The Taking of Louisburg 1745

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: —

“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.”

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.

THE END

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.

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.

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.

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.

22

General John Nixon is one of those referred to.