James Wolfe
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Who, at the Expence of his Life, purchas'd immortal Honour for his Country, and planted,with his own Hand, the British Laurel, in the inhospitable Wilds of North America, By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th. 1759."
General James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British military officer, remembered mainly for his victory over the French in Canada and establishing British rule there.
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[edit] Birth and early military career
Wolfe was born to a military father at what is now the Old Vicarage in Westerham, Kent, though the family lived in nearby Quebec House until, during his childhood, his family moved to Greenwich. 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 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. There, he returned 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. He remained on duty in Scotland until being sent to North America in 1758 to serve in the Seven Years War, which had broken out two years earlier.
[edit] Colonial Military Career
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. 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). The French capitulated in June of that year.He also captured New France in 1759 and took the power of France in North America.
Wolfe comported himself admirably at Louisbourg, and as a result, Pitt 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 unsuccessful shelling of the city, 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. It must be noted however that Wolfe himself favored an attack on the northern bank of Quebec, an attack that was doomed to failure by the superior concentration of French forces. He reluctantly agreed to an attack via the southern bank after his three brigadiers vehemently opposed the northern route. The French, faced with the possibility that the British would haul more cannons up the cliffs and knock down the city's remaining walls, fought the British on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The French were defeated, but Wolfe was shot in the chest and died just as the battle was won. 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 sompanions
rushing though the line of sire and smoke."See how they run." one of the officers esclaimed,
as the French fled in confusion before the levelled
bayonets."Who run?" demanded Wolfs, 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 mummered;
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 Louisiana and the tiny islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, came to an end.
Wolfe's body was returned to Britain and interred in the family vault in St Alfege Church, Greenwich alongside his father (died in March 1759)
[edit] Character
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 English Court branded the young Brigadier mad, King George II retorted, "Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals."
Nearly half his forces at Quebec included militiamen from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, although they behaved bravely in battle, outperforming what was expected of soldiers of their rank.
[edit] Legacy
Wolfe's defeat of the French led to the British capture of the New France department of Canada, and his "hero's death" made him a legend in his homeland. The Wolfe legend led to the famous painting The Death of General Wolfe Wolfe"[1] (sometimes known as "Bold Wolfe"), and the opening line of the patriotic Canadian anthem, "The Maple Leaf Forever."
The site where Wolfe purportedly fell is marked by a column surmounted by a helmet and sword. An inscription at its base reads, in French and English, "Here died Wolfe - September 13th, 1759." It replaces a large stone which had been placed there by British troops to mark the spot. There is a memorial to Wolfe in Westminster Abbey by Joseph Wilton and a statue of him overlooks the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. A statue also graces the green in his native Westerham, Kent, alongside one of that village's other famous resident, Sir Winston Churchill. At Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckinghamshire there is an obelisk, known as Wolfe's obelsik, built by the family that owned Stowe as Wolfe spent his last night in England at the mansion. Wolfe is buried under the Church of St Alfege, Greenwich, where there are four memorials to him: A replica of his coffin plate in the floor; The Death of Wolfe, a painting completed in 1762 by Edward Peary; a wall tablet; and a stained glass window in addition the local primary school is named after him.
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".
There are several institutions, localities, thoroughfares, and landforms named for him in Canada. Significant monuments to Wolfe in Canada exist on the Plains of Abraham where he fell, and near Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
A senior girls house at the Duke of York's Royal Military School is named for Wolfe, where all houses are named after prominent figures of the military.
[edit] External links
- James Wolf Chronology World History Database
- Extensive page on James Wolfe at the Quebec History website
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham(Virtual Exhibition)
- A National Treasure in New Brunswick: James Barry's Death of General Wolfe
- Plains of Abraham (National Historic Park.Québec,Canada)
- James Wolfe from The Canadian Encyclopedia
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