James Wolfe
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General James Wolfe, "Who, at the Expence of his Life, purchas'd immortal Honour for his Country... By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th 1759" |
General
James Wolfe (
January 2,
1727–
September 13,
1759) was a British general, remembered mainly for his role in establishing British rule in
Canada.
Wolfe was born in
Westerham,
Kent,
England, the son of General
Edward Wolfe. From his earliest years he was destined for a military career, entering his father's regiment at the age of 14. Wolfe fought at the
Battle of Dettingen in 1743. He served in Scotland under the
Duke of Cumberland in the campaign to defeat the
Jacobite army of
Bonnie Prince Charlie, and took part in the
Battle of Culloden in
1746. At the Battle of Culloden he refused to carry out an order of the Duke of Cumberland, to shoot a wounded highlander stating his honour was worth more than his commission. This act may have been a cause for his later popularity among his Royal Highland troops. He returned to Germany and in July
1747 was wounded at the
Battle of Lauffeld. Wolfe fought as a colonel under
Jeffrey Amherst at the siege of
Louisbourg on June 12,
1758, during the
French and Indian War. The prime minister,
William Pitt, chose him to lead the British assault on
Quebec the following year.
The British army laid siege to the city for three months. During that time, Wolfe issued a written document, known as
Wolfe's Manifesto, to the French-Canadian civilians, as a part of his strategy of psychological intimidation. In March 1759, prior to arriving at Quebec, Wolfe had written to Amherst: "If, by accident in the river, by the enemy's resistance, by sickness or slaughter in the army, or, from any other cause, we find that Quebec is not likely to fall into our hands (persevering however to the last moment), I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me; but we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner."
After an extensive yet unsuccessful shelling of the city, Wolfe then led a very bold and risky amphibious landing at the base of the cliffs west of Quebec along the
St. Lawrence River. His army with two small cannon, scaled the cliffs early on the morning of
September 13,
1759, surprising the French under the command of the
Marquis de Montcalm, who thought the cliffs would be unclimbable. The French, faced with the possibility that the British would haul more cannon up the cliffs and knock down the city's remaining walls, fought the British on the
Plains of Abraham. The French were defeated, but Wolfe was shot in the chest and died just as the battle was won. Wolfe's victory at Quebec enabled an assault on the French at
Montreal the following year. With the fall of Montreal, French rule in North America came to an end.
Examples of the Wolfe legend include the famous painting
The Death of General Wolfe by
Benjamin West, the Anglo-American folk ballad "Brave Wolfe"[
1] (sometimes known as "Bold Wolfe"), and the opening of "
The Maple Leaf Forever."
There is a memorial to Wolfe in
Westminster Abbey by
Joseph Wilton and a statue of him overlooks the
Royal Naval College in
Greenwich,
London.
In
1761, as a perpetual memorial to Wolfe,
George Warde, a friend of Wolfe's from boyhood and the second son of John Warde Esq of Squerryes Court,
Westerham,instituted the Wolfe Society which to this day meets annually in Westerham for the Wolfe Dinner to his "Pious and Immortal Memory".
*Frank McLynn,
1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World (2004)
*Fred Anderson,
Crucible of War : The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (2001)
*
Extensive page on James Wolfe at the Quebec History website*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
