fought +like a lion against an English man-of-war of forty guns, until he had +no powder nor shot. He then sent all his crew ashore to M. de Levis, +judging that they might be of use to him, and remained on board with +the wounded, his colors always flying.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span></p> + +<p>The English, after firing some time at his vessel, and receiving no +answer, approached in their boats and asked him why he did not fire, +or lower his flag? De Vauquelin answered them fiercely that, had he +had any more powder he would not have been silent so long; that if +they had a mind to take him, they might cut down his flag themselves, +as hitherto his custom was not to strike his colors, but to make +others—his country's enemies—do so. The English then went on board +of his ship, and took him prisoner, with his wounded men, and in +consideration of his determination—they having cut down his +flag—treated him with the regard which bravery can claim at the hands +of a generous enemy. De Vauquelin had already made himself known to +the English by his undaunted courage at the siege of Louisburg. His +intrepidity so delighted the English Admiral, that he begged him to +tell him freely how he could serve him. He answered the Admiral, "that +what he wished for of all things was to have his liberty and +permission to return to France." The Admiral had so great a +consideration for him, that he caused a vessel to be immediately +fitted out to carry him to Europe, ordering the English captain to +obey De Vauquelin and land him in any French port he might ask for, +leaving him at the same time to choose what French passengers would +accompany him. This noble and generous behaviour of the English did +honor to their nation, by rendering justice to, and discerning the +merit of, an enemy, far beyond what De Vauquelin met with from +Berryer, the Secretary of the Navy, on his arrival in France.</p> + +<p>The unhappy situation of the colony was now past remedy, and may be +compared to a man in the agonies of death, to whom the physician +continues to administer cordials, not from hopes of his recovery, but +to allay and soften the violence of his sufferings. All that could now +be expected was to obtain an honorable capitulation, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>favorable to its +inhabitants, the colony being at its last gasp.</p> + +<p>M. de Levis left two thousand men at Jacques Cartier, with orders to +retire slowly according as the English advanced from Quebec, and to +avoid an engagement with them, without losing sight of them. This +retarded their march, and put off the evil hour as long as possible. +He went with the rest of his army to Montreal. As there was no +provision in that town to be able to keep his army assembled, he was +obliged to disperse them, sending them back to their winter quarters, +where each inhabitant was obliged to board a soldier at a very low +rate, which was paid by the munitionary general.</p> + +<p>M. de Bougainville was sent in the spring to command at Isle aux Noix, +with eleven hundred men, of which number were the Regiment of Guienne +and Berry. This island is situated in the River Chambly (Richelieu), +about eight leagues in a straight line from Montreal, and two miles +distant from Lake Champlain.</p> + +<p>M. Bourlamarque, an officer of great knowledge in all the branches of +his profession, decided upon that position for his retreat the year +before, when he evacuated Ticonderoga, having been forced to abandon +to the English that lake. He fortified this island as well as was +possible in a sandy ground, in order to serve as a frontier on that +side of Canada, and hinder the English from coming down by the River +Richelieu into the River St. Lawrence, by which means in a very short +time they might have been in possession of Montreal and Three +Rivers,—a much easier way than by Lake Ontario, which is much longer +and full of chicares (?) by the rapids in the St. Lawrence, and +prolong their operations;—a very great advantage in a country where +there are violent frosts during seven months of the year. This island +is about twelve hundred fathoms long, and from a hundred to two +hundred broad. The entrenchments traced and conducted by M. +Bourlamarque are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>regular, and a proof of his superior knowledge in +fortifications. He barred the two branches of the river which formed +the island with staccados, or chains of big trees, linked to one +another at their ends by strong rings and circles of iron. This +prevented the English boats from Lake Champlain to pass the island in +the night, to reach Montreal. But for the staccados the island must +have been taken by them before they could proceed any further.</p> + +<p>Some Iroquois, of the Five Nations, informed M. de Vaudreuil at +Montreal, that General Amherst was marching to invade Canada with a +very considerable army by the rapids and Lake Ontario, whilst General +Murray had orders to come up the river with his army from Quebec, and +join Gen. Amherst at Montreal. But they had no knowledge of a third +body of troops, about four thousand men, that came by Lake Champlain, +in the month of July, five weeks before the arrival of the other two +armies at Montreal, and besieged Isle aux Noix with a very +considerable train of artillery, cannon, mortars, &c., in profusion.</p> + +<p>They erected five batteries of guns on the south side of the river, +with a bomb battery, which rendered our trenches useless, as they had +a sight of us everywhere, back, face and sideways, and so near us that +at the south staccado they killed several of our soldiers by their +musket shots.</p> + +<p>The sandy ground protected us from the effect of their shells, which +they threw upon us in great numbers, with a continual fire from their +gun batteries.</p> + +<p>After sixteen days' siege with a most violent cannonade, without a +moment's interruption, M. Nogaire, an officer in the Regiment of Royal +Roussillon, came to us from Montreal, having crossed directly through +the woods, with some Indians for his guides, with two letters from De +Bougainville, one of which was from him to Vaudreuil, and the other +from M. de Levis. It was a very critical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>conjuncture, having only two +days' provision for the garrison, which had subsisted until the +arrival of the English troops by means of fishing-nets, that river +abounding with the most delicious fish, with seven or eight oxen, +which had been kept as a reserve and killed by the enemy's cannon. M. +de Vaudreuil's letter contained a permission to M. de Bougainville to +capitulate or retire from the island if it was possible. M. de Levis' +letter was a positive order to defend that post to the last extremity. +De Bougainville, notwithstanding his genius, good sense and learning, +with personal courage, and who lacked only taste for the study of the +art of war to distinguish himself, was nevertheless put to a nonplus +how to act from the contradictory orders he received. In this dilemma +he shewed me the letters, asking at the same time my advice; and my +answer was:—"That in two days famine must oblige us to surrender to +the enemy at discretion. That the reinforcements of a thousand men at +Montreal might be of the greatest importance, and help to make a good +countenance when the English army had advanced in the neighborhood of +it. That it was M. de Vaudreuil who commanded-in-chief in Canada, and +not M. de Levis; and that there was yet a possibility of retiring with +the garrison towards the north side of the island, where the swampy +ground upon the border of the river had hindered the English from +establishing a post." De Bougainville immediately decided for a +retreat, which was executed and combined with equal justness; and the +success answered exactly to the prudence, wisdom and good conduct that +De Bougainville exhibited in preparing for it. It was then about ten +in the morning when Nogaire arrived with the Indians, who—not +accustomed to such a terrible fire as was at that moment poured forth +by the English batteries, very different from their way of fighting +behind trees—were not at all at ease, and furiously impatient to get +out of the island. The hour of retreat was settled for ten that +night.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span></p> + +<p>The north shore of Isle aux Noix, on the opposite side of the river, +was marshy to the distance of three hundred paces from the river, +covered with small trees where there was a rising ground, and there +was no English post nearer to it than at the Prairie de Boileau, +distant half a mile down the river, so that the locality where the +river was fordable was a little below the north staccados. De +Bougainville adopted every prudent measure imaginable to achieve +success. He ordered all the boats to be mended and put in condition to +be used at a moment's warning. He also ordained that the boats, bark +canoes, and punts hewn out of a large tree, be removed a certain +distance from the river side, lest some soldier should desert and +apprise the English of his design, such as had happened from the posts +near Quebec. He commanded that all the garrison should be in order of +battle at ten at night, all observing a profound silence, without the +least clashing of arms or other noise, and be in readiness to march. +He ordered M. le Borgne, an officer in the colonial troops, to remain +on the island with a detachment of forty men, to keep up a smart fire +from our battery, which consisted of seven or eight pieces of cannon, +during the time we were employed in passing the river, in order to +hinder the English from hearing us in our operations, and to continue +firing whilst ammunition lasted, and to conceal our retreat as long as +it was possible to do so.</p> + +<p>We began to cross the river in two lighters, with some small boats, +about ten at night. They plied continually to and fro until midnight, +when all had crossed the river without the enemy perceiving or even +suspecting our operation, although so near to us were their posts on +their left that we heard distinctly their voices. All was executed +without the least noise, disorder, or confusion—a rare occurrence on +such an occasion. Le Borgne acted well, and at the same time +economized his ammunition so well <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>that he had wherewith to fire upon +the English at intervals until one in the morning. Imagining us then +to be near Montreal, he hoisted the white flag to capitulate, and the +English, not having the smallest notion of our retreat, granted him +immediately very honorable terms. We had eighty men killed or wounded +during the siege—a very inconsiderable loss for a cannonade of +sixteen days' duration, from five batteries, besides a bomb battery, +without an instant's intermission. Had it been a stony instead of a +sandy ground, we must have lost above one-half of the garrison, and +could not have resisted so long.</p> + +<p>So soon as everyone had passed the river, we set out for Montreal, +crossing through the woods, which, in a straight line, is only eight +leagues from Isle aux Noix, always half running one after the other, +after having marched in this manner, from midnight until twelve at +noon, over fens, swamps, mosses, and sinking often up to the waist in +marshy ground, without reposing or halting one minute. Instead of +being near Montreal, as we imagined, we were thunderstruck on finding +ourselves, by the fault of our guides, to be only at the distance of +half a league from Isle aux Noix: our guide, not knowing the road +through the woods, had caused us to turn round continually for twelve +hours without advancing!</p> + +<p>We were so near an English post at the Prairie de Boileau, that a +grenadier of the Regiment de Berry, seeing his commander, Cormier, +sink down with fatigue, and not in a condition to go any further, +carried off a horse from them which was upon the borders of the wood, +and mounted his commander on it; otherwise he would have been left +aside and taken prisoner by the English, or scalped by the Indians.</p> + +<p>Having lost all hopes of going to Montreal through the woods, we took +the road to Fort St. Jean, on the River Chambly, four leagues lower +than Isle aux Noix, and five <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>leagues by land to Montreal. My strength +was so entirely spent, that it was with great difficulty I could draw +one leg after the other. Nevertheless the fear of falling into the +hands of the Indians, the idea of the horrible cruelties which they +practice on their prisoners, which shock human nature, prevented me +from sinking down with pain, and gave me strength to push on.</p> + +<p>Arrived at a settlement at four in the afternoon, about a league and a +half from St. John's Fort, where De Bougainville caused his detachment +to halt and repose themselves for the first time since midnight, that +they left Isle aux Noix. I perceived there a boat going off to St. +Jean, and I had only strength enough remaining to throw myself into +it. We lost in this march about eighty men: those who could not hold +out were left behind, victims to the Indians. Arriving at St. John's +Fort, the first person I saw there was Poularies, on the river side, +who told me they had news of our retreat, and that he was sent with +his regiment to sustain us in case we had been pursued by the English.</p> + +<p>We were now shut up in the island of Montreal on all sides. The +English were masters of the River Chambly by the possession of Isle +aux Noix. General Amherst approached with his army from Lake Ontario; +and General Murray was in march, coming up from Quebec, with six +thousand men that had passed through the winter there, and with some +men-of-war, one of which of about forty guns, on its arrival in sight +of the town of Montreal, greatly astonished, and excited the +admiration of, the inhabitants, who, from the ignorance and negligence +of those persons charged with the sounding of the St. Lawrence, had +never seen vessels arrive there of above sixty or seventy tons.</p> + +<p>General Murray conducted himself as an officer of great understanding, +knowledge and capacity, and left nothing to do for General Amherst; he +employed five weeks in coming from Quebec to Montreal, which is only +sixty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>leagues, and did us during his march more harm by his policy +than by his army. He stopped often in the villages; spoke kindly to +the inhabitants he found at home in their houses—whom hunger and +famine had obliged to fly from our army at Montreal; gave provisions +to those unhappy creatures perishing for want of subsistence. He +burned, in some cases, the houses of those who were absent from home +and in the French army at Montreal, publishing everywhere an amnesty +and good treatment to all Canadians who would return to their +habitations and live there peaceably. In short—flattering some and +frightening others—he succeeded so well, that at last there was no +more possibility of keeping them at Montreal. It is true we had now +only need of them to make a good countenance. The three English armies +amounting to above twenty thousand men, it was impossible to make any +further resistance.</p> + +<p>Amherst's army appeared in sight from the town of Montreal, towards +the gate of Lachine, on the 7th of September, about three in the +afternoon. General Murray with his army, from Quebec, appeared two +hours after at the opposite side of the town: thus a dark crisis was +at hand for the fate of Canada. Montreal was nowise susceptible of +defence. It was surrounded with stone walls, built in the beginning of +that colony, merely to preserve the inhabitants from the incursions of +the Indians, few imagining at that time it would become the theatre of +a regular war, and that one day they would see formidable armies of +regular, well-disciplined troops before its walls.</p> + +<p>We were, however, all pent up in that miserable, bad place—without +provisions, a thousand times worse off than an advantageous position +in open fields—whose pitiful walls could not resist two hours' +cannonade without being level with the ground, and where we would have +been forced to surrender at discretion, if the English had insisted +upon it.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span></p> + +<p>The night between the 7th and 8th September was passed in negotiating +for the articles of capitulation. But in the morning all the +difficulties were removed, and General Amherst granted conditions +infinitely more favourable than could be expected in our +circumstances.</p> + +<p>Thus the Canadians, as brave as they are docile, and easy to be +governed, became subjects of Great Britain; and if they can think +themselves happy under that Government, by remembering their past +vexations, they will do so.</p> + +<p>M. (Col.) Poularies and M. (Col.) Dalquier, who were generally +distinguished in the French army by their high sense of honor, +probity, and their bravery, experience and knowledge in the art of +war, were both of them, on their arrival in France, broken as +commanders of a battalion—a grade which was abolished in the French +service, in order to make the Major, as in the British service, +command the regiment in absence of the Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel. +Belcomb, Poularies' Adjt. of Royal Roussillon, and Montgnary, Captain +in the Regiment of Bearn which Dalquier commanded—(two very handsome +men, capable to attract the attention of the ladies of any court in +Europe)—were made Colonels of Foot, without possessing any remarkable +military talent or capacity.</p> + +<p>Fortune manifested most cruelly her almighty power in the military +state, where justice, punishments and rewards alone ought to be the +base of it. Men conduct themselves from the view either of honor or +interest; and there can be no emulation in a service where mediocrity +of talents, intrigues, favor, and credit, override merit.</p> + +<p>Greatness of soul, joined to superiority of talent, ignores the art of +cringing; it is even impossible that merit can lead to fortune in a +corrupted and venal country: on the contrary, it becomes a cause of +exclusion. Virtue elevates the soul, and can neither fawn nor buy +credit, nor flatter vice and incapacity. "If such is the military +constitution <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>of a State," says M. Gaubert, in his Treatise of +Tactics, "of which the Sovereign (the King of Prussia) is one of the +greatest men of the age, who instructs and commands his armies, and +whose armies form all the pomp of the court, what ought it to be in +those States where the Sovereign is not at all a military man; where +he does not see his troops; where he seems to disdain or be ignorant +of all that regards them; where the Court, who always obey the +impression of the Sovereign, is consequently not military; where +almost all the great rewards are obtained by surprise, by intrigue; +where the greater portion of favors are hereditary; where merit +languishes for want of support; where favor can advance without +talent; where to make a fortune no more implies acquiring a +reputation, but merely to heap up riches; where men may be, at one and +the same time, covered with orders and infamy—with grades and +ignorance, serve ill the State, and occupy the best places; be smeared +with the censure of the public, and enjoy the Sovereign's good graces? +If, whilst all other sciences are becoming perfected, that of war +remains in its infancy, it is the fault of the Governments, who do not +attach to it sufficient importance; who do not make it an object of +public education; who fail to direct men of genius to that profession; +who suffer them to find more glory and advantages in sciences trifling +or less useful; who render the profession of arms an ungrateful +employment, where talents are outstripped by intrigue, and the prizes +distributed by Fortune."</p> + +<p>General Amherst, according to his statement in his letter to Mr. Pitt, +then Secretary of State, lost in coming down the rapids—without +meeting there any opposition from the French or Indians—by drowning, +eighty-four men. Twenty more of the regiments' boats were dashed to +pieces. Seven boats of the artillery, loaded with arms and ammunition, +and one of his galleys, were also lost.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span></p> + +<p>If 900 Indians had been there, as they should have been, scattered in +the woods upon the borders of the river, with 1,200 Canadians, which +they had solicited earnestly from M. de Vaudreuil, to defend those +difficult passes of the Rapids, but which this officer obstinately +refused, what would have become of General Amherst? How could he have +got out of the scrape? As it happened to Braddock, Amherst and his +army must have perished there; his expedition would have been +fruitless, and Canada would have been yet saved to France: but heaven +willed it otherwise. How long the English may preserve this conquest +depends on their own wise and prudent conduct.</p> + +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<hr /> +<p> </p> +<p>[The original of this manuscript is deposited in the French war +archives, in Paris: a copy was, with the permission of the French +Government, taken by P.L. Morin, Esq., Draughtsman to the Crown Lands +Department of Canada, about 1855, and deposited in the Library of the +Legislative Assembly of Canada. The Literary and Historical Society of +Quebec, through the kindness of Mr. Todd, the Librarian, was permitted +to have communication thereof. This document is supposed to have been +written some years after the return to France from Canada of the +writer, the Chevalier Johnstone, a Scotch Jacobite, who had fled to +France after the defeat at Culloden, and had obtained from the French +monarch, with several other Scotchmen, commissions in the French +armies. In 1748, says <i>Francisque Michel</i>,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> he sailed from Rochefort +as an Ensign with troops going to Cape Breton: he continued to serve +in America until he returned to France, in December, 1760, having +acted during the campaign of 1759, in Canada, as aide-de-camp to +Chevalier de Levis. On de Levis being ordered to Montreal, Johnstone +was detached and retained by General Montcalm on his staff, on account +of his thorough knowledge of the environs of Quebec, and particularly +of Beauport, where the principal works of defence stood, and where the +whole army, some 11,000 men, were entrenched, leaving in Quebec merely +a garrison of 1,500. The journal is written in English, and is not +remarkable for orthography or purity of diction: either Johnstone had +forgotten, or had never thoroughly known, the language.]</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> <i>Les Ecossais en France</i>, vol. ii, p. 449.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Campaign of 1760 in Canada +by Chevalier Johnstone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPAIGN OF 1760 IN CANADA *** + +***** This file should be named 16724-h.htm or 16724-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/2/16724/ + +Produced by Alison Hadwin, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Campaign of 1760 in Canada + A Narrative Attributed to Chevalier Johnstone + +Author: Chevalier Johnstone + +Release Date: September 19, 2005 [EBook #16724] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPAIGN OF 1760 IN CANADA *** + + + + +Produced by Alison Hadwin, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + THE + CAMPAIGN of 1760 in CANADA + + + A NARRATIVE ATTRIBUTED TO + CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE. + + + Published under the Auspices of the + Literary and Historical Society of Quebec + + + QUEBEC: + PRINTED AT THE "MORNING CHRONICLE" OFFICE + + 1887. + + + + + +[PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY +OF QUEBEC.] + +ATTRIBUTED TO CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE. + + + + +Hope that heavenly, healing balm, that gift from Providence, blended +with persecutions to blunt the sharpness of their sting and hinder the +unfortunate from being overwhelmed, and sinking under the load of +their afflictions, never dies out--never abandons the distressed. "We +don't believe in dangers," says Machiavel, "until they are over our +heads; but we entertain hopes of escaping them when at a great +distance." Hope does not abandon the pale, dying man: in his agony he +still fells life, and in his thoughts he does not detach himself from +it. Death strikes, before his heart has realized that he could cease +to live. Search in the prisons: hope dwells there with the wretch who +next day is to undergo his sentence of death. Every time the bolts +rattle, he believes his deliverance entering with the jailer. Whole +years of slavery have not been able to wear out this consoling +sentiment. These contradictions,--these differences of seeing,--these +returns,--this stormy flow and ebb, are so many effects of hope, which +plays upon us and never ceases. It is inherent in human nature to hope +in adversity for a favorable change of fate, however the appearances +may be ill-grounded of an end to its pain and suffering. + +The Canadians, without the least apparent reason, still flattered +themselves to save their country, and did not lose the hope of +retaking Quebec, though without artillery and warlike stores. All +minds were occupied during the winter in forming projects of capturing +that town, which were entirely chimerical, void of common sense, and +nowise practicable. No country ever hatched a greater number--never +projects more ridiculous and extravagant; everybody meddled. The +contagion spread even to my Lord Bishop and his seminary of priests, +who gave their plan, which, like all the others, lacked only common +sense and judgment. In short, a universal insanity prevailed at +Montreal. Amongst thousands of the productions of these distempered +brains, that of surprising Quebec by a forced march in winter and +taking it by escalade, was the only one where there was the least +chance of success. This project was for some time agitated so +seriously, that workmen were employed in making wooden ladders; but +having always looked upon it as a wild and extravagant fancy of +priests and old women, I constantly argued against it whenever they +spoke of it, and it was continually the topic of conversation. + +The Upper Town of Quebec lies upon the top of a rock, about two +hundred feet high, almost perpendicular in some parts of it, and +everywhere extremely steep and inaccessible, excepting towards the +_Hauteurs d'Abraham_, which is a continuation of the same hill, that +begins at Quebec and ends at Cap Rouge, diminishing gradually in +height in the space of these three leagues. The Lower Town is a narrow +piece of ground, from a hundred to four or five paces[A] broad, +between the foot of the rock and the St. Lawrence. + +There is a street which goes up to the Upper Town without a +continuation of houses; it is impossible to climb up the rock from the +Lower Town, as I was employed three weeks upon it with miners and +other workmen, to render all the footpaths impracticable; we finished +only a few days before the arrival of the English fleet (in 1759). A +town built upon a vast extent of ground, which would require an army +to defend it, such as Ghent in Flanders, and which might be approached +on all sides at the same time, in order to divide the troops of the +garrison equally over all the town, may be surprised and taken by +escalade, and in our desperate situation might have been attempted by +risking all for all. A surprise in a dark night must naturally spread +universal terror, disorder and panic amongst those who are taken +unawares, and must soon be communicated through all the quarters of +the town. The soldiers are so much the more terrified that they know +not where they are most in danger; not like during a siege, where the +place for the assault is marked by the breach. Their heads turn, and, +deprived of judgment, coolness and reflection, they think rather of +escaping the slaughter that ensues when a town is being captured in +this manner, than of defending the ramparts. But Quebec being +accessible only on that side of it which faces the heights of Abraham, +and having nothing to fear elsewhere, the moment an alarm is sounded, +all the force of the garrison must naturally be there. Thus the +English having seven thousand men in the town--almost as many as our +army proposed for the escalade to invest all that part of the town +open to attack--it is likely that we should have lost the half of our +army in the attempt, and at last, after a horrible slaughter of men, +have been obliged to return ignominiously from whence we came. +Besides, supposing that we had even taken the Lower Town by escalade, +we would not have been further advanced. The English, in half an hour +afterwards, by burning it, by throwing down from the Upper Town upon +the roofs of the houses fire pots, shells and other combustible +matter, could have soon chased us out of it, or buried us under its +ruins. This project, after having furnished for a long time matter for +the daily conversations of Montrealers, was at last considered by M. +de Levis, and classed as it deserved, amongst the vagaries of bedlam; +he substituting a scheme in its place which was reasonable, well +combined, doing honor to his ability and talent. + +[Footnote A: The four or five paces of 1760 have now attained seven or +eight acres.--(L)] + +M. de Levis, in giving an account to the Court of the loss of all our +artillery and stores at Quebec, gave likewise all possible assurances +that he would re-take the town in the spring and save the colony, +provided they would send to him from Europe a ship loaded with +field-pieces and ammunition, to set sail from Europe in the month of +February, in order to be in the St. Lawrence river before the arrival +of the English, and near Quebec in the month of April. He collected +our army as soon as the season permitted; got together about twelve +pieces of old cannon, which had been laid aside for many years, and +with a small quantity of gunpowder and very few bullets, he set out +from Montreal with his army towards the beginning of April, the snow +being as yet upon the ground; and he conducted his march so well that +the army arrived at Cap Rouge, three leagues from Quebec, without the +enemy having any information of their having left Montreal. He did not +flatter himself to be able to take Quebec with such a despicable train +of artillery, and his design was only to invest the town; to open the +trenches before it; to advance his approaches, and be in a position, +the moment the ships he had asked from the Court should arrive, to +land the cannon, placing them instantly upon the batteries ready to +receive them, and without loss of time to batter the town immediately. + +Fortune favored him to the height of his wishes, and if the ships had +arrived with the artillery he expected from France, that town could +scarce have held out for four and twenty hours, by which means he +would have had the glory of preserving to his country the colony of +Canada, then reduced to its last gasp. + +The English got the news of our army's being at Cap Rouge by a most +singular accident, which greatly manifests the predominant power of +Fortune in military operations, and shows that the greatest general +cannot guarantee success or put himself out of the reach of those +events which human understanding cannot foresee, whereby the best +combined and well-formed schemes are frustrated in their execution. In +all appearance we would have taken Quebec by surprise had it not been +for one of Fortune's caprices, that have often as much share in the +events of war as the genius and talents of the greatest generals. + +The Athenians were not in the wrong to paint Timotheus asleep, whilst +Fortune, in another part of the picture, was spreading nets over towns +to take them for him. + +An artillery boat having been overturned and sunk by the sheets of +ice, which the current of the St. Lawrence brought down with great +force, an artilleryman saved himself on a piece of ice that floated +down the river with him upon it, without a possibility of his getting +to land, when he was opposite to the city. + +The English, so soon as they perceived that poor distressed man--moved +with humanity and compassion--sent out boats, who with difficulty +saved him (the river being covered with fields of ice), and brought +him to town with scarce any sign of life. Having restored him with +cordials, the moment he began to breathe and recover his senses, they +asked him from whence he came, and who he was? he answered, +innocently, that he was a French cannonier from M. de Levis' army at +Cap Rouge. At first they imagined he raved, and that his sufferings +upon the river had turned his head; but, after examining him more +particularly and his answers being always the same, they were soon +convinced of the truth of his assertions, and were not a little +confounded to have the French army at three leagues from Quebec, +without possessing the smallest information of the fact. All their +care proved ineffectual for the preservation of life; he expired the +moment he had revealed this important secret. What a remarkable and +visible instance of fortune fighting for the English--equal at least +to the cloud of rain that saved General Wolfe's army the year +preceding at his attack of 31st of July, at Montmorenci. Had it not +been for this most unaccountable accident, to all appearance M. de +Levis would have captured all the English advanced posts, which were +said to amount to fifteen hundred men, who retired to the town +immediately after setting fire to the magazine of powder in the church +of St. Foy, which ammunition they had not the time to carry with them. + +Nor would it have been surprising if M. de Levis, at the gates of +Quebec with his army, without being discovered, had taken it by +surprise. It is certain that luck has more or less share in all the +events of life, and this is more particularly visible in the +operations of war. Hazards may be constantly in the favor of a general +blindly protected by that goddess, against an adversary with far +superior talents. Everybody must acknowledge Prince Eugene's +superiority of genius, when compared with the Duke of Marlborough; but +Marlborough was always as fortunate in having continually unforeseen +accidents in his favor, as Prince Eugene was unlucky to have them +against him to thwart and cross the execution of the best-combined +projects, which extorted admiration, and seemed to have only need of +Fortune's standing neuter to be successful. The fate of an army,--can +it depend upon the personal good fortune of the General who commands +it? Cardinal Mazarin seemed to be of this opinion, since he never +failed to ask those who recommended persons to him to head +expeditions, "is he lucky?"--_est-il heureux_? Can it be surmised that +fortune acts with her favorite sons at the head of armies, as she does +at gambling tables? However it may be, a great General will always +watch vigilantly the chapter of accidents--seize rapidly that which is +favorable to him, and, by his prudence, foresight and circumspection, +will ward off and correct what is contrary to his interests. The +smallest things are not unworthy of his attention; they often produce +the greatest events, and the neglecting what at first view might +appear trivial, has often overturned the best-calculated schemes. The +most trifling of our actions becomes often a first cause which +produces an endless chain of effects--linked to each other--of the +greatest importance. The boat sunk by the ice, at Cap Rouge, was a +first cause. The cannonier, by this accident, was upon a sheet of ice +in the middle of the St. Lawrence, opposite to Quebec; this inspired +with pity the English to save his life. This humane action of the +English in saving the unhappy cannonier, saved Quebec from being taken +by surprise, which probably would have been the case without his +information, that M. de Levis' army was at Cap Rouge. If taken by M. +de Levis, it would have deterred the English from any further attempt +upon Canada, and peace would have soon ensued. But by the cannonier's +declaration, it was not taken, and consequently the war was prolonged. + +Quebec in possession of the English rendered the conquest of Canada +inevitable and sure. The possession of that vast country of Canada, +after so much blood, and such immense expenses it had cost the English +in these different expeditions, excited too much the cupidity of the +English to consent to a peace upon reasonable conditions, and induced +them to extend their conquest to other French colonies. + +The possession of so many French and Spanish colonies by the English +brought about the shameful peace that France and Spain were obliged to +receive at the hands of the English, upon the hardest terms, as laws +of the conqueror. + +The boat upset and sunk at Cap Rouge was the primary cause and the +first link of the chain which had the greatest influence over all the +affairs of Europe. If M. de Levis had saved the cannonier at Cap +Rouge, what a multitude of events would have been nipped in the bud! +Perhaps even Great Britain would have been forced to receive the peace +from France instead of granting it on her own conditions. + +There is scarcely any human action that is not the beginning of a +chain of results. + +The French army took possession of the village of St. Foye the moment +the English went out of it, retiring to Quebec, and passed there the +night between the 27th and 28th of April. Next morning M. de Levis +being informed that the English army was come out of the town, and +that they were drawn up in battle upon the same ground that the French +army had occupied the year before at the battle of the 13th September, +he drew out his men and advanced in order of battle to meet the +English army. Though fully persuaded that the English general would +not risk a battle out of his town, where he had a great deal to lose +in being beat, and could gain little by a victory, he was fully +persuaded that he would return at the approach of the French army. + +General Murray, who does the greatest honor to his country by his +great knowledge of the art of war, good sense and ability, had come +out of the town in order to cover that place with a retrenchment, +which was very evident from the prodigious quantity of working tools +that were taken by the French; and the vast rapidity with which the +French army advanced in all appearance, deprived him of the +possibility of getting back into Quebec without leaving a part of them +to be cut to pieces by the Canadians. + +The English army had the advantage of position. They were drawn up in +battle upon rising ground, their front armed with twenty-two brass +field-pieces--the Palace battery which De Ramsay refused to Send to +M. de Montcalm. The engagement began by the attack of a house +(Dumont's) between the right wing of the English army and the French +left wing, which was alternately attacked and defended by the Scotch +Highlanders and the French Grenadiers, each of them taking it and +losing it by turns. Worthy antagonists!--the Grenadiers, with their +bayonets in their hands, forced the Highlanders to get out of it by +the windows; and the Highlanders getting into it again by the door, +immediately obliged the Grenadiers to evacuate it by the same road, +with their daggers. Both of them lost and retook the house[B] several +times, and the contest would have continued whilst there remained a +Highlander and a Grenadier, if both generals had not made them retire, +leaving the house neuter ground. The Grenadiers were reduced to +fourteen men--a company at most. No doubt the Highlanders lost in +proportion. The left of the French army, which was in hollow ground, +about forty paces from the English, was crushed to pieces by the fire +of their artillery loaded with grape-shot. M. de Levis, perceiving +their bad position, sent M. de La Pause, Adjutant of the Guienne +Regiment, with orders for the army to retire some steps behind them, +in order to occupy an eminence parallel to the rising ground occupied +by the English; but whether this officer did not comprehend M. de +Levis' intentions, or whether he delivered ill the orders to the +different regiments, by his stupidity the battle was very near being +lost irremediably. He ran along the line, ordering each regiment to +the right about, and to retire, without any further explanation of M. +de Levis' orders. Some of the left of the French army being so near as +twenty paces to the enemy, the best disciplined troops in that case +can scarce be expected to be able to retire without the greatest +disorder and confusion, or without exposing themselves evidently to +be defeated and slaughtered. Upon this movement, the English, +believing them in flight, quitted their advantage of the rising ground +in order to pursue them, complete their disorder, and break them +entirely. M. Dalquier, who commanded the Bearn Regiment, with the +troops of the colony upon the left of the French army, a bold, +intrepid old officer, turned about to his soldiers when La Pause gave +him M. de Levis' order to retire, and told them, "It is not time now, +my boys, to retire when at twenty paces from the enemy; with your +bayonets upon your muskets, let us throw ourselves headlong amongst +them--that is better." In an instant they fell upon the English +impetuously--with thrusts of bayonets hand to hand, got possession, +like lightning, of their guns; and a ball which went through +Dalquier's body, which was already quite covered with scars of old +wounds, did not hinder him from continuing giving his orders. +Poularies, who was on the right flank of the army, with his regiment +of Royal Roussillon, and some of the Canadian militia, seeing Dalquier +stand firm, and all the troops of the centre having retired in +disorder, leaving a space between the two wings, he caused his +regiment with the Canadians to wheel to the left, in order to fall +upon the left flank of the English army, the French army extending +further to their right beyond the English left wing. The enemy no +sooner perceived Poularies' movement, than they immediately fled with +precipitation and confusion, and were so panic-stricken that not an +English soldier could be rallied by their officers, several of whom +were taken prisoners. The French troops who had retired advanced +immediately, and all the French army pursued so hotly the English, +that if the cry had not been raised to halt, it is very doubtful if +they would not have got into Quebec pell-mell with the fugitives, +being near the town-gates when this cry began. Thus Quebec would have +been retaken in a most singular manner,[C] unforeseen and +unpremeditated. I know nothing worse than ill-disciplined troops; +certainly a brave militia, with its simple, ancient way of fighting, +even not drilled, is preferable to a force having a crude notion of +discipline--a science entirely neglected in Canada amongst French +regular troops; so that the French regiments there might be looked +upon as differing very little from the Canadian militia. The method of +managing militia and well-disciplined regular troops appears to be +quite as different as they differ in nature. A cool, phlegmatic, +undaunted bravery is the fruit of an excellent discipline, rendering +the soldiers capable, when repulsed, to return several times to the +assault, and rally of their own accord. But the strength and merit of +the militia resembles a hot, ardent, raging fire, that must be +suffered to blaze until it dies out of itself: it is a flash, an +explosion, that often works prodigies, and which, when stifled, there +is no possibility of preventing the immediate disorder that must +ensue, nor any means of bringing it back a second time to face the +enemy. + +NOTE.--The preceding winter had been employed in skirmishing +around Quebec.--(J.M.L.) + +[Footnote B: Dumont's Mill.] + +[Footnote C: "On the night of the eighteenth of March, two hundred +light infantry were detached from the Garrison of Quebec, with three +days' provisions, and a company of Grenadiers, marched the next day to +Lorette Church, being the place of rendezvous. The whole proceeded to +Calvaire, accompanied by a French deserter in a British uniform. In +this route they surprised an advanced post of the French, and made the +party prisoners, consisting of a corporal and nine privates; having +secured these, they pushed forward with the greatest speed, fearing +that a straggling peasant, whom they met, should mar their further +views by alarming the country. The light infantry having reached the +wished for object, which was a strong camp or entrenchment of logs and +timber, with a house detached at a small distance from it, they +carried the dwelling house With their accustomed bravery, killed four +and took the rest, being twenty in number, some of whom were wounded. +The main body of the French by this time had manned their works, which +were breast high, and environed with an abattis of wood, to the +distance of about three hundred yards, whence they fired a few random +shots and shouted as usual. Capt. McDonald, who commanded this +detachment, seeing the French advantageously situated, and perceiving +their officers very active in encouraging their men, expected a warm +dispute, and therefore made a disposition to attack them in form. As +soon, however, as the light infantry advanced to the charge, the +French threw down their arms and took to flight, when near eighty of +them were made prisoners. In the attack the English had only six +wounded; but the French lost five killed and thirteen wounded. Capt. +McDonald destroyed the post, three corn-mills, granaries, and other +houses contiguous thereto. The French prisoners were brought to +Quebec, except the wounded, who were left in charge of the peasants, +with directions to conduct them to Jacques Cartier. Near one hundred +soldiers of the English detachment were frost-bitten, and were brought +back to the garrison on sleighs. Capt. Herbin, the commanding officer, +escaped; but his watch, hat, and feather, 'fille de joie,' with a cask +of wine and case of liqueurs, were taken. + +"The Governor of Quebec (General Murray) sent the Town Major to the +Mother Abbess of the Convent of Hotel Dieu, to acquaint her with the +reasons that induced him to destroy their mills and tenements at +Calvaire: namely, on account of her having transmitted intelligence to +the French, of the last detachment's being ordered to be in readiness +to march out; for having actually carried on a correspondence with the +French army in the whole course of the winter, whereby they were +informed of all movements, proceedings, and every other occurrence +that happened within the walls: the Governor also signified to her, +that if either she or her sisters should presume to correspond in +future with the French, either directly or indirectly, or in any +respect act contrary to good faith and the duty they owed to the King +of Great Britain, they should, without further ceremony, be banished +from Quebec, and their convent be converted into a barrack for the +troops. As Madame de St. Claude, who was sister to M. de Ramsay, and +Superior of the General Hospital, had always been inimical to the +English in propagating falsehoods, and in encouraging the Canadians to +resist, General Murray sent the Brigade-Major to signify to this lady +that she should desist from such conduct; and that as she appeared to +take a great interest in the affairs of this world, and seemed tired +of her seclusion, he would enlist her as a Grenadier, which from her +stature (full six feet) she was qualified to be, and that he would +promote her the first opportunity that presented itself."--(SMITH.)] + +The French had about two thousand killed and wounded in this battle of +the 27th (? 28th) of April, of which number there was an hundred and +ten officers of the regular troops, besides a great many officers of +the Canadian militia: so they might say with Pyrrhus, the day of his +victory over the Romans--"Again such another victory, and I would be +undone!" + +M. de Levis opened the trenches the same night before Quebec, and they +were carried on with such activity that his batteries were soon ready +to receive the guns necessary to make a breach. + +But the most considerable of his bad pieces was a twelve pounder, +which he mounted upon batteries, firing at times with the greatest +economy, as he had but a small store of gunpowder. There needed only +the arrival of a ship from France with artillery and ammunition to +crown M. de Levis with glory. The English in Quebec confessed that the +first flag that would appear in the St. Lawrence would decide the +question, if Canada should remain in possession of the English or +return to the French. + +No ships arrived from France with artillery. The fate of Canada was at +last settled by the appearance of three English men-of-war, on the 7th +of May. They ascended immediately the St. Lawrence without stopping at +Quebec. They attacked the small French frigates--at the Ance du +Foulon, about a mile above the town--which had passed the winter in +Canada; took some of them, burned others, and, in short, destroyed in +an instant all the French marine. This unlooked-for arrival, instead +of the vessel which M. de Levis expected from France, so astonished +and terrified the French army, that they immediately raised the +siege--and that without any necessity for it. They again left as a +present for the English their tents and their baggage, as they had +done previously on retiring from Beauport, after the battle of the +13th September. Such was their consternation that, as if struck by a +thunderbolt, they fled with the utmost precipitation, as if the +English were pursuing them after the loss of a battle. De Vauquelin +alone distinguished himself by a truly heroic bravery. He commanded +one of the small French frigates of about sixteen guns, and fought +like a lion against an English man-of-war of forty guns, until he had +no powder nor shot. He then sent all his crew ashore to M. de Levis, +judging that they might be of use to him, and remained on board with +the wounded, his colors always flying. + +The English, after firing some time at his vessel, and receiving no +answer, approached in their boats and asked him why he did not fire, +or lower his flag? De Vauquelin answered them fiercely that, had he +had any more powder he would not have been silent so long; that if +they had a mind to take him, they might cut down his flag themselves, +as hitherto his custom was not to strike his colors, but to make +others--his country's enemies--do so. The English then went on board +of his ship, and took him prisoner, with his wounded men, and in +consideration of his determination--they having cut down his +flag--treated him with the regard which bravery can claim at the hands +of a generous enemy. De Vauquelin had already made himself known to +the English by his undaunted courage at the siege of Louisburg. His +intrepidity so delighted the English Admiral, that he begged him to +tell him freely how he could serve him. He answered the Admiral, "that +what he wished for of all things was to have his liberty and +permission to return to France." The Admiral had so great a +consideration for him, that he caused a vessel to be immediately +fitted out to carry him to Europe, ordering the English captain to +obey De Vauquelin and land him in any French port he might ask for, +leaving him at the same time to choose what French passengers would +accompany him. This noble and generous behaviour of the English did +honor to their nation, by rendering justice to, and discerning the +merit of, an enemy, far beyond what De Vauquelin met with from +Berryer, the Secretary of the Navy, on his arrival in France. + +The unhappy situation of the colony was now past remedy, and may be +compared to a man in the agonies of death, to whom the physician +continues to administer cordials, not from hopes of his recovery, but +to allay and soften the violence of his sufferings. All that could now +be expected was to obtain an honorable capitulation, favorable to its +inhabitants, the colony being at its last gasp. + +M. de Levis left two thousand men at Jacques Cartier, with orders to +retire slowly according as the English advanced from Quebec, and to +avoid an engagement with them, without losing sight of them. This +retarded their march, and put off the evil hour as long as possible. +He went with the rest of his army to Montreal. As there was no +provision in that town to be able to keep his army assembled, he was +obliged to disperse them, sending them back to their winter quarters, +where each inhabitant was obliged to board a soldier at a very low +rate, which was paid by the munitionary general. + +M. de Bougainville was sent in the spring to command at Isle aux Noix, +with eleven hundred men, of which number were the Regiment of Guienne +and Berry. This island is situated in the River Chambly (Richelieu), +about eight leagues in a straight line from Montreal, and two miles +distant from Lake Champlain. + +M. Bourlamarque, an officer of great knowledge in all the branches of +his profession, decided upon that position for his retreat the year +before, when he evacuated Ticonderoga, having been forced to abandon +to the English that lake. He fortified this island as well as was +possible in a sandy ground, in order to serve as a frontier on that +side of Canada, and hinder the English from coming down by the River +Richelieu into the River St. Lawrence, by which means in a very short +time they might have been in possession of Montreal and Three +Rivers,--a much easier way than by Lake Ontario, which is much longer +and full of chicares (?) by the rapids in the St. Lawrence, and +prolong their operations;--a very great advantage in a country where +there are violent frosts during seven months of the year. This island +is about twelve hundred fathoms long, and from a hundred to two +hundred broad. The entrenchments traced and conducted by M. +Bourlamarque are regular, and a proof of his superior knowledge in +fortifications. He barred the two branches of the river which formed +the island with staccados, or chains of big trees, linked to one +another at their ends by strong rings and circles of iron. This +prevented the English boats from Lake Champlain to pass the island in +the night, to reach Montreal. But for the staccados the island must +have been taken by them before they could proceed any further. + +Some Iroquois, of the Five Nations, informed M. de Vaudreuil at +Montreal, that General Amherst was marching to invade Canada with a +very considerable army by the rapids and Lake Ontario, whilst General +Murray had orders to come up the river with his army from Quebec, and +join Gen. Amherst at Montreal. But they had no knowledge of a third +body of troops, about four thousand men, that came by Lake Champlain, +in the month of July, five weeks before the arrival of the other two +armies at Montreal, and besieged Isle aux Noix with a very +considerable train of artillery, cannon, mortars, &c., in profusion. + +They erected five batteries of guns on the south side of the river, +with a bomb battery, which rendered our trenches useless, as they had +a sight of us everywhere, back, face and sideways, and so near us that +at the south staccado they killed several of our soldiers by their +musket shots. + +The sandy ground protected us from the effect of their shells, which +they threw upon us in great numbers, with a continual fire from their +gun batteries. + +After sixteen days' siege with a most violent cannonade, without a +moment's interruption, M. Nogaire, an officer in the Regiment of Royal +Roussillon, came to us from Montreal, having crossed directly through +the woods, with some Indians for his guides, with two letters from De +Bougainville, one of which was from him to Vaudreuil, and the other +from M. de Levis. It was a very critical conjuncture, having only two +days' provision for the garrison, which had subsisted until the +arrival of the English troops by means of fishing-nets, that river +abounding with the most delicious fish, with seven or eight oxen, +which had been kept as a reserve and killed by the enemy's cannon. M. +de Vaudreuil's letter contained a permission to M. de Bougainville to +capitulate or retire from the island if it was possible. M. de Levis' +letter was a positive order to defend that post to the last extremity. +De Bougainville, notwithstanding his genius, good sense and learning, +with personal courage, and who lacked only taste for the study of the +art of war to distinguish himself, was nevertheless put to a nonplus +how to act from the contradictory orders he received. In this dilemma +he shewed me the letters, asking at the same time my advice; and my +answer was:--"That in two days famine must oblige us to surrender to +the enemy at discretion. That the reinforcements of a thousand men at +Montreal might be of the greatest importance, and help to make a good +countenance when the English army had advanced in the neighborhood of +it. That it was M. de Vaudreuil who commanded-in-chief in Canada, and +not M. de Levis; and that there was yet a possibility of retiring with +the garrison towards the north side of the island, where the swampy +ground upon the border of the river had hindered the English from +establishing a post." De Bougainville immediately decided for a +retreat, which was executed and combined with equal justness; and the +success answered exactly to the prudence, wisdom and good conduct that +De Bougainville exhibited in preparing for it. It was then about ten +in the morning when Nogaire arrived with the Indians, who--not +accustomed to such a terrible fire as was at that moment poured forth +by the English batteries, very different from their way of fighting +behind trees--were not at all at ease, and furiously impatient to get +out of the island. The hour of retreat was settled for ten that +night. + +The north shore of Isle aux Noix, on the opposite side of the river, +was marshy to the distance of three hundred paces from the river, +covered with small trees where there was a rising ground, and there +was no English post nearer to it than at the Prairie de Boileau, +distant half a mile down the river, so that the locality where the +river was fordable was a little below the north staccados. De +Bougainville adopted every prudent measure imaginable to achieve +success. He ordered all the boats to be mended and put in condition to +be used at a moment's warning. He also ordained that the boats, bark +canoes, and punts hewn out of a large tree, be removed a certain +distance from the river side, lest some soldier should desert and +apprise the English of his design, such as had happened from the posts +near Quebec. He commanded that all the garrison should be in order of +battle at ten at night, all observing a profound silence, without the +least clashing of arms or other noise, and be in readiness to march. +He ordered M. le Borgne, an officer in the colonial troops, to remain +on the island with a detachment of forty men, to keep up a smart fire +from our battery, which consisted of seven or eight pieces of cannon, +during the time we were employed in passing the river, in order to +hinder the English from hearing us in our operations, and to continue +firing whilst ammunition lasted, and to conceal our retreat as long as +it was possible to do so. + +We began to cross the river in two lighters, with some small boats, +about ten at night. They plied continually to and fro until midnight, +when all had crossed the river without the enemy perceiving or even +suspecting our operation, although so near to us were their posts on +their left that we heard distinctly their voices. All was executed +without the least noise, disorder, or confusion--a rare occurrence on +such an occasion. Le Borgne acted well, and at the same time +economized his ammunition so well that he had wherewith to fire upon +the English at intervals until one in the morning. Imagining us then +to be near Montreal, he hoisted the white flag to capitulate, and the +English, not having the smallest notion of our retreat, granted him +immediately very honorable terms. We had eighty men killed or wounded +during the siege--a very inconsiderable loss for a cannonade of +sixteen days' duration, from five batteries, besides a bomb battery, +without an instant's intermission. Had it been a stony instead of a +sandy ground, we must have lost above one-half of the garrison, and +could not have resisted so long. + +So soon as everyone had passed the river, we set out for Montreal, +crossing through the woods, which, in a straight line, is only eight +leagues from Isle aux Noix, always half running one after the other, +after having marched in this manner, from midnight until twelve at +noon, over fens, swamps, mosses, and sinking often up to the waist in +marshy ground, without reposing or halting one minute. Instead of +being near Montreal, as we imagined, we were thunderstruck on finding +ourselves, by the fault of our guides, to be only at the distance of +half a league from Isle aux Noix: our guide, not knowing the road +through the woods, had caused us to turn round continually for twelve +hours without advancing! + +We were so near an English post at the Prairie de Boileau, that a +grenadier of the Regiment de Berry, seeing his commander, Cormier, +sink down with fatigue, and not in a condition to go any further, +carried off a horse from them which was upon the borders of the wood, +and mounted his commander on it; otherwise he would have been left +aside and taken prisoner by the English, or scalped by the Indians. + +Having lost all hopes of going to Montreal through the woods, we took +the road to Fort St. Jean, on the River Chambly, four leagues lower +than Isle aux Noix, and five leagues by land to Montreal. My strength +was so entirely spent, that it was with great difficulty I could draw +one leg after the other. Nevertheless the fear of falling into the +hands of the Indians, the idea of the horrible cruelties which they +practice on their prisoners, which shock human nature, prevented me +from sinking down with pain, and gave me strength to push on. + +Arrived at a settlement at four in the afternoon, about a league and a +half from St. John's Fort, where De Bougainville caused his detachment +to halt and repose themselves for the first time since midnight, that +they left Isle aux Noix. I perceived there a boat going off to St. +Jean, and I had only strength enough remaining to throw myself into +it. We lost in this march about eighty men: those who could not hold +out were left behind, victims to the Indians. Arriving at St. John's +Fort, the first person I saw there was Poularies, on the river side, +who told me they had news of our retreat, and that he was sent with +his regiment to sustain us in case we had been pursued by the English. + +We were now shut up in the island of Montreal on all sides. The +English were masters of the River Chambly by the possession of Isle +aux Noix. General Amherst approached with his army from Lake Ontario; +and General Murray was in march, coming up from Quebec, with six +thousand men that had passed through the winter there, and with some +men-of-war, one of which of about forty guns, on its arrival in sight +of the town of Montreal, greatly astonished, and excited the +admiration of, the inhabitants, who, from the ignorance and negligence +of those persons charged with the sounding of the St. Lawrence, had +never seen vessels arrive there of above sixty or seventy tons. + +General Murray conducted himself as an officer of great understanding, +knowledge and capacity, and left nothing to do for General Amherst; he +employed five weeks in coming from Quebec to Montreal, which is only +sixty leagues, and did us during his march more harm by his policy +than by his army. He stopped often in the villages; spoke kindly to +the inhabitants he found at home in their houses--whom hunger and +famine had obliged to fly from our army at Montreal; gave provisions +to those unhappy creatures perishing for want of subsistence. He +burned, in some cases, the houses of those who were absent from home +and in the French army at Montreal, publishing everywhere an amnesty +and good treatment to all Canadians who would return to their +habitations and live there peaceably. In short--flattering some and +frightening others--he succeeded so well, that at last there was no +more possibility of keeping them at Montreal. It is true we had now +only need of them to make a good countenance. The three English armies +amounting to above twenty thousand men, it was impossible to make any +further resistance. + +Amherst's army appeared in sight from the town of Montreal, towards +the gate of Lachine, on the 7th of September, about three in the +afternoon. General Murray with his army, from Quebec, appeared two +hours after at the opposite side of the town: thus a dark crisis was +at hand for the fate of Canada. Montreal was nowise susceptible of +defence. It was surrounded with stone walls, built in the beginning of +that colony, merely to preserve the inhabitants from the incursions of +the Indians, few imagining at that time it would become the theatre of +a regular war, and that one day they would see formidable armies of +regular, well-disciplined troops before its walls. + +We were, however, all pent up in that miserable, bad place--without +provisions, a thousand times worse off than an advantageous position +in open fields--whose pitiful walls could not resist two hours' +cannonade without being level with the ground, and where we would have +been forced to surrender at discretion, if the English had insisted +upon it. + +The night between the 7th and 8th September was passed in negotiating +for the articles of capitulation. But in the morning all the +difficulties were removed, and General Amherst granted conditions +infinitely more favourable than could be expected in our +circumstances. + +Thus the Canadians, as brave as they are docile, and easy to be +governed, became subjects of Great Britain; and if they can think +themselves happy under that Government, by remembering their past +vexations, they will do so. + +M. (Col.) Poularies and M. (Col.) Dalquier, who were generally +distinguished in the French army by their high sense of honor, +probity, and their bravery, experience and knowledge in the art of +war, were both of them, on their arrival in France, broken as +commanders of a battalion--a grade which was abolished in the French +service, in order to make the Major, as in the British service, +command the regiment in absence of the Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel. +Belcomb, Poularies' Adjt. of Royal Roussillon, and Montgnary, Captain +in the Regiment of Bearn which Dalquier commanded--(two very handsome +men, capable to attract the attention of the ladies of any court in +Europe)--were made Colonels of Foot, without possessing any remarkable +military talent or capacity. + +Fortune manifested most cruelly her almighty power in the military +state, where justice, punishments and rewards alone ought to be the +base of it. Men conduct themselves from the view either of honor or +interest; and there can be no emulation in a service where mediocrity +of talents, intrigues, favor, and credit, override merit. + +Greatness of soul, joined to superiority of talent, ignores the art of +cringing; it is even impossible that merit can lead to fortune in a +corrupted and venal country: on the contrary, it becomes a cause of +exclusion. Virtue elevates the soul, and can neither fawn nor buy +credit, nor flatter vice and incapacity. "If such is the military +constitution of a State," says M. Gaubert, in his Treatise of +Tactics, "of which the Sovereign (the King of Prussia) is one of the +greatest men of the age, who instructs and commands his armies, and +whose armies form all the pomp of the court, what ought it to be in +those States where the Sovereign is not at all a military man; where +he does not see his troops; where he seems to disdain or be ignorant +of all that regards them; where the Court, who always obey the +impression of the Sovereign, is consequently not military; where +almost all the great rewards are obtained by surprise, by intrigue; +where the greater portion of favors are hereditary; where merit +languishes for want of support; where favor can advance without +talent; where to make a fortune no more implies acquiring a +reputation, but merely to heap up riches; where men may be, at one and +the same time, covered with orders and infamy--with grades and +ignorance, serve ill the State, and occupy the best places; be smeared +with the censure of the public, and enjoy the Sovereign's good graces? +If, whilst all other sciences are becoming perfected, that of war +remains in its infancy, it is the fault of the Governments, who do not +attach to it sufficient importance; who do not make it an object of +public education; who fail to direct men of genius to that profession; +who suffer them to find more glory and advantages in sciences trifling +or less useful; who render the profession of arms an ungrateful +employment, where talents are outstripped by intrigue, and the prizes +distributed by Fortune." + +General Amherst, according to his statement in his letter to Mr. Pitt, +then Secretary of State, lost in coming down the rapids--without +meeting there any opposition from the French or Indians--by drowning, +eighty-four men. Twenty more of the regiments' boats were dashed to +pieces. Seven boats of the artillery, loaded with arms and ammunition, +and one of his galleys, were also lost. + +If 900 Indians had been there, as they should have been, scattered in +the woods upon the borders of the river, with 1,200 Canadians, which +they had solicited earnestly from M. de Vaudreuil, to defend those +difficult passes of the Rapids, but which this officer obstinately +refused, what would have become of General Amherst? How could he have +got out of the scrape? As it happened to Braddock, Amherst and his +army must have perished there; his expedition would have been +fruitless, and Canada would have been yet saved to France: but heaven +willed it otherwise. How long the English may preserve this conquest +depends on their own wise and prudent conduct. + +THE END. + + +[The original of this manuscript is deposited in the French war +archives, in Paris: a copy was, with the permission of the French +Government, taken by P.L. Morin, Esq., Draughtsman to the Crown Lands +Department of Canada, about 1855, and deposited in the Library of the +Legislative Assembly of Canada. The Literary and Historical Society of +Quebec, through the kindness of Mr. Todd, the Librarian, was permitted +to have communication thereof. This document is supposed to have been +written some years after the return to France from Canada of the +writer, the Chevalier Johnstone, a Scotch Jacobite, who had fled to +France after the defeat at Culloden, and had obtained from the French +monarch, with several other Scotchmen, commissions in the French +armies. In 1748, says _Francisque Michel_,[D] he sailed from Rochefort +as an Ensign with troops going to Cape Breton: he continued to serve +in America until he returned to France, in December, 1760, having +acted during the campaign of 1759, in Canada, as aide-de-camp to +Chevalier de Levis. On de Levis being ordered to Montreal, Johnstone +was detached and retained by General Montcalm on his staff, on account +of his thorough knowledge of the environs of Quebec, and particularly +of Beauport, where the principal works of defence stood, and where the +whole army, some 11,000 men, were entrenched, leaving in Quebec merely +a garrison of 1,500. The journal is written in English, and is not +remarkable for orthography or purity of diction: either Johnstone had +forgotten, or had never thoroughly known, the language.] + +[Footnote D: _Les Ecossais en France_, vol. ii, p. 449.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Campaign of 1760 in Canada +by Chevalier Johnstone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMPAIGN OF 1760 IN CANADA *** + +***** This file should be named 16724.txt or 16724.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/2/16724/ + +Produced by Alison Hadwin, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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