Quebec: French Artillery on the Plains

Black Hussar Miniatures 28mm French SYW 8pdr

The plains I refer to is of course the Plains of Abraham and I've been revisiting my research on what French guns were brought up by Montcalme's forces on the great day of battle.

On a rather detailed orbat I developed some years back I have listed four 6pdr guns. I could of course trust that at the time I knew what I was about. The reason I'm challenging this is because figure manufacturers who cover the French & Indian War specifically don't appear to make a French 6pdr. Front Rank does because they cover the Seven Years War more broadly.

So, how many guns did the French bring up and what were they?

According to Stuart Reid, "no more than four were actually dragged up on to the Plains of Abraham" (Quebec 1759: The battle that won Canada - Osprey Campaign series 2003). Talk about hedge your bets. We aren't told the caibre either so I have to look a little further then.

Sticking with Osprey, we have Rene Chartrand's "Quebec, The Heights of Abraham 1759, The Armies of Wolfe and Montcalm" (Order of Battle series, number 3, 1999). Chartrand does not give us definitive details either but defers to the accounts of two French artillery officers (Montbeillard and Foligne) and writes, "there were possibly five French guns with Montcalm on the plains". He does state they were placed on the flanks and when he writes about the guns he was referring to 'field guns'. Alas, not definitive and no calibres are given. So much for Reid position that there were no more than four - even this is in doubt.

Black Hussar Miniatures 28mm French SYW 4pdr 'short'

From 1680 Pierre-Suirey de Saint-Rémy reduced the plethora of various guns in the army to the 4-, 8-, 12-, 16- and 24-pounders. Improvements to French ordnance followed on into our period under Jean-Florent de Vallière (1667-1759) as colonel and inspector of artillery from 1720 then Director-General of France's artillery from 1732. So much for my listing of four 6pdr guns! The Gods only know how or where I came up with that.

According to fellow blogger Christian (My Seven Years' War) the 4-pdr Cannon “à la Suédoise” (short barrelled battalion gun) and the long 4 pounder filed piece accounted for over 50% of total French ordnance for the period.

https://crogges7ywarmies.blogspot.com/2012/01/7yw-artillery-scale-drawings-part-2.html

Field artillery available also likely would have included the 8pdr gun which was a much larger piece and presumably present in smaller numbers. Given the responsive nature of the French deployment on the day, it seems to me the more numerous 4pdr guns are more likely to have been brought up with the French advance.

Black Hussar Miniatures 28mm French SYW 4pdr 'long'

So, I'm forced to speculate and make an educated guess. I will opt for the four guns - two for each flank. I will also go for a mixture of short and long barrelled 4pdr models just for variety's sake. 

I've started buying figures again for this project preparatory to my effective retirement in two months. Not that I don't have hundreds and hundreds of figures and models in reserve already - but they won't get any cheaper in the future hey?