e campaign of 1758 did Pitt's dominance become effective. With
him counted one quality and one alone, efficiency. The old guard at the
War Office were startled when men with rank, years, influence, and every
other claim but competence for their tasks, were passed over, and young
and obscure men were given high command. To America in the spring
of 1758 were sent officers hitherto little known. Edward Boscawen,
Commander of the Fleet, and veteran among these leaders, was a
comparatively young man, only forty-seven; Jeffrey Amherst, just turned
forty, was Commander-in-Chief on land. Next in command to Amherst was
James Wolfe, aged thirty.

These young and vigorous men knew the value of promptness or they
would not have been tolerated under Pitt. Before the end of May, 1758,
Boscawen was in Halifax harbor with a fleet of some forty warships and a
multitude of transports. On board were nearly twelve thousand soldiers,
more than eleven thousand of them British regulars. The colonial forces
now play a minor part in the struggle; Pitt was ready to send from
England all the troops needed. The array at Halifax, the greatest yet
seen in America, numbered about twenty thousand men, including sailors.
Before the first of June the fleet was on its way to Louisbourg. The
defense was stubborn; and James Wolfe, who led the first landing party,
had abundant opportunity to prove his courage and capacity. By the
end of July, however, Louisbourg had fallen, and nearly six thousand
prisoners were in the hands of the English. It was the beginning of the
end.

In the autumn Wolfe was back in England, where he was quickly given
command of the great expedition which was planned against Quebec for
the following year. Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, who seems almost old
compared with Wolfe, for he was nearly fifty, was in chief command of
the fleet. Amherst had remained in America as Commander-in-Chief, and
was taking slow, deliberate, thorough measures for the last steps in the
conquest of New France.

To be too late had been the usual fate of the many British expeditions
against Canada. No one, however, dared to be late under Pitt. On
February 17, 1759, the greatest fleet that had ever put out for America
left Portsmouth. More than two hundred and fifty ships set their sails
for the long voyage. There were forty-nine warships, carrying fourteen
thousand sailors and marines, and two hundred other ships manned by
perhaps seven thousand men in the