MONTCALM DE SAINT-VERAN, Louis JOSEPH', Marquis de, b. near Nismes, 1712; entered the army at the age of 14, at 18 was a capt., served in Italy and Germany for many years, and was wounded at the battle of Piacenza in 1746. Ile became a field officer in 1756, and was sent to Canada in May of that year to make head against the English. He captured fort Ontario at Oswego in August of the same year. The next season he forced the capitulation of fort William henry at the head of lake George, with an English garrison of 2,500 men, capturing 42 guns and a large amount of stores. In 1758 he defended fort (Carillon) Ticonderoga with 3,600 Canadians, against gen. Aber crombie at the head of 15,000 English, which resulted in a bloody repulse of the latter after an attack of determined vigor. Lack of troops, ammunition, and provisions, and the large re-enfot cements of the English, obliged Montcalm to retire all his forces the fol lowing year to the defense of Quebec, menaced by a powerful army under gen. Wolfe. The struggle for that stronghold began July 31, 1759, by an attack, which was repelled.
The siege was then continued for six weeks without any success out the part of the English, when Wolfe conceived anew plan of operations and succeeded in secretly scaling the cliffs above Quebec with his entire army, and on Sept. 13 appeared on the heights of Abraham in the rear of Quebec. Montcalm promptly prepared for battle in the open field, and at 10 o'clock led the attack in person. His troops, however, were not veterans and the English were. The English assumed the offensive. Wolfe fell dead in the moment of victory, and Montcalm was borne from the field mortally wounded. When told he must die he said: "It is well; 1 shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." The city was not surrendered till several clays after his death. In 1827 governor Dalhousie, •of Canada, caused a monument to be erected in Quebec to the joint honor of the two .brave generals who fell on the field where France lost and England won the Canades.