Quebec, 13th September, 1759

A still greater opportunity occurred 2nd and on 13th September at the decisive Battle of Quebec, where upon the 3rd Bns. Plains of Abraham the 2nd Battalion, whose light company covering the landing had been the first to scale the heights, protected the left during the battle against a very superior force of Red Indians and French which assailed the flank and rear of Wolfe's army under cover of dense bush and rocky ground. The grenadier companies of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were included in the companies composing the Louisburg Grenadiers-a corps d'elite-to which was assigned the place of honour in the centre of the line. It was in close proximity to our grenadiers that the immortal Wolfe fell. It is said that it was Lieutenant John Brown, of the Royal Americans, who was the first to reach the dying hero. together with Lieutenant J. F. W. des Barnes,' his A.D.C., also of the Regiment. The 3rd Battalion played a no less important part by holding in check the enemy under Bougainville, who threatened the rear through the woods on the river bank.

The Regiment had thus a large share in this momentous victory a decisive step in the conquest of Canada.

Montreal, 1760

Amherst, who in 1759 had succeeded Abercromby 1st and in chief command of the army, led the main force in its advance to 4th Bns. Montreal, where, on 8th September, 1760, the 4th Battalion, a portion of the 1st and the grenadiers of the 2nd and 3rd, shared in the final surrender of the French army under the Marquis de Vaudreuil. By this surrender the supremacy in America finally passed to the British Crown.

Following up their successes in 1758 under General Forbes in the Ohio Valley, Bouquet and the 1st Battalion had by degrees captured or occupied the whole of the French posts west of the Alleghany Mountains, and they were accordingly chosen to hold the various forts established in the unexplored country south of the Great Lakes. A region embracing thousands of square miles of forest and lakes was thus consigned to the keeping of five or six hundred men, a vast responsibility for a single weak battalion garrisoning a few insignificant forts.

Back