Thursday August 16, 1759. General Wolfe is near the nadir of his relations with his three junior commanders, Monckton, Townshend, and Murray, all of whom find him hard to work with and all of whom are beginning to doubt his strategy and tactics. Wolfe evidently grasps the need to keep at least Monckton, his second-in-command, on his side. After a dispute about troops under Monckton’s command whom Wolfe had ordered moved, Wolfe twice send his apologies. On the 15th, he writes, “I am too well convinced of your upright sentiments and zeal for the public service not to set the highest value on your friendship.” Today he send a second note, “I heartily beg your forgiveness.”
Wolfe’s official diary does not survive beyond this date. His aide late reported that the portions destroyed included “a careful account of the officers’ ignoble conduct towards him in case of a parliamentary inquiry.”
