William Wood's The Fight for Canada looks at the military history of the Seven Years' War as it pertained to the British and French contesting Canada. Special emphasis was placed on the battle for Quebec and the famous fight on the Plains of Abraham, during which both the British and French commanders were mortally wounded. From the preface: "FROM the very day it was fought the world-renowned Battle of the Plains has always been a subject of undying human interest; because it is one of those very few memorable landmarks ...
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William Wood's The Fight for Canada looks at the military history of the Seven Years' War as it pertained to the British and French contesting Canada. Special emphasis was placed on the battle for Quebec and the famous fight on the Plains of Abraham, during which both the British and French commanders were mortally wounded. From the preface: "FROM the very day it was fought the world-renowned Battle of the Plains has always been a subject of undying human interest; because it is one of those very few memorable landmarks which stand at the old cross-roads of history to guide us into some new great highway of the future. It is true that this battle was not by itself the cause of such momentous change; and it is also true that there were bloodier fields, in three successive years, at Ticonderoga, Minden and Ste. Foy. But those were barren battles, and never helped to bring about any decisive change in national destiny. What makes Wolfe's consummate victory immortal is, first, that it was directly based upon the British command of the sea, and hence both vitally important in itself and most far-reaching in its results; next, that it was the culminating feat of arms in one of the greatest of imperial wars; and, finally, that it will serve to mark for ever three of the mightiest epochs of modern times-the death of Greater France, the coming of age of Greater Britain, and the birth of the United States. And as it was thus at the very heart of things in the hour of triple crisis, it may be truly called the most pregnant single event in all America since Columbus discovered the New World. So many books have been written on the subject that a new one needs some very good reason indeed to justify its existence at all. Yet, strange as it may seem, there are two valid reasons of such importance and strength that either of them alone would furnish an ample justification fora new work, while both of them together make the appearance of such a work quite imperative."
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