How The 7 Year War Decided The Fate Of North America | History of Warfare | Battlefields Of History

long before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue French and English seaf farers knew of a heavily forested inhospitable land to the west of the grand Banks there seemed little to tempt them there but by the beginning of the 17th century both the French and the English had planted colonies but wherever civilization spread War inevitably follows at first the struggle bitter and Savage though it might be was no more than a series of raids and counter raids but in 1754 near the forks of the Ohio River a minor Ambush sparked off a full-scale war between Britain and France a war which would eventually decide the fate of a [Music] continent [Music] come [Music] except for its climactic battle on the plains of Abraham the struggle between Britain and France in North America was by no stretch of the imagination conducted on a Level Playing Field their respective colonists were very different in character and these differences shaped the way in which the conflict developed the British colonist were unquestionably the stronger better established and more populous beginning in Virginia they had spread up and down the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States north to Massachusetts Bay and South to Spanish held Florida in the early years of the 18th century fighting between the Rival colonists was naturally confined for the most part to the frontier areas of upper New York and New Hampshire but to the French the real threat lay in the steady almost inexorable Westward advance of the British colonist towards the Allegany Mountains and Beyond this presented a threat which could not be ignored Canada or New France was a rather precarious Colony sparsely populated and largely confined to the banks of the mighty St Lawrence River and the Great Lakes unlike the British colonies it was not self-sufficient and every winter s it completely cut off from the outside world when the mouth of the St Lawrence River froze it was important indeed vital therefore that an Overland route should be established linking Canada with France's other American colony Louisiana this was soon found to be a practical enough proposition for the Mississippi and Ohio rivers provided a suitable if rather tenuous Highway this lengthy Corridor required protection and so the French established way stations along the Route however a chain of forts running from north to south across the continent also presented a quite unacceptable barrier to the Westwood expansion of the British colonist sooner or later armed conflict was therefore inevitable in April of that year the 22-year-old major George Washington of the Virginia militia began work on a fort at the forks of the Ohio where the city of Pittsburgh now stands only to be driven off by a large force of Frenchmen the French immediately set to building their own fort on the same spot but the Virginians were not prepared to allow matters to rest there and Washington was sent back to reestablish the British claim to the forks by way of encouragement he was also promoted to Lieutenant Colonel back up with 300 regulars and a large contingent of senica Indians on the 28th of May Washington and his Indian allies ambushed a small French Force near Great Meadows and after a short fight forced them to surrender unfortunately when he questioned the prisoners Washington learned that 500 more French troops were nearby there was no alternative but to dig in at Great Meadows and build the ominous ly named Fort Necessity the fort was badly sighted lacked a water supply and was overlooked by wooded slopes on the night of the 2nd of July the French attacked and after a 9 hour battle Washington surrendered the terms granted to him were generous enough leaving behind their artillery and Military supplies the Virginians were allowed to March home but the Ohio Valley was now first firmly in French hands furthermore in return for his freedom Washington was forced to sign a paper affirming that the forks were indeed French territory thus far the only troops involved on both sides have been Colonial ones but now the British government dramatically raised the stakes although the two countries were not officially at War Two battalions of regulars the 44th and the 48th foot commanded by a former Coldstream Guardsman Major General Edward bradock were ordered to sail for America the orders for the dispatch of these troops were supposed to be secret but word soon leaked out to the press the French for wared ordered no fewer than six regular battalions to sail for Canada an attempt by the Royal Navy to intercept the French reinforcements was botched and diplomatic relations were severed soon there will the out andout war between the two countries there's more than one version about the outbreak of the French and Indian Wars for example if you believe that the French caused the French and Indian Wars you simply point to the fact that they established a fort at Fort duain above what is modern day Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania and that this was a symbol to the British of French encroachment from Canada if you believe the British started the war you point to George Washington the volunteer for British forces pathf finding his way up the Ohio River until he got to the forks of the Ohio near Fort Duan and tried to establish a British position if you believe that it was an inevitable conflict between the two sides you simply point to the occurrence where Washington and his forces met a French party and fired the fren first shots that started the war in effect it's a little bit more complex than that there might not have been cause for a war in 1754 after all the French could merely have fortified the area above the Ohio River whereas the British expanded across the land to the banks of the Ohio but politically and symbolically it was too much it was not a question of both sides coexisting side by side but of one side giving way to the other and incidentally it was a question of personal ambition what if George Washington hadn't wanted to make a military name for himself the French and Indian War might not have started in 1754 but might have awaited the outbreak of the European conflict two years later Meanwhile bradic by now in America was nearly ready to March he was under no Illusions about the task facing him and made sure that his soldiers were properly equipped for fighting in the woods his objective was Fort Duan at the forks of the Ohio by the morning of the 9th of July 1755 he was only 8 Mi short of the fort and about to cross the mon Angela River hoping to Halt or at least delay the British advance a mixed force of French and Indians left the fort with the intention of setting an ambush on the Ford however bradic was by then already across the river and both sides actually bumped into each other by accident in the first exchange of fire the French Commander Captain Boer was killed and many of his men fled but the rest took cover amongst the trees and for back what followed was a disaster for the British instead of rushing the French and Indians with the bayonet Brock's men at first responded with disciplined volleys impressive though they may have sounded these had little effect in the trees meanwhile the British officers were rapidly being picked off by unseen marksmen and their men then fell into confusion some individuals tried to take cover and fight in Indian style but this only served to make matters worse frustrated in his attempts to organize a Counterattack with control slipping from his grasp bradoock ordered a retreat only to be felled by a bullet which took four pain wracked days to kill him B's attack on Fort Ducan in 1755 should have been a British Victory he had numerical superiority the French did not have a large amount of Provisions in the fort and French commanders in Canada were ready to retreat but branck threw away the victory in part part because he accepted the advice of George Washington Washington said to send an advanced element of Brock's Force across the river thus splitting the British Army in two that advanced Force strung out along the road leading to Fort Duan was attacked by a French party which happened to come across its path more importantly the British had themselves in a position where they are surrounded by trees and gullies on both sides of the road that meant that the French and Indians were not susceptible to the bayonet charge the one Close Quarters strategy that could have ensured an overwhelming Victory instead British soldiers resorted trying to fire volleys were picked off one by one by the French and Indian forces and ultimately bradic retreated it's no longer remembered this way in part because George Washington would later get glory in the 1750s and the French and Indian Wars but in in effect the British threw away an opportunity in 1755 which could have ended the French and Indian Wars more than 4 years before the final events that took took place at Montreal once again the French were left in Undisputed control of the land west of the alleg there's a great tendency to look at the French and Indian War stereotypes as far as the arm is concerned on the one hand you've got the British regulars very stiff red uniforms pipe clay everywhere got absolutely no idea what they're doing in the forest and then you've got the Wy American provincials most notably of course Robert Rogers and his Rangers but other provincials such as the Virginia regiment who knew how to do it properly to hide behind trees and fight in Indian fashion and therefore going on from there it's no wonder the British lost the Revolutionary War a couple of years later in actual fact the situation was very different the British regulars when they first came over obviously didn't have much idea as to the forest fighting it was a New Concept entirely they had no previous experience of it nevertheless bradic although dismissed as a bit of a martinet and an empty-headed wooden headed uh Guardsman had a fair idea what was about and did his best to prepare them for it as the war went on they built on those lessons the British soldier is and always has been a very adaptable Soldier by the end of the war British regulars could fight the best of them in the forest the British regulars really knew what they were doing the provincials on the other hand yes at the start of the war they had some idea I mean they' been going out into the woods for some time or at least some of them had and it was all very well for the backwoodsman to know what they were doing in the forest but a lot of the American provincial troops came from coastal towns they'd never seen Indians accepted pictures just as the British soldiers had and They too had the lessons to learn although it was easy enough for the British soldier through his training and through the training mechanisms to learn how to fight in the woods because the American Force of far worse dis IED it was a lot more difficult for them to learn how to fight in the open and how to drill as British regulars did and the camp discipline was very poor one thing which was commented done frequently by British commentators was how diry the Americans were and how susceptible as a result they were to disease and this is something which came out again in the revolution the American armies Tred to invade Canada and although a lot of them got shot in the process far more of them died of small pox and other Camp related diseases and elsewhere so that although on the face of it it's quite easy to think of the blundering British and the Wy Americans in practice this wasn't really the case a new British commander John Campbell Earl of Lowden then arrived to take over what was left of Brock's Army and to prepare for a renewed offensive it was going to take time to prepare it properly however and in the meantime the French strengthened their defenses the chain of for fors which protected New France and the Overland route to Louisiana were far more than crude Frontier stades massive fortresses such as Lewisburg which guarded the mouth of the St Lawrence River were built in the most modern European style with Mighty stone-faced ramparts and ditches defended by a large Garrison with many guns far in land deep in the American wilderness Fort Niagara was constructed in accordance with European principles and in 1759 it would take a formal European style Siege to capture the Place Fort Niagara had a a critical location for the French and later for the British but primarily its importance to the French stem from the fact that it guarded the Portage around Niagara Falls and that was also the main route of communications between what most people think of as New France that is Canada and the St Lawrence Valley and the post of the upper Great Lakes but also the colony of Louisiana and uh trade goods communication equipment was moving around the Niagara Portage the importance became even greater when the French decided to begin to establish forts in the upper Ohio Valley because Niagara was the point through which they were being supplied and the French armies uh uh operating in the Ohio were were getting a large part of their military supplies through Fort Niagara uh the British recognized that very early even when General Edward bradoock was sent over here there was some debate as to whether he should attempt to attack Fort Duan in the Ohio Valley or whether he should strike it Niagra and uh the intention had been for him to first of all then capture Fort Duan and then move against Niagara the British uh made an attempt in 1755 to mount an expedition here they were unable to do so but when they did finally capture Fort nigran 1759 they severed all serious French Communications between the main part of the the colony in the interior in order to pierce this Cordon of forts Lowden decided upon a three-pronged attack one column would make another attempt to capture Fort Duan and thus sever the link between Canada and Louisiana a second column would push northwards from New York by way of Lake George against the French Forts and settlements of Upper Canada and the third would take Louisburg before proceeding up the St Lawrence to Quebec the Seven Years War in North America the French and Indian War as it's called in the United States had a major impact on the Forts and new forts were constructed of course but the old forts like Niagara which had been a fort for over 30 years by the time the war broke up uh were often altered and Fort nager is probably the best example of that from going from a a simple um wooden Stockade around a large Stone House uh Fort Niagara was expanded between the fall of 175 in the fall of 1757 by the construction of what technically was a large um horn work constructed of Earth and walls uh slded to prevent erosion uh that basically uh protected the land side approaches to the the position uh the the horn work which really uh is a is a curtain wall with a half Bastion on each side and then Advanced Works ahead of that was a kind of construction that was used when you were concerned really about a attack from Only One Direction and here on this peninsula that was feasible the river and lakes sides had walls but they were very very small uh the lines that are preserved here today have been altered many many times but uh they they follow the original trace of the walls that were laid out in 1755 by a French officer named Pierre puso in the meantime a Savage Guerilla War raged along the frontier many of those involved on both sides were the American Indians their employment was controversial they were undoubtedly cruel and bloodthirsty like so many tribal peoples they employed that cruelty deliberately they reasoned that it was better to achieve their aims through Terror they considered more merciful the killing of a few rather than the wholesale Slaughter of the European style Battlefield Indian Warfare was based on uh uh the blood law and that was a Revenge uh for some atrocity to you uh to to one of our clan a clan member and it was absolutely our duty um as a police action um not on the national scale but as a as a as a local police action to avenge that atrocity uh literally an eye for an eye and that's all they were after um they were they were going uh for the scalp that was the um the warriors's top knot braid was the most uh important part when you take that scalp you have the spirit the European Wars changed uh the old traditional ways of uh of the old blood law so instead of one scalp now because the wars disrupted the fur trade um and we have traditional Wars going on at all times imagine living in a state of per Perpetual Warfare for your entire life and your people for the entire history of your people this is basically how Indian people have lived commanders such as general monam also complained about the lack of commitment among Indian allies and a tendency to drift off home at the slightest opportunity they also displayed an entirely sensible attitude to the prospect of getting killed they avoided it as much as possible after all they had little or nothing to gain from the conflict genocide was not unknown the eie uh who lived uh just to the west of here were annihilated um where are the cesana where are the Erie you know um they were annihilated in the very early Indian Wars so the idea of Indian Warfare is to go out with your members of your clan and Advance on the enemy and uh and do the damage that you could do they would uh strip down as light as possible no heavy coats no heavy uh cartridge boxes on the hip this is very tight equipment it can be held with one hand and you have your your weapon and and maybe a a hand axe in your belt and that's it and um this you you go in as quick as you can uh at dawn um rarely if ever fight at night it's the time when the spirits roam the Earth and you kind of want to stay in one place in a safe place you know they would go out uh for maybe 6 months to a year even years at a time um so when the uh Europeans came to the Villages and saw the men laying around they call them lazy uh what they were doing is resting there were other men who could fight in the woods besides the Indians and unlike them could be relied upon to carry out military operations efficiently on the French side were Colony troops independent companies belonging oddly enough to the Navy L Marine these were tough resourceful regulars largely led by Canadian officers and opposing them were the Rangers Rogers Rangers were gorilla Fighters they fought Indian fashion unlike the normal British soldier that fought in the usual big groups firing B at each other they uh fought uh against the Indians and the Canadians on the flanks of the armies normally of the British army they also would go out and they would get Intelligence on the French and the Canadians and their Indian allies as well as bring in prisoners take scalps and do anything they could do to harass the opposition the most successful of all the ranger leaders was a New Hampshire man named Robert Rogers his standing orders still form part of the present United States Army ranger handbook one don't forget nothing two have your musket clean as a whistle Hatchet scarred 60 rounds powder and ball and be ready to March at a minute's warning three when you're on the March act the way you would as if you were sneaking up on a deer see the enemy first four tell the truth about what you see and what you do there's an army depending on us for correct information you can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers but don't never lie to a r Ranger nor officer five don't never take a chance you don't have to six when you're on the March we March in single file far enough apart so one shot can't go through two men seven if we strike swamps or soft ground we spread out a breast so it's hard to track US eight when we March we keep moving till dark so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us nine when we camp half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps 10 if we take prisoners we keep them separate like till we've had time to examine them so they can't cook up a story between them throughout the rest of 1755 and 1756 British and French troops bickered along the frontier yet more reinforcements were sent to America including including three battalions of Highlanders nevertheless 1757 opened with a failed attempt to take Louisburg and then in July another disaster as the French took Fort William Henry for a short while it looked as though the Victorious General monam might follow up his success by advancing down the Hudson Valley against New York itself instead hungry and ravaged by disease it was the French army which retreated nor northwards to ton deroga Lowden although a competent enough administrator was clearly too indecisive and a new commanderin-chief Jeffrey Amherst was appointed Amherst began promisingly Enough by successfully besieging and capturing Lewisburg when that Mighty Fortress fell at the end of July 1758 he intended to push on up the St Lawrence towards Quebec and this however he was to be disappointed for yet another setback had occurred amherst's less than distinguished subordinate General abui have been ordered to push northwards up the Hudson Valley and Beyond to take tonoga he had more than sufficient men and resources for the job furthermore tond Roga was badly situated and could not withstand a formal Siege unfortunately abomi proceeded to throw away all these advantages in an ill-conceived frontal assault Battalion after Battalion was sacrificed hurled vainly against the French defenses and cut to Ribbons by grape shot and musketry as if this was not enough a second attempt on Fort Duan also ran into trouble the Highlanders forming the advanced guard were ambushed and it was nearly 6 months before a third and successful attack could be mounted once again the British offensive against Canada had stalled once again it was left to the Rangers to keep up the pressure 11 don't ever March home the same way take a different route so you won't be ambushed 12 no matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead 20 yards on each flank and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can't be surprised and wiped out 13 every night you'll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior Force 14 don't sit down to eat without posting sandes 15 don't sleep Beyond Dawn Dawns when the French and Indians attack 16 don't cross a river by a regular Ford 17 if somebody's trailing you make a circle like come back on your own tracks and Ambush the folks that aims to Ambush you 18 don't stand up when the enemy's coming against you kneel down lie down hide behind a tree 19 let the enemy come till he's almost close enough to touch then let him have it and jump out and finish him with your hatchet with Amherst in New York to take personal charge of the Northwood thrust to the great lakes and new Commander was needed for the Expedition against Quebec the man chosen was the 32-year-old major general James Wolf the British army of the 18th century is often seen as a Bastion of privilege an army composed of the very dregs of society commanded by aristocratic officers as with all generalizations there was a certain element of Truth in this but taken as a whole the Army was actually a highly professional force in which Merit was readily rewarded and soldiers were LED not driven into battle by and large of course it was the aristocrats and landed gentry who made it to the very top since they could command influence as well as wealth but the majority of regimental officers came from quite modest backgrounds they were the sons of minor Gentry and of professional men such as doctors and clergymen some were even the sons of Tradesmen a significant group naturally enough were themselves the sons of soldiers one such was James wolf in 1741 at the age of 14 wolf obtained a commission in one of the newly raised regiments of Marines but finding himself to be a martyr to seasickness he quickly transfer to the 12th foot by 1746 he was a captain and serving as a brigade major on General Hy's staff at the Battle of Kaden he signified his willingness to serve again in North America and some du titious lobing won him command of the Quebec Expedition and with it the local rank of Major General to take Quebec he was given some 8,500 men nearly all of them regulars there was no Cavalry but instead he had six companies of Rangers understanding little of the realities of Frontier Warfare he had at first heartily despised his Rangers and frequently complained of their conduct as far as wolf was concerned his entire Reliance would be placed on his 10 battalions of regulars British Army didn't like the Rangers particularly Rogers or any other Ranger group because a lot of times these Ranger groups would go out few miles from the Ford and they never really conducted any Mission or intelligence work come back in and it would become obvious to the British that this was all a facade that nothing had happen so they decided the only way they could get trustworthy intelligence was to form their own ranging units and by doing that they formed light infantry companies they had Rogers actually form a Cadet company of gentlemen volunteers which were privates in the Army and after they went through the training they became officers within the British Army and then they went back either to their own regiment but more more often to another regiment where they would become the Train the trainer type person to train the new uh men that would become late infantrymen and then these men would serve in the same capacity within a British regiment that the Rangers had already served that's how that evolved and we use that today the Army Rangers and the army green Beres in the United States should claim their lineage back to Rogers Rangers and the British light infantry actually could be claimed by our army light infantry today as well or we have light infantry units in the US Army today in a fine example of interservice cooperation this little army was carried up the St Lawrence by the Royal Navy and on the 26th of June 1759 wolf disembarked at the E do Leon just four miles from Quebec the French were utterly dismayed starved of reinforcements from home they had hoped that the notoriously difficult passage of the St Lawrence would delay the British Advance instead served by excellent Navigators such as James Cook the Navy made short work of negotiating the shs the city itself was built on a high prometer jutting out into the St Lawrence at the point where it was entered by the small River St Charles there was no realistic Prospect of launching an amphibious assault directly against the city and the landward side was covered by modern fortifications before any kind of assault could be made on these defenses it was first necessary to land somewhere on the North Bank of the river but here wolf found that the French had forestalled him by constructing what were known as the bport lines this was a series of fortifications and entrenched camps stretching eastwards along the shore for 8 m Downstream of Quebec frustrated wolf established his own Camp still further Downstream close by the mouth of the M Morenci River there he pondered how best to proceed the first solution he came up with was an amphibious assault on the Eastern end of the bport lines this was to be carried out at low tide and accompanied by a simultaneous attack along the beach from his Camp just to the east of the M morenzi Falls even if the M Moren position could be forced wolf would then be faced with another and equally strong set of fortifications covering the St Charles River and only after he fought his way through these would finally be able to begin operations against Quebec itself not surprisingly perhaps his health gave way under the stress but one last daring attempt remained to be made the operation began at 1:00 a.m. on the morning of the 13th of September wolf set off with some 1700 men in 30 boats in the first six was a battalion of light infantry under Colonel William how behind them came a further six battalions including the 78th Highlanders in the meantime some rather obvious preparations were made by the na as if to attempt another landing on the bort Shore this diversion was completely successful monar mustered his troops there and in the meantime the real assault Force passing itself off as a French Provisions Convoy made its way to The Landing place above clette at 4:00 the first wave began disembarking and Ador and incredulous monom first saw the red coated British Army drawn up on the plains of Abraham facing the city at this point he panicked Wolf's position was actually quite precarious before him lay a formidable and as yet unbeaten French army somewhere behind him was another French force of unknown size under a colonel Duan and already on his flanks were growing bands of Canadian militia and Indians with virtually no Prospect of retreat a defeat now would be the worst disaster ever suffered by a British Army in North America instead of waiting a few hours to coordinate his Counterattack with Ban's men mon Karm decided to attack as soon as he could assemble his own Army Wolf's men had already managed to drag two light Cannon up the path from the as of Fong and he thought that they were also digging in once they were entrenched he thought that he would never be able to shift them an immediate attack it would have to be no matter what the consequence of failure the Tactical situation on the morning of the battle is quite interesting on the one hand you've got the British army drawn up at the top of the cliffs facing the city behind them there's a French army of unknown strength and nobody's really sure at this stage how close they are and in front of them you get an even larger French army if the British lose the battle they're going to be absolutely wiped out they'll be forced to surrender because there's no possibility of being able to execute an orderly Retreat down the cliffs into the boats and the way therefore wolf was taking a very great risk arguably he had to take that risk if the British didn't win that battle there and then they could kiss goodbye to any chance of taking Quebec that year and probably the following year as well on the other hand from that point of view monan probably had everything to gain by waiting he could wait gather his men properly get more militia men pulled in to join his regulars and most importantly make contact with banville and the other French army which is Wolf's rear the two armies combined augmented with extra militia would have been far superior to anything the British could put up against them but monam didn't do that in essence he panicked he pulled his men together just every man he could lay his hands on at that moment and Lush straight into battle arguably from his point of view he had to do it the city was possibly untenable wolf had no guns big enough to batter the walls it had no time to get them up mon K may or may not have known this he seems to have thought that the British were throwing up batteries and it's quite possible the city could have been stormed there and then as the Americans tried to do some years later the Americans were unsuccessful and it's possible I think we can say that the British would have been equally unsuccessful at the time but monam didn't really stop to think as far as he was concerned the city was in danger and more importantly his own Supply LS were in danger everything which came to his army and we food and ammunition came along the road from monreal across the plains of Abraham where wolf was sitting as far as he was concerned he had to get wolf out of the way there and then and so he marched and ultimately marched into disaster as the name suggests the plains of Abraham were fairly featureless although a little higher towards the city along the top of the Bluffs overlooking the St Lawrence there was a fair amount of scrub infested with Canadian and Indian snipers but otherwise the battlefield was clear and open the two armies about to contend upon it were also pretty much of a size both being about 4,500 strong but they were very different in character and quality all of the British soldiers drawn up on the plane that morning were well-trained regulars but about half the French were Canadian militia aom's right near the St Charles River were a number of skirmishers from the Quebec militia with a fair sprinkling of Indians amongst them next forming the extreme right of the battle line proper came a formed Battalion of Quebec militia and some other militia men from Montreal then came five small battalions of French regulars waiting for them as they surg forward was a rather lonely looking line of British Red Coats the 35th foot should have formed a part of that line but instead they had become involved in a little Battle of their own as they fored to prevent the French skirmishers from cutting the path down to the coold from right to left therefore the British front line consisted of a small composite Battalion of grenadiers then the 28th 43rd 47th 78th and 58th foot behind the Army and stretched very thinly indeed the 48th foot stood in reserve as the French approached the six battalions forming Walt's front line they began firing at long range the Canadians serving both in the militia and as reinforcements for the regular battalions were not used to fighting at Close Quarters in the open instead of pressing forward with the bayonet they fired then threw themselves down to reload as a result the regular battalions were thrown into disorder but they still continued to storm forward then with just 60 yards to go the British battalions opened far it was not the single crashing volley of popular Legend instead as the French approached Wolf's men began what was described as a regular platoon fire rather than have each man his Char his fire loock at once British infantry battalions were divided into four grand divisions and each division was in turn divided into four platoons when the command was given to fire only one platoon in each division did so and then the next and so on until by the time the fourth platoon had fired the first had reloaded and was ready to fire again the result was a Relentless meat grinding barrage of fire which which wore down the advancing French weakening them so that a final Mass volley delivered at only a few yards range finally broke them as the French fell back in confusion Colonel Simon Fraser onetime master of love it and jackaby officer LED forward his 78th Highlanders broadsword in hand it was probably the last of the old style Highland charges and it turned a disorderly Retreat into a panic-stricken route at the very moment of Victory however General wolf was struck down by one of the snipers lurking in the scrub land leading on the Grenadier Battalion he received a wound which shattered his right wrist but binding it up he carried on only to be shot again through the body within a few moments he was dead but not before he was assured of victory oddly enough the Marquee de monan was also shot down at about the same time and carried Dy into the city at a crucial moment the French army was left leaderless and preventing any chance of its being Red by this time colonel duug was belatedly hurrying up from the West with both Cavalry and infantry the town's end's brigades swung around to face them and they hurriedly backed off nevertheless although deanil had been too late to influence the battle on the plains of Abraham his unwelcome appearance prevented the British from seizing the crossing of the St Charles River and Barling up the remains of mon K's Army at bort as a result the survivors escaped that night to fight another day the battle on the plains of Abraham above Quebec provides a very useful illust ation of the two very different Tactical Systems employed by the British and French armies the British army was very much orientated towards Firepower the men were trained incessantly in loading firing and to a very great extent in Marksmanship as well the French army on the other hand rather took the view that a musket existed as something to stick a ban at on the end of so the result was that at Quebec the British army stood there doing what it did best the French army tried to do what it did best which was to rush forward very in a very gallic fashion cheering yelling the heads off waving the bayet and rather as the British army had done at codon not very many years before they stood there and shot them to bits qubec surrendered a few days later the capture of the city was in the end to be decisive but for the moment it remained to be seen whether the Victorious British Army could hold on to it over the coming winter and in the meantime the war went on the tide might have turned at last but hard fighting still lay ahead before the capture of Montreal and the final surrender of the French for many years the abanaki Indians of St Francis having a particular problem on the frontiers of New England and in September 1759 Major Robert Rogers received orders from General Amherst to undertake a punitive Expedition against them what followed was one of the most famous of his raids after a journey of 22 days nine of them through a waterlogged Spruce bog they at length arrived outside the village of St Francis and a reconnaissance discovered the Indians engaged in celebrating a wedding half an hour before Sunrise we surprised the village approaching it in three divisions on the right left and Center which was affected with so much caution and promptitude on the part of the officers and men that the enemy had no time to recover themselves or to take arms in their own defense until they were almost destroyed some few escaped to the water but my people sunk their canoes and shot those who attempted to escape by swimming we then set fire to all their houses excepting three reserved for the use of the party the fire consumed many Indians who had concealed themselves in the cellers and The Lofts of their houses and would not come out 7:00 in the morning your fair was completely over we had by that time killed 200 Indians and taken 20 of their women and children prisoners 15 of the latter I suffered to go their own way and brought home with me two Indian boys and three girls five English captives were also found taken into our Care on parading the Detachment Captain Ogden was found to be badly wounded being shot through the body but still able to perform his duty six privates were wounded and one stuck birur Indian killed now Rogers had to get back to Crown Point and that proved the most difficult and in the end the most ter terrible part of the operation shortly after leaving his boats Rogers learned that they had been discovered by the French and that a large Detachment was on his track outnumbered by 2 to one there was no alternative but to swing off into the Wilderness and make his way by Lake MOG and down the Connecticut River to a fort known simply as number four Rogers had relied upon finding sufficient Provisions for his men at St Francis but unfortunately most of the stores had been lost when the village was burned and only a small quantity of corn remained it was November before the Rangers straggled back to Crown Point and by that time three officers and 46 men had either been killed by their pursuers or had died of hunger or privation on the way it was a sad end to a daring Venture but it proved to the French and the Indian allies eyes that nowhere was safe from Rogers and his men in the meantime the new French Commander the chavalier Dei prepared for one last attempt to break the British strangle hold on Canada he knew that in the summer of 1760 he was almost certain to be a sailed from three different directions up the St Lawrence from Quebec down the river from Niagara and from the south by way of Lake Champlain he had insufficient men to fight off all three and therefore resolved to strike first at Quebec concentrating no fer than eight battalions of regulars and all the colonial troops and militia he could lay his hands on he moved North in April the British commander in Quebec Brigadier Murray moved out to meet him and in a second battle on the plains of Abraham the two armies Drew up in the half melted snow strangely enough they were in the opposite positions to those they had occupied the previous September this time it was the British badly outnumbered who attacked as monom had done and this time too it was the British who were defeated and driven back in disorder lvi now proceeded to besiege Quebec and although he had very few heavy guns he knew from experience where the weak spots in the wall were to be found unfortunately he was also desperately short of powder and could only afford to fire 20 rounds per day this was clearly no way to conduct a Siege but the Royal Navy had been forced to withdraw from the river by the onset of winter now the ice at the mouth of the St Lawrence was melting if a French Squadron could get into the river before the British returned lvi could be able to recapture Quebec and Canada might yet be saved on the evening of the 25th of May Two Men of War were seen making their way up the river the vangard and the Diana the Royal Navy had won the race and Canada's fate was sealed the rest of the campaign was merely a foregone conclusion as L had foreseen the British gradually closed in on Montreal and on the 8th of September 1760 he reluctantly agreed to surrender Amherst ungenerously refused to allow the French the honors of War so that night lvie ordered his proud battalions to burn their colors rather than hand them over fighting did not end with this final symbolic act out to the West tiny French Garrison still flew the Lily flag of France and encouraged Indian war parties to carry on the fight Canada may have surrendered but Louisiana sustained these lost soldiers until the final end of the war in 1763 and then a new war loomed on the horizon the arony of the French and Indian Wars was that Britain had won one war only to lose another sure she had expelled France from the United States and from all but a small portion of Canada but in doing so she fought a war which was not perceived by Americans as being a battle of equals Britain and the American colonists fighting side by side against the dreaded French but one in which American forces were used and manipulated to support a British battle for example American volunteers were not allowed to have any kind of officer rank in the British army for example the American people not the people of Britain were expected to pay for the cost of the war in taxes on tea taxes on sugar taxes on stamps throughout the 1760s in the end the war became one not of honor of Britain and America standing side by side but of exploitation in which Britain used the Americans as a pawn against the French it was resentment over this that started the chain of events which led to the Revolutionary War of the 1770s and which ended in the expulsion of not only France but also Britain from the United States freed of the threat posed by French Canada the American colonies began to look to their own destiny although it was British regulars who had achieved Victory provincial regiments and provincial leaders such as George Washington had learned their trade within a few short years of the fall of New France they were to put that experience to good [Music] use [Music]