Part 1 (1/2)

The Campaign of 1760 in Canada.

by Chevalier Johnstone.

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, diminis.h.i.+ng gradually in height in the s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sault 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, sh.e.l.ls 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 cla.s.sed as it deserved, amongst the vagaries of bedlam; he subst.i.tuting 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 a.s.surances that he would re-take the town in the spring and save the colony, provided they would send to him from Europe a s.h.i.+p 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 quant.i.ty 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 compa.s.sion--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 a.s.sertions, 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 G.o.ddess, 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 circ.u.mspection, 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 mult.i.tude 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 pa.s.sed 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 quant.i.ty 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 bra.s.s 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 s.p.a.ce 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 a.s.sault, 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 skirmis.h.i.+ng around Quebec.--(J.M.L.)