Twelve thousand
troops were to have been employed for the expedition; but several
regiments expected from the West Indies were for some reason
countermanded, while the accessions from New York and the Nova Scotia
garrisons fell far short of the looked-for numbers. Three weeks before
leaving Louisbourg, Wolfe writes to his uncle Walter that he has an army
of nine thousand men. The actual number seems to have been somewhat
less.[697] "Our troops are good," he informs Pitt; "and if valor can
make amends for the want of numbers, we shall probably succeed."
[Footnote 697: See _Grenville Correspondence,_ I. 305.]
Three brigadiers, all in the early prime of life, held command under
him: Monckton, Townshend, and Murray. They were all his superiors in
birth, and one of them, Townshend, never forgot that he was so. "George
Townshend," says Walpole, "has thrust himself again into the service;
and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, is very proper for a hero."[698]
The same caustic writer says further that he was of "a proud, sullen,
and contemptuous temper," and that he "saw everything in an ill-natured
and ridiculous light."[699] Though his perverse and envious disposition
made him a difficult colleague, Townshend had both talents and energy;
as also had Monckton, the same officer who commanded at the capture of
Beausejour in 1755. Murray, too, was well matched to the work in hand,
in spite of some lingering remains of youthful rashness.
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