The Expulsion of the Acadians: Shepody and Petitcodiac

The determination to remove the Acadians having been taken, it only remained to make such arrangements as seemed necessary to carry out the object effectually. The council decided that, in order to prevent them from returning and again molesting the English settlers, they should be distributed amongst the colonies from Massachusetts to Virginia. On the 31st July, Governor Lawrence wrote to Colonel Monckton, stating the determination of the government with reference to the Acadians, and informing him that as those about the isthmus had been found in arms, and were therefore entitled to no favor from the government, it was determined to begin with them first. He was informed that orders had been given to send a sufficient number of transports up the bay to take the Acadians of that district on board. Monckton was ordered to keep the measure secret until he could get the men into his power, so that he could detain them until the transports arrived. He was directed to secure their shallops, boats, and canoes, and to see that none of their cattle was driven away, they being forfeited to the crown. He was told that the inhabitants were not to be allowed to carry away anything but their ready money and household furniture. He likewise received explicit directions as to the supply of provisions for the inhabitants while on the voyage.

Lieutenant-Colonel Winslow, who was commanding the troops at Mines, received instructions relative to the removal of the Acadians in that district, dated the IIth August. He was told to collect the inhabitants together, and place them on board the transports, of which there would be a number sufficient to transport two thousand persons, five hundred of whom were to be sent to North Carolina, one thousand to Virginia, and five hundred to Maryland. After the people were shipped he was ordered to march overland to Annapolis with a strong detachment to assist Major Handfield in removing the inhabitants of that river. Handfield's instructions were similar to those of Winslow, and he was informed that vessels sufficient to transport one thousand persons would be sent to Annapolis. Of these, three hundred were to be sent to Philadelphia, two hundred to New York, three hundred to Connecticut, and two hundred to Boston.

Each master of a transport bore a circular letter from Governor Lawrence to the governor of the province to which he was destined, giving his reasons for this extreme measure. These reasons were those already given, that the Acadians had persistently refused to take the oath prescribed by treaty forty years before, that their claim of neutrality was a false one, that they had continually furnished the French and Indians with intelligence, provisions, and aid in annoying the English, that part of them had acted treacherously and part had broken into armed rebellion, that to drive them into Canada would but strengthen the enemy, and that the step taken was indispensably necessary to the security of the colony.

The work of removing the Acadians met with no success at Chignecto, where the population was large and comparatively warlike. Boishebert, after being driven from the St. John, had betaken himself to Shediac, and from there he directed the movements of the Acadians of the isthmus. When the English tried to collect the inhabitants for the purpose of removing them, they found that they had fled to the shelter of the woods, and when they attempted to follow them they were met by the most determined resistance. On the 2d September, Major Frye was sent with two hundred men from the garrison at Fort Cumberland [formerly Fort Beausejour] to burn the villages of Shepody, Petitcodiac, and Memramcook. At Shepody they burnt one hundred and eighty-one buildings, but found no inhabitants, except twenty-three women and children, whom they sent on board the vessel they had with them. They sailed up the Petitcodiac River on the following day and burnt the buildings on both sides of it for miles. At length the vessel was brought to anchor, and fifty men were sent on shore to burn the chapel and some other buildings near it, when suddenly they were attacked by three hundred French and Indians under Boishebert and compelled to retreat with a loss of twenty-three men killed and wounded, including Dr. March, who was killed, and Lieutenant Billings, dangerously wounded. Boishebert was found to be too strong to be attacked even with the aid of the main body of troops under Major Frye, so the party had to return to Fort Cumberland, after having destroyed in all two hundred and fifty-three buildings and a large quantity of wheat and flax.