Montcalm and Wolfe
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Title: Montcalm and Wolfe
Author: Francis Parkman
Release Date: December 29, 2004 [EBook #14517]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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FRANCIS PARKMAN
MONTCALM AND WOLFE
With a New Introduction by
SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON
COLLIER BOOKS
NEW YORK, N.Y.
This Collier Book is set from the 1884 edition
Collier Books is a division of The Crowell-Collier Publishing
Company
First Collier Books Edition 1962
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62:16974
Copyright (c) 1962 by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company All
Rights Reserved Hecho en los E.E.U.U. Printed in the United States of
America
To
Harvard College,
the alma mater under whose influence the
purpose of writing it was conceived,
This Book
is affectionately inscribed.
Preface
The names on the titlepage stand as representative of the two nations
whose final contest for the control of North America is the subject of
the book.
A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in its
preparation, consisting for the most part of documents copied from the
archives and libraries of France and England, especially from the
Archives de la Marine et des Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and
the Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public Record Office and the
British Museum at London, the papers copied for the present work in
France alone exceed six thousand folio pages of manuscript, additional
and supplementary to the "Paris Documents" procured for the State of
New York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead, the copies made in
England form ten volumes, besides many English documents consulted
in the original manuscript. Great numbers of autograph letters, diaries,
and other writings of persons engaged in the war have also been
examined on this side of the Atlantic.
I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis de Montcalm the
permission to copy all the letters written by his ancestor, General
Montcalm, when in America, to members of his family in France.
General Montcalm, from his first arrival in Canada to a few days before
his death, also carried on an active correspondence with one of his chief
officers, Bourlamaque, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. These
autograph letters are now preserved in a private collection. I have
examined them, and obtained copies of the whole. They form an
interesting complement to the official correspondence of the writer, and
throw the most curious side-lights on the persons and events of the
time.
Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the form of books,
pamphlets, contemporary newspapers, and other publications relating
to the American part of the Seven Years' War, is varied and abundant;
and I believe I may safely say that nothing in it of much consequence
has escaped me. The liberality of some of the older States of the Union,
especially New York and Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous
records of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of tedious labor.
The whole of this published and unpublished mass of evidence has
been read and collated with extreme care, and more than common pains
have been taken to secure accuracy of statement. The study of books
and papers, however, could not alone answer the purpose. The plan of
the work was formed in early youth; and though various causes have
long delayed its execution, it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile,
I have visited and examined every spot where events of any importance
in connection with the contest took place, and have observed with
attention such scenes and persons as might help to illustrate those I
meant to describe. In short, the subject has been studied as much from
life and in the open air as at the library table.
These two volumes are a departure from chronological sequence. The
period between 1700 and 1748 has been passed over for a time. When
this gap is filled, the series of "France and England in North America"
will form a continuous history of the French occupation of the
continent.
BOSTON, Sept. 16, 1884.
Contents
Author's Introduction
CHAPTER I
1745-1755 The Combatants
England in the Eighteenth Century. Her Political and Social Aspects.
Her Military Condition. France. Her Power and Importance. Signs of
Decay. The Court, the Nobles, the Clergy, the People. The King and
Pompadour. The Philosophers. Germany. Prussia. Frederic II. Russia.
State of Europe. War of the Austrian
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