Part 10 (2/2)
Joachim--the fertile flats lying almost under the shadow of Cap Tourmente: Fraser was drawing near to the Malbaie country. He writes: ”Friday, 17th August.--Crossed from the Isle of Orleans to St. Joachim.
Before we landed we observed some men walking along the fences, as if they intended to oppose us and on our march up to the Church of St.
Joachim, we were fired on by some party's of the Enemy from behind the houses and fences, but upon our advancing they betook themselves to the woods, from whence they continued popping at us, till towards evening, when they thought proper to retire, and we kept possession of the Priest's house, which we set about fortifying in the best manner we could.” They remained quietly at St. Joachim for some days. But they were getting ready for the grim task of desolating the parishes lying between St. Joachim and Montmorency. Fraser tells the story with soldier-like brevity, but obviously he hated the work.
”Thursday, 23rd.--We were reinforced by a party of about one hundred and forty Light Infantry, and a Company of Rangers, under the command of Captain Montgomery of Kennedy's or forty-third Regiment, who likewise took the command of our detachment, and we all marched to attack the village to the west of St. Joachim, which was occupied by a party of the enemy to the number of about two hundred, as we supposed, Canadians and Indians. When we came pretty near the village, they fired on us from the houses pretty smartly; we were ordered to lie behind the fences till the Rangers, who were detached to attack the Enemy from the woods, began firing on their left flank, when we advanc^d briskly without great order; and the French abandoned the houses and endeavoured to get into the woods, our men pursuing close at their heels. There were several of the enemy killed, and wounded, and a few prisoners taken, all of whom the barbarous Captain Montgomery, who commanded us, ordered to be butchered in a most inhuman and cruel manner; particularly two, who I sent prisoners by a sergeant, after giving them quarter, and engaging that they should not be killed, were one shot, and the other knocked down with a Tomahawk (a little hatchet) and both scalped in my absence, by the rascally sergeant neglecting to acquaint Montgomery that I wanted them saved, as he, Montgomery, pretended when I questioned him about it; but even that was no excuse for such an unparalleled piece of barbarity.
However, as the affair could not be remedied, I was obliged to let it drop. After this skirmish we set about burning the houses with great success, setting all in flames till we came to the church of St. Anne's, [the now famous shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre], where we put up for this night, and were joined by Captain Ross, with about one hundred and twenty men of his company.
”Friday, 24th August.--Began to march and burn as yesterday, till we came to Ange Gardien where our detachment and Captain Ross, who had been posted for some days at Chateau Richer, joined Colonel Murray with the three companies of Grenadiers of the 22nd, 40th and 45th Regiments, where we are posted in four houses which we have fortified so as to be able, we hope, to stand any attack which we can expect with small arms.
”Sat.u.r.day, 25th.--Busy felling the fruit trees, and cutting the wheat to clear round us.
”Sunday, 26th.--The same.
”Monday, 27th August.--I hear Brigadier Murray has returned with his detachment, having had all the success expected of the detachment. We received orders to march to-morrow to Chateau Richer. Some men were observed skulking in the corn, round the houses we possessed; upon which, some of our people fired from one of the houses, when the whole took the alarm and continued firing from the windows and loopholes for about ten minutes. For my own part I can't say I could observe any of the Enemy, but as we had one man killed, and most of the men affirmed they saw men in the Corn, I can't doubt but there were a few of the Enemy near us.”
So the record goes on. On August 30th the detachment was busy fortifying itself in the Church at Chateau Richer near Quebec. On the next day orders came to burn the houses there but not the church and return at once to Montmorency. At Ange Gardien, on the way, General Murray, after whom Murray Bay is named, joined them with his detachment. As they marched along the force burned all the houses and was soon back in camp at Montmorency. They had left a trail black with desolation between that point and Cap Tourmente. Captain Gorham completed the tale of woe by destroying Baie St. Paul and Malbaie. Hardly a house was left between Montmorency and the Saguenay.
But all this was only side-play. The crisis of the campaign was now near. On September 3rd Wolfe abandoned the camp at Montmorency. Fraser writes: ”The Army at Montmorency decamped this day, and crossed to the Island of Orleans, and from thence to Point Levy, without molestation from the French, tho' they must have known some time ago that we intended to abandon that post.”
Wolfe was now ma.s.sing as many troops as possible above Quebec on the south side of the river. On September 6th, 600 of the Highlanders, together with the 15th and the 43rd, marched six miles above Point Levi and there embarked on board the s.h.i.+ps. Fraser says: ”We are much crowded; the s.h.i.+p I am in has about six hundred on board, being only about two hundred and fifty tons.” On the 7th and 8th it rained and the men must have been very uncomfortable in their narrow quarters. For some days still they remained in this condition. Meanwhile were issued to the men careful instructions as to what they should do. The army was to drop down the river in small boats, and to attempt to make a landing on the north sh.o.r.e.
On the evening of September 12th came the final effort so carefully planned. ”About nine o'clock, the night of the 12th, we went into the Boats as ordered.” Fraser says that a sh.o.r.e battery began to fire on the British boats about 4.0 A.M. before they landed and that the landing at the Foulon to climb to the Heights was made at daybreak.
”Thursday, 13th September, 1759.--The Light Infantry under the command of Colonel Howe, immediately landed and mounted the hill. We were fired on in the Boats by the Enemy who killed and wounded a few. In a short time, the whole army was landed at a place called 'Le Foulon,' (now Wolfe's Cove) about a mile and a half above the Town of Quebec, and immediately followed the Light Infantry up the hill. There was a few tents and a Picket of the French on the top of the hill whom the Light Infantry engaged, and took some of their Officers and men prisoners. The main body of our Army soon got to the upper ground after climbing a hill or rather a precipice, of about three hundred yards, very steep and covered with wood and brush. We had several skirmishes with the Canadians and Savages, till about ten o'clock, when the army was formed in line of battle, having the great River St. Lawrence on the right with the precipice which we mounted in the morning; on the left, a few houses, and at some distance the low ground and wood above the General Hospital with the River St. Charles; in front, the Town of Quebec, about a mile distant; in the rear, a wood occupied by the Light Infantry ...
and the third Battalion of the Royal Americans.... The Army was ordered to march on slowly in line of battle, and halt several times, till about half an hour after ten, when the French began to appear in great numbers on the rising ground between us and the Town, and [they] having advanced several parties to skirmish with us, we did the like. They then got two Iron field pieces to play against our line. Before eleven o'clock, we got one bra.s.s field piece up the Hill, which being placed in the proper interval began to play very smartly on the Enemy while forming on the little eminence. Their advanced parties continued to annoy us and wounded a great many men. About this time, we observed the Enemy formed, having a bush of short brush wood on their right, which straitened them in room, and obliged them to form in columns. About eleven o'clock, the French Army advanced in columns till they had got past the bush of wood into the plain, when they endeavoured to form in line of Battle, but being much galled by our Artillery, which consisted of only one field piece, very well served, we observed them in some confusion. However they advanced at a brisk pace till within about thirty or forty yards of our front, when they gave us their first fire, which did little execution. We returned it, and continued firing very hot for about six, or (as some say) eight minutes, when the fire slackening, and the smoke of the powder vanis.h.i.+ng, we observed the main body of the Enemy retreating in great confusion towards the Town, and the rest towards the River St. Charles. Our Regiment were then ordered by Brigadier General Murray to draw their swords and pursue them, which I dare say increased their panic but saved many of their lives, whereas if the artillery had been allowed to play, and the army advanced regularly there would have been many more of the Enemy killed and wounded, as we never came up with the main body. In advancing, we pa.s.sed over a great many dead and wounded, (french regulars mostly) lying in the front of our Regiment, who,--I mean the Highlanders,--to do them justice, behaved extremely well all day, as did the whole of the army. After pursuing the French to the very gates of the Town, our Regiment was ordered to form fronting the Town, on the ground whereon the French formed first. At this time the rest of the Army came up in good order. General Murray having then put himself at the head of our Regiment, ordered them to face to the left and march thro' the bush of wood, towards the General Hospital, when they got a great gun or two to play upon us from the Town, which however did no damage, but we had a few men killed and Officers wounded by some skulking fellows with small arms, from the bushes and behind the houses in the suburbs of St. Louis and St. John's.
After marching a short way through the bush, Brigadier Murray thought proper to order us to return again to the high road leading from Porte St. Louis, to the heights of Abraham, where the battle was fought, and after marching till we got clear of the bushes, we were ordered to turn to the right, and go along the edge of them towards the bank, at the descent between us and the General Hospital, under which we understood there was a body of the Enemy who no sooner saw us than they began firing on us from the bushes and from the bank; we soon dispossessed them from the bushes and from thence kept firing for about a quarter of an hour on those under cover of the bank; but as they exceeded us greatly in numbers, they killed and wounded a great many of our men, and killed two Officers, which obliged us to retire a little, and form again, when the 58th Regiment with the 2nd Battalion of Royal Americans having come up to our a.s.sistance, all three making about five hundred men, advanced against the Enemy and drove them first down to the great meadow between the Hospital and town and afterwards over the River St.
Charles. It was at this time and while in the bushes that our Regiment suffered most: Lieutenant Roderick, Mr. Neill of Bana, and Alexander McDonell, and John McDonell, and John McPherson, volunteer, with many of our men, were killed before we were reinforced; and Captain Thomas Ross having gone down with about one hundred men of the 3rd Regiment to the meadow, after the Enemy, when they were out of reach, ordered me up to desire those on the height would wait till he would come up and join them, which I did, but before Mr. Ross could get up, he unfortunately was mortally wounded in the body, by a cannon ball from the hulks, in the mouth of the River St. Charles, of which he died in great torment, but with great resolution, in about two hours thereafter.
”In the afternoon, Mons. Bougainville, with the French Grenadiers and some Canadians, to the number of two thousand who had been detached to oppose our landing at Cap Rouge, appeared between our rear and the village St. Foy, formed in a line as if he intended to attack us; but the 48th Regiment with the Light Infantry and 3rd Battalion Royal Americans being ordered against him, with some field pieces, they fired a few cannon shot at him when he thought proper to retire.
”Thus ended the battle of Quebec, the first regular engagement that we ... fought in North America, which has made the king of Great Britain master of the capital of Canada, and it is hoped ere long will be the means of subjecting the whole country to the British Dominion; and if so, this has been a greater acquisition to the British Empire than all that England has acquired by Conquest since it was a nation, if I may except the conquest of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the 2nd.
”The Enemy's numbers I have never been able to get an exact account of.
We imagined them seven or eight thousand: this has been disputed since.
However, I am certain they were greatly superior to us in numbers, as their line was equal to ours in length, tho' they were in some places nine deep, whereas ours was no more than three deep. Add to this, their advanced parties and those in the bushes, on all hands, I think they must exceed five thousand.
”Our strength at the utmost did not exceed the thousand men in the line, exclusive of the 15th Regiment and 2nd Battalion Royal Americans, who were drawn up on our left, fronting the River St. Charles, with the 3rd Battalion Royal Americans and Light Infantry in the rear, and the 48th Regiment, who were drawn up between our main body and the Light Infantry as a Corps of Reserve. So that I am pretty certain our numbers did not exceed four thousand men, the Regiments being very weak, most of them under three hundred men each.
”We had only about five hundred men of our Army killed and wounded, but we suffered an irreparable loss in the death of our commander the brave Major General James Wolfe, who was killed in the beginning of the general action; we had the good fortune not to hear of it till all was over.
”The French were supposed to have about one thousand men killed and wounded, of whom five hundred killed during the whole day, and amongst these Monsieur le Lieutenant General Montcalm, the commander in chief of the French Army in Canada, one Brigadier General, one Colonel and several other Officers. I imagined there had been many more killed and wounded on both sides, as there was a heavy fire for some minutes, especially from us.
”We had of our Regiment three officers killed and ten wounded, one of whom Captain Simon Fraser, afterwards died. Lieutenant Archibald Campbell was thought to have been mortally wounded, but to the surprise of most people recovered; Captain John McDonell thro' both thighs; Lieut. Ronald McDonell thro' the knee; Lieutenant Alexander Campbell thro' the leg; Lieutenant Douglas thro' the arm, who died of this wound soon afterwards; Ensign Gregorson, Ensign McKenzie and Lieutenant Alexander Fraser, all slightly. I received a contusion in the right shoulder or rather breast, before the action became general, which pained me a good deal, but it did not disable me from my duty then, or afterwards.
”The detachment of our Regiment consisted, at our marching from Point Levi, of six hundred men, besides commissioned and non-commissioned Officers; but of these, two Officers and about sixty men were left on board for want of boats, and an Officer and about thirty men left at the landing place; besides a few left sick on board, so that we had about five hundred men in the action. We suffered in men and Officers more than any three Regiments in the field. We were commanded by Captain John Campbell; the Colonel and Captain McPherson having been unfortunately wounded on the 25th July, of which they were not yet fully recovered.
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