Battle of Sainte-Foy
| Battle of Sainte-Foy | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Canada, New France (present-day Canada) 46°48′08″N 71°14′31″W / 46.80222°N 71.24194°W | |
| Result | French victory |
Great Britain27 guns
640 wounded[2]
829 wounded[2]
20 guns lost
The Battle of Sainte-Foy (
At first the British had some success, but the advance masked their artillery, while the infantry became bogged down in the mud and melting snowdrifts of the late spring. The battle turned into a two-hour fight at close range; eventually, as more French soldiers joined the fray, the French turned the British flanks, forcing Murray to realize his mistake and to recall the British back to Quebec without their guns, which Lévis then turned on the city.
Background
In April 1760, Lévis returned to Quebec with an army of over 7,000 men, including Canadien militia and First Nations warriors. He hoped to besiege Quebec and force its surrender in the spring, when he expected a French fleet to arrive in his support
General
Battle
Forces
Lévis commanded 6,910 soldiers, including 3,889 in eight regular battalions.
Murray's 3,886-man force consisted of ten regular battalions, a converged light infantry battalion, and two companies of
North flank
Observing that the French army was still deploying, Murray resolved to strike his enemies before they were ready. As the British advanced, Lévis pulled his three formed right wing brigades back into the Sillery Woods. At this time, the French left wing had not yet deployed. The British light infantry drove some French grenadiers out of a windmill on the right flank. Pursuing, they soon ran into trouble. The French left wing troops aggressively attacked and scattered the light infantry. Murray committed the 35th Foot from his reserve and restored the right flank of the British line.[3] However, a bitter struggle for possession of the windmill continued.[7]
Decision
The British left flank troops captured some redoubts, but then Lévis launched a powerful counterattack with his right wing. Murray sent in his final reserve, the 3/60th to stop this attack. He also pulled out the 43rd Foot from his center, which Levis had mostly ignored, and moved it to support his left flank. However, the British left flank finally gave way after suffering heavy losses, and the line collapsed from left to right. Lévis later claimed that he tried to cut the British off from Quebec, but a mischance allowed his enemies to escape. Instead of attacking straight ahead, as ordered, one of his right wing brigades went astray, heading over to help the left wing.[5]
At the beginning of the action the numerous British cannon kept the French attacks at bay. The French advance gained momentum when the guns began to run out of ammunition. When Murray ordered the line forward, their ammunition carts had become bogged in the snow. The British spiked and abandoned their guns in the retreat.[8]
Result
Casualties
The British army suffered 292 killed, 837 wounded, and 53 captured, for a total of 1,182 casualties. The French lost 833 men, including 193 killed and 640 wounded.[9] The 15th Foot lost 138 out of 386 soldiers of all ranks, or 34% casualties.[10] Three-quarters of the officers of the Fraser Highlanders (78th) were killed or wounded. This makes the Battle of Sainte-Foy one of the bloodiest engagements ever fought on Canadian soil.[citation needed]
Failed siege
Lévis was, however, unable to retake Quebec. The British retreated behind the city's walls, and withstood Lévis' feeble siege until the arrival of
Memory
"The Monument des Braves," in Quebec in 1863, commemorated the Battle of Sainte-Foy. It began a wave of commemorations that took place across Canada between 1850 and 1930. They were designed to create positive memories, leave out the harshness of the British conquest, and bring Anglophones and Francophones closer together.[11]
The battle and its aftermath, with the fruits of the French victory snatched by the arrival of British warships, was dramatized by modernist poet F. R. Scott in, "On the Terrace, Quebec":
I think of the English troops
imprisoned in the broken city
in the spring of 1760
waiting the first ship.
Whose flag would it fly?
And the other army,
victorious at Ste. Foy,
still strong,
watching.
Suddenly, round the bend,
masts and sails
begin to finger the sky.
The first question is answered.
Notes
- ^ Chartrand, Appendix D, p. 230. Lévis commanded around 5,910 officers, soldiers, and militia on his expedition from Montreal. By his estimates his army at Sainte-Foy numbered about 5,000, although he reported that more than 1,400 of these, including a regular brigade and his cavalry, did not participate in the action. His native allies, it seems, took no part in the fighting, although they reappeared at the end of the battle to reap their share of prisoners.
- ^ a b The Fall of New France p.73
- ^ a b Brumwell, p. 257
- ^ Brumwell, p. 255
- ^ a b Brumwell, pp. 256–257
- ^ Brumwell, p. 153
- ^ Brumwell, pp. 259–260
- ^ Brumwell, p. 261
- ^ Brumwell, p. 258
- ^ Brumwell, p. 259
- ^ Patrice Groulx, "La Commemoration de la Bataille de Sainte-Foy: du discours de la Loyaute a la 'Fusion des Races," ["Commemoration of the Battle of Sainte-Foy: from the discourse of loyalty to the "fusion of the races"] Revue d'histoire de L'Amerique francaise (2001) 55#1 pp 45–83.
References
- Brumwell, Stephen (2002). Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755–1763. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80783-2
- Chartrand, Rene (2000). Canadian Military Heritage. Casemate Publishing. ISBN 2-920718-51-7. Archived from the originalon 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2006-05-19.
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