James Wolfe

James Wolfe 1727-59, British soldier. After a distinguished record in European campaigns, he was made (1758) second in command to Jeffery Amherst in the last of the French and Indian Wars . Through his skillful siege operations, he became a hero of the capture of Louisburg (1758) from the French, and he was rewarded with the command of an expedition against the French at Quebec, which he himself had urged. After frontal attacks on the positions of General Montcalm at Quebec had failed, Wolfe took 5,000 men in boats down the St. Lawrence by night and forced an open battle with the French on the Plains of Abraham (Sept. 13, 1759). The British were victorious, but both Wolfe and Montcalm were killed. The battle was decisive in the fall of New France to the British. Wolfe is vividly portrayed in Thackeray's Virginians.

Bibliography: See biographies by C. Hibbert (1959) and D. R. Robin (1960); F. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (1884); R. Howard, Wolfe at Quebec (1965).

Wolfe, James (1727–59). Born in Westerham (Kent) into a military family, Wolfe was an intelligent and articulate professional soldier. He fought at Culloden and with distinction in the Rochefort expeditionary force. Marked out by William Pitt for Canadian service, he served bravely at Louisbourg in 1758, then returned to London, where he dined with Pitt and Temple, exhibiting ‘gasconade and bravado’. Appointed a major-general, he led the assault on Quebec in 1759. Suffering from poor health, he was also criticized for poor generalship by fellow-officers. However, his tactical success and youthful death in victory on 13 September 1759 ensured his entry to the pantheon of British heroes, into patriotic street literature and folk memory. His call to his soldiers to ‘remember what their country expects from them’, echoed in Nelson's Trafalgar signal, and his statement that he would rather have written Gray's ‘Elegy’ than capture Quebec, are not forgotten.

Richard C. Simmons

Wolfe, James (1727–59) British general. He commanded the force that captured Québec by scaling the cliffs above the St Lawrence River and defeating the French, under the Marquis de Montcalm, on the Plains of Abraham (1759). This victory resulted in Britain's acquisition of Canada. Wolfe's death in action made him an almost legendary hero.