Because their muskets were all double-shotted, which reduces the range but obviously doubles the potential killing power of that first volley, the damage they displayed was impressive. In less than twenty seconds, as the British barrage discharged in a disciplined mass, unit by unit down their entire line, the French line was shredded. Then the British line took a few steps forward (perhaps to get clear of their own smoke), reloaded, and did it again. From the start of the French attack it had been, perhaps, 20 minutes. From the first British volley to the second, perhaps 240 seconds. And now this was the end. In that vanishingly small space of time, the vast majority of the French casualties went down, as did New France.

Because they were the losers, and because their record keeping was less precise, the exact numbers for the French are hard to establish. Estimates range from 600-1,500 men took a round in his body that morning. But fairly clearly the utter shattering force that the French felt was because it all came at one instant. Even the lower-end estimates put a figure that makes it clear that almost one man in four was killed or wounded in a just a few seconds. It was the epitome of “Shock.” The French recoiled, then retreated. Among those taking rounds during the retrograde was Montcalm himself. Though he lived long enough to get back inside the walls of Quebec, he would be buried in a shell-hole there not long after.

Within twelve months “New France” was no longer, Canada was British, and a border threat that might have kept American colonists from rebelling and creating a new nation, no longer existed. Yes, just 20 minutes to change the world.