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Osprey Campaign #121
Quebec 1759: The battle that won Canada
Osprey's study of the decisive battle of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). 'What a scene!' wrote Horace Walpole. 'An army in the night dragging itself up a precipice by stumps of trees to assault a town and attack an enemy strongly entrenched and double in numbers!' In one short sharp exchange of fire Major-General James Wolfe's men tumbled the Marquis de Montcalm's French army into bloody ruin. Sir John Fortescue famously described it as the 'most perfect volley ever fired on a battlefield'. In this book Stuart Reid details how one of the British Army's consummate professionals literally beat the King's enemies before breakfast and in so doing decided the fate of a continent.
96 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 16, 2017
Another high quality entry in the universally excellent Campaigns series.
The book is written by Stuart Reid an expert on the 18th Century and follows the standard format for this series. It has the usual high quality mix of computerised maps, photos and deployment data.
A brief but informative precis of the situation that faced Wolfe upon his arrival is followed by a discussion of the plans, the divisive nature of the Command structures that bedevilled both Wolfe and Montcalm and the available forces to both the British and the French Canadian armies.
He then devotes time and effort to a clear laying out of the "War on the River" as Wolfe attempted to land his army at Quebec and Montcalm tried to prevent it. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is covered in a couple of pages as it lasted all of ten minutes. Reid then explains the events after the deaths of both Wolfe and Montcalm leading up to the doomed attempt to retake Quebec with the all but forgotten Battle of St Foy.
The book is written by Stuart Reid an expert on the 18th Century and follows the standard format for this series. It has the usual high quality mix of computerised maps, photos and deployment data.
A brief but informative precis of the situation that faced Wolfe upon his arrival is followed by a discussion of the plans, the divisive nature of the Command structures that bedevilled both Wolfe and Montcalm and the available forces to both the British and the French Canadian armies.
He then devotes time and effort to a clear laying out of the "War on the River" as Wolfe attempted to land his army at Quebec and Montcalm tried to prevent it. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is covered in a couple of pages as it lasted all of ten minutes. Reid then explains the events after the deaths of both Wolfe and Montcalm leading up to the doomed attempt to retake Quebec with the all but forgotten Battle of St Foy.
August 9, 2017
As usual Reid is iconoclastic, and generals Montcalm, Levis, and Wolfe, usually considered great generals, come off as talented but flawed. I found the narrative a bit confusing before the actual Plains of Abraham battle and Sainte-Foy seemed tacked on. Mostly, there was just not enough about the French. Yet, the research is good and the analysis fair as it usually is in Osprey titles.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews