In 1756, the
Marquis de Vaudreuil was informed that King
Louis XV was sending the Marquis
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm to take over French forces in North America, with Lévis as second in command. Vaudreuil wrote back that there was no need to send another general, as Vaudreuil disliked the tactics of most "municipal" French generals. When Montcalm arrived despite Vaudreuil's protest, the two men developed a dislike for each other. Lévis led the vanguard of the French expedition to
Fort William Henry in 1757, and laid
siege to it until Montcalm's arrival. During French planning for the 1758 campaign in the
French and Indian War the disputes between Vaudreuil and Montcalm continued. Vaudreuil prevailed, and Montcalm was sent to
Fort Carillon to defend it against an expected British attack. Lévis was initially slated to lead an expedition to the western forts, leading about 500 French metropolitan troops and a large seasoned French-Canadian militia. Vaudreuil, however, had second thoughts, and dispatched Lévis and his metropolitan troops to support Montcalm at Carillon. Lévis arrived at Carillon on the evening of July 7, as a British army led by
James Abercrombie was arriving before the fort. In the ensuing
Battle of Carillon, Abercrombie's troops were defeated, with Lévis leading the defense on the French right flank. When the forces of
James Murray arrived to begin the
Siege of Quebec, Lévis participated in the early defenses, including the
Battle of Beauport. He was then sent to organize the defense of
Montreal, and so was not present when Quebec fell. Following Montcalm's death in the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Lévis was appointed commander of French forces in North America. Wintering at Montreal, Lévis managed to rally his troops and train them for a spring offensive to recapture Quebec in 1760. Marching downstream with the first breaking of the ice, Lévis met the forces of
James Murray at the
Battle of Sainte-Foy, where Lévis' army won a victory in one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on Canadian soil. This forced Murray to retreat behind Quebec's walls
and a siege began. The lack of artillery and siege equipment precluded any assault on the fortifications of Quebec and Lévis held back, awaiting reinforcements from Europe. With the arrival of a British squadron which then
destroyed his support ships on the Saint Lawrence, Lévis was obliged to retreat to Montreal, where Vaudreuil eventually surrendered New France to
Amherst's army, which had
advanced down the
Saint Lawrence River that summer, in early September. His various letters for this period were later collected and published by Beauchemin in 1889; letters to him for this period were published by the
Abbe Casgrain, a professor at
Universite Laval, in 1895; Casgrain had already published in 1891
Les français au Canada : Montcalm et Lévis. ==Retirement==