History Browser

This 1810 plan of the 1759 siege of Quebec was based on the survey made by order of Admiral Saunders, the Royal Navy commander of the expedition. (Library and Archives Canada, C-014523)

This map shows Quebec and the surrounding countryside in 1780. It was created by Bernard de Weiderhold, an officer of the German troops in British service posted in Canada during the American War of Independence. 1780 was five years after the failed American attack on Quebec and German troops formed most of the garrison. Note the wall around the city and the strengthened redoubt area on Cape Diamond where the Citadel was eventually built in the 1820s. (Portuguese Army Library, Lisbon)

At the upper left are the British trenches dug during the short 1758 siege of Fort Frontenac. A portion of the foundations of the fort are still to be seen in present-day Kingston, Ontario.

Established in about 1718, Fort La Présentation was rebuilt from 1748. This was an important base for French allied Indians on the upper St. Lawrence River who were much influenced by Father Piquet, a Sulpician missionary. In 1752, it was described by John Defever as having ‘a town of about forty wigwams, and have a French priest among them’ next to the fort. It was taken by the British in 1760 and is now the town of Ogdensburg, NY.

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye (1685-1749) charted large areas of the Prairies during the 1730s and 1740s, unsuccessfully searching for the fabled Northwest Passage that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Fort Frontenac in 1758, now Kingston, Ontario. Founded in 1673, this fort was also called Cataraqui (several possible spellings) but eventually retained the name of its founder, Governor General Count Louis de Buade de Frontenac et de Palluau. It was the most important French fort on Lake Ontario until Fort Niagara was built in the 1720s. Fort Frontenac was taken by a large force under Lt. Col. Bradstreet in 1758 and thereafter abandoned. The site was later used for military purposes by the British and Canadian armies. This sketch shows at the upper left the Anglo-American batteries put up during the 1758 attack.

This was the third Fort Chambly. It was built of stone in an impressive castle-like design. (Library and Archives Canada, C-015885)

The fortifications shown on this plan of Île-aux-Noix were not completed, notably to the north. In the south, the bottom half of the fort shown with six bastions was built by the French in 1760 as a large semi-circular artillery battery instead. The British batteries (not shown) were built on the eastern shore (left) of the Richelieu River and bombarded the French works from 16 to 20 August 1760. The French troops then slipped away at night.

The uprising of 1763-1764 was spread over a wide region. Of the posts shown on this map, only Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and Fort Detroit remained under British control.

This map shows the paths of the British and American advances against New France between 1758 and 1760. (Library of the Canadian Department of National Defence)