September 13TH - The French-Indian War

From The Plains of Abraham by Brian Connell:


According to the field state on the morning of September 13th, Wolfe had with him, when all the men had reached the top of the cliff, 4,828 combatants of all ranks.

Wolfe relied on one factor to tip the balance of the day--his men were all regulars, including the two battalions of the Royal Americans, who had been drilled up to his exacting standards. For the first time in the course of the war in North America they were in a position to fight on their own terms--in the open field, where their superb, mechanical discipline and massed fire power would tell to the utmost.

A detachment of light infantry occupied Borgia's farm and the remainder was sent to form a screen at a wood in the rear of the position. The third battalion of Royal Americans was left to guard the landing-place, where, below on the beach, Holmes' sailors were feverishly engaged in the slow business of manhandling guns on to the shore and up the narrow cliff path.


Wolfe's first line consisted of 3,111 men. The amount of ground they had to cover only permitted them to be drawn up two deep, the files a yard apart, with forty yards or more between the battalions, surely the thinnest "red line" in the history of the British army.