By Paul Carrier
Anyone who has spent time in Québec, or even spotted tourists from that Canadian province cruising America’s highways, has at least a passing familiarity with this motto: “Je me souviens.” I remember.
The terse but telling sentence is emblazoned on Québec’s coat of arms. It graces Québec's license plates. And it lives in the hearts of the Québécois, the province’s French-speaking majority.
The point of this indelible remembrance is that Québec originated as a colony of France, and continued as such until the end of the French and Indian War. In 1759, the city of Québec, the capital of New France and the heart of the colony, fell to the British in the pivotal battle of that war. It’s that demise that D. Peter MacLeod, a curator at the Canadian War Museum, details in Northern Armageddon.
The broad outlines of what happened on Sept. 13, 1759, on Québec’s Plains of Abraham are generally known. A British force led by Gen. James Wolfe defeated French defenders led by the Marquis de Montcalm. The French never recaptured Québec, and Montréal capitulated a year later. At the end of the war in 1763, France surrendered Canada to the British. "When the French Canadian says ‘Je me souviens,’ he not only remembers the days of New France," historian Mason Wade wrote in 1955, “but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people.”
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was preceded by a three-month siege, and MacLeod chronicles this prelude, the battle itself and its aftermath in scrupulous detail. He has a keen eye for logistical details, troop strengths and movements, strategy and tactics, and the personalities and interactions of key players.
MacLeod humanizes his account with the first-person observations of eyewitnesses, including a French memoirist, a British sailor aboard HMS Stirling Castle, a supply clerk in the main French storehouse at Québec, and a staff officer in Wolfe’s headquarters, among many others.
The author offers up compelling anecdotes about the high and the lowly, such as the experience of a Madame Bernier, whose first name presumably is lost to history. When British forces rampaged through the countryside before the battle, destroying everything in their path, Bernier had to flee into the forest, even though she was nine months pregnant. “The baby, born on a bed of leaves, survived to be nicknamed ‘La Feuille’ (Leaf) and passed on the name to his descendants.”
Northern Armageddon tackles several myths and oversimplifications about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, not the least of which is that the British army was, in fact, British. About a third of its members were American colonials.
Wolfe’s assault, which required finding a way to ascend the massive cliffs that shielded the city, was not so much a stroke of genius as a final, desperate gamble by a general who had run out of options following defeats during the siege.
Far from being a textbook face-off between two cohesive forces, both sides were plagued by internal strife. Wolfe was ill during much of the siege, came close to abandoning the assault, and did not get along with his brigadiers. Montcalm, a native of France, was perennially at odds with Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the Canadian-born governor general of New France and Montcalm’s superior.
Although Wolfe is credited with having carried the day, MacLeod makes it clear that the British Royal Navy deserves as much credit for the win. And although the French lost the battle, it was not for lack of valor by the rank and file, including Canadian-born militia and France’s Indian allies. Montcalm was a highly successful and respected general, but he miscalculated badly that day. France later compounded his errors by failing to adequately reinforce what could have been a successful French campaign to recapture the city the following year. MacLeod shows that the outcome of great battles may hinge in large part on happenstance, oversight and poor judgment.
Underappreciated heroes come to the fore in MacLeod’s tale, including Canadian civilians who went to extraordinary lengths to feed the French army during the siege, and the overworked French nuns whose Hôpital Général outside Québec’s walls cared for wounded soldiers from both sides after the battle without favoritism, winning the admiration of British officers.
Northern Armageddon includes four invaluable maps that I examined over and over again, to orient myself as events unfolded. MacLeod’s highly detailed, evenhanded and dramatic account is accompanied by a helpful alphabetized list of more than 175 people, most of whom played a role in the battle that decided the fate of New France and paved the way for much that followed, including the American Revolution.
The terse but telling sentence is emblazoned on Québec’s coat of arms. It graces Québec's license plates. And it lives in the hearts of the Québécois, the province’s French-speaking majority.
The point of this indelible remembrance is that Québec originated as a colony of France, and continued as such until the end of the French and Indian War. In 1759, the city of Québec, the capital of New France and the heart of the colony, fell to the British in the pivotal battle of that war. It’s that demise that D. Peter MacLeod, a curator at the Canadian War Museum, details in Northern Armageddon.
The broad outlines of what happened on Sept. 13, 1759, on Québec’s Plains of Abraham are generally known. A British force led by Gen. James Wolfe defeated French defenders led by the Marquis de Montcalm. The French never recaptured Québec, and Montréal capitulated a year later. At the end of the war in 1763, France surrendered Canada to the British. "When the French Canadian says ‘Je me souviens,’ he not only remembers the days of New France," historian Mason Wade wrote in 1955, “but also the fact that he belongs to a conquered people.”
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was preceded by a three-month siege, and MacLeod chronicles this prelude, the battle itself and its aftermath in scrupulous detail. He has a keen eye for logistical details, troop strengths and movements, strategy and tactics, and the personalities and interactions of key players.
MacLeod humanizes his account with the first-person observations of eyewitnesses, including a French memoirist, a British sailor aboard HMS Stirling Castle, a supply clerk in the main French storehouse at Québec, and a staff officer in Wolfe’s headquarters, among many others.
The author offers up compelling anecdotes about the high and the lowly, such as the experience of a Madame Bernier, whose first name presumably is lost to history. When British forces rampaged through the countryside before the battle, destroying everything in their path, Bernier had to flee into the forest, even though she was nine months pregnant. “The baby, born on a bed of leaves, survived to be nicknamed ‘La Feuille’ (Leaf) and passed on the name to his descendants.”
Northern Armageddon tackles several myths and oversimplifications about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, not the least of which is that the British army was, in fact, British. About a third of its members were American colonials.
Wolfe’s assault, which required finding a way to ascend the massive cliffs that shielded the city, was not so much a stroke of genius as a final, desperate gamble by a general who had run out of options following defeats during the siege.
Far from being a textbook face-off between two cohesive forces, both sides were plagued by internal strife. Wolfe was ill during much of the siege, came close to abandoning the assault, and did not get along with his brigadiers. Montcalm, a native of France, was perennially at odds with Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the Canadian-born governor general of New France and Montcalm’s superior.
Although Wolfe is credited with having carried the day, MacLeod makes it clear that the British Royal Navy deserves as much credit for the win. And although the French lost the battle, it was not for lack of valor by the rank and file, including Canadian-born militia and France’s Indian allies. Montcalm was a highly successful and respected general, but he miscalculated badly that day. France later compounded his errors by failing to adequately reinforce what could have been a successful French campaign to recapture the city the following year. MacLeod shows that the outcome of great battles may hinge in large part on happenstance, oversight and poor judgment.
Underappreciated heroes come to the fore in MacLeod’s tale, including Canadian civilians who went to extraordinary lengths to feed the French army during the siege, and the overworked French nuns whose Hôpital Général outside Québec’s walls cared for wounded soldiers from both sides after the battle without favoritism, winning the admiration of British officers.
Northern Armageddon includes four invaluable maps that I examined over and over again, to orient myself as events unfolded. MacLeod’s highly detailed, evenhanded and dramatic account is accompanied by a helpful alphabetized list of more than 175 people, most of whom played a role in the battle that decided the fate of New France and paved the way for much that followed, including the American Revolution.
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