Capsules historiques
tirées du livre Québec ville assiégée, 1759-1760

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Publication d’une chronologie des événements liés à la bataille des plaines d’Abraham et à la bataille de Sainte-Foy : raconter le déroulement des opérations par les écrits des militaires et des civils qui ont vécu ces événements.

Une belle occasion de contextualiser ces événements, sans en faire une interprétation. Car dans cet ouvrage, ce sont les acteurs et les témoins des événements de l’époque qui ont la parole.

Il est à noter que ces vignettes (non traduites) sont présentées dans la langue d’origine des acteurs et témoins.

Quelques extraits de 1759...

01-12-1759  Malcolm Fraser
The Governor ordered two weeks wood to be issued to the Garrison. It is thought we shall have a great deal of difficulty in supplying ourselves with fuel this winter. The winter is now very severe.
FRASER, Extract from a manuscript journal, relating to the siege of Quebec in 1759, p. 26

03-12-1759  Récher
Les ordonnances sont abolies à Québec. Froid de 19 degrés avec un vent fort, ce qui gèle plusieurs anglais en sentinelle, jusqu’à en faire mourir un et même trois selon quelques-uns.
RÉCHER, Journal du siège de Québec en 1759, p. 45

03-12-1759  John Knox
Orders : ’…As the sentries on their posts, and the soldiers otherwise employed on the duty of the garrison, may, from the severity of the weather at this season of the year, be exposed to be frost-bitten, Doctor Russell recommends that every person to who this accident may happen should be particularly careful to avoid going near a fire, and to have the part frost-bitten rubbed with snow by one who has a warn hand, and, as soon as can be, afterwards put into a blanket, or something of that kind, that will restore heat to the part.’
KNOX, The Siege of Quebec: and the campaigns in North America 1757­1760, p. 230

20-12-1759  Malcolm Fraser
The winter is become almost insupportably cold. The men are notwithstanding obliged to drag all the wood used in the Garrison on sledges from St. Foy, about four miles distance. This is a very severe duty ; the poor fellows do it however with great spirit, tho’ several of them have already lost the use of their fingers and toes by the incredible severity of the frost, and the country people tell us it is not yet at the worst.
FRASER, Extract from a manuscript journal, relating to the siege of Quebec in 1759, p. 27

28-12-1759  Murray
Reports been spread that the enemy had some intentions to pay us a visit, ordered snow-shoes to be made as fast as possible, and the men to be practised walking in them.
LHSQ, Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1760, by James Murray, p. 15

31-12-1759  Murray
Mr. Wolfe, after warning the Canadians, chastised them for not returning to their houses and quitting their arms. Mr. Monckton rightly considered that the conquest of the land, if bereaved of its inhabitants and stock, would be of little value, gave them the strongest assurances of safety, and even encouragement, if they submitted. They confided in his promises. The country was as yet but partially conquered, and it would have been as impolitic to have crushed the inhabitants at this time as it was necessary to oblige them to give a reasonable assistance to His Majesty’s forces. After all, in any event, with skill and tender management, twenty years will hardly restore this Province to the state it was in the beginning of this year.
LHSQ, Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1760, by James Murray, p. 16

03-01-1760 Murray
This day, Major McKellar gave me in his opinion, in writing, that the best method to defend the place was to fortify the heights of Abraham, there to wait our reinforcements.
LHSQ, Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1760, by James Murray, p. 16

04-01-1760  Bigot à Cadet
Il est ordonné au sieur Cadet, munitionnaire, de prendre des mesures solides pour fournir la ration ordinaire pendant quarante ou cinquante jours à un corps de huit ou dix mille hommes, officiers, soldats, miliciens et sauvages, qui doivent faire le siège de Québec, en février, mars ou avril prochain, outre le service ordinaire des villes et des forts.
DOUGHTY, VOL. 5, Extrait des registres tenus au Bureau du contrôle de la Marine, p. 353

09-02-1760  Belle-Ilse à Lévis
Sa Majesté est bien persuadée que le commandement ne pouvoit passer, après lui (Montcalm), en de meilleures mains que les vôtres, et que vous soutiendrez jusqu’au bout l’honneur de ses armes, à quelque extrémité que les affaires puissent être réduites. Au reste, M. Bernier vous fait passer des secours de toute espèce, en vivres, en munitions de guerre et en recrues ; au moyen de quoi, malgré l’avantage que les Anglois ont d’occuper la ville de Québec, qui leur a été rendue trop légèrement, vous serez en état de leur disputer le terrain pied à pied et de prendre, peut-être, des avantages sur eux, capables d’arrêter leurs progrès.
CASGRAIN, Lettres de la cour de Versailles au Baron de Dieskau, au Marquis de Montcalm et au Chevalier de Lévis, p. 207-208

02-03-1760  Malcolm Fraser
They have threatened to attack us all winter, and the General seems now to think them in earnest.
FRASER, Extract from a manuscript journal, relating to the siege of Quebec in 1759, p. 28

18-03-1760  Malcolm Fraser
Captain Donald McDonald of Colonel Fraser’s Regiment with the Light Infantry and other detachments, making in all about five hundred men […]attacked the French post at St. Augustin, where they took about eighty prisoners, without any loss on our side, and returned that night to Town, having suffered very much by the excessive cold of the preceding night, several having lost the use of their fingers and toes. The Scurvy, occasioned by salt provisions and cold, has begun to make fierce havock in the garrison, and it becomes every day more general. In short, I believe there is scarce a man of the Army entirely free from it.
FRASER, Extract from a manuscript journal, relating to the siege of Quebec in 1759, p. 28-29

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