Appendix H
Chapter 25. Wolfe at Quebec
FORCE OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH AT THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC.
“Les retranchemens que j’avois fait tracer depuis la rivière St. Charles jusqu’au saut Montmorency furent occupés par plus de 14,000 hommes, 200 cavaliers dont je formai un corps aux ordres de M. de la Rochebeaucour, environ 1,000 sauvages Abenakis et des différentes nations du nord des pays d’en haut. M. de Boishébert arriva ensuite avec les Acadiens et sauvages qu’il avoit rassemblés. Je réglai la garnison de Québec à 2,000 hommes.” Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.
The commissary Berniers says that the whole force was about fifteen thousand men, besides Indians, which is less than the number given by Vaudreuil.
Bigot says: “Nous avions 13,000 hommes et mille à 1,200 sauvages, sans compter 2,000 hommes de garnison dans la ville.” Bigot au Ministre, 25 Oct. 1759.
The Hartwell Journal du Siége says: “II fut décidé qu’on ne laisseroit dans la place que 1,200 hommes, et que tout le reste marcheroit au camp, où l’on comptoit se trouver plus de 15,000 hommes, y compris les sauvages.”
Rigaud, Vaudreuil’s brother, writing from Montreal to Bourlamaque on the 23d of June, says: “Je compte que l’armée campée sous Québec sera de 17,000 hommes bien effectifs, sans les sauvages.” He then gives a list of Indians who have joined the army, or are on the way, amounting to thirteen hundred.
At the end of June Wolfe had about eight thousand six hundred effective soldiers. Of these the ten battalions, commonly mentioned as regiments, supplied six thousand four hundred; detached grenadiers from Louisbourg, three hundred; artillery, three hundred; rangers, four hundred; light infantry, two hundred; marines, one thousand. The complement of the battalions was in some cases seven hundred and in others one thousand (Knox, II. 25); but their actual strength varied from five hundred to eight hundred, except the Highlanders, who mustered eleven hundred, their ranks being more than full. Fraser, in his Journal of the Siege, gives a tabular view of the whole. At the end of the campaign Lévis reckons the remaining English troops at about six thousand (Lévis au Ministre, 10 Nov. 1759), which answers to the report of General Murray: “The troops will amount to six thousand” (Murray to Pitt, 12 Oct. 1759). The precise number is given in the Return of the State of His Majesty’s Forces left in Garrison at Québec, dated 12 Oct. 1759, and signed, Robert Monckton (Public Record Office, America and West Indies, XCIX.). This shows the total of rank and file to have been 6,214, which the addition of officers, sergeants, and drummers raises to about seven thousand, besides 171 artillerymen.