The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755 (New Brunswick Military Heritage Series)

Almost since Champlain's men first settled on St. Croix Island in 1604, the French and the English fought for control of Acadia, a huge area consisting of today's Maritime Provinces and parts of Quebec and Maine. The British assault on Fort Beauséjour in 1755 was the final act in this long struggle. The frontier between the two imperial powers lay along the Chignecto Isthmus, the neck of low, fertile marshlands and parallel ridges joining Nova Scotia to the mainland. Of great strategic importance, this land was the scene of a few pitched battles and constant petty warfare. By 1750, the present-day New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border was a fortified camp amid the fertile lands that generations of Acadians had farmed. The English were building Fort Lawrence on one side of the Missaguash River, near present-day Amherst, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, the French were constructing Fort Beauséjour in plain view on the opposite side, only three kilometres away, near what is now Sackville, New Brunswick. Relations among the British soldiers, the soldiers from France, the Acadian inhabitants, and the native Mi'kmaq were complex. Acadians and their Mi'kmaq allies traded with British soldiers by day and attacked them at night. The French boasted that Beauséjour was the third-strongest fort in North America, but it was poorly sited and unfinished, and the Acadians forced to work on it demanded payment in British gold. When a combined force of New England volunteers and British regulars wrested the fort from its defenders in June 1755, Beauséjour fell, and so did Acadia. In The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755, Chris Hand outlines the events leading up to this final clash and gives a running account of the siege itself. The 30 site plans, maps, and drawings and paintings, archival and modern, show a realistic picture of the battle that made the Expulsion of the Acadians not only possible but inevitable. The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755 is Volume 3 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series. Almost since Champlain's men first settled on St. Croix Island in 1604, the French and the English fought for control of Acadia, a huge area consisting of today's Maritime Provinces and parts of Quebec and Maine. The British assault on Fort Beausejour in 1755 was the final act in this long struggle. The frontier between the two imperial powers lay along the Chignecto Isthmus, the neck of low, fertile marshlands and parallel ridges joining Nova Scotia to the mainland. Of great strategic importance, this land was the scene of a few pitched battles and constant petty warfare. By 1750, the present-day New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border was a fortified camp amid the fertile lands that generations of Acadians had farmed. The English were building Fort Lawrence on one side of the Missaguash River, near present-day Amherst, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, the French were constructing Fort Beausejour in plain view on the opposite side, only three kilometres away, near what is now Sackville, New Brunswick. Relations among the British soldiers, the soldiers from France, the Acadian inhabitants, and the native Mi'kmaq were complex. Acadians and their Mi'kmaq allies traded with British soldiers by day and attacked them at night. The French boasted that Beausejour was the third-strongest fort in North America, but it was poorly sited and unfinished, and the Acadians forced to work on it demanded payment in British gold. When a combined force of New England volunteers and British regulars wrested the fort from its defenders in June 1755, Beausejour fell, and so did Acadia. In The Siege of Fort Beausejour, 1755 , Chris Hand outlines the events leading up to this final clash and gives a running account of the siege itself. The 30 site plans, maps, and drawings and paintings, archival and modern, show a realistic picture of the battle that made the Expulsion of the Acadians not only possible but inevitable. The Siege of Fort Beausejour, 1755 is Volume 3 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series. In The 1750s, The Present New Brunswick - Nova Scotia Border Was A Fortified Camp As The British And French Vied For Acadia. Fort Beausejour Guarded The Rich Fields That Acadian Farmers Had Cultivated For Generations, And It Secured New France's Crucial Overland Route From The Atlantic To The North American Interior. Fort Lawrence, In Plain View Only Three Kilometres Away, Asserted The British Counterclaim. In June 1755, After A Brief Siege, A Combined Force Of British Soldiers And New England Volunteers Captured Fort Beausejour. The Siege Of Fort Beausejour, 1775 Tells The Story Of The Fort And Its Defeat. When Beausejour Fell, So Did Acadia And, Within A Few Years, New France. This Campaign Determined The Fate Of The Region, Precipitated The Deportation Of The Acadians, And Changed The Destiny Of The Entire Continent.--jacket. 1. The Building Of Fort Beausejour -- 2. Assembling The British Expedition -- 3. The British Assault Begins -- 4. The Seige -- 5. Peoples And Empires In The Balance. Chris M. Hand. Co-published By The New Brunswick Military Heritage Project. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 103-104) And Index.