On the morning of the 13th Wolfe assembled his men on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec while Saunders massed the neet further south, near Beauport Montcalm could have refused to meet them on the field as his advisers suggested, and his decision to leave the fortified town and engage the British on the battlefield is often viewed as a mistake: his fear was that of British entrenchment. Also, he also did not bring out the entire force, but only about 4.000 men, slightly less than the British strength. leaving the other half his army on the Beauport shoreline, in case the attack on the Plains of Abraham turned out to be a diversion.