General James Wolfe (02 Jan 1727 - 13 Sept 1759) was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French at Quebec two hundred and fifty years ago, thus establishing British rule in Canada. Because of this he has been regarded as a hero by many Canadians.

Early Military Career

From his earliest years, Wolfe was destined for a military career, entering his father’s 1st Marine regiment as a volunteer at the age of 13. In 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out. Wolfe, initially unable to travel to the continent with his regiment due to his seasickness, transferred to the 12th Regiment of Foot, a British Army infantry regiment, and set sail for Flanders some months later. Here, he was promoted to lieutenant and made adjutant of his battalion. He took part in an offensive launched by the British. In 1743, Wolfe fought at the Battle of Dettingen, where his activities came under the favourable notice of the Duke of Cumberland. A year later, he became a captain of the 45th Regiment of Foot.

In 1745, Wolfe’s regiment was recalled to Britain to deal with the Jacobite rising. Wolfe served in Scotland in 1746 as aide-de-camp under General Henry Hawley in the campaign to defeat the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart. In this capacity, Wolfe participated in the Battle of Falkirk and the Battle of Culloden. At Culloden, he famously refused to carry out an order of the Duke of Cumberland to shoot a wounded Highlander by stating that his honour was worth more than his commission. This act may have been a cause for his later popularity among the Royal Highland Fusiliers, whom he would later command.

Wolfe returned to Germany and the War of the Austrian Succession, serving under Sir John Mordaunt. He participated in the Battle of Lauffeld, where he was wounded and received an official commendation. In 1748, at just 21 years of age and with service in seven campaigns, Wolfe returned to Britain following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Once home, he was posted to Scotland and garrison duty, and a year later was made a major, in which rank he assumed command of the 20th Regiment, stationed at Stirling. In 1750, Wolfe—then 22—was confirmed as lieutenant colonel of the regiment. During the eight years Wolfe remained in Scotland, he wrote military pamphlets and became proficient in French, as a result of several trips to Paris. Despite struggling with bouts of ill health suspected to be tuberculosis, he also tried to keep himself mentally fit by teaching himself Latin and mathematics.

Seven Years War (1756-59): In 1756, with the outbreak of open hostilities with France, Wolfe was promoted to colonel and participated in the failed British amphibious assault on Rochefort, a seaport on the French Atlantic coast, a year later. Nonetheless, Wolfe was one of the few military leaders who had distinguished himself in the raid. As a result, Wolfe was brought to the notice of the prime minister, William Pitt, the Elder. Pitt had determined that the best gains in the war were to be made in North America, and planned to launch an assault on French Canada.

Louisbourg: On 23 January, 1758 James Wolfe was appointed as a brigadier general, and sent with Major General Jeffrey Amherst to lay siege to Fortress of Louisbourg in New France (located in present-day Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Wolfe’s distinguished himself in preparations for the assault, the initial landing and in the aggressive advance of siege batteries. The French capitulated in June of that year.

Wolfe at Quebec

As Wolfe had comported himself admirably at Louisbourg, William Pitt the Elder chose him to lead the British assault on Quebec City the following year, with the rank of major general. 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 (Québécois) 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 inconclusive bombardment of the city, and a failed attack north of Quebec at Beauport, where the French were securely entrenched, Wolfe then led 200 ships with 9,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors on 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 cannons, 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. Faced with the possibility that the British would haul more cannons up the cliffs and knock down the city’s remaining walls, the French fought the British on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. They were defeated after fifteen minutes of battle, but when Wolfe began to move forward, he was shot in the chest four times. He reportedly heard cries of “They run,” and thus died content that the victory had been achieved.

Historian Francis Parkman describes the death of Wolfe: They asked him [Wolfe] if he would have a surgeon; but he shook his head, and answered that all was over with him. His eyes closed with the torpor of approaching death, and those around sustained his fainting form. Yet they could not withhold their gaze from the wild turmoil before them, and the charging ranks of their companions rushing though the line of sire and smoke. “See how they run.” one of the officers exclaimed, as the French fled in confusion before the leveled bayonets.

“Who run?” demanded Wolfe, opening his eyes like a man aroused from sleep.

“The enemy, sire,” was the reply; “they give way everywhere.”

“Then,” said the dying general, “tell Colonel River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge. Now, God be praised, I will die in peace,” he murmured; and, turning on his side, he calmly breathed his last.

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is notable for causing the deaths of the top military commander on each side – Montcalm died the next day from his wounds. Wolfe’s victory at Quebec enabled an assault on the French at Montreal the following year. With the fall of that city, French rule in North America, outside of the tiny islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, came to an end. The French inhabitants were allowed to remain in their towns and villages and to retain their language1, unlike the Acadians (of present day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) who were subjected to the Great Expulsion (mostly to the French territory of Louisiana) that took place between 1755 and 1763, which today would be labled as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Wolfe’s body was returned to Britain and interred in the family vault in St Alfege Church, Greenwich alongside his father (who had died in March 1759).

Wolfe was renowned by his troops for being demanding on himself and on them. Although he was prone to illness, Wolfe was an active and restless figure. Amherst was to report that Wolfe seemed to be everywhere at once. There was a story that when someone in the British Court branded the young Brigadier mad, King George II retorted, “Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals.”

* Opening lines of ‘The Maple Leaf Forever’ a Canadian song written by Alexander Muir in 1867, the year of Canada’s Confederation.

1 French is now an official language of Canada, along with English