Battle of Sainte-Foy

Part of the Seven Years' War
the French and Indian War

The Battle of Sainte-Foy by George B. Campion, watercolour.

Date	April 28, 1760
Location	Quebec, Canada, New France (present-day Canada) Coordinates: 46°47′59″N 71°13′15″W / 46.79972°N 71.22083°W / 46.79972; -71.22083
Result	Franco-Canadian victory

Belligerents

France

Colony of Canada

Great Britain

Commanders and leaders

François Gaston de Lévis

James Murray

Strength

5,000 regulars and militia

3,800 regulars
27 guns

Casualties and losses

193 killed
640 wounded

259 killed
829 wounded

The Battle of Sainte-Foy, sometimes called the Battle of Quebec, was fought on April 28, 1760 near the British-held town of Quebec in the French province of Canada during the Seven Years' War (called the French and Indian War in the United States). It was a victory for the French under the Chevalier de Lévis over the British army under General Murray. The battle was notably bloodier than the Battle of the Plains of Abraham of the previous September, with 833 French casualties to 1,124 British casualties. It was the last French victory of the French and Indian War.

At first the British had some success, but the advance masked their artillery, while the infantry became bogged down in the mud and melting snowdrifts of the late spring. The battle turned into a two-hour fight at close range; eventually, as more French soldiers joined the fray, the French turned the British flanks, forcing Murray to realize his mistake and to recall the British back to Quebec without their guns, which Lévis then turned on the city.

New France had suffered significant setbacks in the 1758 campaigns of the French and Indian War. Its fortress at Louisbourg was lost in a siege by British forces, and Fort Duquesne was abandoned to another advancing British army. The situation got worse in 1759 when Fort Carillon and Fort Niagara were taken, and the key citadel of Quebec fell after a prolonged siege and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham of September 13, 1759. The French army regrouped in Montreal under General Chevalier de Lévis. Meanwhile, the British army, left behind in Quebec after the fleet sailed at the end of October 1759, suffered from hunger, scurvy and the difficulties of living in a city that they had largely destroyed in the siege.

...
Wikipedia