(Sept. 13, 1759) Decisive battle of the French and Indian War .
In June 1759, James Wolfe led a British force of 250 ships with 8,500 soldiers to take up positions in the St. Lawrence River around Quebec. French forces under the marquis de Montcalm withstood a two-month siege of the city. In September the British secretly landed 4,000 men near the city and forced a confrontation with French troops on the Plains of Abraham . The defending French were routed in the battle, in which both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded.