Louis-Joseph de Montcalm
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
201.27638
Summary
Born on February 28th, 1712 in France, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm was raised in the old world of European chivalry. A nobleman and career officer, he had already fought across Europe before ever setting foot in North America. But it was here, in the forests and rivers of New France, that his name became legend.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Canada was not only born from explorers and settlers, but from soldiers, and few loom larger
00:00:04.300
in our story than Louis-Joseph Montcalm. Born on February 28th, 1712 in France, Montcalm was
00:00:09.460
raised in the old world of European chivalry. A nobleman and a career officer, he had already
00:00:13.760
fought across Europe before ever setting foot in North America. But it was here, in the forests
00:00:17.860
and rivers of New France, that his name became legend. When Montcalm arrived in 1756, New
00:00:22.940
France was outnumbered, undersupplied, and surrounded by a growing British empire. The
00:00:27.380
odds were overwhelming. Yet in a series of stunning victories at Fort Oswego, Fort William Henry,
00:00:32.180
and most famously at Carillon, Montcalm and his French, Canadian, and Indigenous allies defeated
00:00:36.380
a far larger British force. At Carillon in 1758, with barely 3,600 men, he repelled more than 15,000
00:00:43.640
British troops. It was one of the greatest battlefield upsets in North American history.
00:00:48.220
But Montcalm's story is not only one of triumph, it is a story of destiny. In 1759,
00:00:52.640
the british returned under another young general named wolf two empires two commanders two visions
00:00:57.520
for north america their clash at quebec would shape the continent montcalm knew the stakes
00:01:01.920
he knew reinforcements would not come and yet he chose to fight wounded in the battle of the plains
00:01:06.240
of abraham he was carried back into quebec city told he would not survive the night he is said
00:01:10.240
to have replied so much for the better i shall not see the surrender of quebec wolf would die
00:01:14.880
during the battle as well and from that battlefield from the blood of french and british alike something
00:01:19.520
new emerged. Not simply conquest, but a country. Montcalm may have not lived to see it, but the
00:01:24.300
Canada that followed would be shaped by both traditions. French courage and English institutions.
00:01:28.960
Forged together in conflict, then tempered through cooperation. The French language, French civil law,
00:01:33.920
French culture endured. Not erased, but woven into a new, bi-national fabric. Montcalm stands as a
00:01:40.040
symbol of that founding struggle. A warrior of New France, a defender of his people, a tragic hero
00:01:48.360
Canada is not just a story of one side defeating another.
00:01:51.220
It's a story of three founding peoples tested in fire
00:01:53.820
who ultimately built something greater together.