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The following appeared today on-line at CBC Newsworld
_______________________________________________________________
Montcalm laid to rest with his soldiers
Last Updated: Fri Oct 12
QUEBEC CITY - After 242 years,
Quebec's most famous war hero
was reunited with his troops
yesterday.
Lieutenant General Louis Joseph
Montcalm de Saint Véran,
Marquis de Montcalm was
wounded on the Plains of
Abraham in a historic battle with
the British at Quebec (in 1759).
He died shortly after under the
care of an order of nuns, joining
the list of more than 1,100
soldiers killed in that decisive
battle.
But it wasn't until Thursday that he
joined the men under his
command in a Quebec City
cemetery.
Pipers played "Amazing Grace"
while a horse-drawn carriage
brought Montcalm's remains to the
small graveyard in the lower town.
Juliette Cloutier, a nun with the
Augustine order of nurses who
organized the ceremony said that
at last the general will be reunited
with his soldiers.
Hundreds of dignitaries, historians
and even some of Montcalms
descendants were on hand for the
ceremony.
Horace Dresser, for one, travelled
from Woodstock, Vermont.
Wearing a traditional French
soldier's uniform, he said
Montcalm would have wanted to
be buried with his men.
"Most leaders would have
preferred to have fallen with their
troops and be buried with their
troops," he said.
_____________________________________________________________
The article does not clarify the direct descendancy of Horace Dresser from General Montcalm.
For interest of historians and genealogists, The Battle of the Plains of Abraham outside Québec City, with Gen. James Wolfe leading the British forces, lasted about 15 minutes, but resulted in the loss forever of French governance in North America. It was the most significant military engagement in Canada during what is known as the French and Indian Wars (1756-1763), which was the North American name for the Seven Years' War in Europe.
When you consider that France had been ruling most of the continent since 1604 (Samuel de Champlain) and explored most of what is now Canada south of 60º North, first described Niagara Falls, the Great Lakes, the Plains and Prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and that people like la Salle explored all the Mississippi Basin and even parts of Texas for the first time and set things up for later explorers like Lewis and Clark, this is a very significant historical event. (Keep in mind all those placenames like Fond du Lac, WI or Coeur d'Alene, ID named by French exploreres who were passing through.) The USA would not have been able to purchase "Louisiana" [everything between the Mississippi and the foothills of the Rockies in those days] and expand westward if France had still been in control of the rest of North America in the early 1800's. It would have been confined to east of the Mississippi.
British Gen. Wolfe also died in this battle. After 1759, England would be the ruling power in North America. Of course, everyone knows that the USA and Canada became separate jurisdictions after 1783, but as events of today show us, the USA and England are still very close allies and "cousins" with many common historical ties.
Not sure how to contact Horace Dresser who appears in this news item, but Jim Dresser who writes on this forum and has 1000's of names should know how to reach him (both live in VT - maybe they are related ?).
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