Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon

Marquis de Montcalm

Montcalm, Louis Joseph de Mont­calm-Gozon, Marquis de (1712-1759), captain-general and commander-in-chief of the French forces in Canada (1756-9), was born at the château of Candiac, near Nimes, France, on February 29, 1712, the son of Louis Daniel de Montcalm, seigneur de Saint-Véran, and Marie-Thérèse de Castellane-Dampus. He received an excellent private education, and in 1721 entered the army as an ensign. In 1756 he was sent to Canada as commander-in-chief of the French forces, with the rank of major-general. He opened his campaign with the capture of Oswego in August, 1756; and in 1757 he took and demolished Fort William Henry. His greatest success was, however, the defeat of Abercromby's invading army at Ticonderoga (Carillon) in 1758. In 1759 he defended Quebec against the army of Wolfe, until defeated at the battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759. During the battle he was mortally wounded, and he died in Quebec the following day, before the surrender of the citadel. He represented the French régime in Canada at its best. In 1736 he married Angélique Louise Talon du Boulay, daughter of the Marquis du Boulay, and he had by her five children. See T. Chapais, Le Marquis de Montcalm (Quebec, 1911) ; Abbé H. R. Casgrain, Wolfe and Montcalm (Toronto, 1905); F. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (Boston, 1884); W. Wood, The fight for Canada (London, 1904), Montcalm, the hero of a lost cause (Toronto, 1912), and The passing of New France (Toronto, 1914) ; A. G. Doughty and G. W. Parmalee, The siege of Quebec and the battle of the plains of Abraham (6 vols., Quebec, 1901); Abbé H. R. Casgrain (ed.), Collection des manuscripts du Maréchal de Levis (12 vols., Montreal and Quebec, 1889-95); M. Sautai, Montcalm au combat de Carillon (Paris. 1909) ; A. G. Doughty (ed.), An historical journal of the campaigns in North America, by Capt. John Knox (3 vols., Toronto, 1914-6); C. Winchester (tr.), Memoirs of the Chevalier de Johnstone (3 vols., Aberdeen, 1870-1).

Consult the article on Montcalm at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.]

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Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 322.