British soldiers make the arduous ascent of the Heights of Abraham to take Quebec, 1759 by Peter Jackson

On this day in 1759, General James Wolfe was killed at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at the very moment of British victory. The battle was the climax of the Seven Years War in North America and comprised the final defence by France of its most populous colony, that of Quebec. The town was well defended atop the precipitate Heights of Abraham, but the precociously brilliant Wolfe (he was 32), the commander of the attacking British forces, had a detachment of soldiers scale the Heights and attack the French in the flank, even as they were drawn up to face the main British army approaching them across the Plains. The sneak attack demoralised the French troops, who eventually broke and fled. Wolfe however received his third and final wound even as the enemy scattered. The general lived long enough to ask if the battle was won. When assured it was, he said ‘I die contented’ and promptly expired. The victory for which Wolfe became famous led to the conquest of Canada by Britain and the end of the French empire in North America.

Major-General James Wolfe, by J S C Schaak, 1766, after a drawing by Captain Hervey Smyth (Wolfe's aide-de-camp), 1760. National Army Museum, London.

- from Northern Armageddon by D. Peter MacLeod

Base I used: https://www.deviantart.com/rainfall-bases/art/BASE-342-our-beautiful-baby-572117521 

- General James Wolfe (who died at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, The Seven Years War, 13 Sept 1759)

Go mad with grief as you cheer on the coming of a new day - the duality of change arms for a price. Daisies have withered and I have died.