“We had of our Regiment three officers killed and ten wounded, one of whom Captain Simon Fraser, afterwards died.  Lieutenant Archibald Campbell was thought to have been mortally wounded, but to the surprise of most people recovered; Captain John McDonell thro’ both thighs; Lieut.  Ronald McDonell thro’ the knee; Lieutenant Alexander Campbell thro’ the leg; Lieutenant Douglas thro’ the arm, who died of this wound soon afterwards; Ensign Gregorson, Ensign McKenzie and Lieutenant Alexander Fraser, all slightly.  I received a contusion in the right shoulder or rather breast, before the action became general, which pained me a good deal, but it did not disable me from my duty then, or afterwards.

“The detachment of our Regiment consisted, at our marching from Point Levi, of six hundred men, besides commissioned and non-commissioned Officers; but of these, two Officers and about sixty men were left on board for want of boats, and an Officer and about thirty men left at the landing place; besides a few left sick on board, so that we had about five hundred men in the action.  We suffered in men and Officers more than any three Regiments in the field.  We were commanded by Captain John Campbell; the Colonel and Captain McPherson having been unfortunately wounded on the 25th July, of which they were not yet fully recovered.

“We lay on our Arms all the night of the 13th September.

“Friday, 14th September.—­We got ashore our tents and encamped our Regiment on the ground where they fought the battle yesterday.  He[re] we are within reach of the guns of the town.

“Saturday, 15th September.—­We were ordered to move our Camp nigh the wood, at a greater distance from the Town.  We are making advanced redoubts within five hundred yards of the town.”

Such is Fraser’s account of the struggle on the Plains of Abraham and of the conduct of the Highlanders in their first pitched battle in North America.  The resolute preparations to attack Quebec produced their effect.  On September 18th the fortress surrendered.  A little later the army broke up the camp outside the walls and marched into the town.  The outlook was certainly not cheerful:  “Most of the houses are destroyed and we have but a very dismal prospect for seven or eight months, as fresh provisions are very scarce, and every other thing exorbitantly dear.”  A little later the fleet sailed away and General Murray with a small force was left in a hostile country to hold Quebec through a long and bitterly cold winter.  He established two out-posts, one at Ste. Foy, the other at Lorette, and then the army bent all its energies to meet the foes, cold, disease and the French.  Fighting the cold was terrible work.  Fraser writes: 

“December 1st.—­The Governor ordered two weeks wood to be issued to the Garrison.  It is thought we shall have a great deal of difficulty in supplying ourselves with fuel this winter.  The winter is now very severe.