Wednesday, September 5, 1759: Montcalm: “M. Wolfe is just the man to double back.” Montcalm theorizes that Wolfe is like a gambler who will feint left (Murray’s early skirmishes upriver), feint right (the Montmorency attack) and then hit the middle (the Beauport shore, or perhaps straight into the town itself). Despite the new British concentration upriver, he dare not commit all his resources to the region above Quebec
The upriver defences depend on Colonel Bougainville’s mobile forces, which try to move up and down the river following the British boat brigades, hoping to be on the scene whenever, wherever they try to land. He has accumulated about 3000 men for the long coast from the Plains of Abraham to Deschambault and beyond. Governor Vaudreuil writes to Bougainville today: “I have no need to tell you, sir, that the salvation of the colony is in your hands. That the enemy’s plan is certainly to cut our communications by making a landing on the north shore. Only vigilance can protect us.”
