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Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
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Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (February 28, 1712 – September 14, 1759) was the commander of the French forces in North America during the Seven Years' War (the North American phase of which is called the French and Indian War in the United States). He is most remembered for his role in the Fall of Quebec, and remains a controversial figure.
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Louis-Joseph was the son of Louis-mourad de Montcalm and Marie-Thérèse de Lauris and was born at their Chateau de Candiac in southern France, near Nîmes. He joined the French Army in 1727 as an ensign in the Régiment d'Hainault. On the death of his father in 1735, he became the Marquis de Saint-Veran, inheriting the honours, rights, and debts of that position. But his finances were improved soon after by his marriage to Angelique Louise Talon du Boulay. Despite a marriage arranged for money and influence, they were a devoted couple. They made their home at Candiac and had 10 children.
His father purchased a captaincy for him in 1729 and he served in the War of Polish Succession and the War of Austrian Succession, reaching the rank of Colonel of the Régiment d'Auxerrois in 1743. He took part in Marshal de Maillebois' Italian campaign, where he was taken prisoner in the Battle of Piacenza after receiving five sabre wounds while rallying his men. He was released on parole after several months imprisonment, and promoted to Brigadier for his actions during the campaign. He was wounded again by a musket ball before the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war in 1748.
General Montcalm was sent to Quebec in 1756 as the commander of French troops in North America during the French and Indian War. His early campaigns against the British were major successes. He expanded the defenses at Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. He captured and destroyed Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario in 1756. His victory at Fort William Henry in 1757 was a military and personal victory, but the conduct of his Algonquin allies made this a political loss. These actions were immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans. It should also be noted that during the "massacre" at Fort William Henry, Montcalm was disgusted by the Algonquin slaughter of the English troops and their Iroquis allies, and is said to have ridden out immediately upon hearing of it. He came to the scene and put an abrupt halt to the carnage, at one point even offering his own life for the lives of the prisoners. The "massacre", however is now under question due to new evidence of incorrect numbers that in the past were taken as fact. The event itself is, by some, now considered false, and an early use of propaganda by the British at that time.
Regardless, he led the French forces to victory at the Battle of Carillon, facing and defeating a British army five times his size. It was considered his greatest victory, but the battle's outcome was due partly to the fact that the British commander, James Abercrombie, failed to adapt his tactics when the initial frontal attacks proved insufficient to dislodge the defenders. Before and throughout the battle, Montcalm displayed a high level of military competence and leadership in all affairs regarding the fort itself and leading his men. However, Montcalm's feud with the governor of New France, Le marquis de Vaudreuil, severely hamstrung the defense of la Nouvelle-France as King Louis XV had few interests in America.
Later actions at Quebec were less successful and his army was defeated on the Plains of Abraham (near Quebec City) by the British under James Wolfe, but only after repelling the initial British landing at Montmorency Falls several days before. Outnumbered and without Lévis' division, the battle lasted only 15 minutes outside the city's fortress. Wolfe fell on the Plains, and Montcalm died the day after the battle of his wounds (he had been shot in the abdomen), on September 14, 1759, four days before the British entered Quebec. He was buried in the convent of the Ursuline nuns in Quebec, supposedly in a hole caused by the British shelling.
His remains, consisting of a skull and a leg bone, were exhumed in the 1800s and were put on display at the convent in a stone crypt alongside a plaque commemorating him. In a ceremony in September 2001, Montcalm's remains were buried in the cemetery of the Quebec General Hospital, where hundreds of casualties from both sides of the battle had been buried 242 years earlier.
- Four vessels of the French Navy have been named in his honour:
- An armoured corvette (1865-1891)
- An armoured cruiser (1898-1926)
- A La Galissonniere class cruiser (1933-1969, served in the Free French Naval Forces)
- A F70 type frigate (1975-present)
Many sites and landmarks were named to honor Montcalm. They include:
- The Montcalm Pavilion, a dormitory at the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean;
- Montcalm Secondary School in London, Ontario;
- Rue Montcalm (Montcalm Street), located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada;
- Montcalm Street, Detroit, Michigan;
- Montcalm County, Michigan;
- Montcalm Street, Ticonderoga, New York (Named in 1933);
- Montcalm Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
- Montcalm Park, Oswego, New York, on the site of the former Fort Oswego