The Conqueror of Quebec

English General James Wolfe had a very successful career, which included a role in suppressing Scottish Jacobite forces in 1745.  He gained renown not for this aspect of his career, but for his role in defeating French forces holding Quebec in 1759.  William Pitt (elder) assigned Wolfe the command of an expedition to take Quebec in that year, and Wolfe successfully fulfilled his task, though died during the battle.

Author Robert Wright, in his "The Life of Major-General James Wolfe..." offers the following quote from Sir Walter Scott on the character of Wolfe (and Pitt): 'Pitt and Wolfe, therefore, were considered as characters above ordinary humanity, not so much on account of the power and eloquence of the Minister or the prowess of the General, as because they made the honour and welfare of their country their sole aim. "They dared," as Sir Walter Scott says, "to contemn wealth; the statesman and soldier of the present day would, on the contrary, not dare to propose it to himself."..'

James Wolfe was born this day, January 2nd, in the year 1727.