The Life and Letters of James Wolfe |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Admiral affairs Amherst amongst army artillery attack battalions batteries battle beg my duty believe Blackheath boats Brigadier British camp campaign Captain Carleton Charles Brett Colonel command corps Cumberland dear Madam DEAR MADAM,-I dear Sir desire detachment Duke Duke of Cumberland Edward Wolfe enemy England expect expedition father favour fire fleet force Fort Augustus French garrison give Glasgow Grenadiers hear Highlanders honour hope horse infantry Inverness JAMES WOLFE King lady land letter Lieutenant-Colonel London Lord Albemarle Lord Bury Lord George Sackville Louisbourg MAJOR-GENERAL AMHERST Marquis de Montcalm military Monckton Montcalm Mordaunt mother never obedient and affectionate obliged officers Pitt quarters Quebec regiment Rickson river Rochefort Saunders Scotland sent ships Sir John Mordaunt soldier squadron Squerryes things thought told town Townshend troops Westerham wish Wolfe's write wrote young
Popular passages
Page 509 - Time was when it was praise and boast enough In every clime, and travel where we might, That we were born her children. Praise enough To fill the ambition of a private man, That Chatham's language was his mother tongue, And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.
Page 358 - I have the honour to be, with great respect, my Lord, your Lordship's " Most obedient and obliged servant,
Page 482 - Levi, and the troops will land where the French seem least to expect it. " The first body that gets on shore is to march directly to the enemy, and drive them from any little post they may occupy; the officers must be careful that the succeeding bodies do not, by any mistake, fire upon those who go on before them.
Page 475 - I am so far recovered as to do business ; but my constitution is entirely ruined, without the consolation of having done any considerable service to the state, or without any prospect of it.
Page 471 - In this situation, there is such a choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain, I know, require the most vigorous measures ; but then the courage of a handful of brave men should be exerted only where there is some hope of a favourable event.
Page 460 - I am sensible of my own errors in the course of the campaign, see clearly wherein I have been deficient, and think a little more or less blame to a man that must necessarily be ruined, of little or no consequence. I take the blame of that unlucky day entirely upon my own shoulders, and I expect to suffer for it.
Page 416 - The two ministers sat aghast at an exhibition so unusual from any man of real sense and real spirit. And when at last Wolfe had taken his leave, and his carriage was heard to roll from the door, Pitt seemed for the moment shaken in the high opinion which his deliberate judgment had formed of Wolfe ; he lifted up his eyes and arms, and exclaimed to lord Temple : " Good God ! that I should have entrusted the fate of the country and of the administration to such hands.
Page 469 - My antagonist has wisely shut himself up in inaccessible intrenchments, so that I can't get at him without spilling a torrent of blood, and that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him ; but the wary old fellow avoids an action, doubtful of the behavior of his army. People must be of the profession to understand the disadvantages and difficulties...
Page 165 - ... their journey, and a place of rest at the end. Nobody can be more persuaded of it than I am; but situation, example, the current of things, and our natural weakness, draw me away with the herd, and only leave me just strength enough to resist the worst degree of our iniquities.
Page 392 - Howe, and he was in fact its real chief; "the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier in the British army,