Almost since Champlain’s men first settled on St. Croix Island in 1604, the French and the English fought for control of Acadia, a huge area consisting of today’s Maritime Provinces and parts of Quebec and Maine. The British assault on Fort Beauséjour in 1755 was the final act in this long struggle. The frontier between the two imperial powers lay along the Chignecto Isthmus, the neck of low, fertile marshlands and parallel ridges joining Nova Scotia to the mainland. Of great strategic importance, this land was the scene of a few pitched battles and constant petty warfare. By 1750, the present-day New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border was a fortified camp amid the fertile lands that generations of Acadians had farmed. The English were building Fort Lawrence on one side of the Missaguash River, near present-day Amherst, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, the French were constructing Fort Beauséjour in plain view on the opposite side, only three kilometres away, near what is now Sackville, New Brunswick. Relations among the British soldiers, the soldiers from France, the Acadian inhabitants, and the native Mi’kmaq were complex. Acadians and their Mi’kmaq allies traded with British soldiers by day and attacked them at night. The French boasted that Beauséjour was the third-strongest fort in North America, but it was poorly sited and unfinished, and the Acadians forced to work on it demanded payment in British gold. When a combined force of New England volunteers and British regulars wrested the fort from its defenders in June 1755, Beauséjour fell, and so did Acadia. In The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755, Chris Hand outlines the events leading up to this final clash and gives a running account of the siege itself. The 30 site plans, maps, and drawings and paintings, archival and modern, show a realistic picture of the battle that made the Expulsion of the Acadians not only possible but inevitable. The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755 is Volume 3 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references: p. 103-104
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 971.01/8
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- General Note
- Includes index Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-nk
- ISBN
- 9780864926005 9780864923776
- LCCN
- F1038
- LCCN Item number
- H36 2004eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (109 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00212082 (OCoLC)431540686 (CaOOCEL)415503
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- The New Brunswick Military Heritage Series Volume 3 2
- GooSe LaNe ediTioNS and THe New BruNSwick MiLiTary HeriTaGe ProjecT The New Brunswick Military Heritage Series Volume 9 3
- TABLE OF CONTENTS 7
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9
- CHAPTER ONE 11
- The Building of The Building of The Building of The Building of The Building of Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour 11
- Early Conflict in Nova Scotia 1604-1749 12
- Fortifying the Isthmus 16
- CHAPTER TWO 31
- Assembling the Assembling the Assembling the Assembling the Assembling the British Expedition British Expedition British Expedition British Expedition British Expedition 31
- CHAPTER THREE 45
- The Br The Br The Br The Br The British itish itish itish itish Assault Beg Assault Beg Assault Beg Assault Beg Assault Begins ins ins ins ins 45
- The British Army Advances 57
- The Battle for Pont à Buot June 4 1755 61
- Establishment of the British Siege Camp 65
- Consolidation of the British Camp 68
- CHAPTER FOUR 71
- The Sieg The Sieg The Sieg The Sieg The Siegeeeee 71
- The First Battle of Butte à Charles 72
- The Days of Waiting and Preparation 75
- The Second Battle of Butte à Charles 78
- The Formal Siege Begins 80
- Rain Delay June 14 83
- The Bombardment Renewed June 15-16 85
- Despair Inside the Fort 87
- Surrender June 16 89
- Moncktons Five Terms 91
- The Surrender of Fort Gaspereau 94
- CHAPTER FIVE 97
- PPPPPeoples and Empir eoples and Empir eoples and Empir eoples and Empir eoples and Empires es es es es in the Balance in the Balance in the Balance in the Balance in the Balance 97
- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 103
- Primary Sources 103
- Secondary Sources 103
- INDEX 105
- NEW BRUNSWICK MILITARY HERITAGE PROJECT 110
- NEW BRUNSWICK MILITARY HERITAGE SERIES 111
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR 112
