46 Facts About James Wolfe

1.

James Wolfe was a British Army officer known for his training reforms and, as a major general, remembered chiefly for his victory in 1759 over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec.

2.

James Wolfe was killed at the height of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham due to injuries from three musket balls.

3.

James Wolfe was depicted in the painting The Death of General Wolfe, which became famous around the world.

4.

James Wolfe's uncle was Edward Thompson MP, a distinguished politician.

5.

James Wolfe's family were long settled in Ireland and he regularly corresponded with his uncle Major Walter James Wolfe in Dublin.

6.

From his earliest years, James Wolfe was destined for a military career, entering his father's 1st Marine regiment as a volunteer at the age of thirteen.

7.

James Wolfe was given his first commission as a second lieutenant in his father's regiment of Marines in 1741.

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8.

That year the James Wolfe brothers took part in an offensive launched by the British.

9.

James Wolfe's regiment was involved in heavy fighting, as the two sides exchanged volley after volley of musket fire.

10.

James Wolfe's regiment had suffered the highest casualties of any of the British infantry battalions, and Wolfe had his horse shot from underneath him.

11.

James Wolfe was left devastated when his brother Edward died, probably of consumption, that autumn.

12.

James Wolfe's regiment was then summoned to reinforce the main Allied army, now under the command of the Duke of Cumberland.

13.

Lauffeld was the largest battle in terms of numbers in which James Wolfe fought, with the combined strength of both armies totalling over 140,000.

14.

In 1748, aged 21 and with service in seven campaigns, James Wolfe returned to Britain following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the war.

15.

In 1750, James Wolfe was confirmed as Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment.

16.

James Wolfe visited Belfast and toured the site of the Battle of the Boyne.

17.

James Wolfe submitted an application to extend his leave so that he could witness a major military exercise conducted by the French army, but he was instead urgently ordered home.

18.

James Wolfe laid particular stress on the importance of the death penalty and in 1755, he ordered that any soldier who broke ranks should be instantly put to death by an officer or a sergeant.

19.

In 1756, with the outbreak of open hostilities with France, James Wolfe was promoted to Colonel.

20.

James Wolfe was stationed in Canterbury, where his regiment had been posted to guard his home county of Kent against a French invasion threat.

21.

In 1757, James Wolfe participated in the British amphibious assault on Rochefort, a seaport on the French Atlantic coast.

22.

James Wolfe was selected to take part in the expedition partly because of his friendship with its commander, Sir John Mordaunt.

23.

James Wolfe had at one point told the General that he could capture Rochefort if he was given just 500 men but Mordaunt refused him permission.

24.

James Wolfe distinguished himself in preparations for the assault, the initial landing and in the aggressive advance of siege batteries.

25.

James Wolfe then participated in the Expulsion of the Acadians in the Gulf of St Lawrence Campaign.

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26.

Similarly a plan to capture New Orleans was rejected, and James Wolfe returned home to England.

27.

The news of the victory at Louisbourg was tempered by the failure of a British force advancing towards Montreal at the Battle of Carillon and the death of George Howe, a widely respected young general whom James Wolfe described as "the best officer in the British Army".

28.

James Wolfe died at almost the same time as the French general.

29.

James Wolfe insisted on the choice of his friend, the Irish officer Guy Carleton as Quartermaster General and threatened to resign the command should his friend not have been chosen.

30.

James Wolfe had a narrow window to capture Quebec during 1759 before the St Lawrence began to freeze, trapping his force.

31.

James Wolfe expected to lead 12,000 men, but was greeted by only approximately 400 officers, 7,000 regular troops, and 300 gunners.

32.

James Wolfe's troops were supported by a fleet of 49 ships and 140 smaller craft led by Admiral Charles Saunders.

33.

Amherst's large force advancing on Montreal had made very slow progress, ruling out the prospect of James Wolfe receiving any help from him.

34.

James Wolfe then led 4,400 men in small boats on a very bold and risky amphibious landing at the base of the cliffs west of Quebec along the St Lawrence River.

35.

James Wolfe's eyes closed with the torpor of approaching death, and those around sustained his fainting form.

36.

James Wolfe's body was returned to Britain on HMS Royal William and interred in the family vault in St Alfege Church, Greenwich alongside his father.

37.

James Wolfe was renowned by his troops for being demanding on himself and on them.

38.

Amherst reported that James Wolfe seemed to be everywhere at once.

39.

An apocryphal story was published after James Wolfe's death saying that he had carried a locket portrait of Katherine Lowther, his supposed betrothed, with him to North America, and that he gave the locket to First Lieutenant John Jervis the night before he died.

40.

The story holds that James Wolfe had a premonition of his own death in battle, and that Jervis faithfully returned the locket to Lowther.

41.

Wolfe's Landing was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1929 because: "here, on 8 June 1758, the men of Brigadier General James Wolfe's brigade made their successful landing, leading to the capitulation of Louisbourg".

42.

At Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire there is an obelisk, known as James Wolfe's obelisk, built by the family that owned Stowe as James Wolfe spent his last night in England at the mansion.

43.

James Wolfe is buried under the Church of St Alfege, Greenwich, where there are four memorials to him: a replica of his coffin plate in the floor; The Death of James Wolfe, a painting completed in 1762 by Edward Peary; a wall tablet; and a stained glass window.

44.

Warde paid Benjamin West to paint "The Boyhood of James Wolfe" which used to hang at Squerres Court but has recently been donated to the National Trust and is hung at Quebec House his childhood home in Westerham.

45.

Warde erected a cenotaph in Squerres Park to mark the place where James Wolfe had received his first commission while visiting the Wardes.

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46.

James Wolfe's cloak worn at Louisbourg, Quebec and at the Plains of Abraham is part of the British Royal Collection.