Copperplate engraving (47.5 x 63 cm) by G. Chevillet after original work by François Louis Joseph Watteau (1731-1798). Paris, Chez Le Noir (n.d., but circa 1780) old framed
Louis Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon (1712-1759) was the controversial commander of French forces in North America during the French & Indian War. Having resolutely defended Quebec during the 1759 siege, Montcalm opted for open battle on the Plains of Abraham after the British made a successful landing from the St. Lawrence River and scaled the heights to that place. This proved disastrous, culminating in the defeat of the French army and his own mortal wounding during the retreat back to Quebec. As the legend on this print describes, he died the following morning and was buried at his request in a bomb crater. However, the place of burial was not on the grounds of a tropical battlefield cantonment, as shown rather fancifully by the artist, but rather within the ruins of the Ursuline Convent in the walled city of Quebec. Literature: F. St. George Spendlove, The Face of Early Canada, pages 80 - 82.