While the sailors were so engaged, the troops were busy making roads and throwing up redoubts to protect their position.
Wolfe, with 1200 men, made his way right round the harbour, and took possession of the battery at Lighthouse Point which the French had abandoned; planted guns and mortars there, and opened fire on the battery on the islet which guarded the entrance to the harbour; while other batteries were raised, at different points along the shore, and opened fire upon the French ships.

These replied, and the artillery duel went on night and day, until, on the 25th, the battery on the islet was silenced.

Leaving a portion of his force in the batteries he had erected, Wolfe returned to the main army in front of the town.
In the meantime, Amherst had not been idle.

Day and night a thousand men had been employed, making a covered road across a swamp to a hillock less than half a mile from the ramparts.

The labour was immense, and the troops worked knee deep in mud and water.
When Wolfe had silenced the battery on the islet, the way was open for the English fleet to enter and engage the ships and town from the harbour, but the French took advantage of a dark and foggy night, and sank six ships across the entrance.
On the 25th, the troops had made the road to the hillock, and began to fortify themselves there, under a heavy fire from the French; while on the left, towards the sea, about a third of a mile from the Princess's Bastion, Wolfe, with a strong detachment, began to throw up a redoubt.
On the night of the 9th of July, 600 French troops sallied out and attacked this work.