Raid on Saint John

Last updated
Raid on Saint John
Part of the American Revolutionary War
A North View of Fort Frederick built by order of Hon. Col. Robert Monckton on the entrance of the St. John River in the Bay of Fundy, 1758 by Lt Thomas Davies National Gallery of Canada (no 6269).jpg
Fort Frederick (Saint John, New Brunswick)
Date27 August 1775
Location
Saint John, New Brunswick
Result American victory
Belligerents
United Colonies Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Jeremiah O'Brien [1] [2]
Stephen Smith [3] [4] 		Frederick Sterling

The raid on Saint John took place on 27 August 1775 during the American Revolutionary War. The raid involved American privateers from Machias, Massachusetts attacking Saint John, Nova Scotia on the northeast shore of the Bay of Fundy (in present day New Brunswick) Saint John and the rest of New Brunswick would later split from Nova Scotia. [5] [6] [7] [8] The privateers intended to stop the export of supplies being sent to the loyalists in Boston. This raid was the first hostile act committed against Nova Scotia and it resulted in raising the militia across the colony. [9]

Contents

Background

During the American Revolutionary War, Americans regularly attacked Nova Scotia, the coasts of modern day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by sea and land. American privateers devastated these small maritime economies by raiding many of the coastal communities, [10] such as the numerous raids on Liverpool and on Annapolis Royal. [11]

Barely a month after the battles of Lexington and Concord, there was a great naval success by 30 American militia in the sloop Success on 14 May 1775 who recaptured two ships and their Royal Navy crews, totaling 15, on Buzzards Bay at the Battle off Fairhaven. These vessels had previously been taken by HMS Falcon. A month later, 55 American militia, led by Jeremiah O'Brien took control of two merchant vessels and on 12 June, used them to captured the armed coastal patrol sloop (sometimes called a schooner, sometimes a frigate), HMS Margaretta and her crew of 40 at the Battle of Machias, 12 miles (19 km) down the bay off Machiasport.

In response to this defeat, in July 1775 the British sent two armed sloops, HMS Diligence and HMS Tatamagouche from Halifax to intercept the American attackers. However, O'Brien and his fellow captain, Benjamin Foster, captured both vessels in Unity and Portland Packet (aka the Falmouth Packet) in the Bay of Fundy. [12]

In August, the Machias Committee of Safety sent Captain Stephen Smith to capture the brig Loyal Briton at St. John, which was loading cattle and other supplies intended for the British army at Boston. [13]

Battle

On 27 August 1775, Captain Stephen Smith, in a 4-gun American privateer from Machias, along with 40 militia men raided St. John and burned Fort Frederick and took the brig Loyal Briton under the command of Captain Frederick Sterling. The brig had 120 tonnes of sheep and oxen for the British forces in Boston. Sterling also took a corporal and two privates, with two women and five children prisoner. John Anderson Esq. was also on board the brig. [14] The brigantine was owned by John Sempill (Semple) and the navigator was David Ross, who both escaped. The prisoners were released at Boston and sent back to St. John. [15]

Aftermath

Captain Edward Le Cras of HMS Somerset and HMS Tartar proceeded immediately to Annapolis Royal to protect the town on the southeast shore of the Bay of Funday. The Governor requested two sloops-of-war to patrol the Bay of Fundy. Admiral Samuel Graves assigned Captain William Duddingston of HMS Senegal to the task. Graves also sent Le Cras to protect Halifax for the winter. [16] Governor Legge of Nova Scotia also called up militias from across the colony to be stood up. [17]

In retaliation for the raid on St. John, the British executed the burning of Falmouth, modern day Portland, Maine. American privateers remained a threat to Nova Scotian ports for the rest of the war.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, Machias, Maine, p. 88
  2. ↑ Williamson, William D. (1832). The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive. Vol. II. Hallowell, Maine: Glazier, Masters & Company. pp. 431–432.
  3. ↑ "Military operations in eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the revolution". 1867.
  4. ↑ Sprag's Journal of Maine's history, pp. 30–31
  5. ↑ p.63
  6. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution, p. pp. 445–446
  7. ↑ Murdoch. History of Nova Scotial, Vol. 2, p. 554
  8. ↑ Ropes ships
  9. ↑ CHAPTER_XXIV_AFFAIRS_ON_THE_ST_JOHN_DURING_THE_REVOLUTION
  10. ↑ Benjamin Franklin also engaged France in the war, which meant that many of the privateers were also from France.
  11. ↑ Roger Marsters (2004). Bold Privateers: Terror, Plunder and Profit on Canada's Atlantic Coast" , p. 87-89
  12. ↑ "A History of AmerHMS ican Privateers". D. Applenton and Company. 1899.
  13. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution, p. pp. 445–446
  14. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution, p. pp. 445–446
  15. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. 2, pp.4–5
  16. ↑ pp. 68–69
  17. ↑ Faibisy, John Dewar, "Privateering and piracy : the effects of New England raiding upon Nova Scotia during the American Revolution,. 1775–1783." (1972).p. 26

References

Primary Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.