Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 117. Montreal. In our last episode, we covered the rest of the war in 1759, before moving on to 1760.

Pitt allowed the war to be fought at Amherst's discretion, and he had decided on a three-pronged assault on

Montreal, one down the St. Lawrence from Oswego, one down the Lake Champlain Corridor, and a third

up the St. Lawrence from Quebec. Meanwhile, the French commander, Levy, who had taken over from the deceased Moncarm,

was plotting the recapture of Quebec. Levy was operating out of Montreal and had been

bolstered by 7,000 refugees able to fight to recapture the city and Montreal's food supply

was sufficient to feed them. However, Levy also needed munitions. He sent word to France

in October and hoped to begin the recapture of Quebec in April if he were properly

reinforced in time. He felt quite confident about the year. The British were in an advanced

position, far from home, and Montreal was well defended. If they could hold out for the year,

the British could be forced out of Quebec and back to New York.

On April 20th, Levy left with 7,000 infantry and 12 cannon for Quebec,

meeting the British six miles from the city on the 27th.

Governor Murray had suffered a tough winter in Quebec,

and their garrison had nearly halved to only 4,000 men of effective fighting ability. But his troops were battle-hardened regulars, while most of the French force were provincials. Knowing that his supplies were not in

great condition and he may not be able to survive a siege, Murray met the French for battle on the

plains of Abraham the next day. Levy had been expecting a siege, not the battle, but decided to take

the opportunity. The British were unable to

quickly break the French as they had the previous September, and eventually the French started to push the British back.

Soon enough, the British were trapped in Quebec, and Levy was putting the city under siege.

It was a significant loss for the British, both in terms of men,

but also in terms of abandoned artillery. Still, by the time the French had constructed their siege

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