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- Governor General of New France Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil - Cavagnal, 1698
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Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil (22 November 1698 – 4 August 1778) was a Canadian born French colonial governor in North America. He was governor of French Louisiana (1743 – 1753) and in 1755 became the last Governor General of New France (or Canada). In 1759 and 1760 the British conquered the colony in the Seven Years' War (known in the United States as the French and Indian War).
He was born to the Governor General of New France, Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil and his wife Louise - Élisabeth, daughter of Pierre de Joybert de Soulanges et de Marson, in Quebec.
Vaudreuil - Cavagnal rose quickly through the New France military and civil service, in part owing to his father's patronage but also due to his own innate ability. Commissioned an officer of the French army while still a youth, in 1733 he was appointed governor of Trois - Rivières, and in 1742 of French Louisiana, serving there from to May 10, 1743 to February 9, 1753 and proving himself a skilled officer and capable administrator. He moved to France in 1753 before being appointed by King Louis XV as governor of New France in 1755.
The first governor of New France to be born in Canada, his leadership was questioned and some of his orders were ignored by officials of the French army such as Louis - Joseph de Montcalm, who judged him to be "too Canadian". Although Vaudreuil - Cavagnal held supreme civil authority in Canada and was technically commander - in - chief of all French forces there, he clashed often with Montcalm, the military commander in the field, who resented his oversight role. The two men grew to detest one another, much to the detriment of the French war effort. Vaudreuil - Cavagnal had excellent relations with the Canadian militia and with the Native Canadian tribes allied with France; Montcalm looked down on both, preferring to rely upon French regular troops and making poor use of irregular Canadian and pro - French Native Canadian forces.
After Montcalm lost to the British forces under Maj. Gen. James Wolfe at Quebec City in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Vaudreuil - Cavagnal tried to rally resistance to the British, but to no avail. He was forced to surrender Montreal on September 8, 1760 to Major General Jeffrey Amherst.
The Marquis sailed back to France in British custody, and was briefly imprisoned, from March to May 1762, in the Bastille for his role in the loss of Canada. After an inquiry in 1763, he was exonerated and after selling his Canadian seigneuries at Vaudreuil and Rigaud to his cousin, Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière, he retired to his ancestral estate near Rouen, although the episode ruined his fortunes. He died in Paris on August 4, 1778.
His nephew Louis - Philippe de Vaudreuil was the second in command of the French naval units supporting the Americans during the American Revolution. He was present at the defeat of the British fleet by the French at the pivotal Battle of the Chesapeake during the siege of Yorktown in 1781.