It was a victory that brought him the glorification that he had sought, but one for which he was to pay the ultimate price.

James Peter Wolfe, was born on 2 January, 1727, in Westerham, Kent. His father, Edward, was a Colonel of Marines, so a military career was always going to be his chosen path. Indeed, he joined his father’s regiment when he was still only 13. From the outset he was a student of military tactics and very ambitious, and his rise through the ranks, regardless of his connections, was meteoric. He attained his first commission as a 2nd Lieutenant when he was just 14. At the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession, he came to the attention of King George II’s youngest son William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, who was impressed with the young man. He was promoted yet again soon after, and posted to Scotland to help deal with the Jacobite uprising. As aide-de-camp to the brutal, but none too bright, General Henry Hawley, he was in attendance at his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk but none of the blame was placed at his feet and he was to be promoted Captain and given command of a line regiment at the forthcoming and decisive Battle of Culloden. He fought well and in the aftermath was ordered by the Duke of Cumberland to execute a wounded Highlander. He refused, in the Duke’s presence, saying, ” My honour is worth more than my commission.” Though this act on his part shouldn’t be confused with having any sympathy for the Highlanders whom he frequently referred to as savages. Though, he was to change his opinion somewhat when he came to command a regiment of Scots Fusiliers. Wolfe was to remain in Scotland for six years before returning to England. Still only twenty three years of age, he had by 1750 been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel.

In 1754, the Seven Years War, so called, broke out, though it in fact lasted 9 years. Despite the fighting mainly taking place in Europe with most of the major powers pitted against one another, British involvement occurred mostly overseas on the North American Continent, the West Indies, and the Indian sub-Continent. For Britain it was not a war about dynastic succession but one of conquest, it was about the making of an empire. Even so, Wolfe participated in one of Britain’s few incursions into the war in Europe, the disastrous campaign to take the French port city of Rochefort. He had advanced a number of audacious plans for an assault of the city all of which had been declined, so he spent much of his time there in dispute with his superiors. Still, the fact that he warned of the chaotic operational planning and had opposed the strategy implemented only enhanced his reputation.

Wolfe, was described at this time as a bundle of nervous energy. Though he was known to be something of a hypochondriac, and it was a rare thing indeed for him not to be ill with something, this did not prevent him from being ubiquitous, he always seemed to be everywhere all of the time. He was exacting in everything he did, disciplined and hard-working, and he expected from others the same standards he set for himself. When his hyperactivity was described to the King as madness, the King responded by saying, ” Mad is he, then I wish he would bite some of my other Generals.”

In his short career so far, Wolfe had impressed everyone. So much so, that the Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, promoted him to Brigadier-General and appointed him second-in-command to William Amherst to capture Canada from the French. He was on the fast-track to glory. 

Having distinguished himself yet again at the Siege of Louisbourg, Pitt gave Wolfe the command of the attack on the greatest of the French-Canadian cities, Quebec itself. Wolfe was dertermined not to fail but he was aware of the difficulty of his task. Should things not turn out as he hoped he wrote to Amherst, ” I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvests and cattle . . . and leave desolation and famine behind me.”

After months of siege and a costly failed attempt to take the city in a full-frontal assault the British position was becoming increasingly desparate. The French Commander Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, knew this and was content to remain firmly behind the city’s walls. Wolfe knew he had to entice Montcalm to come out and give battle. He had been advised to approach the city from the north and cut-off Montcalm’s supply line to Montreal but he knew that this would take months to have any effect. What he came up with instead was a plan of such breathtaking audacity that he was advised against it by all of his senior officers. He would move 4,000 men by boat down the St Lawrence River in the dead of night and disembark them on a small cove before scaling the 170ft sheer cliff face of the Heights of Abraham and emerging on the plains above before the walls of the city. The French had believed the Heights to be unscaleable and had left them virtually undefended.

On the night of 4 September, 1759, the British force set off. Wolfe had trained his army well, they were disciplined and many were veteran soldiers. The oars on the boats were muffled and the soldiers removed their boots before scaling the cliffs. When in the darkness they were challenged by a French sentry a British officer replied in perfect French and they were allowed to pass unhindered. As dawn broke on that morning Montcalm could see a British army hastily formed up into two lines before the citys walls. It was a precarious position, with only the cliffs behind them there was no line of retreat. Montcalm, now either panicked or at least acted over-hastily. It is possible that he believed Wolfe had artillery, he had in fact, only managed to bring with him two small cannon. Whatever, Montcalm now ordered an immediate and all-out assault on the British lines but his troops were ill-prepared. A third of his army were untrained militia and as they charged the British lines they fired too soon and their shot fell short. The British maintained their discipline and fired two well-aimed volleys into the oncoming mass of troops. As the smoke cleared the French could be seen to be in full-flight. Wolfe ordered a bayonet charge but as he advanced with his troops he was shot in the hand, the arm, and then the chest. He lived for only a short time. When he heard an officer say, “they run”, he asked, “who runs?” When he was told it was the French, he rolled onto his side and breathed his last. 

Quebec was not to surrender for another two weeks and their was still much hard fighting to be done in Canada but James Wolfe had achieved a remarkable victory. Some of his officers later suggested that he had deliberately courted death. If so then he has his name etched in stone, in history, his glorification ensured. Montcalm, leading his troops on horseback, was also shot down and died the following day of his wounds. Both martyrs in the cause of their nation.