Colonial Hostilities: Cape Breton and Louisburg
Meanwhile, M. Duquesnel, governor of Cape Breton, embarked part of the garrison of Louisburg with some militia and made a descent upon the settlement of Canso, in Acadia, which he burnt, and made the garrison and settlers prisoners of war. He then summoned Annapolis, but was deterred from investing it by the arrival of a reinforcement from Massachusetts. Duquesnel returned to Louisburg, where he died shortly thereafter. Governor Shirley had for some time conceived the project of taking possession of Cape Breton, now rightly regarded as the seaward bulwark of Canada, and a highly-important post as a safeguard to the French fisheries and to American trade. The fortifications of Louisburg, the capital, even in their uncompleted state, had taken twenty-five years to construct, at a cost, it was reported, of thirty million livres (nearly one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling). They comprised a stone rampart nearly forty feet high, with embrasures for one hundred and forty-eight cannon, had several bastions, and strong out-works; and on the land-side was a fosse fully fourscore feet broad. The garrison, as reported afterwards by the French, was composed of six hundred regulars and eight hundred armed inhabitants, commanded by M. Duchambois. Upon the same authority we may mention here that at this time there were not more than one thousand soldiers in garrison, altogether, from the lower St. Lawrence to the eastern shore of Lake Erie.
At a council held by Governor Shirley, it was decided that an effort to take Louisburg would be too costly and hazardous. But the colonists, learning of the scheme, were so enthusiastic that the council was forced into it. In a few weeks more than four thousand militia were raised in the several colonies, and placed under the command of a New England merchant, named Pepperel. The expedition sailed about the last of March, and reached Canso on April 5, 1745.
Colonel Pepperel having sent some shallops to ascertain whether the coast was clear of ice, and the report being favorable, the expedition resumed its voyage, and a disembarkation on Cape Breton Island was begun at Chapeau Rouge on the 27th of April. The garrison was, through the promptitude of the invaders, taken completely by surprise. The descent could not have been effected much earlier with safety; for till the end of March or beginning of April the ocean in that region is covered with thick fogs, while both the seaboard and the harbors of Cape Breton are choked with thick-ribbed ice.
By this time Admiral Warren arrived with a few ships, and more were expected. His seamen assisted during fourteen days in dragging a siege-train of ordnance, through marshy ground, to the neighborhood of Louisburg, which was thought at first to be too strongly defended on the seaward side to be confronted by the fleet. Meanwhile, the garrison was in a state of revolt, having demurred to being employed to put the works into a proper state, a duty which had been too long postponed. The men had other grievances besides, being ill paid, and otherwise badly treated; but, their feelings of military honor being appealed to, they resumed their arms and prepared to defend the place.
During the night of May 13, Mr. Vaughan, son of the lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire, who knew the localities well, having visited the place the year before, landed with four hundred men, marched to the northeast part of the bay, and fired some buildings filled with brandy, etc., and naval stores. A party in a neighboring fort, thinking probably that the incendiaries were the van of a large attacking force, quitted their post and took refuge in the town. Next morning Vaughan was able to surprise a battery and hold possession of it until the arrival of a reinforcement.
A great mischance for the French now hastened the fall of the place. La Vigilante, a ship of sixty-four guns, with five hundred and sixty soldiers and supplies for the garrison on board, was captured by Admiral Warren. Had this succor reached its destination, it is very doubtful whether Pepperel could have captured the strongest fortress in America, and which was reported to be impregnable. The next operation was not so favorable to the besiegers, who, having tried, with four hundred men, to carry a battery on the island of St. John, which protected the entry of the harbor, were driven off, leaving sixty dead, and one hundred and sixteen of their men, wounded or whole, in the hands of the French. But this gleam of success only delayed the certain capture of the place, now that all further hope of succor from without was gone, and its defenders were as discouraged as they were malcontent before. In a word, Duchambois capitulated, and was allowed to march out with the honors of war. In terms of the capitulation, the garrison, and about two thousand people, the entire population of Louisburg, were embarked in British transports and landed at Brest.
Great was the exultation, naturally enough, at the success of this expedition thus admirably planned and spiritedly executed. Messrs. Shirley and Pepperel were rewarded with baronetcies; and the British Parliament voted a sum of money to repay the cost incurred by the colonists in getting up the enterprise. The discouragement in New France for the loss of Cape Breton was commensurate with the elation at its capture in New England and the other Anglo-American provinces.