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Title: The Taking of Louisburg 1745
Author: Drake, Samuel Adams
Language: English
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_Decisive Events in American History_
THE
TAKING OF LOUISBURG
1745
BY
SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE
AUTHOR OF “BURGOYNE’S INVASION OF 1777” ETC.
BOSTON MDCCCXCI
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
10 MILK STREET NEXT “THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE”
NEW YORK CHAS. T. DILLINGHAM
718 AND 720 BROADWAY
Copyright, 1890,
By Lee and Shepard.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Colonial Seacoast Defences 9
II. Louisburg Revisited 13
III. Louisburg to Solve Important Political and Military Problems 24
IV. Résumé of Events to the Declaration of War 33
V. “Louisburg must be taken” 46
VI. The Army and its General 59
VII. The Army at Canso 73
VIII. The Siege 80
IX. The Siege Continued 101
X. Afterthoughts 126
[Illustration: ISLAND BATTERY, WITH LOUISBURG IN THE DISTANCE.]
THE TAKING OF LOUISBURG
1745
I
COLONIAL SEACOAST DEFENCES
The creation of great maritime fortresses, primarily designed to hold
with iron hand important highways of commerce, like Gibraltar, or simply
to guard great naval arsenals, like Kronstadt, or, again, placed where
some great river has cleft a broad path into the heart of a country,
thus laying it open to invasion, has long formed part of the military
policy of all maritime nations.
In the New World the Spaniards were the first to emphasize their
adhesion to these essential principles by the erection of strongholds at
Havana, Carthagena, Porto Bello, and Vera Cruz, not more to guarantee
the integrity of their colonial possessions, than to protect themselves
against the rapacity of the titled freebooters of Europe, to whom the
treasure fleets of Mexico and the East offered a most alluring prey.
When Spain carried the purse, all the crowned heads of Europe seem to
have turned highwaymen.
With this single exception the seaboard defences of the Atlantic coast,
even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, were of the most
trivial character, nor was it owing to any provision for defence that
the chief ports of the English colonies enjoyed the long immunity they
did. England left her colonies to stand or fall upon their own
resources. Fortunate beyond expectation, they simply throve by neglect.
France, with a widely different colonial policy, did a little better,
but with a niggardly hand, while her system was squeezing the life-blood
out of her colonists, drop by drop. Had there been a Drake or a Hawkins
in the Spanish service, Spain might easily have revenged all past
affronts by laying desolate every creek and harbor of the unprotected
North Atlantic coast. She had the armed ports, as we have just shown.
She had the ships and sailors. What, then, was to have prevented her
from destroying the undefended villages of Charleston, Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston?
Though she set about it so tardily, France was at length compelled to
adopt a system of defence for Canada, or see Canada wrested from her
control. In a most sweeping sense the St. Lawrence was the open gateway
of Canada. There was absolutely no other means of access to all its vast
territory except through the long, little known, and scarce-travelled
course of the Mississippi—a route which, for many reasons besides its
isolation, removed it from consideration as an avenue of attack.
Quebec was as truly the heart of Canada as the St. Lawrence was its
great invigorating, life-giving artery. It is true that Quebec began to
assume at a very early day something of its later character as half
city, half fortress, but the views of its founders were unquestionably
controlled as much by the fact of remoteness from the sea, as by
Quebec’s remarkable natural capabilities for blocking the path to an
enemy.
Yet even before the memorable and decisive battle on the Plains of
Abraham, by which Canada was lost to France forever, the St. Lawrence
had been thrice ascended by hostile fleets, and Quebec itself once taken
by them. Mere remoteness was thus demonstrated to be no secure safeguard
against an enterprising enemy. But what if that enemy should seize and
fortify the mouth of the St. Lawrence itself? He would have put a
tourniquet upon the great artery, to be tightened at his pleasure, and
the heart of the colony, despite its invulnerable shield, would beat
only at his dictation.
We will now pass on to the gradual development of this idea in the minds
of those who held the destiny of Canada in their keeping.
II
LOUISBURG REVISITED
The annals of a celebrated fortress are sure to present some very
curious and instructive phases of national policy and character. Of none
of the fortresses of colonial America can this be said with greater
truth than of Louisburg, once the key and stronghold of French power in
Canada.
No historic survey can be called complete which does not include the
scene itself. Nowhere does the reality of history come home to us with
such force, or leave such deep, abiding impressions, as when we stand
upon ground where some great action has been performed, or reach a spot
hallowed by the golden memories of the past. It gives tone, color,
consistency to the story as nothing else can, and, for the time being,
we almost persuade ourselves that we, too, are actors in the great drama
itself.
The Cape Breton Coast.
It is doubtless quite true that the first impressions one gets when
coming into Louisburg from sea must be altogether disappointing. Indeed,
speaking for myself, I had formed a vague notion, I know not how, that I
was going to see another Quebec, or, at least, something quite like that
antique stronghold, looming large in the distance, just as the history
of the fortress itself looms up out of its epoch. On the contrary, we
saw a low, tame coast, without either prominent landmark or seamark to
denote the harbor, except to those who know every rock and tree upon it,
lifting nowhere the castellated ruins that one’s eyes are strained to
seek, and chiefly formidable now on account of the outlying shoals,
sunken reefs, and intricate passages that render the navigation both
difficult and dangerous to seamen.
Lighthouse Point.
On drawing in toward the harbor, we pass between a cluster of three
small, rocky islets at the left hand, one of which is joined to that
shore by a sunken reef; and a rocky point, of very moderate elevation,
at the right, on which the harbor lighthouse stands, the ship channel
being thus compressed to a width of half a mile between the innermost
island and point.
The harbor is so spacious as to seem deserted, and so still as to seem
oppressive.
Island Battery.
The island just indicated was, in the days of the Anglo-French struggles
here, the key to this harbor, but the opposite point proved the
master-key. Neither of the great war fleets that took part in the two
sieges of Louisburg ventured to pass the formidable batteries of that
island, commanding as they did the entrance at short range, and masking
the city behind them, until their fire had first been silenced from the
lighthouse point yonder. When that was done, Louisburg fell like the
ripe pear in autumn.
Old Louisburg.
The old French city and fortress, the approach to which this Island
Battery thus securely covered, rose at the southwest point of the
harbor, or on the opposite to the present town of Louisburg, which is a
fishing and coaling station for six months in the year, and for the
other six counts for little or nothing. In summer it is land-locked; in
winter, ice-locked. Pack ice frequently blockades the shores of the
whole island until May, and snow sometimes lies in the woods until June.
Yet in Cape Breton they call Louisburg an open harbor, and its choice as
the site for a fortress finally turned upon the belief that it was
accessible at all seasons of the year. As to that, we shall see later.
Face of the Country.
As for the country lying between Sydney and Louisburg, all travellers
agree in pronouncing it wholly without interesting features. And the few
inhabitants are scarcely more interesting than the country. In a word,
it is roughly heaved about in a series of shaggy ridges, sometimes
rising to a considerable height, through which the Mira, an arm of the
sea, forces its way at flood-tide. There is a settlement or two upon
this stream, as there was far back in the time of the French occupation,
but everything about the country wears a forlorn and unprosperous look;
the farms being few and far between, the houses poor, the land thin and
cold, and the people—I mean them no disparagement—much like the land,
from which they get just enough to live upon, and no more. Fortunately
their wants are few, and their habits simple.
Remains of the Fortress.
Louisburg is certainly well worth going nine hundred miles to see, but
when, at last, one stands on the grass-grown ramparts, and gets his
first serious idea of their amazing strength and extent, curiosity is
lost in wonder, wonder gives way to reflection, and reflection leads
straight to the question, “What do all these miles of earthworks mean?”
And I venture to make the assertion that no one who has ever been to
Louisburg will rest satisfied till he has found his answer. The story is
long, but one rises from its perusal with a clearer conception of the
nature of the struggle for the mastery of a continent.
Perhaps the one striking thought about this place is its utter futility.
Man having no further use for it, nature quietly reclaims it for her own
again. Sheep now walk the ramparts instead of sentinels.
Dominating Hills.
Upon looking about him, one sees the marked feature of all this region
in the chain of low hills rising behind Louisburg. But a little back
from the coast the hills rise higher, are drawn more compactly together,
and assume the semi-mountainous character common to the whole island.
Green Hill.
As this chain of hills undulates along the coast here, sometimes bending
a little back from it, or again inclining out toward it, one of its
zigzags approaches within a mile of Louisburg. At this point, several
low, lumpy ridges push off for the seashore, through long reaches of
boggy moorland, now and then disappearing beneath a shallow pond or
stagnant pool, which lies glistening among the hollows between. Where it
is uneven the land is stony and unfertile; where level, it is a bog.
This rendered the land side as unfavorable to a besieging force as the
nest of outlying rocks and reefs did the sea approaches. A continued
rainfall must have made it wholly untenable for troops.
The Fortified Line.
It is one of these ridges just noticed as breaking away from the main
range toward the seashore, and so naturally bent, also, as to touch the
sea at one end and the harbor at the other, that the French engineers
converted into a regular fortification; while within the space thus
firmly enclosed by both nature and art, the old city of the lilies
stretched down a gentle, grassy slope to the harbor shore.
Demolition of the City.
Not one stone of this city remains upon another to-day. After the second
siege (1758) the English engineers were ordered to demolish it, and so
far as present appearances go, never was an order more effectually
carried out. All that one sees to-day, in room of it, is a poor fishing
hamlet, straggling along the edge of the harbor, the dwellings being on
one side, and the fish-houses and stages on the other side of the Sydney
road, which suddenly contracts into a lane, and then comes to an end,
along with the village itself, in a fisherman’s back-yard.
Not so, however, with the still massive earthworks, for the British
engineers were only able, after many months’ labor, and with a liberal
use of powder, to partly execute the work of demolition assigned them.
I spent several hours, at odd times, in wandering about these old ruins,
and could not help being thankful that for once, at least, the
destroying hand of man had been compelled to abandon its work to the
rains and frosts of heaven.
Citadel or King’s Bastion.
Beginning with the citadel, in which the formalities of the surrender
took place, I found it still quite well defined, although nothing now
remains above ground except some old foundation walls to show where long
ranges of stone buildings once stood. Here were the different military
offices, the officers’ quarters and the chapel. The shattered
bomb-proofs, however, were still distinguishable, though much choked up
with débris, and their well-turned arches remain to show how firmly the
solid masonry resisted the assaults of the engineers. In these damp
holes the women, children, and non-combatants passed most of the
forty-seven days of the siege. From this starting-point one may continue
the walk along the ramparts, without once quitting them, for fully a
mile, to the point where they touch the seashore among the inaccessible
rocks and heaving surf of the ocean itself.
The Casemates.
These ramparts nowhere rise more than fifty feet above the sea-level,
but are everywhere of amazing thickness and solidity. The moat was
originally eighty feet across, and the walls stood thirty feet above it,
but these dimensions have been much reduced by the work of time and
weather. A considerable part of the line was further defended by a
marsh, through which a storming column would have found it impossible to
advance, and hardly less difficult to make a retreat. The besiegers were
therefore obliged to concentrate their attack upon one or two points,
and these had been rendered the most formidable of the whole line in
consequence of the knowledge that the other parts were comparatively
unassailable. In other words, the besieged were able to control, in a
measure, where the besiegers should attack them.
Natural Obstacles made use of.
Although the partly ruined bomb-proofs are the only specimens of masonry
now to be seen in making this tour, the broad and deep excavation of the
moat and covered-way, and the clean, well-grassed slopes of the glacis,
promise to hold together for another century at least. Brambles and
fallen earth choke up the embrasures. It is necessary to use care in
order to avoid treading upon a toad or a snake while you are groping
among the mouldy casemates or when crossing the parade. Those magical
words “In the King’s name,” so often proclaimed here with salvos of
artillery, have now no echo except in the sullen dash of the sea against
the rocky shores outside the perishing fortress, and
“What care these roarers for the name of King?”
Graveyard, Point Rochefort.
Still following the sheep-paths that zigzag about so as nearly to double
the distance, I next turned back toward the harbor, leaving on my right
the bleak and wind-swept field in which, to the lasting reproach of New
England, five hundred of her bravest sons lie without stone or monument
to mark their last resting-place. It is true that most of these men died
of disease, and not in battle; yet to see the place as I saw it, in all
its pitiful nakedness, isolation, and neglect, is the one thing at
Louisburg that a New Englander would gladly have missed; and he will be
very apt to walk on with a slower and less confident step, and with
something less of admiration for the glory which consigns men to such
oblivion as this.
Royal Battery.
To give anything like an adequate idea of how skilfully all the
peculiarities of the ground were in some cases made use of in forming
the defences, or in others, with equal art, overcome, would require a
long chapter to itself. In order to render the main fortress more
secure, the French engineer officers selected a spot three-fourths of a
mile above it, on the harbor shore, on which they erected a battery that
raked the open roadstead with its fire. It was a very strong factor in
the system of defences as against a sea attack. This isolated work was
called the Royal Battery, or in the English accounts, the Grand Battery.
Yet, so far from contributing to the successful defence of the fortress,
it became, in the hands of the besiegers, a powerful auxiliary to its
capture. But the whole system of defence here shows that the marshes
extending on the side of Gabarus Bay, where a landing was practicable
only in calm weather, were considered an insuperable obstacle to the
movements of artillery; and without artillery Louisburg could never have
been seriously attacked from the land side. Against a sea attack it was
virtually impregnable.
III
LOUISBURG TO SOLVE IMPORTANT POLITICAL AND MILITARY PROBLEMS
Having glanced at the purely military exigencies, which had at length
forced themselves upon the attention of French statesmen, and having
gone over the ground with the view of impressing its topographical
features more firmly in our minds, we may now look at the underlying
political and economic causes, out of which the French court finally
matured a scheme for the maintenance of their colonial possessions in
Canada in the broadest sense.
French Colonial System.
Its Unsatisfactory Workings.
In creating Louisburg the court of Versailles had far more extended
views than the building of a strong fortress to guard the gateway into
Canada would of itself imply. Unquestionably that was a powerful
inducement to the undertaking; but, in the beginning, it certainly
appears to have been only a secondary consideration. For a long time the
condition of affairs in the colony had been far from satisfactory, while
the future promised little that was encouraging. Compared with the
English colonies, its progress was slow, irregular, and unstable.
Agriculture was greatly neglected. So were manufactures. The home
government had exercised, from the first, a guardianship that in the
long run proved fatal to the growth of an independent spirit. There were
swarms of governmental and ecclesiastical dependents who laid hold of
the fattest perquisites, or else, through munificent and inconsiderate
grants obtained from the crown, enjoyed monopolies of trade to the
exclusion of legitimate competition. These leeches were sucking the
life-blood out of Canada. So far, then, from being a self-sustaining
colony, the annual disbursements of the crown were looked to as a means
to make good the deficiency arising between what the country produced
and what it consumed. Without protection the English colonies steadily
advanced in wealth and population; with protection, Canada, settled at
about the same time, scarcely held her own.
Two very able and sagacious men, the intendants Raudot, were the first
who had the courage to lay before the court of Versailles the true
condition of affairs, and the ability to suggest a remedy for it.
The Fur Trade Monopoly.
These intendants represented that the fur trade had always engrossed the
attention of the Canadians, to the exclusion of everything else. Not
only had the beaver skin become the recognized standard for all
exchanges of values, but the estimated annual product of the country was
based upon it, very much as we should reckon the worth of the grain crop
to the United States to-day. It was also received in payment for
revenues. Now, after a long experience, what was the result of an
exclusive attention to this traffic? It was shown that the fur trade
enriched no one except a few merchants, who left the country as soon as
they had acquired the means of living at their ease in Old France. It
had, therefore, no element whatever of permanent advantage to the
colony.
Danger of Exclusive Attention to it.
It was also shown that this fur trade was by no means sufficient to
sustain a colony of such importance as Canada unquestionably might
become under a different system of management; for whether the beaver
should finally become extinct through the greed of the traders, or so
cheapened by glutting the market abroad as to lose its place in commerce
entirely, it was evident that precisely the same result would be
reached. In any case, the business was a precarious one. It limited the
number of persons who could be profitably employed; it bred them up to
habits of indolence and vice without care for the future; and it kept
them in ignorance and poverty to the last. But, what was worst of all,
this all-engrossing pursuit kept the population from cultivating the
soil, the true and only source of prosperity to any country.
Other cogent reasons were given, but these most conclusively set forth
what a mercantile monopoly having its silent partners in the local
government and church, as well as in the royal palace itself, had been
able to do in the way of retarding the development of the great native
resources of Canada. It was so ably done that no voice was raised
against it. And with this most lucid and fearless exposé of the puerile
use thus far made of those resources the memorialist statesmen hoped to
open the king’s eyes.
The two Raudots offer a Remedy.
They now proposed to wholly reorganize this unsound commercial system by
directing capital and labor into new channels. Such natural productions
of the country as masts, boards, ship-timber, flax, hemp, plaster, iron
and copper ores, dried fish, whale and seal oils, and salted meats,
might be exported, they said, with profit to the merchant and advantage
to the laboring class, provided a suitable port were secured, at once
safe, commodious, and well situated for collecting all these
commodities, and shipping them abroad.
Cape Breton brought to Notice.
To this end, these intendants now first brought to notice the advantages
of Cape Breton for such an establishment. Strangely enough, up to this
time little or no attention had been paid to this island. Three or four
insignificant fishing ports existed on its coasts, but as yet the whole
interior was a shaggy wilderness, through which the Micmac Indians
roamed as freely as their fathers had done before Cartier ascended the
St. Lawrence. Its valuable deposits of coal and gypsum lay almost
untouched in their native beds; its stately timber trees rotted where
they grew; its unrivalled water-ways, extending through the heart of the
island, served no better purpose than as a highway for wandering
savages.
Acadia to be helped.
By creating such a port as the Raudots suggested, the voyage from France
would be shortened one half, and the dangerous navigation of the St.
Lawrence altogether avoided, since, instead of large ships having to
continue their voyages to Quebec, the carrying trade of the St. Lawrence
would fall to coasting vessels owned in the colony. A strong hand would
also be given to the neighbor province, the fertile yet unprotected
Acadia, which might thus be preserved against the designs of the
English, while a thriving trade in wines, brandies, linens, and rich
stuffs might reasonably be expected to spring up with the neighboring
English colonies.
A Military and Naval Arsenal proposed.
These were considerations of such high national importance as to at once
secure for the project an attention which purely strategic views could
hardly be expected to command. And yet, the forming of a military and
naval depot, strong enough to guarantee the security of the proposed
port, and in which the king’s ships might at need refit, or take refuge,
or sally out upon an enemy, was an essential feature of this elaborate
plan, every detail of which was set forth with systematic exactness. For
seven years the project was pressed upon the French court. War, however,
then engaging the whole attention of the ministry, the execution of this
far-seeing project, which had in view the demands of peace no less than
of war, was unavoidably put off until the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, by
giving a wholly new face to affairs in the New World, compelled France
to take energetic measures for the security of her colonial possessions.
Peace of Utrecht.
By this treaty of Utrecht France surrendered to England all Nova Scotia,
all her conquests in Hudson’s Bay, with Placentia, her most important
establishment in Newfoundland. At the same time the treaty left Cape
Breton to France, an act of incomparable folly on the part of the
English plenipotentiaries who, with the map lying open before them, thus
handed over to Louis the key of the St. Lawrence and of Canada. No one
now doubts that the French king saw in this masterpiece of stupidity a
way to retrieve all he had lost at a single stroke. The English
commissioners, it is to be presumed, saw nothing.
English Harbor chosen.
Having the right to fortify, under the treaty, it only remained for the
French court to determine which of the island ports would be best
adapted to the purpose, St. Anne, on the north, or English Harbor on the
south-east coast. St. Anne was a safe and excellent haven, easily made
impregnable, with all the materials requisite for building and
fortifying to be found near the spot. Behind it lay the fertile côtes of
the beautiful Bras d’Or, with open water stretching nearly to the
Straits of Canso. On the other hand, besides being surrounded by a
sterile country, materials of every kind, except timber, must be
transported to English Harbor at a great increase of labor and cost.
More could be done at St. Anne with two thousand francs, it was said,
than with two hundred thousand at the rival port. But the difficulty of
taking ships of large tonnage into St. Anne through an entrance so
narrow that only one could pass in or out at the same time, finally gave
the preference to English Harbor, which had a ship channel of something
less than two hundred fathoms in breadth, a good anchorage, and plenty
of beach room for erecting stages and drying fish. It was, moreover,
sooner clear of ice in spring.
Name changed to Louisburg.
The first thing done at Cape Breton was to change the old, time-honored
name of the island—the very first, it is believed, which signalled the
presence of Europeans in these waters—to the unmeaning one of Ile
Royale. English Harbor also took the name of Louisburg, in honor of the
reigning monarch. Royalty having thus received its dues, the work of
construction now began in earnest.
IV
RÉSUMÉ OF EVENTS TO THE DECLARATION OF WAR
We will now rapidly sketch the course of events which led to war on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Colonists provided for.
Having been obliged to surrender Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, the
French court determined to make use of their colonists in those places
for building up Louisburg.
Acadians will not emigrate.
In the first place, M. de Costebello, who had just lost his government
of the French colony of Placentia, in Newfoundland, under the terms of
the treaty, was ordered to take charge of the proposed new colony on
Cape Breton, and in accord also with the provisions of that treaty, the
French inhabitants of Newfoundland were presently removed from that
island to Cape Breton. But the Acadians of Nova Scotia who had been
invited, and were fully counted upon to join the other colonists, now
showed no sort of disposition to do so. In their case the French
authorities had reckoned without their host. These always shrewd
Acadians were unwilling to abandon the fertile and well-tilled Acadian
valleys, which years of toil had converted into a garden, to begin a new
struggle with the wilderness in order to carry out certain political
schemes of the French court. Though patriots, they were not simpletons.
So they sensibly refused to stir, although their country had been turned
over to the English. In this way the French authorities were
unexpectedly checked in their first efforts to secure colonists of a
superior class for their new establishment in Cape Breton.
How strange are the freaks of destiny! Could these simple Acadian
peasants have foreseen what was in store for them at no distant day, at
the hands of their new masters, who can doubt that, like the Israelites
of old, driving their flocks before them, they too would have departed
for the Promised Land with all possible speed?
A Thorn in the Side of the English.
Finding them thus obstinate, it was determined to make them as useful as
possible where they were, and as a reconquest of Acadia was one of those
contingencies which Louisburg was meant to turn into realities, whenever
the proper side of the moment should arrive, nothing was neglected that
might tend to the holding of these Acadians firmly to their ancient
allegiance; to keeping alive their old antipathies; to arousing their
fears for their religion, or to strongly impressing them with the belief
that their legitimate sovereign would soon drive these English invaders
from the land, never to return. For the moment the king’s lieutenants
were obliged to content themselves with planting this thorn in the side
of the English.
Why called Neutrals.
Acting upon the advice of the crafty Saint Ovide, De Costebello’s
successor, the Acadians refused to take the oath of allegiance proffered
them by the British governor of Nova Scotia—though they had refused to
emigrate they said they would not become British subjects. When
threatened they sullenly hinted at an uprising of the Micmacs, who were
as firmly attached to the French interest as the Acadians themselves.
The governor, therefore, prudently forbore to press matters to a crisis,
all the more readily because he was powerless to enforce obedience; and
thus it came to pass that the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia, under
English dominion, first took the name of neutrals.
Victims to French Policy.
Perceiving at last how they were being ground between friend and foe,
the Acadians began hoarding specie, and to leave off improving their
houses and lands. A little later they are found applying to the
Governor-General of Canada for grants of land in the old colony, to
which they might remove, and where they could dwell in peace, for they
somehow divined that they must be the losers whenever fresh hostilities
should break out between the French and English, if, as it seemed
inevitable, the war should involve them in its calamities. But that
astute official returned only evasive answers to their petition. His
royal master had other views, to the successful issue of which his
lieutenants were fully pledged, and so it is primarily to French policy,
after all, that the wretched Acadians owed their exile from the land of
their fathers. What followed was merely the logical result.
But in consequence of their first refusal to remove to Louisburg only a
handful of the Micmacs responded to Costebello’s call, by pitching their
wigwams on the skirt of the embryo city.
Laborers from the Galleys.
Laborers were wanted next. For the procuring of these the
Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, hit upon the novel
idea of transporting every year from France those prisoners who were
sentenced to the galleys for smuggling. They were to come out to Canada
subject to the severe penalty of never again being permitted to return
to their native land, “for which,” said the cunning marquis, “I
undertake to answer.”
Lord Bacon, in one of his essays, makes the following comments upon this
iniquitous method of raising up colonies: “It is a shameful and
unblessed thing,” he says, “to take the scum of people, and wicked
condemned men to be the people with whom you plant; and not only so, but
it spoileth the plantations; for they will ever live like rogues, and
not fall to work, but be lazy, and do mischief and spend victuals: and
be quickly weary, and then certify over to their country to the
discredit of the plantation.”
Meanwhile, the sceptre that had borne such potent sway in Europe dropped
from the lifeless hand of Louis the Great, to be taken up by the
“crowned automaton,” Louis XV.
Strength of Louisburg.
Pursuant to the policy thus outlined, which had no less in view than the
rehabilitation of Canada, the recovery of Nova Scotia, the mastery of
the St. Lawrence, and the eventual restoration of French prestige in
America, France had in thirty years created at Louisburg a fortress so
strong that it was commonly spoken of as the Dunkirk of America. To do
this she had lavished millions.[1] Beyond question it was the most
formidable place of arms on the American continent, far exceeding in
this respect the elaborate but antiquated strongholds of Havana, Panama,
and Carthagena, all of which had been built and fortified upon the old
methods of attack and defence as laid down by the engineers of a
previous century: while Louisburg had the important advantage of being
planned with all the skill that the best military science of the day and
the most prodigal expenditure could command. When their work was done,
the French engineers boastingly said that Louisburg could be defended by
a garrison of women.
Armament of Louisburg.
The fortress, and its supporting batteries, mounted nearly one hundred
and fifty pieces of artillery on its walls, some of which were of the
heaviest metal then in use. It was deemed, and indeed proved itself,
during the progress of two sieges, absolutely impregnable to an attack
by a naval force alone. From this stronghold Louis had only to stretch
out a hand to seize upon Nova Scotia, or drive the New England fishermen
from the adjacent seas.
In New England all these proceedings were watched with the keenest
interest, for there, at least, if nowhere else, their true intent was so
quickly foreseen, their consequences so fully realized, that the people
were more and more confounded by the imbecility which had virtually put
their whole fishery under French control.
As the situation in Europe was reflected on this side of the Atlantic,
it is instructive to look there for the storm which, to the terror and
dismay of Americans, was now darkly overspreading the continent.
War of the Austrian Succession.
The crowned gamblers of Europe had begun their costly game of the
Austrian succession. Upon marching to invade Silesia, Frederick II., the
neediest and most reckless gamester of them all, had said to the French
ambassador, “I am going, I believe, to play your little game: and if I
should throw doublets we will share the stakes.” Fortune favored this
great king of a little kingdom. He won his first throw, seeing which,
for she was at first only a looker-on, France immediately sent two
armies into Bavaria to the Elector’s aid. This move was not unexpected
in London. Ever since England had forced hostilities with Spain, in
1740, it was a foregone conclusion that the two branches of the House of
Bourbon would make common cause, whenever a favorable opportunity should
present itself. England now retaliated by voting a subsidy to Maria
Theresa, and by taking into pay some sixteen thousand of King George’s
petted Hanoverians, who were destined to fight the French auxiliary
contingent. England and France were thus casting stones at each other
over the wall, or, as Horace Walpole cleverly put it, England had the
name of war with Spain without the game, and war with France without the
name.
English defeated in Flanders.
It was inevitable that the war should now settle down into a bitter
struggle between the two great rivals, France and England. On the 20th
of March, 1744, the court of Versailles formally declared war. England
followed on the 31st. Flanders became the battle-field between a hundred
and twenty-five thousand combatants, led, respectively, by the old Count
Maurice de Saxe and the young Duke of Cumberland. In May, 1745, the
French marshal suddenly invested Tournay,[2] the greatest of all the
Flemish fortresses. The Duke of Cumberland marched to its relief, gave
battle, and was thoroughly beaten at Fontenoy. This disaster closed the
campaign in the Old World. It left the English nation terribly
humiliated in the eyes of Europe, while France, by this brilliant feat
of arms, fully reasserted her leadership in Continental affairs.
Situation in New England.
But what had been a sort of Satanic pastime in the Old World became a
struggle for life in the New. The people of New England, being naturally
more keenly alive to the dangers menacing their trade, than influenced
by a romantic sympathy with the absurd quarrels about the Austrian
succession, anxiously watched for the first signal of the coming
conflict. They knew the enemy’s strength, and they were as fully aware
of their own weaknesses. Still there was no flinching. The home
government, being fully occupied with the affairs of the Continent, and
with the political cabals of London, limited its efforts to arming a few
forts in the colonies, and to keeping a few cruisers in the West Indian
waters; but neither soldiers, arsenals, nor magazines were provided for
the defence of these provinces, upon whom the enemy’s first and hardest
blows might naturally be expected to fall, nor were such other measures
taken to meet such an extraordinary emergency as its gravity would seem
in reason to demand.
Luckily for them, the colonists had been taught in the hard school of
experience that Providence helps those who help themselves. To their own
resources they therefore turned with a vigor and address manifesting a
deep sense of the magnitude of the crisis now confronting them.
French seize Canso.
The proclamation of war was not published in Boston until the 2d of
June, 1744. Having earlier intelligence, the French at Louisburg had
already begun hostilities by making a descent upon Canso,[3] a weak
English post situated at the outlet of the strait of that name, and so
commanding it, and within easy striking distance of Louisburg. News of
this was brought to Boston so seasonably that Governor Shirley had time
to throw a re-enforcement of two hundred men into Annapolis, by which
that post was saved; for the French, after their exploit at Canso, soon
made an attempt upon Annapolis, where they were held in check until a
second re-enforcement obliged them to retire.
Captain Ryal sent to London, November, 1744.
Governor Shirley lost no time in notifying the ministry of what had
happened, and he particularly urged upon their attention the defenceless
state of Nova Scotia, where Annapolis alone held a semi-hostile
population in check. To the end that the situation might be more fully
understood, he sent an officer, who had been taken at Canso, with the
despatch.
At this time the incompetent Duke of Newcastle held the post of prime
minister. When he had read the despatch he exclaimed, “Oh, yes—yes—to be
sure. Annapolis must be defended.—troops must be sent to Annapolis. Pray
where is Annapolis? Cape Breton an island! wonderful! Show it me on the
map. So it is, sure enough. My dear sir” (to the bearer of the
despatch), “you always bring us good news. I must go tell the King that
Cape Breton is an island.”
January, 1744.
It will be seen, later, that Shirley’s timely application to the
ministry, on behalf of Nova Scotia, involved the fate of Louisburg
itself. Orders were promptly sent out to Commodore Warren, who was in
command of a cruising squadron in the West Indies, to proceed as early
as possible to Nova Scotia, for the purpose of protecting our
settlements there, or of distressing the enemy, as circumstances might
require.
Shirley himself had also written to Warren, requesting him to do this
very thing, at the same time the ministry were notified, though it was
yet too early to know the result of either application. All eyes were
now opened to Louisburg’s dangerous power. But, come what might, Shirley
was evidently a man who would leave nothing undone.
[1]Louisburg had cost the enormous sum of 30,000,000 livres or
£1,200,000 sterling.
[2]Pepperell was besieging Louisburg at the same time the French were
Tournay.
[3]Canso was taken by Duvivier, May 13, 1744. The captors burnt
everything, carrying the captives to Louisburg, where they remained
till autumn, when they were sent to Boston. These prisoners were
able to give very important information concerning the fortress, its
garrison, and its means of defence.
V
“LOUISBURG MUST BE TAKEN”
However Shirley’s efforts to avert a present danger might succeed,
nobody saw more clearly than he did that his measures only went half way
toward their mark. With Louisburg intact, the enemy might sweep the
coasts of New England with their expeditions, and her commerce from the
seas. The return of spring, when warlike operations might be again
resumed, was therefore looked forward to at Boston with the utmost
uneasiness. Merchants would not risk their ships on the ocean. Fishermen
dared not think of putting to sea for their customary voyages to the
Grand Banks or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here was a state of things
which a people who lived by their commerce and fisheries could only
contemplate with the most serious forebodings. It was fully equivalent
to a blockade of their ports, a stoppage of their industries, with
consequent stagnation paralyzing all their multitudinous occupations.
Public Opinion aroused.
Naturally the subject became a foremost matter of discussion in the
official and social circles, in the pulpits, and in the tavern clubs of
the New England capital. It was the serious topic in the counting-house
and the table-talk at home. It drifted out among the laboring classes,
who had so much at stake, with varied embellishment. It went out into
the country, gathering to itself fresh rumors like a rolling snowball.
In all these coteries, whether of the councillors over their wine, of
the merchants around their punch-bowls, of the smutty smith at his
forge, or the common dock-laborer, the same conclusion was reached, and
constantly reiterated—Louisburg must be taken!—Yes; Louisburg must be
taken! Upon this decision the people stood as one man.
It did not, however, enter into the minds of even the most sanguine
advocates of this idea that they themselves would be shortly called upon
to make it effective in the one way possible. Such a proposal would have
been laughed at, at first. The general voice was that the land and naval
forces of the kingdom ought to be employed for the reduction of
Louisburg, because no others were available; but, meantime, a public
opinion had been formed which only wanted a proper direction to turn it
into a force capable of doing what it had decided upon. There was but
one man in the province who was equal to this task.
That some other man may have had the same idea is but natural, when the
same subject was uppermost in the minds of all; but where others tossed
it to and fro, like a tennis-ball, only this one man grasped it with the
force of a master mind.[4] He was William Shirley, governor of
Massachusetts.
William Shirley.
Governor Shirley soon showed himself the man for the crisis. He was a
lawyer of good abilities, with a political reputation to make. He had a
clear head, strong will, plausible manner, and immovable persistency in
the pursuit of a favorite project. If not a military man by education,
he had, at any rate, the military instinct. He was, moreover, a shrewd
manager, not easily disheartened or turned aside from his purpose by a
first rebuff, yet knowing how to yield when, by doing so, he could see
his way to carry his point in the end.
The French, we remember, had made some prisoners at Canso, who were
first taken to Louisburg, and then sent to Boston on parole. These
captives knew the place, but our smuggling merchantmen knew it much
better. They were able to give a pretty exact account of the condition
of things at the fortress. We are now looking backward a little. But
what seems to have made the strongest impression was the news that the
garrison itself had been in open mutiny during the winter, most of the
soldiers being Swiss, whose loyalty, it was supposed, had been more or
less shaken.[5]
William Vaughan.
Whether William Vaughan,[6] a New Hampshire merchant resident in Maine,
first broached the project of taking Louisburg to Shirley, cannot now
determined, but, let the honor belong primarily where it may, Vaughan’s
scheme, as outlined by him, was too absurd for serious consideration,
however strongly he may have believed in it himself. He seems to have
belonged to the class of enthusiasts at whose breath obstacles vanish
away; yet we are bound to say of him that his own easy confidence, with
his habit of throwing himself heart and soul into whatever he undertook,
gained over a good many others to his way of thinking. Shirley therefore
encouraged Vaughan, who, after rendering really valuable services,
became so thoroughly imbued with the notion that he was not only the
originator of the expedition, but the chief actor in it, that the value
of those services is somewhat obscured.
Governor Shirley’s project now was to take Louisburg, with such means as
he himself could get together. He, too, was more or less carried away by
the spirit which animated him, as men must be to make others believe in
them, but he never lost his head. To a cool judgment, some of Shirley’s
plans for assaulting Louisburg seem almost, if not quite, as irrational
as Vaughan’s, yet Shirley was not the man to commit any overt act of
folly, or shut his ears to prudent counsels. Being so well acquainted
with the temper and spirit of the New England people, he knew that,
before they would fight, they must be convinced. To this end, he
strengthened himself with the proper arguments, wisely keeping his own
counsel until everything should be ripe for action. He knew that the
garrison of Louisburg was mutinous, that its isolated position invited
an attack, and that the extensive works were much out of repair.
Moreover, he had calculated, almost to a day, the time when the annual
supplies of men and munitions would arrive from France. He knew that
Quebec was too distant for effectively aiding Louisburg. An attack under
such conditions seemed to hold out a tempting prospect of success; yet
realizing, as Shirley did, that under any circumstances, no matter how
favorable or alluring they might seem, the enterprise would be looked
upon as one of unparalleled audacity, if not as utterly hopeless or
visionary, he determined to stake his own political fortunes upon the
issue and abide the result.
Counting the Chances of Success.
The garrison of Louisburg had been, in fact, in open revolt, the
outbreak proving so serious that the commanding officer had begged his
government to replace the disaffected troops with others, who could be
depended upon. Shirley, therefore, reckoned on a half-hearted resistance
or none at all. In a word, it was his plan to surprise and take the
place before it could be re-enforced.
Shirley’s Plan.
After obtaining a pledge of secrecy from the members, Shirley proceeded
to lay his project before the provincial legislature of Massachusetts,
which was then in session. The governor’s statement, which was certainly
cool and dispassionate, ran somewhat to this effect: “Gentlemen of the
General Court, either we must take Louisburg or see our trade
annihilated. If you are of my mind we will take it. I have reason to
know that the garrison is insubordinate. There is good ground for
believing that the commandant is afraid of his own men, that the works
are out of repair and the stores running low. I need not dwell further
on what is so well known to you all. Now, with four thousand such
soldiers as this and the neighboring provinces can furnish, aided by a
naval force similarly equipped, the place must surely fall into our
hands. I have, moreover, strong hopes of aid from His Majesty’s ships,
now in our waters. But the great thing is to throw our forces upon
Louisburg before the enemy can hear of our design. Secrecy and celerity
are therefore of the last importance. Consider well, gentlemen, that
such an opportunity is not likely to occur again. What say you? is
Louisburg to be ours or not?”
Shirley’s Plan rejected.
The conservative provincial assembly deliberated upon the proposal with
closed doors, and with great unanimity rejected it. The sum of its
decision was this: “If we risk nothing, we lose nothing. Should the
enemy strike us, we can strike back again. We can ruin his commerce as
well as he can destroy ours. Our policy is to stand on the defensive.
Very possibly the men might be raised, but where are the arsenals to
equip them; where is the money to come from to pay them; where are the
engineers, the artillerists, the siege artillery, naval stores, and all
the warlike material necessary to such a siege? Why, we haven’t a single
soldier; we haven’t a penny. Surely your excellency must be jesting with
us. It is a magnificent project, but visionary, your excellency, quite
visionary.”
To make use of parliamentary terms, the governor had leave to withdraw,
but those who dreamed that he would abandon his darling scheme at the
first rebuff it met with, did not know William Shirley.
The Subject again brought up.
The affair was now no longer a secret. Indeed, it had already leaked out
through a certain pious deacon, who most inconsiderately prayed for its
success in the family circle. The project had been scotched, not killed.
Men discussed it everywhere, now that it was an open secret, and the
more it was talked of, the more firmly it took hold on the popular mind.
The very audacity of the thing pleased the young and adventurous
spirits, of whom there were plenty in the New England of that day.
Vaughan now set himself to work among the merchants, who saw money to be
made in furnishing supplies of every kind for the expedition; while on
the other hand, if nothing was to be done, their ships and merchandise
must lie idle for so long as the war might last. Little by little the
indefatigable Shirley won men over to his views. People grew restive
under a policy of inaction. Public sentiment seldom fails of having a
wholesome effect upon legislatures, be they ever so settled in their own
opinions. It was so in this case. Presently a petition, signed by many
of the most influential merchants in the province, was laid on the
speaker’s desk, so again bringing the subject up for legislative action.
The Project adopted.
This time the governor carried his point after a whole day’s animated
debate. The measure, however, narrowly missed a second, and, perhaps, a
final defeat, it having a majority of one vote only; and this result was
owing to an accident which, as it was a good deal talked about at the
time it happened, may as well be mentioned here. It so chanced that one
of the opposition, while hurrying to the House in order to record his
vote against the measure, had a fall in the street, and was taken home
with a broken leg. There being a tie vote in consequence, Mr. Speaker
Hutchinson gave the casting vote in favor of the measure, and so carried
it.
If there had been hesitation before, there was none now. In order to
prevent the news from getting abroad, all the seaports of Massachusetts
were instantly shut by an embargo.[7] The neighboring provinces were
entreated to do the same thing. The supplies asked for were voted
without debate. Even the emission of paper money, that bugbear of
colonial financiers, was cheerfully consented to in the face of a royal
order forbidding it. Those who before had been strongest in opposition
now gave loyal support to the undertaking.
Free to act at last, Shirley now showed his splendid talent for
organizing in full vigor. The work of raising troops, of chartering
transports, of collecting arms, munitions, and stores of every kind,
went on with an extraordinary impulse. Common smiths were turned into
armorers; wheelwrights into artificers; women spent their evenings
making bandages and scraping lint. Shirley’s board of war, created for
the exigency, took supplies wherever found, paying for them with the
paper money the Legislature had just authorized for the purpose. The
patience with which these extraordinary war measures were submitted to
best shows the temper of the people. The neighboring governments were
entreated to join in the expedition and share in the glory. Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey each promised contingents. The other
provinces declined having anything to do with it, though New York made a
most seasonable loan of ten heavy cannon, upon Shirley’s urgent
entreaty, without which the siege must have lagged painfully. The
governor had, indeed, suggested, when the deficiency of artillery was
spoken of, that the cannon of the Royal Battery of Louisburg would help
to make good that deficiency; but, as it was facetiously said at the
time, this was too manifest a disposal of the skin before the bear was
caught, though it is quite likely that the notion of supplying
themselves from the enemy may have tickled the fancy of the young
recruits.
When the application reached Philadelphia, Franklin expressed shrewd
doubts of the feasibility of the undertaking. The provincial assembly
did, however, vote some supply of provisions, as its contribution toward
a campaign which nobody believed would be successful. New Jersey also
contributed provisions and clothing. This was not quite what Shirley had
hoped for, but could not in the least abate his efforts.
[4]Suggestions looking to a conquest of Cape Breton were made by
Lieutenant-Governor Clarke of New York, some time in the year 1743
(“Documentary History of New York,” I., p. 469). He suggests taking
Cape Breton as a first step toward the reduction of all Canada.
Then, Judge Auchmuty of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Massachusetts
printed in April, 1744, an ably written pamphlet discussing the best
mode of taking Louisburg.
[5]The Revolt occurred in December, over a reduction of pay. The
soldiers deposed their officers, elected others in their places,
seized the barracks, and put sentinels over the magazines. They were
so far pacified, however, as to have returned to their duty before
the English expedition arrived. Under date of June 18, one day after
the surrender, Governor-General Beauharnois advises the Count de
Maurepas of this revolt. He urges an entire change of the garrison.
[6]Vaughan was a mill-owner, and carried on fishing also at
Damariscotta, Me. He knew Louisburg well. Conceiving himself
slighted by those in authority at Louisburg, he went from thence
directly to England, in order to prefer his claim for compensation
as the originator of the scheme. He died of smallpox at Bagshot,
November, 1747. He insisted that fifteen hundred men, assisted by
some vessels, could take Louisburg by scaling the walls. “A man of
rash, impulsive nature.”—_Belknap._ “A whimsical, wild
projector.”—_Douglass._
[7]News that an armament was preparing at Boston was carried to Quebec,
by the Indians, without, however, awakening the governor’s
suspicions of its true object.
VI
THE ARMY AND ITS GENERAL
The next, and possibly most vital step of all, since the fate of the
expedition must turn upon it, was to choose a commander. For this
important station the province was quite as deficient in men of
experience as it was in materials of war: with the difference that one
could be created of raw substances while the other could not. Here the
nicest tact and judgment were requisite to avoid making shipwreck of the
whole enterprise. Not having a military man, the all-important thing was
to find a popular one, around whom the provincial yeomanry could be
induced to rally. But since he was not to be a soldier, he must be a man
held high in the public esteem for his civic virtues. It was necessary
to have a clean man, above all things: one placed outside of the
political circles of Boston, and who, by sacrificing something himself
to the common weal, should set an example of pure patriotism to his
fellow-citizens. Again, it was no less important to select some one
whose general capacity could not be called in question. Hence, as in
every real emergency, the people cast about for their very best man from
a political and personal standpoint, who, though he might have
“Never set a squadron in the field,”
could be thoroughly depended upon to act with an eye single to the good
of the cause he had espoused.
William Pepperell to command.
In this exigency Shirley’s clear eye fell on William Pepperell, of
Kittery, a gentleman of sterling though not shining qualities, whose
wealth, social rank, and high personal worth promised to give character
and weight to the post Shirley now destined him for. He was now
forty-nine years old. Having held both civil and military offices under
the province, Pepperell could not be said to be worse fitted for the
place than others whose claims were brought forward, while, on the other
hand, it was conceded that hardly another man in the province possessed
the public confidence to a greater degree than he did. Still, he was no
soldier, and the simple conferring of the title of general could not
make him one, while his practical education must begin in the presence
of the enemy—a school where, if capable men learn quickly, they do so,
as a rule, only after experiencing repeated and severe punishments. That
raw soldiers need the best generals, is a maxim of common-sense, but
Shirley, in whom we now and then discover a certain disdain for such
judgments, seems to have had no misgivings whatever as to Pepperell’s
entire sufficiency so long as he, Shirley, gave the orders, and kept a
firm hand over his lieutenant; nor can it be denied that if the
expedition was to take place at all when it did, the choice was the very
best that could have been made, all things considered.
That Shirley may have been influenced, in a measure, by personal reasons
is not improbable, and the fact that Pepperell was neither intriguing
nor ambitious, no doubt had due weight with a man like Shirley, who was
both intriguing and ambitious, and who, though he ardently wished for
success, did not wish for a rival.
No one seems to have felt his unfitness more than Pepperell himself, and
it is equally to his honor that he finally yielded to considerations
directly appealing to his patriotism and sense of duty. “You,” said
Shirley to him, “are the only man who can safely carry our great
enterprise through; if it fail the blame must lie at your door.” Much
troubled in mind, Pepperell asked the Rev. George Whitefield, who
happened to be his guest, what he thought of it. The celebrated preacher
kindly, but decidedly, advised Pepperell against taking on himself so
great a responsibility, telling him that he would either make himself an
object for execration, if he failed, or of envy and malignity, if he
should succeed.
Morale of the Army.
Shirley’s pertinacity, however, prevailed in the end. Pepperell’s own
personal stake in the successful issue of the expedition was known to be
as great as any man’s in the province, hence, his putting himself at the
head of it did much to induce others of like good standing and estate to
join him heart and hand, and their example, again, drew into the ranks a
greater proportion of the well-to-do farmers and mechanics than was
probably ever brought together in an army of equal numbers, either
before or since. Hence, at Louisburg, as in our own time, when any
extraordinary want arose, the general had only to call on the rank and
file for the means to meet it.
Several gentlemen, who had the success of the undertaking strongly at
heart, volunteered to go with Pepperell to the scene of action. Among
them were that William Vaughan, previously mentioned, and one James
Gibson, a prominent merchant of Boston, who wrote a journal of the siege
from observations made on the spot, besides contributing five hundred
pounds toward equipping the army for its work.[8]
A Crusade preached.
Pepperell’s appointment soon justified Shirley’s forecast. It gave
general satisfaction among all ranks and orders of men. On the day that
he accepted the command Pepperell advanced five thousand pounds to the
provincial treasury. He also paid out of his own pocket the bounty money
offered to recruits in the regiment he was raising in Maine. Orders were
soon flying in every direction, and very soon everything caught the
infection of his energy. The expedition at once felt an extraordinary
momentum. Volunteers flocked to the different rendezvous. In fact, more
offered themselves than could be accepted. Again the loud burr of the
drum,
“The drums that beat at Louisburg and thundered in Quebec,”
was heard throughout New England. The one question of the day was “Are
you going?” In fact, little else was talked of, for, now that the
mustering of armed men gave form and consistency to what was so lately a
crude project only, the fortunes of the province were felt to be
embarked in its success. True to its traditions, the clergy preached the
expedition into a crusade. Again the old bugbear of Romish aggression
was made to serve the turn of the hour. Religious antipathies were
inflamed to the point of fanaticism. One clergyman armed himself with a
large hatchet, with which he said he purposed chopping up into kindling
wood all the Popish images he should find adorning the altars of
Louisburg. Still another drew up a plan of campaign which he submitted
to the general. “Carthage must be destroyed!” became the watchword,
while to show the hand of God powerfully working for the right, the
celebrated George Whitefield wrote the Latin motto, embroidered on the
expeditionary standard,—
“Never despair, Christ is with us.”
Thus the church militant was not only represented in the ranks and on
the banner, but it was equally forward in proffering counsel. For
example: one minister wrote to acquaint Shirley how the provincials
should be saved from being blown up, in their camps, by the enemy’s
mines. He wanted a patrol to go carefully over the camping-ground first.
While one struck the ground with a heavy mallet, another should lay his
ear to it, and if it sounded suspiciously hollow, he should instantly
drive down a stake in order that the spot might be avoided.
Such anecdotes show us how earnestly all classes of men entered upon the
work in hand. How to take Louisburg seemed the one engrossing subject of
every man’s thoughts.
Having glanced at the qualifications of the general, we may now consider
the composition of the army. We have already drawn attention to the
excellent quality of its material. In embodying it for actual service,
the old traditions of the British army were strictly followed.
The Army by Regiments.
The expeditionary corps was formed in ten battalions. They were
Pepperell’s,[9] Wolcott’s[10] (of Connecticut), Waldo’s,[11]
Dwight’s[12] (nominally an artillery battalion), Moulton’s,[13]
Willard’s, Hale’s,[14] Richmond’s,[15] Gorham’s, and Moore’s[16] (of New
Hampshire). One hundred and fifty men of this regiment were in the pay
of Massachusetts. Pepperell’s, Waldo’s, and Moulton’s were mostly raised
in the District of Maine. Pepperell said that one-third of the whole
force came from Maine. Dwight was assigned to the command of the
artillery, with the rank of brigadier; Gorham to the special service of
landing the troops in the whaleboats, which had been provided, and of
which he had charge. There was also an independent company of
artificers, under Captain Bernard, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gridley was
appointed chief engineer of the army.
Pepperell held the rank of lieutenant-general; Wolcott, that of
major-general; and Waldo that of brigadier, the second place being given
to Connecticut, in recognition of the prompt and valuable assistance
given by that colony.
It goes badly equipped.
As a whole, the army was neither well armed nor properly equipped, or
sufficiently provided with tents, ammunition, and stores. Too much haste
had characterized its formation for a thorough organization, or for
attention to details, too little knowledge for the instruction in their
duties of either officers or men. It is true that some of them had seen
more or less bush-fighting in the Indian wars, and that all were expert
marksmen or skilful woodsmen, but to call such an unwieldy and
undisciplined assemblage of men, who had been thus suddenly called away
from their workshops and ploughs, an army, were a libel upon the name.
Commodore Edward Tyng[17] was put in command of the colonial squadron
destined to escort the army to its destination, to cover its landing,
and afterwards to act in conjunction with it on the spot.
Hutchinson, Belknap.
The writers of the time tell us that “the winter proved so favorable
that all sorts of outdoor business was carried on as well, and with as
great despatch, as at any other season of the year.” The month of
February, in particular, proved very mild. The rivers and harbors were
open, and the fruitfulness of the preceding season had made provisions
plenty. Douglass thinks that “some guardian angel” must have preserved
the troops from taking the small-pox, which broke out in Boston about
the time of their embarkation. All these fortunate accidents were hailed
as omens of success.
The Provincial Navy.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the young men in enlisting, and the energy
of the authorities in equipping them, the four thousand men called for
were mustered under arms, ready for service, in a little more than seven
weeks. In this short time, too, a hundred transports had been manned,
victualled, and got ready for sea. The embargo had provided both vessels
and sailors. More than this, a little squadron of fourteen vessels, the
largest carrying only twenty guns, was created as if by enchantment.
Here was shown a vigor that deserved success.
The Connecticut and New Hampshire contingents were also ready to march,
but Rhode Island had not yet completed hers. By disarming Castle William
in Boston harbor, or borrowing old cannon wherever they could be found,
Shirley had managed to get together a sort of makeshift for a
siege-train. All being ready at last, after a day of solemn fasting and
prayer throughout New England, the flotilla set sail for the rendezvous
at Canso in the last week of March. “Pray for us while we fight for
you,” was the last message of the departing provincial soldiers to their
friends on shore.
Equal good-fortune attended the transportation of the army by sea to a
point several hundred miles distant, during one of the stormiest months
of the year. By the 10th of April the whole force was assembled at Canso
in readiness to act offensively as soon as the Cape Breton shores should
be free of ice. All this had been done without the help of a soldier, a
ship, or a penny from England. At the very last moment Shirley received
from Commodore Warren, in answer to his request for assistance, a curt
refusal to take part in the enterprise without orders, and Shirley could
only say to Pepperell when he took leave of him, that his best and only
hope lay in his own resources.
But by this time the enthusiasm which had carried men off their feet had
begun to cool. The excitements, under the influence of which this or
that obstacle had been impatiently brushed aside, had given way to the
sober second thought. One by one they rose grimly before Pepperell’s
troubled vision like the ghosts in Macbeth. Land the troops and storm
the works had been the popular way of disposing of a fortress which the
French engineers had offered to defend with a garrison of women.
[8]Gibson was very active during the siege, especially when anything of
a dangerous nature was to be done. He was a retired British officer.
He was one of the three who escaped death, while on a scout, May 10.
With five men he towed a fireship against the West Gate, under the
enemy’s fire, on the night of May 24. It burnt three vessels, part
of the King’s Gate, and part of a stone house in the city. Being
done in the dead of night, it caused great consternation among the
besieged.
[9]Pepperell’s own regiment was actually commanded by his
lieutenant-colonel, John Bradstreet, who was afterwards appointed
lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland, but on the breaking out of the
next war with France, he served with distinction on the New-York
frontier, rising through successive grades to that of major-general
in the British army. Bradstreet died at New York in 1774.
[10]General Roger Wolcott had been in the Canada campaign of 1711
without seeing any service. He was sixty-six when appointed over the
Connecticut contingent under Pepperell. Wolcott was one of the
foremost men of his colony, being repeatedly honored with the
highest posts, those of chief judge and governor included. David
Wooster was a captain in Wolcott’s regiment.
[11]Samuel Waldo was a Boston merchant, who had acquired a chief
interest in the Muscongus, later known from him as the Waldo Patent,
in Maine, to the improvement of which he gave the best years of his
life. Like Pepperell, he was a wealthy land-owner. They were close
friends, Waldo’s daughter being betrothed to Pepperell’s son later.
His patent finally passed to General Knox, who married Waldo’s
grand-daughter.
[12]Joseph Dwight was born at Dedham, Mass., in 1703. He served in the
Second French War also. Pepperell commends his services, as chief of
artillery, very highly.
[13]Jeremiah Moulton was fifty-seven when he joined the expedition. He
had seen more actual fighting than any other officer in it. Taken
prisoner by the Indians at the sacking of York, when four years old,
he became a terror to them in his manhood. With Harmon he destroyed
Norridgewock in 1724.
[14]Robert Hale, colonel of the Essex County regiment, had been a
schoolmaster, a doctor, and a justice of the peace. He was
forty-two. His major, Moses Titcomb, afterwards served under Sir
William Johnson, and was killed at the battle of Lake George.
[15]Sylvester Richmond, of Dighton, Mass., was born in 1698; colonel of
the Bristol County regiment. He was high sheriff of the county for
many years after his return from Louisburg. Died in 1783, in his
eighty-fourth year. Lieutenant-Colonel Ebenezer Pitts of Dighton,
and Major Joseph Hodges of Norton, of Richmond’s regiment, were both
killed during the campaign.
[16]Samuel Moore’s New Hampshire regiment was drafted into the
_Vigilant_. His lieutenant-colonel, Meserve, afterward served under
Abercromby, and again in the second siege of Louisburg under
Amherst, dying there of small-pox. Matthew Thornton, signer of the
Declaration, was surgeon of Moore’s regiment.
[17]Edward Tyng, merchant of Boston, son of that Colonel Edward who was
carried a prisoner to France, with John Nelson, by Frontenac’s
order, and died there in a dungeon.
VII
THE ARMY AT CANSO
The Plan of Attack.
The crude plan of attack, as digested at Boston, consisted in an
investment of Louisburg by the land forces and a blockade by sea. To
enforce this blockade, Shirley had sent out some armed vessels in
advance of the expedition, with orders to cruise off the island, and to
intercept all vessels they should fall in with, so that news of the
armament might not get into Louisburg, by any chance, before its coming.
Shirley’s Project.
This was all the more necessary because Shirley had indulged hopes, from
the first, of taking the place by surprise, and so obstinately was he
wedded to the notion that the thing was practicable, that he had drawn
up at great length a plan of campaign of which this surprise was the
chief feature, and in which he undertook to direct, down to the minutest
detail, where, how, and when the troops should land, what points they
should attack, what they should do if the assault proved a failure or
only partially successful, where they should encamp, raise batteries and
post guards; how the men must be handled under fire, and even how the
prisoners should be disposed of, for Shirley, as we have seen, was
considerably given to counting his chickens before they were hatched.
A Saving Clause.
Being a lawyer rather than a soldier, Shirley had written out a brief
instead of an order—clear, concise, direct. But, lengthy as it was, the
plan had one redeeming feature, which turns away criticism from the
absurdities with which it was running over. This was the postscript
appended to it: “Sir, upon the whole, notwithstanding the instructions
you have received from me, I must leave it to you to act upon unforeseen
emergencies according to your best discretion.” The reading of it must
have lifted a load from Pepperell’s mind! It really looked as if Shirley
had meant to be the real generalissimo himself, and to capture Louisburg
by proxy.
Pepperell’s Council.
Pepperell was still hampered, however, with a council of war, consisting
of all the general and field officers of his army, whom he was required
to summon to his aid in all emergencies. If it be true that in a
multitude of counsels there is wisdom, then Pepperell was to be well
advised, for his council aggregated between twenty and thirty members.
Pepperell seems to have conceived that he ought to submit himself wholly
to Shirley’s guidance, since he himself was now to serve his first
apprenticeship in war, for it was now loyally attempted to carry out
Shirley’s instructions to the letter. In all these preliminary
arrangements the difference between Shirley’s brilliancy and dash and
Pepperell’s methodical cast of mind is very marked indeed. It would
sometimes seem as if the two men ought to have changed places.
Why the army was at Canso.
Importance of St. Peter’s.
Shirley had appointed the rendezvous to be at Canso, which place had
been abandoned soon after it was taken from us; first, because it was
the natural base for operations against Cape Breton, and next so that if
the descent on Louisburg failed, Canso and the command of the straits
would, at least, have been recovered. It was, as we have said, within
easy striking distance of Louisburg. Out in front of Canso, between the
Nova Scotia and Cape Breton shores, lay Isle Madame or Arichat, on which
a few French fishermen were living. Across the water from Arichat, at
the entrance to the Bras d’Or, lay the Village of St. Peter’s, the
second in point of importance in Cape Breton, Louisburg being the first.
At Arichat everything that was being done at Canso could be easily seen
and communicated to St. Peter’s. At St. Peter’s word could be sent to
Louisburg by way of the Bras d’Or Lakes. It therefore stood Pepperell in
hand to clear his vicinity of these spies and informers without delay,
unless he wished to find the enemy forewarned and forearmed.
The Ice Blockade at Louisburg.
Shirley had directed Pepperell to destroy St. Peter’s. Pepperell,
therefore, sent a night expedition there, which, however, returned
without accomplishing its purpose. But his greatest fear, lest supplies
or re-enforcements should get into Louisburg by sea, was set at rest on
finding that the field or pack-ice, which had come down out of the St.
Lawrence, and the east winds had driven up against the shores of Cape
Breton, formed a secure blockade against all comers, himself as well as
the enemy. This contingency had not been sufficiently weighed.
Canso fortified.
Meanwhile, Pepperell set to work fortifying Canso. A blockhouse, ready
framed, had been sent out for the purpose. This was now set up,
garrisoned, and christened Fort Prince William. Some earthworks were
also thrown up to cover this new post. In these occupations, or in
scouting or exercising, the troops were kept employed until the ice
should move off the shores.
French Cruiser driven off.
On the 18th of April a French thirty-gun ship was chased off the coast,
while trying to run into Louisburg. Being the better sailer, she easily
got clear of the blockading vessels, after keeping up for some hours a
sharp, running fight. Even this occurrence does not seem to have fully
opened the eyes of the French commandant of Louisburg to the true nature
of the danger which threatened him, since he has declared that he
thought the vessels he saw watching the harbor were only English
privateers. Perhaps nothing about the whole history of this expedition
is more strange than that this officer should have remained wholly
ignorant of its being at Canso for nearly three weeks.
April 23, Warren’s Fleet arrives.
Effect on the Army.
The army had been lying nearly two weeks inactive, when, to Pepperell’s
great surprise as well as joy, Commodore Warren appeared off Canso with
four ships of war, and, after briefly communicating with the general,
bore away for Louisburg. At last he had received his orders to act in
concert with Shirley, and, like a true sailor, he had crowded all sail
for the scene of action. His coming put the army in great spirits, for
it was supposed to be part of the plan, already concerted, by which the
attack should be made irresistible. And for once fortune seems to have
determined that the bungling of ministers should not defeat the objects
had in view.
April 24, Connecticut Forces arrive.
On the following day, the Connecticut forces joined Pepperell. The
shores of Cape Breton were now eagerly scanned for the first appearance
of open water, but even as late as the 28th Pepperell wrote to Shirley,
saying, “We impatiently wait for a fair wind to drive the ice out of the
bay, and if we do not suffer for want of provisions, make no doubt but
we shall, by God’s favor, be able soon to drive out what else we please
from Cape Breton.” The consumption of stores, occasioned by the
unlooked-for detention at Canso, had, in fact, become a matter of
serious concern with Pepperell, whose nearest source of supply was
Boston.
VIII
THE SIEGE
Fleet sails from Canso, April 29.
Our guard-vessels having reported the shores to be at last free from
ice, and the wind coming fair for Louisburg, the welcome signal to weigh
anchor was given on the 29th of April. On board the fleet all was now
bustle and excitement. In a very short time a hundred transport-vessels
were standing out of Canso Harbor, under a cloud of canvas, for Gabarus
Bay, the place fixed upon by Shirley for making the contemplated
descent.
Night Assault given up.
Bound to the letter of his orders, Pepperell seems to have first
purposed making an attempt to put Shirley’s rash project in execution.
To do this, he must have so timed his movements as to reach his
anchorage after dark, have landed his troops without being able to see
what obstacles lay before them, have marched them to stations situated
at a distance from the place of disembarkation, over ground unknown, and
not previously reconnoitred, to throw them against the enemy’s works
before they should be discovered. And this most critical of all military
operations, a night assault, was to be attempted by wholly undisciplined
men.
[Illustration: SIEGE of LOUISBOURG in 1745.]
Providentially for Pepperell, the wind died away before he could reach
the designated point of disembarkation, so that this mad scheme perished
before it could be put to the test; but early the next morning the
flotilla was discovered entering Gabarus Bay, five miles southeast from
the fortress, and in full view from its ramparts. So, also, the New
England forces could see the gray turrets of the redoubtable stronghold
rising in the distance, and could hear the bells of Louisburg pealing
out their loud alarm. The fortress instantly fired signal guns to call
in all out parties. It is said that there had been a grand ball the
night before, and that the company had scarce been asleep when called up
by this alarm. The booming of artillery, sounding like the drowsy roar
of an awakening lion, was defiantly echoed back from the bosom of the
deep, and borne on the cool breeze to the startled foemen’s ears the
distant roll of drum, and bugle blast, peopled the lately deserted sea
with voices of the coming strife.
Duchambon, commander of the fortress, instantly hurried off a hundred
and fifty men to oppose the landing of our troops.
Landing at Gabarus Bay, April 30.
The fleet quickly came to an anchor, and the signal was hoisted for the
troops to disembark at once. Before them stretched the lonely Cape
Breton shore, on which the breakers rose and fell in a long line of
foam. Though this heavy surf threatened to swamp the boats, the men
crowded into them as if going to a merry-making. It was a gallant and
inspiring sight to see them dash on toward the beach, emulous who should
reach it first, and eager to meet the enemy, who were waiting for them
there. By making a feint at one point, and then pulling for another at
some distance from the first, the boats gained an undefended part of the
shore before the French could come up with them. As soon as one struck
the ground, the men jumped into the water, each taking another on his
back and wading through the surf to the shore. In this manner the
landing went on so rapidly that, when the enemy finally came up, they
were easily driven off, with the loss of six or seven men killed, and
some prisoners. Before it was dark two thousand men bivouacked for the
night within cannon shot of Louisburg.
Vaughan now led forward a party after the retreating enemy, who, finding
themselves pursued, set fire to thirty or forty houses outside the city
walls.
On the next day, the work of landing the rest of the army, the artillery
and stores, was pushed to the utmost, though the heavy surf rendered
this a work of uncommon difficulty. Pepperell now pitched his camp in an
orderly manner next the shore, at a place called Flat Point Cove, where
he could communicate with the transports and fleet, and they with him.
He now took his first step towards clearing the two miles of open ground
lying between him and Louisburg harbor, with the view of fixing the
location of his batteries, and of driving the enemy inside the walls of
the fortress.
Royal Battery deserted.
To this end four hundred men were sent out to destroy the enemy’s
magazines situated at the head of the harbor, Vaughan again marching
with them. This detachment having set fire to some warehouses containing
naval stores, the smoke from which drifted down upon the Royal Battery,
the officer in command there, convinced that the provincials were about
to fall upon him, spiked his cannon and abandoned the works in haste,
though not till after receiving permission to do so.
In the morning, as Vaughan was returning to camp with only thirteen men,
the deserted appearance of the battery caused him to carefully examine
it, when, seeing no signs of life about the place,—no flag flying or
smoke rising or sentinels moving about,—he sent forward an Indian of his
party, who, finding all silent, crept through an embrasure, and undid
the gate to them. Vaughan then despatched word to the camp that he was
in possession of the place, and was waiting for a re-enforcement and a
flag; but meantime, before either could reach him, one of his men
climbed up the staff, and nailed his red coat to it for a flag.
Vaughan attacked.
At about the same hour Duchambon was sending a strong detachment back to
the battery, to complete the work of destruction that his lieutenant had
left unfinished. At least this is his own statement. It was supposed
that the battery was still unoccupied or occupied weakly, otherwise the
French would hardly have risked much for its possession. When this
detachment came round in their boats to the landing-place, near the
battery, Vaughan’s little band attacked them with great spirit, keeping
them at bay until other troops had time to join him, when the
discomfited Frenchmen were driven back whence they came.
Advantage of this Capture.
Thus unexpectedly did one of the most formidable defences fall into our
hands; for though its isolated situation invited an attack, and though
communication with the city could be easily cut off except by water, the
prompt attempt to recover the Royal Battery implies that its abandonment
was at least premature. Yet as this work was primarily a harbor defence
only, it was evidently not looked upon as tenable against a land attack,
although it is quite as clear that the time had not yet come for
deserting it. But the fact that it was left uninjured instead of being
blown up assures us that the garrison must have left in a panic.
But whether the French attached much or little consequence to this
battery so long as it remained in their hands, it became in ours a
tremendous auxiliary to the conquest of the city. By its capture we
obtained thirty heavy cannon, all of which were soon made serviceable,
besides a large quantity of shot and shell, than which nothing could
have been more acceptable at this time. And although only three or four
of its heavy guns could be trained upon the city, its capture removed
one of the most formidable obstacles to the entrance of our fleet. It
also afforded an excellent place of arms for our soldiers, whose
confidence was greatly strengthened. In a word, the siege was making
progress.
We cannot help referring here to the fact that notwithstanding Shirley’s
idea had met with so much ridicule it had, nevertheless, come true in
one part at least, since if the proposal to turn the enemy’s own cannon
against them had seemed somewhat whimsical when it was broached, it
certainly proved prophetic in this case, for within twenty-four hours
after its taking the guns of the Royal Battery were thundering against
the city.
Firing begun.
Pepperell had at once ordered Waldo’s regiment into the captured
battery. The enemy had not even stopped to knock off the trunnions of
the cannon, so that the smiths, under the direction of Major
Pomeroy,[18] who was himself a gun-smith, had only to drill them out
again. Waldo fired the first shot into the city. It is said to have
killed fourteen men. The fire was maintained with destructive effect,
and it drew forth a reply from the enemy, with both shot and shell.
The siege may now be said to have fairly begun, and begun prosperously.
Both sides had stripped for fighting, and it remained to be seen whether
Pepperell’s raw levies would continue steadfast under the many trials of
which these events were but a foretaste.
Louisburg was now practically invested on the land side, the fleet, with
its heavy armament, remaining useless, however, with respect to active
co-operation in the siege itself, because its commander dared not take
his ships into the harbor under fire of the enemy’s batteries. The army
and navy were acting therefore without that concert which alone would
have allowed their united strength to be effectively tested. On its
part, the navy was simply making a display of force which could not be
employed, though it maintained a strict blockade. In any case, then, the
brunt of the siege must fall on the army, since, as Warren informed
Pepperell, the fleet could take no part in battering the city until the
harbor defences should first have been taken or silenced. And when this
was done, the siege must probably have been near its end, fleet or no
fleet.
Pepperell manfully turned, however, to a task which he had supposed
would be shared between the commodore and himself. If he was no longer
confident under fresh disappointments, they developed in him unexpected
firmness and most heroic patience. Let us see what this task was, and in
what manner the citizen-general set about it. That it was done with true
military judgment is abundantly proved by the fact that, when Louisburg
was assaulted and taken in 1758, by the combined land and naval forces
of Amherst and Boscawen, Pepperell’s plan of attack was followed step by
step, and to the letter.
[Illustration: TOWN AND FORTIFICATIONS OF LOUISBOURG IN 1745.]
The Harbor Defences.
The most formidable of the harbor defences were the Island Battery, to
which attention has been called in a previous chapter, the Circular
Battery, a work situated at the extreme northwest corner of the city
walls, and forming the reverse face of the powerful Dauphin Bastion,
from which the West Gate of the city opened, with the Water Battery, or
Batterie de la Gréve, placed at the opposite angle of the harbor
shore.[19] The cross-fire from these two batteries effectually raked the
whole harbor from shore to shore, but it was by no means so dangerous as
that of the Island Battery, where ships must pass within point-blank
range of the heaviest artillery.
Such, then, was the admirable system of harbor defences still remaining
intact, even after the fall of the Royal Battery. Instead, therefore, of
concentrating his whole fire upon one or two points, in his front, with
a view of breaching the walls in the shortest time, and of storming the
city at the head of his troops, Pepperell was made to throw half his
available fire upon the batteries that were not at all in his own way,
though they blocked the way to the fleet.[20]
It will be seen that these circumstances imposed upon Pepperell a task
of no little magnitude. They compelled him to attack the very strongest,
instead of the weakest, parts of the fortress, and necessarily confined
the siege operations within a comparatively small space of the enemy’s
long line.
No time was lost in getting the siege train over from Gabarus Bay to the
positions marked out for erecting the breaching batteries. The infinite
labor involved in doing this can hardly be understood except by those
who have themselves gone over the ground. Every gun and every pound of
provisions and ammunition had to be dragged two miles, through marshes
and over rocks, to the allotted stations. This transit being
impracticable for wheel-carriages, sledges were constructed by
Lieutenant-Colonel Meserve of the New Hampshire regiment, to which
relays of men harnessed themselves in turn, as they do in Arctic
journeys, and in this way the cannon, mortars, and stores were slowly
dragged through the spongy turf, where the mud was frequently knee-deep,
to the trenches before Louisburg. None but the rugged yeomen of New
England—men inured to all sorts of outdoor labor in woods and
fields—could have successfully accomplished such a herculean task. But
such severe toil as this was soon put half the army in the hospitals.
Nova Scotia freed of Invaders.
By the 5th of May Pepperell had got two mortar-batteries playing upon
the city from the base of Green Hill, over which the road passes to
Sydney. Meantime, Duchambon, seeing himself blockaded both by sea and by
land, had hurriedly sent off an express to recall the troops that had
gone out some time before against Annapolis, in concert with a force
sent from Quebec, little dreaming that he himself would soon be
attacked.[21] The first fruits of Shirley’s sagacity ripened thus early
in relieving Nova Scotia from invasion.
First Sabbath in Camp.
The 5th being Sunday, divine service was held in the chapel of the Royal
Battery. Pepperell’s hardy New Englanders listened to the first
Protestant sermon ever preached, perhaps, on the island of Cape Breton,
from the well-chosen text “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and
into His courts with praise.” After their devotions were over, we are
told that the troops “fired smartly at the city.”
Meantime, also, Colonel Moulton, who had been left at Canso for the
purpose, rejoined the army after destroying St. Peter’s. Two sallies
made by the enemy against the nearest mortar-battery had been repulsed.
Its fire, augmented by some forty-two-pounders taken from the Royal
Battery, already much distressed the garrison, its balls coming against
the caserns and into the town, where they traversed the streets from end
to end, and riddled the houses in their passage. It never ceased firing
during the siege. In his report Duchambon calls it the most dangerous of
any that the besiegers raised.
Garrison summoned.
On the 7th a flag was sent into the city with a summons to surrender.
Firing was suspended until its return, with Duchambon’s defiant message,
that inasmuch “as the King had confided to him the defence of the
fortress, he had no other reply but by the mouths of his cannon.”
Scouting Party defeated.
This check prompted a disposition to attack the city by storm at once,
but upon reflection more moderate counsels prevailed, and the attempt
was put off. Pepperell went on with his approaches toward the West Gate,
under a constant fire from all the enemy’s batteries. And as every
collection of men drew the enemy’s fire to the spot, this work could
only be done at night, under great disadvantages. The balls they sent
him were picked up and returned from his own cannon with true New
England thrift, in order to husband his own ammunition. While thus
engaged with the enemy in his front, he had also to keep an eye upon the
outlying parties of French and Indians in his rear, who had been scraped
together from scattered settlements, and were lurking about his camp
with the view of raiding it unawares. On May 10, a scouting party of
twenty-five men from Waldo’s regiment was sent out to find and drive off
these marauders. While they were engaged in plundering some
dwelling-houses at one of the out-settlements, they themselves were
unexpectedly attacked by a superior force, and all but three killed, the
Indians murdering the prisoners in cold blood. On the following day our
men returned to the scene of disaster, and after burying their fallen
comrades, they burned the place to the ground.
With these events the campaign settled down into the slow and laborious
operations of a regular siege; and here began those inevitable
bickerings between the chiefs of the land and naval forces, which, in a
man of different temper than Pepperell was, might have led to serious
results.
Disagreements.
In Shirley, his lawful captain-general, Pepperell had always a superior
whose orders he felt bound to obey to the best of his ability, cost what
it might. Fortunately, Shirley’s power of annoyance was limited by
distance, though he kept up an animated fire of suggestions. In Warren,
however, the brusque and impulsive sailor, Pepperell now found a tutor
and a critic, whose irritation at the subordinate part he was playing
showed itself in unreasonable demands upon his slow but sure coadjutor,
and now and then even in a hardly concealed sneer. As time wore on,
Warren grew more and more restive and importunate, while Pepperell
continued patient, calm, and methodical to the last. Warren would call
his fleet-captains together, hold a council, discuss the situation from
his point of view, and send off to Pepperell the result of their
deliberations, with the final exhortation attached, “For God’s sake let
_us_ do something!”—that “something” being that Pepperell should
practically finish the siege without him, as we have already shown.
Warren was a man standing at a door to keep out intruders, while the two
actual adversaries were fighting it out inside. He might occasionally
halloo to them to be quick about it, but he was hardly in the fight
himself.
Pepperell would then get his council together in his turn, and, smarting
under the sense of injustice, would submit the lecture that Warren had
read him, with its thinly veiled irony, and unconcealed hauteur, to
which the imputation of ignorance was not lacking. The situation would
then be again discussed in all its bearings, from the army’s standpoint,
which might be stated as follows: The fortress cannot be stormed until
we have made a practicable breach in the walls. We must finish our
batteries before this can be done. Or let the commodore bring in his
ships and assist in silencing the enemy’s fire. The army is losing
strength every day by sickness, while the fleet is gaining by the
arrival of fresh ships. We cannot, if we would, pull the commodore’s
chestnuts out of the fire and our own too.
[18]Major Seth Pomeroy of Northampton, Mass., was lieutenant-colonel of
Williams’s regiment in the battle of Lake George, 1755, succeeding
to the command after Williams’s death. At the beginning of the
Revolution he fought as a volunteer at Bunker Hill.
[19]Reference should be made to the plan at page 91. It will greatly
simplify the siege operations to the reader if he will keep in mind
the fact that the land attack was wholly confined within the points
designated by A and B on this plan, or between the Dauphin and
King’s bastions. For our purpose, it is only necessary to add that
the harbor front was defended by a strong wall of masonry, joining
the Water Battery, G, with the Dauphin Bastion, A. In this wall were
five gates, leading to the water-side. It was the point at which the
city would be exposed to assault from shipping or their boats.
[20]The Island Battery could not materially hinder the progress of the
siege, and must have fallen with the city. The Circular Battery
could not fire upon the besiegers at all, as it bore upon the
harbor, but Warren insisted that he could not go in until these two
works were silenced. If the time spent in doing this had been wholly
employed in battering down the West Gate and its approaches, the
city might have been taken without the fleet, leaving out of view,
of course, the supposition of a repulse to the storming party. It is
a strong assertion to say that the city could not have been taken
without the fleet, because no trial was made.
[21]The Attack upon Annapolis having failed, these troops tried to get
back to Louisburg, but were unable to do so. With their assistance
Duchambon thinks he could have held out.
IX
THE SIEGE CONTINUED
Camp Routine.
The routine of camp life is not without interest as tending to show what
was the temper of the men under circumstances of unusual trial and
hardship. They were housed in tents, most of which proved rotten and
unserviceable, or in booths, which they built for themselves out of
poles and green boughs cut in the neighboring woods. The relief parties,
told off each day for work in the trenches, were marched to their
stations after dark, as the enemy’s fire swept the ground over which
they must pass. For a like reason, the fatigue parties could only bring
up the daily supplies of provisions and ammunition to the trenches from
Gabarus Bay, after darkness had set in. By great good-fortune, the
weather continued dry and pleasant; otherwise the bad housing and severe
toil must have told on the health of the army even more severely than it
did, while work in the trenches would have been suspended during the
intervals of wet weather.
Spirit of the Army.
A force like this, composed of men who were the equals of their officers
at home, not bound together by habits of passive obedience formed under
the severe penalties of martial law, could not be expected to observe
the exact discipline of regular soldiers. It was not attempted to
enforce it. Not one case of punishment for infraction of orders is
reported during the siege. But officers and men had in them the making
of far better soldiers than the ordinary rank and file of armies. There
were men in the ranks who rose to be colonels and brigadiers in the
revolutionary contest.[22] The hardest duty was performed without
grumbling; the most dangerous service found plenty of volunteers; and
Pepperell himself has borne witness that nothing pleased the men better
than to be ordered off on some scouting expedition that promised to
bring on a brush with the enemy.
This spirit is plainly manifest in the letters which have been
preserved. In one of them Major Pomeroy tells his wife that “it looks as
if our campaign would last long; but I am willing to stay till God’s
time comes to deliver the city into our hands.” The reply is worthy of a
woman of Sparta: “Suffer no anxious thoughts to rest in your mind about
me. The whole town is much engaged with concern for the expedition, how
Providence will order the affair, for which religious meetings every
week are maintained. I leave you in the hand of God.”
There is not a despatch or a letter of Pepperell’s extant, in which this
dependence upon the Over-ruling Hand is not acknowledged. The barbaric
utterance that Providence is always on the side of the strongest
battalions would have shocked the men of Louisburg as deeply as it would
the men of Preston, Edgehill, and Marston Moor. The conviction that
their cause was a righteous one, and must therefore prevail, was a power
still active among Puritan soldiers: nor did they fail to give the honor
and praise of achieved victory to Him whom they so steadfastly owned as
the Leader of Armies and the God of Battles.
There were not wanting incidents which the soldiers treasured up as
direct manifestations of Divine favor. Moses Coffin, of Newbury, who
officiated in the double capacity of chaplain and drummer, and who had
been nicknamed in consequence the “drum ecclesiastic,” carried a small
pocket-Bible about with him wherever he went. On returning to camp,
after an engagement with the enemy, he found that a bullet had passed
nearly through the sacred book, thus, undoubtedly, saving his life.
Frolics in Camp.
The relaxation from discipline has been more or less commented upon by
several writers, as if it implied a grave delinquency in the head of the
army. We are of the opinion, however, that it was the safety-valve of
_this_ army, under the extraordinary pressure laid upon it. So while we
may smile at the comparison made by Douglass, who says that the siege
resembled a “Cambridge Commencement,” or at the antics described by
Belknap,[23] we need not feel ourselves bound to accept their
conclusions. This author says: “Those who were on the spot, have
frequently in my hearing laughed at the recital of their own
irregularities, and expressed their admiration when they reflected on
the almost miraculous preservation of the army from destruction. They
indeed presented a formidable front to the enemy, but the rear was a
scene of confusion and frolic. While some were on duty at the trenches,
others were racing, wrestling, pitching quoits, firing at marks or
birds, or running after shot from the enemy’s guns for which they
received a bounty.”
Our Fascine Batteries.
In his unscientific way, Pepperell was daily tightening his grasp upon
Louisburg. Gridley,[24] who acted in the capacity of chief engineer, had
picked up from books all the knowledge he possessed, but he soon showed
a natural aptitude for that branch of the service. Dwight, the chief of
artillery, is not known ever to have pointed a shotted gun in his life.
Instead of gradual approaches, of zigzags and épaulements, the ground
was simply staked out where the batteries were to be placed. After dark
the working parties started for the spot, carrying bundles of fascines
on their backs, laid them on the lines, and then began digging the
trenches and throwing up the embankment by the light of their lanterns.
All the batteries at Louisburg were constructed in this simple fashion.
The work of making the platforms, getting up the cannon, and mounting
them, was attended with far greater labor and risk.
The Advanced Battery opens Fire May 18.
In this manner a fascine battery covered by a trench in front, on which
the provincials had been working like beavers for two days and nights,
was raised within two hundred and fifty yards of the West Gate, against
which it began sending its shot on the 18th. This was by much the most
dangerous effort that the besiegers had yet made, and the enemy at once
trained every gun upon it that would bear, in the hope of either
demolishing or silencing the work. It was so near that the men in the
trenches, and those on the walls, kept up a continual fire of musketry
at each other, interspersed with sallies of wit, whenever there was a
lull in the firing. The French gunners, who were kept well supplied with
wine, would drink to the besiegers, and invite them over to breakfast or
to take a glass of wine.
[Illustration: THE LIGHTHOUSE, WITH DÉBRIS OF OLD WORKS.]
Cannon discovered.
In two days the fire of our guns had beaten down the drawbridges, part
of the West Gate, and some of the adjoining wall. Pepperell complains at
this time of his want of good gunners, also of a sufficient supply of
powder to make good the daily consumption, of which he had no previous
conception, but is cheered by finding thirty cannon sunk at low-water
mark on the opposite side of the harbor, which he designed mounting at
the lighthouse forthwith, for attacking the Island Battery. Gorham’s
regiment was posted there with this object. Thus again were the enemy
furnishing means for their own destruction. Foreseeing that this
fortification would shut the port to ships coming to his relief,
Duchambon sent a hundred men across the harbor to drive off the
provincials. A sharp fight ensued, in which the enemy were defeated.
Titcomb’s Battery at Work.
By this time another fascine battery situated by the shore, at a point
nine hundred yards from the walls, began raking the Circular Battery of
the enemy, in conjunction with the direct fire from our Advanced
Battery. It was called Titcomb’s, from the officer in charge, Major
Moses Titcomb of Hale’s regiment. These two fortifications were now
knocking to pieces the northwest corner of the enemy’s ponderous works,
known as the Dauphin Bastion. We were now playing on Louisburg from
three batteries on the shore of the harbor, three in the rear of these,
and had another in process of construction at the lighthouse, all of
which, except the last, had been completed under fire within twenty
days, without recourse to any scientific rules whatever.
Capture of the Vigilant.
In spite of Warren’s watchfulness one vessel had slipped through his
squadron into Louisburg unperceived, bringing supplies to the besieged,
An event now took place which, to use Pepperell’s words, “produced a
burst of joy in the army, and animated the men with fresh courage to
persevere.” The annual supply ship from France, for which our fleet had
been constantly on the lookout, had run close in with the harbor in a
thick fog, undiscovered by our vessels, and wholly unsuspicious of
danger herself. When the fog lifted she was seen and engaged by the
Mermaid, a forty-gun frigate, until the rest of the squadron could come
to her aid, when, after a spirited combat, the French ship was forced to
strike her colors. The prize proved to be the Vigilant, a new sixty-gun
ship, loaded with stores and munitions for Louisburg. She was soon put
in fighting trim again, and manned by drafts made from the army and
transports.
Warren proposes to attack.
By the 24th, two more heavy ships, which the ministry had sent out
immediately upon receiving Shirley’s advices that the expedition had
been decided upon,[25] now joined Warren, who at length felt himself
emboldened to ask Pepperell’s co-operation in the following plan of
attack. It was proposed to distribute sixteen hundred men, to be taken
from the army, among the ships of war, all of which should then go into
the harbor and attack the enemy’s batteries vigorously. Under cover of
this fire, the soldiers, with the marines from the ships, were to land
and assault the city. Pepperell himself was to have no share in this
business, except as a looker-on, but was to put his troops under the
command of an officer of marines who should take his orders from Warren
only.
This implied censure to the conduct of the army and its chief, followed
up the next day by the tart question of “Pray how came the Island
Battery not to be attacked?” seems to have goaded Pepperell into giving
the order for a night attack upon that strong post. Indeed, Pepperell’s
perplexities were growing every hour. On the day he received Warren’s
cool proposition to take the control of the army out of his hands, he
had been obliged to send off a flying column in pursuit of a force which
his scouts had reported was at Mirá Bay, fifteen miles from his camp. In
fact, the forces which Duchambon had recalled from Annapolis were
watching their chance either to make a dash into Louisburg, or throw
themselves upon the besiegers’ trenches unawares.
Island Battery stormed May 27.
Gallantry of William Tufts, Jr.
Notwithstanding the hazard, it was determined to storm the Island
Battery. For this purpose, four hundred volunteers embarked in
whale-boats on the night of the 27th, and rowed cautiously round the
outer shore of the harbor toward the back of the island, in the
expectation of finding that side unguarded. They were, however,
discovered by the sentinels in season to thwart the plan of surprise.
The garrison was alarmed. Still the brave provincials would not turn
back. Cannon and musketry were turned on them from the island and city.
Through this storm of shot, by which many of the boats were sunk before
they could reach the shore, only about half the attacking force passed
unscathed. In scrambling up the rocks through a drenching surf, most of
their muskets were wet with salt water, and rendered useless. Not yet
dismayed, the assailants fought their numerous foes hand to hand for
nearly an hour. Captain Brooks, their leader, was cut down in the
_mêlée_. One William Tufts, a brave lad of only nineteen, got into the
battery, climbed the flagstaff, tore down the French colors, and
fastened his own red coat to the staff, under a shower of balls, many of
which went through his clothes without harming him. Sixty men were slain
before the rest would surrender, but these were the flower of the army,
whose loss saddened the whole camp, when the enemy’s exulting cheers
told the story of the disaster, at break of day. About a hundred and
eighty-nine men were either drowned, killed, or taken in this desperate
encounter. It was an exploit worthy of the men, but there was not one
chance in ten of its being successful. For once Pepperell had allowed
feeling to get the better of judgment by taking that chance.
Pepperell could now say to Warren that his proposal would not be agreed
to. His effective force had been reduced by sickness to twenty-one
hundred men, six hundred of whom were at that moment absent from camp.
As a compliance with Warren’s requisition for sixteen hundred men would
be equivalent to exposing everything to the uncertain chances of a
single bold dash, Pepperell’s council very wisely concluded that it was
far better to hold fast what had been gained, than to risk all that was
hoped for. They offered to lend the commodore five hundred soldiers, and
six hundred sailors, if he would go and assault the Island Battery, in
his turn, but Warren’s only reply was to urge the completion of the
Lighthouse Battery for that work.
The siege had now continued thirty days without decisive results. So far
Duchambon had showed no sign of yielding, and Pepperell found it
difficult to get information as to the state of the garrison. An
expedient was therefore hit upon which was calculated to test both the
temper and condition of the besieged thoroughly: for although the
capture of the Vigilant had been witnessed from the walls of Louisburg,
it had not produced the impression that the besiegers had expected. This
was the key to what now took place.
Effect of Stratagem tried.
Maisonforte, captain of the Vigilant, was still a prisoner on board the
fleet. He was given to understand that the provincials were greatly
exasperated over the cruel treatment of some prisoners, who had been
murdered after they were taken, and he was asked to write to Duchambon
informing him just how the French prisoners were treated, to the end
that such barbarities as had been complained of might cease, and
retaliation be avoided.
Maisonforte readily fell into the trap laid for him. He unhesitatingly
wrote the letter as requested, it was sent to Duchambon by a flag, and
was delivered by an officer who understood French, in order to observe
its effect. The letter thus conveyed to Duchambon the disagreeable news
of the Vigilant’s capture, of which he had been ignorant, and it made a
visible impression. He now knew that his determination to hold out in
view of the expected succors from France, was of no further avail. This
correspondence took place on the 7th.
Lighthouse Battery completed.
Island Battery silenced.
By the arrival of ships destined for the Newfoundland station, the fleet
had been increased to eleven ships carrying five hundred and forty guns.
On the 9th two deserters came into our lines, who said that the garrison
could not hold out much longer unless relieved. On the 11th, which was
the anniversary of the accession of George II., a general bombardment
took place, in which the new Lighthouse Battery joined, for the first
time. The effect of its fire upon the Island Battery was so marked, that
Warren now declared himself ready to join in a general attack, whenever
the wind should be fair for it. For this attempt Pepperell pushed
forward his own preparations most vigorously. Boats were got ready to
land troops at different parts of the town. The Circular Battery was
about silenced. All the 13th, 14th, and 15th a furious bombardment was
kept up. Our marksmen swept the streets of the doomed city, with
musketry, from the advanced trenches, so that no one could show his head
in any part of it without being instantly riddled with balls. The
artillerists at the Island Battery were driven from their posts, some
even taking refuge from our shells by running into the sea. Our boats
now passed in and out of the harbor freely, with supplies, without
molestation. It was evident that the fall of this much dreaded bulwark
had brought the siege practically to a close.
On the 14th the whole fleet came to an anchor off the harbor in line of
battle. It made a splendid and imposing array. At the same time the
troops were mustered under arms, and exhorted to do their full duty when
the order should be given them to advance upon the enemy’s works. In the
midst of these final preparations for a combined and decisive assault,
an ominous silence brooded over the doomed city. It was clear to all
that the crisis was at hand.
Duchambon felt that he had now done all that a brave and resolute
captain could for the defence of the fortress. He saw an overwhelming
force about to throw itself with irresistible power upon his dismantled
walls, in every assailable part at once. His every hope of help from
without had failed him. Food for his men and powder for his guns were
nearly exhausted. He was now confronted with the soldier’s last dread
alternative of meeting an assault sword in hand, with but faint prospect
of success, or of lowering the flag he had so gallantly defended. The
wretched inhabitants, who had endured every privation cheerfully, so
long as there was hope, earnestly entreated him to spare them the
horrors of storm and pillage.
The Fortress surrenders.
On the 15th, in the afternoon, while the two chiefs of the expedition
were in consultation together, Duchambon sent a flag to Pepperell
proposing a suspension of hostilities until terms of capitulation should
be agreed upon. This was at once granted until eight o’clock of the
following morning. Duchambon’s proposals were then submitted and
rejected as inadmissible, but counter proposals were sent him, to which,
on the same day, he gave his assent, by sending hostages to both
Pepperell and Warren, saving only that the garrison should be allowed to
march out with the honors of war. For reasons to be looked for, no
doubt, in his pride as a professional soldier, and in his reluctance to
treat with any other, he addressed separate notes to the land and naval
commanders. As neither felt disposed to stand upon a point of mere
punctilio, Duchambon’s request was immediately acceded to. A striking
difference, however, is to be observed between Pepperell’s and Warren’s
replies to the French commander. In his own Pepperell generously, and
honorably, makes the full ratification of this condition subject to
Warren’s approval. In the commodore’s there is not one word found
concerning the general of the land forces, or of his approbation or
disapprobation, any more than if he had never existed; but in Warren’s
note the extraordinary condition is annexed “that the keys of the town
be delivered to such officers and troops _as I shall appoint to receive
them_, and that all the cannon, warlike and other stores in the town, be
also delivered up to the said officers.”
On the 17th Warren took formal possession of the Island Battery, and
shortly after went into the city himself to confer with the governor. In
the meantime, conceiving it to be his right to receive the surrender,
Pepperell had informed the governor of his intention to put a detachment
of his own troops in occupation of the city defences that same
afternoon. This communication was immediately shown to Warren, who at
once addressed Pepperell, in evident irritation, upon the “irregularity”
of his proceedings, until the articles of surrender should have been
formally signed and sealed. The fact that he had just proposed to
receive the surrender of the fortress himself was not even referred to,
nor does it appear that Pepperell ever knew of it. One cannot overlook,
therefore, the presence of some unworthy manœuvring, seconded by
Duchambon’s professional vanity, to claim and obtain a share of the
honor of this glorious achievement, not only unwarranted by the part the
navy had taken in it, since it had never fired a shot into Louisburg, or
lost a man by its fire: but calculated to mislead public opinion in
England.
An unpublished letter of General Dwight, written three days after the
entry of the provincial troops, relates the closing scenes of this truly
memorable contest. It runs as follows:—
[Illustration: REMAINS OF CASEMATES AT LOUISBURG.]
“We entered the city on Monday last (17th) about five o’clock P.M., with
colors flying, drums, hautboys, violins, trumpets, etc. Gentlemen and
ladies caressing (the French inhabitants) as well they might, for a New
England dog would have died in the holes we drove them to—I mean the
casemates where they dwelt during the siege.
“This fortress is so valuable, as well as large and extensive, that we
may say the one half has not been conceived.... Sometimes I am ready to
say a thousand men in a thousand years could not effect it. Words cannot
convey the idea of it.... One half of ye warlike stores for such a siege
were not laid in; however, the Vigilant (French supply ship) being taken
and Commodore Warren’s having some supply of stores from New England was
very happy, and so it is that his readiness has been more than equal to
his ability.”
Governor Duchambon puts his whole force at thirteen hundred men at the
beginning of the siege, and at eleven hundred at its close. About two
thousand men were, however, included in the capitulation, of which
number six hundred and fifty were veteran troops. The besiegers’ shot
had wrought destruction in the city. There was not a building left
unharmed or even habitable, by the fifteen thousand shot and shells that
Pepperell’s batteries had thrown into it.
When Pepperell saw the inside of Louisburg he probably realized for the
first time the magnitude of the task he had undertaken. On looking
around him, he said, with the expeditionary motto in mind no doubt, “The
Almighty, of a truth, has been with us.”
As the expedition began, so it now ended, with a prayer, which has come
down to us as a part of its history. Pepperell celebrated his entry into
Louisburg by giving a dinner to his officers. When they were seated at
table, the general called upon his old friend and neighbor, the Rev. Mr.
Moody of York, to ask the Divine blessing. As the parson’s prayers were
proverbial for their length, the countenances of the guests fell when he
arose from his chair, but to everybody’s surprise the venerable chaplain
made his model and pithy appeal to the throne of grace in these words:
“Good Lord! we have so many things to thank thee for, that time will be
infinitely too short to do it: we must therefore leave it for the work
of eternity.”
[22]General John Nixon is one of those referred to.
[23]Douglass (Summary), Belknap (“History of New Hampshire”) and
Hutchinson (“History of Massachusetts Bay”) have accounts of the
Louisburg expedition. Douglass and Hutchinson wrote
contemporaneously, and were well informed, the latter especially,
upon all points relating to the inception and organization. Of their
military criticism it is needless to speak. There is a host of
authorities, both French and English, most of which are collected in
Vol. V. “Narrative and Critical History of America.”
[24]Richard Gridley subsequently laid out the works at Bunker Hill and
Dorchester Heights, in much the same manner.
[25]Shirley’s second messenger, Captain Loring, on presenting his
despatches, was allowed but twelve hours in London, being then
ordered on board the Princess Mary, one of the ships referred to.
X
AFTERTHOUGHTS
And now comes the strangest part of the story. We get quite accustomed
to thinking of the American colonies as the football of European
diplomacy, our reading of history has fully prepared us for that: but we
are not prepared to find events in the New World actually shaping the
course of those in the Old. In a word, England lost the battle in
Europe, but won it in America. France was confounded at seeing the key
to Canada in the hands of the enemy she had just beaten. England and
France were like two duellists who have had a scuffle, in the course of
which they have exchanged weapons. Instead of dictating terms, France
had to compromise matters. For the sake of preserving her colonial
possessions, she now had to give up her dear-bought conquests on the
continent of Europe. Hostilities were suspended. All the belligerents
agreed to restore what they had taken from each other, and cry quits;
but it is plain that France would never have consented to such a
settlement at a time when her adversaries were so badly crippled, when
all England was in a ferment, and she hurrying back her troops from
Holland in order to put down rebellion at home, thus leaving the
coalition of which she was the head to stand or fall without her. France
would not have stayed her victorious march, we think, under such
circumstances as these, unless the nation’s attention had been forcibly
recalled to the gravity of the situation in America.
In some respects this episode of history recalls the story of the mailed
giant, armed to the teeth, and of the stripling with his sling.
As all the conquests of this war were restored by the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle, Cape Breton went to France again.
Thus had New England made herself felt across the Atlantic by an
exhibition of power, as unlooked-for as it was suggestive to thoughtful
men. To some it was merely like that put forth by the infant Hercules,
in his cradle. But to England, the unnatural mother, it was a notice
that the child she had neglected was coming to manhood, ere long to
claim a voice in the disposal of its own affairs.
To New England herself the consequences of her great exploit were very
marked. The martial spirit was revived. In the trenches of Louisburg was
the training-school for the future captains of the republic. Louisburg
became a watchword and a tradition to a people intensely proud of their
traditions. Not only had they made themselves felt across the ocean, but
they now first awoke to a better knowledge of their own resources, their
own capabilities, their own place in the empire, and here began the
growth of that independent spirit which, but for the prompt seizure of a
golden opportunity, might have lain dormant for years. Probably it would
be too much to say that the taking of Louisburg opened the eyes of
discerning men to the possibility of a great empire in the West; yet, if
we are to look about us for underlying causes, we know not where else to
find a single event so likely to give birth to speculative discussion,
or a new and enlarged direction in the treatment of public concerns.
What had been done would always be pointed to as evidence of what might
be done again. So we have considered the taking of Louisburg, in so far
as the colonies were concerned, as the event of its epoch.[26]
Nor would these discussions be any the less likely to arise, or to grow
any the less threatening to the future of crown and colony, when it
became known that to balance her accounts with other powers England had
handed over Cape Breton to France again, thus putting in her hand the
very weapon that New England had just wrested from her, as the pledge to
her own security. The work was all undone with a stroke of the pen. The
colonies were still to be the football of European politics.
Nobody in the colonies supposed this would be the reward of their
sacrifices—that they should be deliberately sold by the home government,
or that France, after being once disarmed, would be quietly told to go
on strengthening her American Gibraltar as much as she liked. Yet this
was what really happened, notwithstanding the Duke of Newcastle’s
bombastic declaration that “if France was master of Portsmouth, he would
hang the man who should give up Cape Breton in exchange for it.”
King George, who was in Hanover when he heard of the capture of
Louisburg, sent word to Pepperell that he would be made a baronet, thus
distinguishing him as the proper chief of the expedition. This
distinction, which really made Pepperell the first colonist of his time,
was nobly won and worthily worn. After four years of importunity the
colonies succeeded in getting their actual expenses reimbursed to them,
which was certainly no more than their dues, considering that they had
been fighting the battles of the mother country.[27]
Warren was made an admiral. The navy came in for a large amount of prize
money, obtained from ships that were decoyed into Louisburg after it
fell, to the exclusion of the army.[28] This disposition of the spoils
was highly resented by the army, who very justly alleged that, while the
success of the army without the fleet might be open to debate, there
could be no question whatever of the fleet’s inability to take Louisburg
without the army.
[26]The surrender caused great rejoicing in the colonies, as was natural
it should, with all except those who had always predicted its
failure. For some reason the news did not reach Boston until July 2,
in the night. At daybreak the inhabitants were aroused from their
slumbers by the thunder of cannon. The whole day was given up to
rejoicings. A public thanksgiving was observed on the 18th. The news
reached London on the 20th. The Tower guns were fired, and at night
London was illuminated. Similar demonstrations occurred in all the
cities and large towns of the kingdom. At Versailles the news caused
deep gloom. De Luynes speaks of it thus in his Memoirs: “People have
been willing to doubt about this affair of Louisburg, but unhappily
it is only too certain. These misfortunes have given rise to
altercations among ministers. It is urged that M. Maurepas is at
fault in having allowed Louisburg to fall for want of munitions. The
friends of M. Maurepas contend that he did all that was possible,
but could not obtain the necessary funds from the Treasury.” The
government got ready two fleets to retake Louisburg. One was
scattered or sunk by storms in 1746, and one was destroyed by Lord
Anson, in 1747, off Cape Finisterre.
[27]The amount was £183,649 to Massachusetts, £16,355 to New Hampshire,
£28,863 to Connecticut, and £6,332 to Rhode Island. Quite a large
portion was paid in copper coins.
[28]Among others the navy took a Spanish Indiaman, having $2,000,000,
besides gold and silver ingots to a large value, stowed under her
cargo of cocoa. The estimated value of all the prizes was nearly a
million sterling, of which enormous sum only one colonial vessel got
a share.
THE END
INDEX
A
Acadia (Nova Scotia), Louisburg designed to protect, 29.
Acadians, refuse to emigrate, 34;
and refuse to become British subjects, 35;
why called Neutrals, 36;
desire to remove elsewhere, 36.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 127.
Annapolis, N. S., attempted capture of, 43;
attack on, frustrated, _note_ 100.
Auchmuty, Robert, proposes the taking of Louisburg, _note_ 58.
B
Boston, defenceless condition of, 11.
Bradstreet, Colonel John, at Louisburg, 70.
Brooks, Captain, killed at Louisburg, 113.
C
Canada, the key to, 12;
its political and economic weaknesses, 24 _et seq._;
compared with the English colonies, 25;
the fur monopoly, 26;
scheme for building up the colony, 28.
Canso, seized from Louisburg, 43, _note_ 45;
prisoners taken there prove useful, 49;
army rendezvous at, 69;
environs of, 76;
works thrown up at, 77.
Cape Breton Island, face of the country, 16;
mountains of, 17;
Gabarus Bay, 23;
first suggestions of its importance to Canada, 28;
natural products of, 29;
advantageous situation as a port of delivery and supply, 29;
left to Canada by stupid diplomacy, 30;
its chief harbors, 31;
the Bras d’Or, 31;
called Ile Royale, 32;
plan for getting colonists, 33, 34;
strategic points on the straits, 76;
ice blockade of, 77;
restored to France, 127.
Cape Breton Coast, approach to, 14;
blockaded by ice, 77.
Circular battery of Louisburg, its design, 93;
silenced, 116.
Coffin, Moses, of Newbury, Mass., anecdote of, 104.
Connecticut in Louisburg expedition, 57;
her forces join Pepperell, 78.
D
Dauphin Bastion, of Louisburg, 93;
destructive fire upon, 110.
De Costebello, at Louisburg, 33.
De Saxe, Marshal, defeats the English, 41.
Duchambon, commander of Louisburg, 84;
recalls a detachment, 95;
refuses to surrender, 96;
changes his mind, 117;
and opens a treaty, 118.
Dwight, Joseph, at Louisburg, 66 and _note_ 71.
E
English Harbor (Louisburg), 31.
Expeditionary Army, its composition, 66;
and equipment, 67, 68;
favoring conditions, 68;
sets sail for Louisburg, 69;
at Canso, 69;
council of war, 75;
sails for Louisburg, 80;
lands at Gabarus Bay, 84;
not backed up by the navy, 90;
transportation of artillery to the front, 94;
it tells on the men, 95;
the camp and camp life, 101 _et seq._
F
Flat Point Cove, our army camps at, 85.
Fontenoy, English defeated at, 41.
Franklin, Benjamin, has no faith in Louisburg expedition, 57.
G
Gabarus Bay, the back door to Louisburg, 23;
Pepperell lands at, 80, 81.
Gibson, James, volunteers for Louisburg, 63, _note_ 70.
Green Hill, Louisburg shelled from, 95.
Gridley, Richard, engineer at Louisburg, 66;
an apt scholar, 105, _note_ 125.
H
Hale, Robert, at Louisburg, _note_ 71.
Hodges, Joseph, at Louisburg, _note_ 72.
Hutchinson, Thomas, gives casting vote for attacking Louisburg,
55.
I
Island Battery, situation of, 15;
its value to the besieged, 93 and _note_ 100;
disastrous attack upon, 112, 113;
its fire silenced, 116;
in our hands, 119.
Ile Royale, see Cape Breton, 32.
Isle Madame, or Arichat, 76.
L
Lighthouse Point, 14;
is seized and fortified, 109.
Louisburg, the approach to, 14;
the harbor, 15;
old city, 15;
old fortifications perambulated, 17;
hills back of, 17;
natural defences of, 18;
demolition of the works, 19;
and present state of, 19;
Citadel, 20;
natural obstacles to surmount, 21;
bomb-proofs, 21;
impregnable from sea, 21;
graveyard and its inmates, 22;
Royal Battery, 23;
reasons why the fortress was erected, 24 _et seq._;
to be a great mart, 28;
to help Acadia, 29;
called English Harbor, 31;
chosen for a fortress, 32;
why called Louisburg, 32;
operations begun, 33;
prisoners shipped to, from France, 37;
strength and cost of the fortress, 38 and _note_ 45;
could be defended by women, 39;
its armament, 39;
garrison sallies out upon Nova Scotia, 44;
its fall the salvation of New England, 47;
schemes for its capture, 50;
its garrison mutinies, 51;
forces being raised against it, 56, 57;
early suggestions for its conquest, _note_ 58;
is blockaded, 73;
is invested, 89;
its defences as related to the siege, 93;
progress of siege operations, 95 _et seq._;
summoned to surrender, 96;
breaching batteries, 106;
progress of siege, 109;
a relieving vessel gets in, 110;
capture of the Vigilant, 110;
stratagem tried, 115;
its success, 115; a general bombardment, 116;
a suspension of arms, 118;
the surrender, 123;
the garrison, 123, 124;
importance to Great Britain as a political make-weight, 126
_et seq._;
restored to France, 127;
many-sided importance of the conquest to the colonies, 128,
129;
disgust in the colonies at its restoration, 129;
cost of the campaign, _note_ 131;
rejoicings, _note_ 131.
M
Meserve, Lieutenant-Colonel, his services at Louisburg, 94.
Micmacs of Cape Breton, 37.
Mira River, settlements on, 16.
Moody, Rev. Samuel, his pithy prayer, 124.
Moore, Samuel, at Louisburg, _note_ 72.
Moulton, Jeremiah, at Louisburg, _note_ 71;
destroys St. Peter’s, 96.
N
Newcastle, Duke of, anecdote of, 44.
New England alarmed by the creation of Louisburg, 39;
dreads the beginning of war, 42;
war is declared, 43;
menace to her commerce and fisheries, 46, 47;
aroused to take Louisburg, 54, 55;
extraordinary war measures in, 56, 57;
quality of expeditionary army, 62, 63;
enthusiasm in enlisting, 64;
reimbursed for her expenses, _note_ 131.
Newfoundland, French removed from, 33.
New Hampshire contingent, 69; _note_ 72.
New Jersey in Louisburg expedition, 57.
New York contributes to Louisburg expedition, 57.
Nixon, John, _note_ 125.
Nova Scotia (Acadia) turned over to England, 30;
invaded, 43;
relieved, 95.
P
Pennsylvania in Louisburg expedition, 57.
Pepperell, William, chosen to command, 60;
his qualifications, 61, 62;
impetus given by him to the project, 63, 64;
his regiment, _note_ 70;
hampered by instructions, 75;
finds Louisburg blocked up by ice, 77;
hails Warren’s arrival with joy, 78;
confident of driving the enemy from Cape Breton, 79;
finds Shirley’s plan impracticable, 83;
finds his task greater than he had supposed, 90;
his advances against the city properly made, 93;
is goaded into attacking the Island Battery, 112;
pushes forward preparations for a general assault, 116;
grants an armistice, 118;
his conduct contrasted with Warren’s, 119;
made a baronet, 130.
Pitts, Ebenezer, at Louisburg, _note_ 71.
Pomeroy, Major Seth, at Louisburg, 89;
his record, _note_ 100.
Q
Quebec, as the bulwark of Canada, 11.
R
Raudots, father and son, their scheme for putting new life into
Canada, 26;
it proposes a great naval mart at Cape Breton, 28.
Rhode Island in Louisburg expedition, 56.
Richmond, Sylvester, at Louisburg, _note_ 71.
Royal Battery, situation and importance of, 23;
taken, 86;
attempt to retake it, 87;
its importance to Americans, 88.
Ryal, Captain, sent to England, 41.
S
St. Anne, described, 31.
Saint Ovide, at Louisburg, 35.
St. Peter’s, destruction of, determined on, 76;
is effected, 96.
Seacoast defences of Mexico, Cuba, etc., 9;
of the English colonies, 10, 11;
of Canada, 11.
Shirley, Gov. William, saves Annapolis, 43;
notifies ministry, 44;
writes Commodore Warren, 44;
grasps the situation, 48;
his personal traits, 48, 49;
determines to take Louisburg, 50;
applies to legislature, 52;
meets defeat, 53;
arouses public sentiment, 54;
carries his point, 55;
sets to work, 56;
hears from Warren, 69;
attempts to order plan of attack, 73, 74.
Straits of Canso, 31.
T
Tournay, invested, 41.
Tufts, William, his bravery, 113.
Tyng, Commodore Edward, commands colonial fleet, 67; _note_ 72.
U
Utrecht, how the Peace of, affects the colonies, 30.
V
Vaughan, William, who he was and what he did, 49, 50; _note_ 58;
volunteers for Louisburg, 63;
leads a scouting party, 85;
and takes Royal Battery, 86.
Vigilant, French war-ship, taken, 110.
W
Waldo, Samuel, at Louisburg, 67 and _note_ 71;
occupies Royal Battery, and fires first shot, 89.
War of the Austrian Succession, its policy outlined, 40;
produces war between England and France, 41;
hostilities begin at Nova Scotia, 44.
Warren, Commodore Peter, orders sent to, 44;
arrives at Canso and proceeds off Louisburg, 78;
takes the Vigilant, 110;
is re-enforced, 111;
his plan for taking the city, 111;
agrees to a general attack, 116;
he ignores Pepperell, 119;
made an admiral, 130.
Whitefield, Rev. George, 62;
writes a motto for the flag, 65.
Wolcott, Gen. Roger, 67 and _note_ 71.
Transcriber’s Notes
—Retained publication and copyright information from the original; this
eBook is public-domain in the U.S.
—Silently corrected a few palpable typographical errors.
—Retained the consistent spelling “Pepperell” for the man usually known
as “Pepperrell”
—In the text versions, enclosed italicized text in _underscore_.
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