The Northeast Coast campaign (1756) occurred during the French and Indian War, in which the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia raided the British communities along the former border of New England and Acadia in present-day Maine. [1]
The Northeast Coast campaign (1756) occurred during the French and Indian War, in which the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia raided the British communities along the former border of New England and Acadia in present-day Maine. [1]
In response to Gorham's raid on the St. John River in 1748, the Governor of Canada threatened to support native raids along the northern New England border. [2] There were many previous raids from the Mi'kmaq militia and Maliseet Militias against British settlers on the border (1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747). During the war, along the former border of Acadia, the Kennebec River, the British built Fort Halifax (Winslow), Fort Shirley (Dresden, formerly Frankfurt) and Fort Western (Augusta). [3] [4]
Fort Halifax was completed on 4 September 1754 and the raids on the fort began on 6 November. [5] Wabanaki killed and scalped one soldier and took four others captive. [6] In response, Governor Shirley sent 100 more troops to the fort. The following year, the natives conducted the Northeast Coast campaign (1755) and then began the 1756 campaign in the spring.
Williamson reports that the natives had killed hundreds of British settlers in the campaign. [7] On 24 March the natives raided present-day Cushing, killing two men and scalping a third who survived. Then they captured a man at North-Yarmouth and killed another man and captured a woman at Flying Point. [8] On 3 May they ambushed three men and managed to take one prisoner to Canada (who eventually made his way to Halifax, where he died of smallpox). On 14 May about 20 natives led by Chief Poland ambushed another two men, killing one and scalping another who survived. At Georgetown, natives killed two parents and took their three children captive, [7] The natives attacked the fort without success, however, they killed all the cattle on the Island. [7]
Four natives attacked and killed two soldiers at Fort Halifax. [7] They also plundered fishing vessels, killing their crew. On 26 September they burned a schooner at St. Georges, killing three men while three others went missing. On October 14, the natives attacked Captain Rouse’s ship, killing ten of his crew. [7]
As a result of the campaign, numerous British settlers abandoned their farms and property. There were 260 soldiers at the garrisons who were divided into five ranging parties. The British had two vessels protecting the eastern seaboard. [9]
There was another campaign in 1757 and 1758. In 1757, the Anasunticooks fired on Captain Lithgow and a party of eight at Topsham. They wounded two of the soldiers and killed two others. Two natives were killed in the skirmish. [7] They then attacked a blockhouse at Pleasant Point, killing one [10] and, on 1 June, began the siege of a dwelling on Island Matinicus, where a family defended themselves and their five children and son-in-law for ten days. The father was killed, the rest taken into captivity and the house destroyed. [10]
On 13 August 1758, Boishebert left Miramichi, New Brunswick with 400 soldiers, including Acadians whom he led from Port Toulouse. They marched to Fort St George (Thomaston) and then Fort Western (present-day Augusta) and laid waste to farms but were unsuccessfully in taking the forts, and raided Munduncook (Friendship) where they wounded eight British settlers and killed others. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians, was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian people from parts of a Canadian-American region historically known as Acadia, between 1755–1764. The area included the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and the present-day U.S. state of Maine. The Expulsion, which caused the deaths of thousands of people, occurred during the French and Indian War and was part of the British military campaign against New France.
The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America.
Dummer's War (1722–1725) is also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War. It was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy, who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont at the border between Canada and New England. During this time, Maine and Vermont were part of Massachusetts.
Charles Deschamps de Boishébert was a member of the Compagnies Franches de la Marine and was a significant leader of the Acadian militia's resistance to the Expulsion of the Acadians. He settled and tried to protect Acadians refugees along the rivers of New Brunswick. At Beaubears National Park on Beaubears Island, New Brunswick he settled refugee Acadians during the Expulsion of the Acadians.
The Raid on Lunenburg occurred during the French and Indian War when Mi'kmaw and Maliseet fighters attacked a British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on May 8, 1756. The native militia raided two islands on the northern outskirts of the fortified Township of Lunenburg, [John] Rous Island and Payzant Island. According to French reports, the Raiding party killed twenty settlers and took five prisoners. This raid was the first of nine the Natives and Acadians would conduct against the peninsula over a three-year period during the war. The Wabanaki Confederacy took John Payzant and Lewis Payzant prisoner, both of whom left written account of their experiences.
The St. John River campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when Colonel Robert Monckton led a force of 1150 British soldiers to destroy the Acadian settlements along the banks of the Saint John River until they reached the largest village of Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas in February 1759. Monckton was accompanied by Captain George Scott as well as New England Rangers led by Joseph Goreham, Captain Benoni Danks, as well as William Stark and Moses Hazen, both of Rogers' Rangers.
The Raid on Dartmouth occurred during Father Le Loutre's War on May 13, 1751, when a Miꞌkmaq and Acadian militia from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers and wounding British regulars. The town was protected by a blockhouse on Blockhouse Hill with William Clapham's Rangers and British regulars from the 45th Regiment of Foot. This raid was one of seven the Natives and Acadians would conduct against the town during the war.
The siege of Grand Pré happened during Father Le Loutre's War and was fought between the British and the Wabanaki Confederacy and Acadian militia. The siege happened at Fort Vieux Logis, Grand-Pré. The native and Acadia militia laid siege to Fort Vieux Logis for a week in November 1749. One historian states that the intent of the siege was to help facilitate the Acadian Exodus from the region.
Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British officer Charles Lawrence and New England Ranger John Gorham. On the other side, Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre led the Mi'kmaq and the Acadia militia in guerrilla warfare against settlers and British forces. At the outbreak of the war there were an estimated 2500 Mi'kmaq and 12,000 Acadians in the region.
Nova Scotia is a Canadian province located in Canada's Maritimes. The region was initially occupied by Mi'kmaq. The colonial history of Nova Scotia includes the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces and the northern part of Maine, all of which were at one time part of Nova Scotia. In 1763 Cape Breton Island and St. John's Island became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island became a separate colony. Nova Scotia included present-day New Brunswick until that province was established in 1784. During the first 150 years of European settlement, the colony was primarily made up of Catholic Acadians, Maliseet and Mi'kmaq. During the latter seventy-five years of this time period, there were six colonial wars that took place in Nova Scotia. After agreeing to several peace treaties, this long period of warfare ended with the Halifax Treaties (1761) and two years later when the British defeated the French in North America (1763). During these wars, Acadians, Mi'kmaq and Maliseet from the region fought to protect the border of Acadia from New England. They fought the war on two fronts: the southern border of Acadia, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine. The other front was in Nova Scotia and involved preventing New Englanders from taking the capital of Acadia, Port Royal, establishing themselves at Canso.
The Northeast Coast campaign was the first major campaign by the French of Queen Anne's War in New England. Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin led 500 troops made up of French colonial forces and the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Wells and Casco Bay, burning more than 15 leagues of New England country and killing or capturing more than 150 people. The English colonists protected some of their settlements, but a number of others were destroyed and abandoned. Historian Samuel Drake reported that, "Maine had nearly received her death-blow" as a result of the campaign.
The Northeast Coast campaign (1745) occurred during King George's War from 19 July until 5 September 1745. Three weeks after the British Siege of Louisbourg (1745), the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia retaliated by attacking New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 11 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.
The Northeast Coast campaign (1723) occurred during Father Rale's War from April 19, 1723 – January 28, 1724. In response to the previous year, in which New England attacked the Wabanaki Confederacy at Norridgewock and Penobscot, the Wabanaki Confederacy retaliated by attacking the coast of present-day Maine that was below the Kennebec River, the border of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and Mount Desert Island. Casco was the principal settlement. The 1723 campaign was so successful along the Maine frontier that Dummer ordered its evacuation to the blockhouses in the spring of 1724.
The military history of the Miꞌkmaq consisted primarily of Miꞌkmaw warriors (smáknisk) who participated in wars against the English independently as well as in coordination with the Acadian militia and French royal forces. The Miꞌkmaw militias remained an effective force for over 75 years before the Halifax Treaties were signed (1760–61). In the nineteenth century, the Miꞌkmaq "boasted" that, in their contest with the British, the Miꞌkmaq "killed more men than they lost". In 1753, Charles Morris stated that the Miꞌkmaq have the advantage of "no settlement or place of abode, but wandering from place to place in unknown and, therefore, inaccessible woods, is so great that it has hitherto rendered all attempts to surprise them ineffectual". Leadership on both sides of the conflict employed standard colonial warfare, which included scalping non-combatants. After some engagements against the British during the American Revolutionary War, the militias were dormant throughout the nineteenth century, while the Miꞌkmaw people used diplomatic efforts to have the local authorities honour the treaties. After confederation, Miꞌkmaw warriors eventually joined Canada's war efforts in World War I and World War II. The most well-known colonial leaders of these militias were Chief (Sakamaw) Jean-Baptiste Cope and Chief Étienne Bâtard.
The military history of the Acadians consisted primarily of militias made up of Acadian settlers who participated in wars against the English in coordination with the Wabanaki Confederacy and French royal forces. A number of Acadians provided military intelligence, sanctuary, and logistical support to the various resistance movements against British rule in Acadia, while other Acadians remained neutral in the contest between the Franco–Wabanaki Confederacy forces and the British. The Acadian militias managed to maintain an effective resistance movement for more than 75 years and through six wars before their eventual demise. According to Acadian historian Maurice Basque, the story of Evangeline continues to influence historic accounts of the expulsion, emphasising Acadians who remained neutral and de-emphasising those who joined resistance movements. While Acadian militias were briefly active during the American Revolutionary War, the militias were dormant throughout the nineteenth century. After confederation, Acadians eventually joined the Canadian War efforts in World War I and World War II. The most well-known colonial leaders of these militias were Joseph Broussard and Joseph-Nicolas Gautier.
Fort St. George was a British colonial fort built at present-day Thomaston, Maine during the lead up to Father Rale's War.
The Northeast Coast campaign of 1746 was conducted by the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia against the New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. during King George's War from July until September 1746. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 9 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.
The Northeast Coast campaign of 1747 was conducted by the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia against the New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. during King George's War from July until September 1747. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges, within two months there were 11 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. Casco was the principal settlement.
The Northeast Coast campaign of 1750 occurred during Father Le Loutre's War from 11 September to December 1750. The Norridgewock as well as the Abenaki from St. Francois and Trois-Rivières, Quebec raided British settlements along the Acadia/ New England border in present-day Maine.
The Northeast Coast campaign of 1755 occurred toward the end of Father Le Loutre's War and the beginning of the French and Indian War, in which the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia raided the British communities along the former border of New England and Acadia in present-day Maine.