James Wolfe
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| James Wolfe | |
|---|---|
| January 2, 1727 – September 13, 1759 (aged 32) | |
 "Major General Wolfe. Who, at the Expence of his Life, purchas'd immortal Honour for his Country, and planted,with his own Hand, the British Laurel, in the inhospitable Wilds of North America, By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th. 1759." |
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| Place of birth | Westerham, Kent, England |
| Place of death | Quebec, New France |
| Resting place | St Alfege Church, Greenwich |
| Allegiance | Great Britain |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1740–1759-08-13 † |
| Rank | General |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Dettingen, Battle of Lauffeld (War of Austrian Succession) Battle of Falkirk, Battle of Culloden (Jacobite uprising) Battle of the Plains of Abraham† (Seven Years War) |
| Relations | Lieutenant General Edward Wolfe (father) |
General James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada and establishing British rule there. Because of this he has been regarded as a hero by many Canadians.
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[edit] Early life (1727-1740)
James Peter Wolfe was born in Westerham, Kent, England, the older of two sons of Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Edward Wolfe and the former Henrietta Thompson (his childhood home in Westerham has been preserved in his memory under the name Quebec House).[1]
In York, a fine timber framed house called 'The Black Swan' remains well preserved, and was the home of Edward Thompson MP Lord Mayor of York and his daughter Henrietta Wolfe (mother of Gen.James Wolfe)
Around 1738, the family moved to Greenwich, in London. From his earliest years, Wolfe was destined for a military career, entering his father's 1st Marine regiment as a volunteer at the age of 13.
Illness prevented him from taking part in a large expedition against Spanish-held Cartagena in 1740, and his father sent him home a few months later.[2] He was fortunate to miss what proved to be a disaster for the British forces at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
[edit] War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48)
[edit] European War
In 1740 the War of the Austrian Succession broke out. Wolfe, initially unable to travel to the continent with his regiment due to his seasickness, transferred to the 12th Regiment of Foot, a British Army infantry regiment, and set sail for Flanders some months later. Here, he was promoted to lieutenant and made adjutant of his battalion. He took part in an offensive launched by the British. In 1743, Wolfe fought at the Battle of Dettingen, where his activities came under the favourable notice of the Duke of Cumberland. A year later, he became a captain of the 45th Regiment of Foot.
[edit] Jacobite Rising
In 1745, Wolfe's regiment was recalled to Britain to deal with the Jacobite rising. Wolfe served in Scotland in 1746 as aide-de-camp under General Henry Hawley in the campaign to defeat the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart. In this capacity, Wolfe participated in the Battle of Falkirk and the Battle of Culloden.[3] At Culloden, he famously refused to carry out an order of the Duke of Cumberland to shoot a wounded Highlander by stating that his honour was worth more than his commission. This act may have been a cause for his later popularity among the Royal Highland Fusiliers, whom he would later command.
[edit] Return to the Continent
Wolfe returned to Germany and the War of the Austrian Succession, serving under Sir John Mordaunt. He participated in the Battle of Lauffeld, where he was wounded and received an official commendation. In 1748, at just 21 years of age and with service in seven campaigns, Wolfe returned to Britain following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the war.
[edit] Peacetime Service (1748-1756)
[edit] Scottish garrison
Once home, he was posted to Scotland and garrison duty, and a year later was made a major, in which rank he assumed command of the 20th Regiment, stationed at Stirling. In 1750, Wolfe—then 22—was confirmed as lieutenant colonel of the regiment. During the eight years Wolfe remained in Scotland, he wrote military pamphlets and became proficient in French, as a result of several trips to Paris. Despite struggling with bouts of ill health suspected to be tuberculosis, he also tried to keep himself mentally fit by teaching himself Latin and mathematics.
[edit] Seven Years War (1756-59)
In 1756, with the outbreak of open hostilities with France, Wolfe was promoted to Colonel. He was stationed in Canterbury where his regiment had been posted to guard Kent against a French invasion threat. He was extremely dispirited by news of the loss of Minorca in June 1756, lamenting the lack of professionalism amongst the British forces.
[edit] Rochefort
In 1757 Wolfe participated in the failed British amphibious assault on Rochefort, a seaport on the French Atlantic coast. He was selected to take part in the expedtion partly because of his friendship with its commander, Sir John Mordaunt. As well as his regimental duties, Wolfe also served as Quartermaster General.
The attempt failed, as after capturing an island offshore, the British made no attempt to land on the mainland and press on to Rochefort, and instead withdrew home.Nonetheless, Wolfe was one of the few military leaders who had distinguished himself in the raid - having gone ashore to scout the terrain, and having constantly urged Mordaunt into action. As a result, Wolfe was brought to the notice of the prime minister, William Pitt, the Elder. Pitt had determined that the best gains in the war were to be made in North America, and planned to launch an assault on French Canada.
[edit] Louisbourg
On 23 January, 1758 James Wolfe was appointed as a brigadier general, and sent with Major General Jeffrey Amherst to lay siege to Fortress of Louisbourg in New France (located in present-day Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Wolfe distinguished himself in preparations for the assault, the initial landing and in the aggressive advance of siege batteries. The French capitulated in June of that year.
[edit] Quebec
As Wolfe had comported himself admirably at Louisbourg, William Pitt the Elder chose him to lead the British assault on Quebec City the following year, with the rank of major general. The British army laid siege to the city for three months. During that time, Wolfe issued a written document, known as Wolfe's Manifesto, to the French-Canadian (Québécois) civilians, as part of his strategy of psychological intimidation. In March 1759, prior to arriving at Quebec, Wolfe had written to Amherst: "If, by accident in the river, by the enemy’s resistance, by sickness or slaughter in the army, or, from any other cause, we find that Quebec is not likely to fall into our hands (persevering however to the last moment), I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me; but we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner."
After an extensive yet inconclusive bombardment of the city, and a failed attack north of Quebec at Beauport, where the French were securely entrenched, Wolfe then led 200 ships with 9,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors on a very bold and risky amphibious landing at the base of the cliffs west of Quebec along the St. Lawrence River. His army, with two small cannons, scaled the cliffs early on the morning of September 13, 1759, surprising the French under the command of the Marquis de Montcalm, who thought the cliffs would be unclimbable. Faced with the possibility that the British would haul more cannons up the cliffs and knock down the city's remaining walls, the French fought the British on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. They were defeated after fifteen minutes of battle, but when Wolfe began to move forward, he was shot three times, once in the arm, once in the shoulder, and finally in the chest.
Historian Francis Parkman describes the death of Wolfe:
They asked him [Wolfe] if he would have a surgeon; but he shook his head, and answered that all was over with him. His eyes closed with the torpor of approaching death, and those around sustained his fainting form. Yet they could not withhold their gaze from the wild turmoil before them, and the charging ranks of their companions rushing though the line of sire and smoke.
"See how they run." one of the officers exclaimed, as the French fled in confusion before the leveled bayonets.
"Who run?" demanded Wolfe, opening his eyes like a man aroused from sleep.
"The enemy, sire," was the reply; "they give way everywhere."
"Then," said the dying general, "tell Colonel River, to cut off their retreat from the bridge. Now, God be praised, I will die in peace," he murmured; and, turning on his side, he calmly breathed his last breath.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is notable for causing the deaths of the top military commander on each side: Montcalm died the next day from his wounds. Wolfe's victory at Quebec enabled an assault on the French at Montreal the following year. With the fall of that city, French rule in North America, outside of the tiny islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, came to an end.
Wolfe's body was returned to Britain and interred in the family vault in St Alfege Church, Greenwich alongside his father (who had died in March 1759).
[edit] Character
Wolfe was renowned by his troops for being demanding on himself and on them. Although he was prone to illness, Wolfe was an active and restless figure. Amherst was to report that Wolfe seemed to be everywhere at once. There was a story that when someone in the British Court branded the young Brigadier mad, King George II retorted, "Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals."
[edit] Legacy
The inscription on the obelisk at Quebec City, erected to commemorate the battle on the Plains of Abraham once read: "Here Died Wolfe Victorious." Now it simply reads: "Here Died Wolfe." [4] Wolfe's defeat of the French led to the British capture of the New France department of Canada, and his "hero's death" made him a legend in his homeland. The Wolfe legend led to the famous painting The Death of General Wolfe Wolfe"[1] (sometimes known as "Bold Wolfe"), and the opening line of the patriotic Canadian anthem, "The Maple Leaf Forever."
The site where Wolfe purportedly fell is marked by a column surmounted by a helmet and sword. An inscription at its base reads, in French and English, "Here died Wolfe - September 13th, 1759." It replaces a large stone which had been placed there by British troops to mark the spot. There is a memorial to Wolfe in Westminster Abbey by Joseph Wilton and a statue of him overlooks the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. A statue also graces the green in his native Westerham, Kent, alongside one of that village's other famous resident, Sir Winston Churchill. At Stowe Landscape Gardens in Buckinghamshire there is an obelisk, known as Wolfe's obelisk, built by the family that owned Stowe as Wolfe spent his last night in England at the mansion. Wolfe is buried under the Church of St Alfege, Greenwich, where there are four memorials to him: a replica of his coffin plate in the floor; The Death of Wolfe, a painting completed in 1762 by Edward Peary; a wall tablet; and a stained glass window. In addition the local primary school is named after him.
In 1761, as a perpetual memorial to Wolfe, George Warde, a friend of Wolfe's from boyhood and the second son of John Warde Esq of Squerryes Court, Westerham, instituted the Wolfe Society, which to this day meets annually in Westerham for the Wolfe Dinner to his "Pious and Immortal Memory".- Nav rayat
There are several institutions, localities, thoroughfares, and landforms named in honour of him in Canada. Significant monuments to Wolfe in Canada exist on the Plains of Abraham where he fell, and near Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Ontario Governor John Graves Simcoe named Wolfe Island (Ontario) an island near the Royal Military College of Canada in General James Wolfe's honour in 1792. On Sept. 13, 2009, the Wolfe Island Historical Society will lead celebrations on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of James Wolfe's victory at Quebec. A life-size statue in Wolfe's likeness is to be sculpted. [4]
A senior girls house at the Duke of York's Royal Military School is named after Wolfe, where all houses are named after prominent figures of the military. There is a James Wolfe school for children aged 5–11 down the hill from his house in Greenwich.
Artifacts and relics owned by Wolfe are held at Museums in both Canada and England, although some have mainly legendary association. Wolfe's cloak worn at Louisbourg, Quebec and at the Plains of Abraham is part of the British Royal Collection. In 2008 it was loaned to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax for an exhibit on the Siege of Louisbourg and in 2009 was loaned to the Army Museum at the Halifax Citadel.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Unknown. "James Wolfe", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008
- Brumwell, Stephen (2007). Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe, Continuum International Publishing Group, 432 p. (ISBN 978-0-7735-3261-8) (preview)
- Bélanger, Claude. "James Wolfe", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia, Marianopolis College, 2005
- Carroll, Joy (2004). Wolfe & Montcalm: Their Lives, their Times, and the Fate of a Continent, Richmond Hill: Firefly Books, 302 p. (ISBN 1-55297-905-9) (preview)
- Chartrand, René (2000). Louisbourg 1758: Wolfe's First Siege, Oxford: Osprey Military, 96 p. (preview)
- Stacey, C. P. "Wolfe, James", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000
- Reid, Stuart (2000). Wolfe: The Career of General James Wolfe from Culloden to Quebec, Rockville Centre (N.Y.): Sarpedon, 224 p.
- McNairn, Alan (1997). Behold the Hero: General Wolfe and the Arts in the Eighteenth Century, Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 306 p. (ISBN 0773515399) (preview)
- Warner, Oliver (1972). With Wolfe to Quebec: The Path to Glory, Toronto: Collins, 224 p.
- Reilly, Robin (1960). Wolfe of Quebec, London: White Lion Publishers, 365 p.
- Casgrain, Henri-Raymond (1905). Wolfe and Montcalm, Toronto: Morang & Co., 296 p. (online)
- Parkman, Francis (1884). Montcalm and Wolfe, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, (online: volume 1, volume 2)
- Wright, Robert (1864). The Life of Major-General James Wolfe, London: Chapman and Hall, 626 p. (online)
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James Wolfe |
- Unknown. "History and Chronology of James Wolfe", in World History Database
- New Brunswick Museum. "A National Treasure in New Brunswick: James Barry's Death of General Wolfe", in New Brunswick Museum (Web site), 2003
- NBC. Plains of Abraham Web site, Government of Canada. (National Battlefields Commission)
- NBC. 1759: From the Warpath to the Plains of Abraham, Virtual Museum Canada, The National Battlefields Commission, 2005
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