[doughty] battle of THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 401 



'^ that "Wolfe was in possession of it previously to his last wound. Upon 

 " the General viewing the position of the two armies, he took notice of 

 " a small rising ground between our right and the enemy's left, which 

 " concealed their motions from us in that quarter, upon which the 

 "General did me the honour to detach me with a few Grenadiers to 

 " take possession of that ground, and maintain it to the last extremity, 

 ^Svhich I did until the two armies were engaged, and then the General 

 " came to me, but that great, that ever memiorable man, whose loss can 

 " never be enough regretted, was scarce a moment with me till he re- 

 " ceived his fatal wound." 



Mr. Hawkins' account appears to be in accordance with the major- 

 ity of the testimony, until he commences to picture the scene himself, 

 then it becomes a case of Hawkins versus Hawkins. In the first place 

 he describes the four-gun battery as being on the left of the British. 

 Later, he claims that the ruins of the battery near the race stand which 

 commanded the field, were probably the remains of the battery men- 

 tioned by Townshend in his despatch. If this were so, then the bat- 

 tery would have been on the right of the English and not on the left 

 as asserted by Townshend, Knox, and other authorities. Moteover, on 

 the plans, and on the drawing made at the time by the aide-de-camp of 

 General Wolfe, this battery is placed on the left, the guns command the 

 river and not the field, and between the battery and the field, some 

 houses intervene. 



In his attempt to be precise as to the relative positions of the army, 

 Mr. Hawkins is unfortunate. The terminus a quo, without the ter- 

 minus ad quern, is useless. The St. Lawrence is a large river, and a 

 line might be drawn from either of the points given by Mr. Hawkins to 

 Cape Diamond to Sillery, or to any other point on the river at will. We 

 are, therefore, unable to gain much information from this source. 



The next passage of importance in this quotation, is the direct 

 statement that the severest fighting occurred between the right of the 

 race stand and the Martello Towers. On page 357, Mr. Hawkins writes: 

 " The English were ordered to reserve their fire until the French were 

 '* within forty yards. They observed these orders strictly." The French 

 were therefore witliin forty yards of the right of the race stand. Mr. Haw- 

 kins makes it quite clear that the redoubt near which Wolfe is said to 

 have died, was occupied by the English before the final engagement. 

 As this redoubt is at least a quarter of a mile eastward of the right of 

 the race stand, the French to gain this ground within -iO yards of the 

 English, must have passed the Grenadiers who occupied the redoubt, 

 and cut them off from the rest of the English army. " The General 

 " did me the honour to detach me with a few Grenadiers to take that 



