Seeking more troops from France
Seeking more troops from France
By the end of the summer in 1758 the French had succeeded in defending Fort Carillon against the British but lost Louisbourg, Frontenac and Duquesne.
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| Montcalm pleaded with France to send more troops to Canada in late 1758. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History) |
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In order to maintain a strong defense, the French General Louis-Joseph the Marquis de Montcalm needed fresh troops. He sent his aide-de-camp, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, as an emissary to France, pleading for four thousand soldiers to save Canada.
"Can we hope for another miracle to save us," Montcalm asked. "I trust in God...Come what may, His will be done! I await the news from France with impatience and dread."
At Versailles, Bougainville found an ally in the King's mistress, Madame de Pompadour. In a court divided by intrigues and plots, she had influence over the affairs of powerful men. But her persuasion proved more important for Bougainville's personal gain than for the success of his mission.
"Mme.
de Pompadour showed me the greatest kindness... I often worked with her over the object of my mission. I did not succeed anywhere nearly so well for the common cause as for my personal interest."
While in France, Bougainville was promoted to colonel, and was awarded the Cross of St. Louis, but his request for more troops didn't receive the response Montcalm had wanted. In the winter of 1758 Versailles was preoccupied with the war in Europe. Bougainville found little sympathy for his cause from the Minister of the Marine. He got only one tenth of the reinforcements he'd asked for.
"This minister loved parables and told me very pertinently that one did not try to save the stables when the house was on fire.
I then could obtain for these poor stables only four hundred recruits and a few munitions."
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