In the Painting "The Death of General Wolfe,," there are four ghost like figures in the background between the left hand foreground group of figures and the central group of figures. Who are they?

Answer 1

https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/the-death-of-general-wolfe-0

This link takes you to The National Gallery of Canada's page on this painting. Often it is best to get information from those who have the most expertise on a subject.

Basically the people arranged around the dying/dead general Wolfe are other soldiers and even a Native American. Their presence is to show how important/great Wolfe is by showing how much admiration and attention he receives at his death. The composition and treatment is similar to academic French painting of the 19th century - similar great tragic paintings like David's The Death of Socrates (Metropolitan Museum in NYC) illustrate this composition type.

https://www.pafa.org/collection-artists/benjamin-west

See the site link above for some other images by B. West.

B. West was an important artist in America and was key player in the early days of the Penn. Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA) which is America's oldest art school and based on the French Academy approach.