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James Wolfe

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Submitted By tinazheng1
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James Wolfe!!

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Tina! September 28, 2014!

! ! ! James Wolfe, a British army official, played an important role in the history of Canada and is notable for his victory over the French at the Battle of Quebec in Canada. He was born on January 2, 1727 at Westerham, Kent, the eldest sibling of Colonel Edward Wolfe’s two sons. Wolfe attended school at Westerham and later on at Greenwich, where he continued his military career, entering his father’s Marine regiment as a volunteer at thirteen years of age. From the age of fourteen, he starting actively involving himself in his military career and took part in The War of the Austrian Succession and later on dealt with the Jacobite rising. Thereafter, he spent a few years in Scotland, and would eventually returned to Britain.!

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! After James Wolfe’s successful campaigns in the Seven Years War and his admirable comportment in Louisbourg, he was chosen to lead the British assault in Quebec City by William Pitt the Elder. By the late June of 1759, Wolfe’s convoy had reached the island of Orleans, opposite of Quebec along the Saint Lawrence River. The French defenders lead by Marquis de Montcalm were entrenched along the river frontage, and James, being unable to lure Montcalm out of his defences, ordered an very unsuccessful assault on the Beauport shore east of Quebec. Following his terrible failure Beauport, Wolfe sent Brigidier James Murray to target French stores and shipping in an attempt to reduce supplies available for use to the French and once again bait Montcalm into open battle. However, when this did not work, Wolfe resorted to the destruction of the settlements and countryside around Quebec. Soon, sometime in August, a number of British ships managed to override the difficult currents that the Saint Lawrence River presented and sail past the French artillery units. They used this opportunity to establish a prominent British naval presence upriver of Quebec. The British decide to cut off Montreal by setting up an invasion force above Quebec, constraining the French army to fight.!

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! Wolfe landed at L’anse-Au-Foulon, a lightly defended area at the base of a cliff, approximately three kilometres upstream from Quebec City. Overnight, the naval boats managed to fight the currents of the Saint Lawrence River and land the advanced force a bit after four a.m. of September 13, 1759. By sunrise, Wolfe and his first division were assembled, as well as his 4 500 men that stretched two kilometres across the Plains of Abraham in a shallow horseshoe arrangement two ranks deep. After Montcalm heard about the landing, he decided to attack immediately. Montcalm’s army was close in size with Wolfe’s, but lacked skill and discipline in comparison to the British’s highly trained soldiers. The French army started firing around 120 metres away from the British, but the British stood until the opposing was a mere 40 metres away, at which the British started rolling volleys, reversing the enemy’s advance. Somewhere around this point, General Wolfe is shot three time, the third time a fatal wound on the chest. Upon hearing the retreat of the enemy, James Wolfe reportedly said, “Now, God be praised, I will die in peace.” !

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! James Wolfe was a competent battlefield commander that changed the history of North America with his victorious battle with the French at the Battle of Quebec. If he had not won that final battle and Quebec still remained standing, Canada would have had a possibility of being under the rule of France in favour of being a British colony, which would have led to a domino effect with unpredictable results to what North America would be like today. Therefore, he is still greatly admired today for his remarkable accomplishments, and will remain an influential figure in North American history.

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