Battle of Fort Beauséjour

Battle of Fort Beauséjour
Part of the French and Indian War
Robert Monckton by Benjamin West
Date June 3–16, 1755 Location Near present-day Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada 45°51′55.83″N 64°17′26.85″W Result British victory
Belligerents
France Mi'kmaq Acadian	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor	Robert Monckton, George Scott, Naval Captain John Rous
Strength
162 troupes de la Marine 300 Acadian militia	270 British army troops 2,000 New England militia
Casualties and losses
8 killed, 6 wounded	4 killed, 16 wounded

The Battle of Fort Beauséjour was fought on the Isthmus of Chignecto and marked the end of Father Le Loutre’s War and the opening of a British offensive in the French and Indian War, which would eventually lead to the end the French Empire in North America. The battle also reshaped the settlement patterns of the Atlantic region, and laid the groundwork for the modern province of New Brunswick.

Beginning June 3, 1755, a British army under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Monckton staged out of nearby Fort Lawrence, besieged the small French garrison at Fort Beauséjour with the goal of opening the Isthmus of Chignecto to British control. Control of the isthmus was crucial to the French because it was the only gateway between Quebec and Louisbourg during the winter months. After two weeks of siege, Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor, the fort's commander, capitulated on June 16.

Historical context

The British assault on Fort Beausejour was part of a larger British initiative in North America. On land, there was a three-pronged assault. There were also planned attacks on the Ohio basin at Fort Duquesne, one up the Hudson River in the Lake Champlain Valley, and the third attack was to strike the French forts in Acadia. In Acadia and Nova Scotia, Father Le Loutre's War had continued since the founding of Halifax (1749). The British strike at Fort Beausejour was also meant to dislodge Father Le Loutre from the region, thereby ending his alliance with the Maliseet, Acadians and Mi'kmaq.

Battle

Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years War

On June 2, 1755, Lieutenant-Colonel Monckton, commanding a fleet of 31 transports and three Royal Navy warships carrying 270 British regular troops (from the 43rd Regiment of Foot) and 2,000 New England militia, entered Cumberland Basin. The ships dropped anchor at the mouth of the Missaguash River and the British forces were able to land unopposed. Using the nearby British outpost of Fort Lawrence (about three kilometers (2 miles) to the east) as a staging area, Monckton then proceeded to the top of Aulac Ridge.

Map of Chignecto (1755)

In response, The French commander, Vergor, immediately called in the Acadian and Native men in the vicinity to augment his garrison of 165 soldiers. He also burnt Acadian buildings that might fall into British hands, and sent pleas for reinforcements to Louisbourg and the mouth of the St. John River.

The British offensive began on June 3, with Monckton carefully and methodically advancing on the French fortification from the north.

When his forces were close enough on June 13, Monckton began a bombardment with 13 inch mortars.

Fort Beausejour and Cathedral (c.1755)

Although the commander of the fort, the Marquis Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor, defied the British for two weeks, there was little the French could realistically do against the numerically superior British forces. French priest Jean-Louis Le Loutre was joined in resisting the British by Acadian militia leader Joseph Broussard during the battle.

On June 16, British mortar fire breached the walls of the fortification and badly mauled the French garrison. De Vergor had little choice other than to surrender. In the battle, the recorded killed were four British and eight of the French and their allies; wounded were 16 British and 6 French and their allies. Jean-Louis Le Loutre's last act of defiance was to burn the local Cathedral so that it would not fall into the hands of the British.

The next day, the French abandoned nearby Fort Gaspareaux, severing communications between Acadia and Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), and leaving the British forces in control of the frontier between Nova Scotia and Acadia. For leading the resistance against the British occupation of Acadia, Le Loutre was captured and imprisoned for eight years. Joseph Broussard escaped and continued to fight.

Aftermath

Main article: Expulsion of the Acadians

Le Loutre retrieved this bell from the Beaubassin church during the Battle at Chignecto (1750): Le Loutre retrieved the bell again from the Beausejour Cathedral during the Battle of Beausejour

The British victory, combined with the surrender of other French garrisons in the area, removed most of the French military presence from Acadia, and opened its interior to the British, with catastrophic impact on the local Acadian population. Some French-speaking Acadians who had previously declared neutrality in French-British conflicts participated in defense of the fort. This open breach of neutrality was viewed by the British officials in Halifax as being unacceptable. Governor Charles Lawrence of Nova Scotia used the presence of these Acadian irregulars at Fort Beauséjour as a pretense and excuse to order the deportation of the Acadian population from the colony. Monckton and his expeditionary force were placed in charge of executing the directive. The effects of the deportation resonate to the present day throughout Atlantic Canada and as far afield as Louisiana in the United States where many Acadians settled. The name Acadian was corrupted in Louisiana becoming Cajun.

Fort Beauséjour was renamed by the British to Fort Cumberland. It saw little further military action in the French and Indian War, and was used as a base for organizing the deportations. It was abandoned in 1768, refortified in 1776, and besieged by Jonathan Eddy and a mixed band of rebels from Massachusetts and Nova Scotia in November 1776.

References

Endnotes

Secondary Sources

• Hand, Chris M. (2004), The Siege of Fort Beausejour 1755, Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions/New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, ISBN 0864923775