In a world darkened by
ethnic conflicts that tear nations apart, Canada stands as a model of
how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace,
prosperity, and mutual respect.
U.S. President Bill Clinton
Travel through the eras of
history and the development of the various nations that
make up Canada today.
The French
field army was not captured with Quebec; Montreal remained untaken; and another
campaign was necessary to complete the conquest of Canada.Through the winter of 1759-60 the British
under General James Murray held Quebec.Early in the spring Montcalm's successor, Levis, marched against the
city.Murray went out to meet him and
was defeated on 28 April in the battle of Ste.Foy.This action in the snow was
New France's last victory.Murray fell
back into Quebec and Levis besieged him.The colony might still have been saved for France by powerful aid from
the mother country.But the fleet that
came up the St. Lawrence in May was British, not French.
For the
final campaign, Pitt again called upon the British colonies for great
efforts.He gave Amherst a free hand,
and the Commander-in-Chief resolved on a triple attack.Brigadier Haviland would make the advance
upon Montreal by Lake Champlain; Murray would sail up the St. Lawrence from
Quebec; and Amherst himself, with the main army, over 10,000 strong, was to
move down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario. This converging strategy
prevented any possibility of French forces with, drawing into the west, where
Detroit was still in French hands.The
French hoped to concentrate against the smaller detachments successively and defeat
them in detail; but they were unequal to the task.
On the
Lake Champlain line, Isle aux Noix and St. Johns had to be abandoned to
Haviland's superior force, which soon drove on to the St. Lawrence.Murray simply bypassed the French garrisons
on his route; and the only serious obstacle encountered by Amherst was a petty
fortification, Fort de Levis, on an island at the head of the St. Lawrence
rapids near the modern site of Prescott.He landed guns and solemnly and systematically blew it to smithereens.After losing some men in descending the
rapids, he landed on the island of Montreal. ("I have suffered by the
Rapides not by the enemy", he wrote later.) In the words of Sir Julian
Corbett, "So, like the striking of a clock, Amherst's wide-flung movements
chimed together at the appointed hour." With the British forces
concentrated, and their own men deserting in shoals, L6vis and Vaudreuil had
scarcely more than 2000 troops to face 17,000.They had no choice but to capitulate; and on 8-9 September Montreal, and
Canada, passed into British hands.Thus
ended the long struggle between France and Britain in North America.
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