Pepperell’s,[9] Wolcott’s[10] (of Connecticut), Waldo’s,[11]
Dwight’s[12] (nominally an artillery battalion), Moulton’s,[13]
Willard’s, Hale’s,[14] Richmond’s,[15] Gorham’s, and Moore’s[16] (of New
Hampshire). One hundred and fifty men of this regiment were in the pay
of Massachusetts. Pepperell’s, Waldo’s, and Moulton’s were mostly raised
in the District of Maine. Pepperell said that one-third of the whole
force came from Maine. Dwight was assigned to the command of the
artillery, with the rank of brigadier; Gorham to the special service of
landing the troops in the whaleboats, which had been provided, and of
which he had charge. There was also an independent company of
artificers, under Captain Bernard, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gridley was
appointed chief engineer of the army.
Pepperell held the rank of lieutenant-general; Wolcott, that of
major-general; and Waldo that of brigadier, the second place being given
to Connecticut, in recognition of the prompt and valuable assistance
given by that colony.
It goes badly equipped.
As a whole, the army was neither well armed nor properly equipped, or
sufficiently provided with tents, ammunition, and stores. Too much haste
had characterized its formation for a thorough organization, or for
attention to details, too little knowledge for the instruction in their
duties of either officers or men. It is true that some of them had seen
more or less bush-fighting in the Indian wars, and that all were expert
marksmen or skilful woodsmen, but to call such an unwieldy and
undisciplined assemblage of men, who had been thus suddenly called away
from their workshops and ploughs, an army, were a libel upon the name.
Commodore Edward Tyng[17] was put in command of the colonial squadron
destined to escort the army to its destination, to cover its landing,
and afterwards to act in conjunction with it on the spot.
Hutchinson, Belknap.
The writers of the time tell us that “the winter proved so favorable
that all sorts of outdoor business was carried on as well, and with as
great despatch, as at any other season of the year.” The month of
February, in particular, proved very mild. The rivers and harbors were
open, and the fruitfulness of the preceding season had made provisions
plenty. Douglass thinks that “some guardian angel” must have preserved
the troops from taking the small-pox, which broke out in Boston about
the time of their embarkation. All these fortunate accidents were hailed
as omens of success.
The Provincial Navy.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the young men in enlisting, and the energy
of the authorities in equipping them, the four thousand men called for
were mustered under arms, ready for service, in a little more than seven
weeks. In this short time, too, a hundred transports had been manned,
victualled, and got ready for sea. The embargo had provided both vessels
and sailors. More than this, a little squadron of fourteen vessels, the
largest carrying only twenty guns, was created as if by enchantment.
Here was shown a vigor that deserved success.
The Connecticut and New Hampshire contingents were also ready to march,
but Rhode Island had not yet completed hers. By disarming Castle William
in Boston harbor, or borrowing old cannon wherever they could be found,
Shirley had managed to get together a sort of makeshift for a
siege-train. All being ready at last, after a day of solemn fasting and
prayer throughout New England, the flotilla set sail for the rendezvous
at Canso in the last week of March. “Pray for us while we fight for
you,” was the last message of the departing provincial soldiers to their
friends on shore.
Equal good-fortune attended the transportation of the army by sea to a
point several hundred miles distant, during one of the stormiest months
of the year. By the 10th of April the whole force was assembled at Canso
in readiness to act offensively as soon as the Cape Breton shores should
be free of ice. All this had been done without the help of a soldier, a
ship, or a penny from England. At the very last moment Shirley received
from Commodore Warren, in answer to his request for assistance, a curt
refusal to take part in the enterprise without orders, and Shirley could
only say to Pepperell when he took leave of him, that his best and only
hope lay in his own resources.
But by this time the enthusiasm which had carried men off their feet had
begun to cool. The excitements, under the influence of which this or
that obstacle had been impatiently brushed aside, had given way to the
sober second thought. One by one they rose grimly before Pepperell’s
troubled vision like the ghosts in Macbeth. Land the troops and storm
the works had been the popular way of disposing of a fortress which the
French engineers had offered to defend with a garrison of women.
[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.
VII
THE ARMY AT CANSO
The Plan of Attack.
The crude plan of attack, as digested at Boston, consisted in an
investment of Louisburg by the land forces and a blockade by sea. To
enforce this blockade, Shirley had sent out some armed vessels in
advance of the expedition, with orders to cruise off the island, and to
intercept all vessels they should fall in with, so that news of the
armament might not get into Louisburg, by any chance, before its coming.
Shirley’s Project.
This was all the more necessary because Shirley had indulged hopes, from
the first, of taking the place by surprise, and so obstinately was he
wedded to the notion that the thing was practicable, that he had drawn
up at great length a plan of campaign of which this surprise was the
chief feature, and in which he undertook to direct, down to the minutest
detail, where, how, and when the troops should land, what points they
should attack, what they should do if the assault proved a failure or
only partially successful, where they should encamp, raise batteries and
post guards; how the men must be handled under fire, and even how the
prisoners should be disposed of, for Shirley, as we have seen, was
considerably given to counting his chickens before they were hatched.
A Saving Clause.
Being a lawyer rather than a soldier, Shirley had written out a brief
instead of an order—clear, concise, direct. But, lengthy as it was, the
plan had one redeeming feature, which turns away criticism from the
absurdities with which it was running over. This was the postscript
appended to it: “Sir, upon the whole, notwithstanding the instructions
you have received from me, I must leave it to you to act upon unforeseen
emergencies according to your best discretion.” The reading of it must
have lifted a load from Pepperell’s mind! It really looked as if Shirley
had meant to be the real generalissimo himself, and to capture Louisburg
by proxy.
Pepperell’s Council.
Pepperell was still hampered, however, with a council of war, consisting
of all the general and field officers of his army, whom he was required
to summon to his aid in all emergencies. If it be true that in a
multitude of counsels there is wisdom, then Pepperell was to be well
advised, for his council aggregated between twenty and thirty members.
Pepperell seems to have conceived that he ought to submit himself wholly
to Shirley’s guidance, since he himself was now to serve his first
apprenticeship in war, for it was now loyally attempted to carry out
Shirley’s instructions to the letter. In all these preliminary
arrangements the difference between Shirley’s brilliancy and dash and
Pepperell’s methodical cast of mind is very marked indeed. It would
sometimes seem as if the two men ought to have changed places.
Why the army was at Canso.
Importance of St. Peter’s.
Shirley had appointed the rendezvous to be at Canso, which place had
been abandoned soon after it was taken from us; first, because it was
the natural base for operations against Cape Breton, and next so that if
the descent on Louisburg failed, Canso and the command of the straits
would, at least, have been recovered. It was, as we have said, within
easy striking distance of Louisburg. Out in front of Canso, between the
Nova Scotia and Cape Breton shores, lay Isle Madame or Arichat, on which
a few French fishermen were living. Across the water from Arichat, at
the entrance to the Bras d’Or, lay the Village of St. Peter’s, the
second in point of importance in Cape Breton, Louisburg being the first.
At Arichat everything that was being done at Canso could be easily seen
and communicated to St. Peter’s. At St. Peter’s word could be sent to
Louisburg by way of the Bras d’Or Lakes. It therefore stood Pepperell in
hand to clear his vicinity of these spies and informers without delay,
unless he wished to find the enemy forewarned and forearmed.
The Ice Blockade at Louisburg.
Shirley had directed Pepperell to destroy St. Peter’s. Pepperell,
therefore, sent a night expedition there, which, however, returned
without accomplishing its purpose. But his greatest fear, lest supplies
or re-enforcements should get into Louisburg by sea, was set at rest on
finding that the field or pack-ice, which had come down out of the St.
Lawrence, and the east winds had driven up against the shores of Cape
Breton, formed a secure blockade against all comers, himself as well as
the enemy. This contingency had not been sufficiently weighed.
Canso fortified.
Meanwhile, Pepperell set to work fortifying Canso. A blockhouse, ready
framed, had been sent out for the purpose. This was now set up,
garrisoned, and christened Fort Prince William. Some earthworks were
also thrown up to cover this new post. In these occupations, or in
scouting or exercising, the troops were kept employed until the ice
should move off the shores.
French Cruiser driven off.
On the 18th of April a French thirty-gun ship was chased off the coast,
while trying to run into Louisburg. Being the better sailer, she easily
got clear of the blockading vessels, after keeping up for some hours a
sharp, running fight. Even this occurrence does not seem to have fully
opened the eyes of the French commandant of Louisburg to the true nature
of the danger which threatened him, since he has declared that he
thought the vessels he saw watching the harbor were only English
privateers. Perhaps nothing about the whole history of this expedition
is more strange than that this officer should have remained wholly
ignorant of its being at Canso for nearly three weeks.
April 23, Warren’s Fleet arrives.
Effect on the Army.
The army had been lying nearly two weeks inactive, when, to Pepperell’s
great surprise as well as joy, Commodore Warren appeared off Canso with
four ships of war, and, after briefly communicating with the general,
bore away for Louisburg. At last he had received his orders to act in
concert with Shirley, and, like a true sailor, he had crowded all sail
for the scene of action. His coming put the army in great spirits, for
it was supposed to be part of the plan, already concerted, by which the
attack should be made irresistible. And for once fortune seems to have
determined that the bungling of ministers should not defeat the objects
had in view.
April 24, Connecticut Forces arrive.
On the following day, the Connecticut forces joined Pepperell. The
shores of Cape Breton were now eagerly scanned for the first appearance
of open water, but even as late as the 28th Pepperell wrote to Shirley,
saying, “We impatiently wait for a fair wind to drive the ice out of the
bay, and if we do not suffer for want of provisions, make no doubt but
we shall, by God’s favor, be able soon to drive out what else we please
from Cape Breton.” The consumption of stores, occasioned by the
unlooked-for detention at Canso, had, in fact, become a matter of
serious concern with Pepperell, whose nearest source of supply was
Boston.
VIII
THE SIEGE
Fleet sails from Canso, April 29.
Our guard-vessels having reported the shores to be at last free from
ice, and the wind coming fair for Louisburg, the welcome signal to weigh
anchor was given on the 29th of April. On board the fleet all was now
bustle and excitement. In a very short time a hundred transport-vessels
were standing out of Canso Harbor, under a cloud of canvas, for Gabarus
Bay, the place fixed upon by Shirley for making the contemplated
descent.
Night Assault given up.
Bound to the letter of his orders, Pepperell seems to have first
purposed making an attempt to put Shirley’s rash project in execution.
To do this, he must have so timed his movements as to reach his
anchorage after dark, have landed his troops without being able to see
what obstacles lay before them, have marched them to stations situated
at a distance from the place of disembarkation, over ground unknown, and
not previously reconnoitred, to throw them against the enemy’s works
before they should be discovered. And this most critical of all military
operations, a night assault, was to be attempted by wholly undisciplined
men.
[Illustration: SIEGE of LOUISBOURG in 1745.]
Providentially for Pepperell, the wind died away before he could reach
the designated point of disembarkation, so that this mad scheme perished
before it could be put to the test; but early the next morning the
flotilla was discovered entering Gabarus Bay, five miles southeast from
the fortress, and in full view from its ramparts. So, also, the New
England forces could see the gray turrets of the redoubtable stronghold
rising in the distance, and could hear the bells of Louisburg pealing
out their loud alarm. The fortress instantly fired signal guns to call
in all out parties. It is said that there had been a grand ball the
night before, and that the company had scarce been asleep when called up
by this alarm. The booming of artillery, sounding like the drowsy roar
of an awakening lion, was defiantly echoed back from the bosom of the
deep, and borne on the cool breeze to the startled foemen’s ears the
distant roll of drum, and bugle blast, peopled the lately deserted sea
with voices of the coming strife.
Duchambon, commander of the fortress, instantly hurried off a hundred
and fifty men to oppose the landing of our troops.
Landing at Gabarus Bay, April 30.
The fleet quickly came to an anchor, and the signal was hoisted for the
troops to disembark at once. Before them stretched the lonely Cape
Breton shore, on which the breakers rose and fell in a long line of
foam. Though this heavy surf threatened to swamp the boats, the men
crowded into them as if going to a merry-making. It was a gallant and
inspiring sight to see them dash on toward the beach, emulous who should
reach it first, and eager to meet the enemy, who were waiting for them
there. By making a feint at one point, and then pulling for another at
some distance from the first, the boats gained an undefended part of the
shore before the French could come up with them. As soon as one struck
the ground, the men jumped into the water, each taking another on his
back and wading through the surf to the shore. In this manner the
landing went on so rapidly that, when the enemy finally came up, they
were easily driven off, with the loss of six or seven men killed, and
some prisoners. Before it was dark two thousand men bivouacked for the
night within cannon shot of Louisburg.
Vaughan now led forward a party after the retreating enemy, who, finding
themselves pursued, set fire to thirty or forty houses outside the city
walls.
On the next day, the work of landing the rest of the army, the artillery
and stores, was pushed to the utmost, though the heavy surf rendered
this a work of uncommon difficulty. Pepperell now pitched his camp in an
orderly manner next the shore, at a place called Flat Point Cove, where
he could communicate with the transports and fleet, and they with him.
He now took his first step towards clearing the two miles of open ground
lying between him and Louisburg harbor, with the view of fixing the
location of his batteries, and of driving the enemy inside the walls of
the fortress.
Royal Battery deserted.
To this end four hundred men were sent out to destroy the enemy’s
magazines situated at the head of the harbor, Vaughan again marching
with them. This detachment having set fire to some warehouses containing
naval stores, the smoke from which drifted down upon the Royal Battery,
the officer in command there, convinced that the provincials were about
to fall upon him, spiked his cannon and abandoned the works in haste,
though not till after receiving permission to do so.
In the morning, as Vaughan was returning to camp with only thirteen men,
the deserted appearance of the battery caused him to carefully examine
it, when, seeing no signs of life about the place,—no flag flying or
smoke rising or sentinels moving about,—he sent forward an Indian of his
party, who, finding all silent, crept through an embrasure, and undid
the gate to them. Vaughan then despatched word to the camp that he was
in possession of the place, and was waiting for a re-enforcement and a
flag; but meantime, before either could reach him, one of his men
climbed up the staff, and nailed his red coat to it for a flag.
Vaughan attacked.
At about the same hour Duchambon was sending a strong detachment back to
the battery, to complete the work of destruction that his lieutenant had
left unfinished. At least this is his own statement. It was supposed
that the battery was still unoccupied or occupied weakly, otherwise the
French would hardly have risked much for its possession. When this
detachment came round in their boats to the landing-place, near the
battery, Vaughan’s little band attacked them with great spirit, keeping
them at bay until other troops had time to join him, when the
discomfited Frenchmen were driven back whence they came.
Advantage of this Capture.
Thus unexpectedly did one of the most formidable defences fall into our
hands; for though its isolated situation invited an attack, and though
communication with the city could be easily cut off except by water, the
prompt attempt to recover the Royal Battery implies that its abandonment
was at least premature. Yet as this work was primarily a harbor defence
only, it was evidently not looked upon as tenable against a land attack,
although it is quite as clear that the time had not yet come for
deserting it. But the fact that it was left uninjured instead of being
blown up assures us that the garrison must have left in a panic.
But whether the French attached much or little consequence to this
battery so long as it remained in their hands, it became in ours a
tremendous auxiliary to the conquest of the city. By its capture we
obtained thirty heavy cannon, all of which were soon made serviceable,
besides a large quantity of shot and shell, than which nothing could
have been more acceptable at this time. And although only three or four
of its heavy guns could be trained upon the city, its capture removed
one of the most formidable obstacles to the entrance of our fleet. It
also afforded an excellent place of arms for our soldiers, whose
confidence was greatly strengthened. In a word, the siege was making
progress.
We cannot help referring here to the fact that notwithstanding Shirley’s
idea had met with so much ridicule it had, nevertheless, come true in
one part at least, since if the proposal to turn the enemy’s own cannon
against them had seemed somewhat whimsical when it was broached, it
certainly proved prophetic in this case, for within twenty-four hours
after its taking the guns of the Royal Battery were thundering against
the city.
Firing begun.
Pepperell had at once ordered Waldo’s regiment into the captured
battery. The enemy had not even stopped to knock off the trunnions of
the cannon, so that the smiths, under the direction of Major
Pomeroy,[18] who was himself a gun-smith, had only to drill them out
again. Waldo fired the first shot into the city. It is said to have
killed fourteen men. The fire was maintained with destructive effect,
and it drew forth a reply from the enemy, with both shot and shell.
The siege may now be said to have fairly begun, and begun prosperously.
Both sides had stripped for fighting, and it remained to be seen whether
Pepperell’s raw levies would continue steadfast under the many trials of
which these events were but a foretaste.
Louisburg was now practically invested on the land side, the fleet, with
its heavy armament, remaining useless, however, with respect to active
co-operation in the siege itself, because its commander dared not take
his ships into the harbor under fire of the enemy’s batteries. The army
and navy were acting therefore without that concert which alone would
have allowed their united strength to be effectively tested. On its
part, the navy was simply making a display of force which could not be
employed, though it maintained a strict blockade. In any case, then, the
brunt of the siege must fall on the army, since, as Warren informed
Pepperell, the fleet could take no part in battering the city until the
harbor defences should first have been taken or silenced. And when this
was done, the siege must probably have been near its end, fleet or no
fleet.
Pepperell manfully turned, however, to a task which he had supposed
would be shared between the commodore and himself. If he was no longer
confident under fresh disappointments, they developed in him unexpected
firmness and most heroic patience. Let us see what this task was, and in
what manner the citizen-general set about it. That it was done with true
military judgment is abundantly proved by the fact that, when Louisburg
was assaulted and taken in 1758, by the combined land and naval forces
of Amherst and Boscawen, Pepperell’s plan of attack was followed step by
step, and to the letter.
[Illustration: TOWN AND FORTIFICATIONS OF LOUISBOURG IN 1745.]
The Harbor Defences.
The most formidable of the harbor defences were the Island Battery, to
which attention has been called in a previous chapter, the Circular
Battery, a work situated at the extreme northwest corner of the city
walls, and forming the reverse face of the powerful Dauphin Bastion,
from which the West Gate of the city opened, with the Water Battery, or
Batterie de la Gréve, placed at the opposite angle of the harbor
shore.[19] The cross-fire from these two batteries effectually raked the
whole harbor from shore to shore, but it was by no means so dangerous as
that of the Island Battery, where ships must pass within point-blank
range of the heaviest artillery.
Such, then, was the admirable system of harbor defences still remaining
intact, even after the fall of the Royal Battery. Instead, therefore, of
concentrating his whole fire upon one or two points, in his front, with
a view of breaching the walls in the shortest time, and of storming the
city at the head of his troops, Pepperell was made to throw half his
available fire upon the batteries that were not at all in his own way,
though they blocked the way to the fleet.[20]
It will be seen that these circumstances imposed upon Pepperell a task
of no little magnitude. They compelled him to attack the very strongest,
instead of the weakest, parts of the fortress, and necessarily confined
the siege operations within a comparatively small space of the enemy’s
long line.
No time was lost in getting the siege train over from Gabarus Bay to the
positions marked out for erecting the breaching batteries. The infinite
labor involved in doing this can hardly be understood except by those
who have themselves gone over the ground. Every gun and every pound of
provisions and ammunition had to be dragged two miles, through marshes
and over rocks, to the allotted stations. This transit being
impracticable for wheel-carriages, sledges were constructed by
Lieutenant-Colonel Meserve of the New Hampshire regiment, to which
relays of men harnessed themselves in turn, as they do in Arctic
journeys, and in this way the cannon, mortars, and stores were slowly
dragged through the spongy turf, where the mud was frequently knee-deep,
to the trenches before Louisburg. None but the rugged yeomen of New
England—men inured to all sorts of outdoor labor in woods and
fields—could have successfully accomplished such a herculean task. But
such severe toil as this was soon put half the army in the hospitals.
Nova Scotia freed of Invaders.
By the 5th of May Pepperell had got two mortar-batteries playing upon
the city from the base of Green Hill, over which the road passes to
Sydney. Meantime, Duchambon, seeing himself blockaded both by sea and by
land, had hurriedly sent off an express to recall the troops that had
gone out some time before against Annapolis, in concert with a force
sent from Quebec, little dreaming that he himself would soon be
attacked.[21] The first fruits of Shirley’s sagacity ripened thus early
in relieving Nova Scotia from invasion.
First Sabbath in Camp.
The 5th being Sunday, divine service was held in the chapel of the Royal
Battery. Pepperell’s hardy New Englanders listened to the first
Protestant sermon ever preached, perhaps, on the island of Cape Breton,
from the well-chosen text “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and
into His courts with praise.” After their devotions were over, we are
told that the troops “fired smartly at the city.”
Meantime, also, Colonel Moulton, who had been left at Canso for the
purpose, rejoined the army after destroying St. Peter’s. Two sallies
made by the enemy against the nearest mortar-battery had been repulsed.
Its fire, augmented by some forty-two-pounders taken from the Royal
Battery, already much distressed the garrison, its balls coming against
the caserns and into the town, where they traversed the streets from end
to end, and riddled the houses in their passage. It never ceased firing
during the siege. In his report Duchambon calls it the most dangerous of
any that the besiegers raised.
Garrison summoned.
On the 7th a flag was sent into the city with a summons to surrender.
Firing was suspended until its return, with Duchambon’s defiant message,
that inasmuch “as the King had confided to him the defence of the
fortress, he had no other reply but by the mouths of his cannon.”
Scouting Party defeated.
This check prompted a disposition to attack the city by storm at once,
but upon reflection more moderate counsels prevailed, and the attempt
was put off. Pepperell went on with his approaches toward the West Gate,
under a constant fire from all the enemy’s batteries. And as every
collection of men drew the enemy’s fire to the spot, this work could
only be done at night, under great disadvantages. The balls they sent
him were picked up and returned from his own cannon with true New
England thrift, in order to husband his own ammunition. While thus
engaged with the enemy in his front, he had also to keep an eye upon the
outlying parties of French and Indians in his rear, who had been scraped
together from scattered settlements, and were lurking about his camp
with the view of raiding it unawares. On May 10, a scouting party of
twenty-five men from Waldo’s regiment was sent out to find and drive off
these marauders. While they were engaged in plundering some
dwelling-houses at one of the out-settlements, they themselves were
unexpectedly attacked by a superior force, and all but three killed, the
Indians murdering the prisoners in cold blood. On the following day our
men returned to the scene of disaster, and after burying their fallen
comrades, they burned the place to the ground.
With these events the campaign settled down into the slow and laborious
operations of a regular siege; and here began those inevitable
bickerings between the chiefs of the land and naval forces, which, in a
man of different temper than Pepperell was, might have led to serious
results.
Disagreements.
In Shirley, his lawful captain-general, Pepperell had always a superior
whose orders he felt bound to obey to the best of his ability, cost what
it might. Fortunately, Shirley’s power of annoyance was limited by
distance, though he kept up an animated fire of suggestions. In Warren,
however, the brusque and impulsive sailor, Pepperell now found a tutor
and a critic, whose irritation at the subordinate part he was playing
showed itself in unreasonable demands upon his slow but sure coadjutor,
and now and then even in a hardly concealed sneer. As time wore on,
Warren grew more and more restive and importunate, while Pepperell
continued patient, calm, and methodical to the last. Warren would call
his fleet-captains together, hold a council, discuss the situation from
his point of view, and send off to Pepperell the result of their
deliberations, with the final exhortation attached, “For God’s sake let
_us_ do something!”—that “something” being that Pepperell should
practically finish the siege without him, as we have already shown.
Warren was a man standing at a door to keep out intruders, while the two
actual adversaries were fighting it out inside. He might occasionally
halloo to them to be quick about it, but he was hardly in the fight
himself.
Pepperell would then get his council together in his turn, and, smarting
under the sense of injustice, would submit the lecture that Warren had
read him, with its thinly veiled irony, and unconcealed hauteur, to
which the imputation of ignorance was not lacking. The situation would
then be again discussed in all its bearings, from the army’s standpoint,
which might be stated as follows: The fortress cannot be stormed until
we have made a practicable breach in the walls. We must finish our
batteries before this can be done. Or let the commodore bring in his
ships and assist in silencing the enemy’s fire. The army is losing
strength every day by sickness, while the fleet is gaining by the
arrival of fresh ships. We cannot, if we would, pull the commodore’s
chestnuts out of the fire and our own too.
[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.
IX
THE SIEGE CONTINUED
Camp Routine.
The routine of camp life is not without interest as tending to show what
was the temper of the men under circumstances of unusual trial and
hardship. They were housed in tents, most of which proved rotten and
unserviceable, or in booths, which they built for themselves out of
poles and green boughs cut in the neighboring woods. The relief parties,
told off each day for work in the trenches, were marched to their
stations after dark, as the enemy’s fire swept the ground over which
they must pass. For a like reason, the fatigue parties could only bring
up the daily supplies of provisions and ammunition to the trenches from
Gabarus Bay, after darkness had set in. By great good-fortune, the
weather continued dry and pleasant; otherwise the bad housing and severe
toil must have told on the health of the army even more severely than it
did, while work in the trenches would have been suspended during the
intervals of wet weather.
Spirit of the Army.
A force like this, composed of men who were the equals of their officers
at home, not bound together by habits of passive obedience formed under
the severe penalties of martial law, could not be expected to observe
the exact discipline of regular soldiers. It was not attempted to
enforce it. Not one case of punishment for infraction of orders is
reported during the siege. But officers and men had in them the making
of far better soldiers than the ordinary rank and file of armies. There
were men in the ranks who rose to be colonels and brigadiers in the
revolutionary contest.[22] The hardest duty was performed without
grumbling; the most dangerous service found plenty of volunteers; and
Pepperell himself has borne witness that nothing pleased the men better
than to be ordered off on some scouting expedition that promised to
bring on a brush with the enemy.
This spirit is plainly manifest in the letters which have been
preserved. In one of them Major Pomeroy tells his wife that “it looks as
if our campaign would last long; but I am willing to stay till God’s
time comes to deliver the city into our hands.” The reply is worthy of a
woman of Sparta: “Suffer no anxious thoughts to rest in your mind about
me. The whole town is much engaged with concern for the expedition, how
Providence will order the affair, for which religious meetings every
week are maintained. I leave you in the hand of God.”
There is not a despatch or a letter of Pepperell’s extant, in which this
dependence upon the Over-ruling Hand is not acknowledged. The barbaric
utterance that Providence is always on the side of the strongest
battalions would have shocked the men of Louisburg as deeply as it would
the men of Preston, Edgehill, and Marston Moor. The conviction that
their cause was a righteous one, and must therefore prevail, was a power
still active among Puritan soldiers: nor did they fail to give the honor
and praise of achieved victory to Him whom they so steadfastly owned as
the Leader of Armies and the God of Battles.
There were not wanting incidents which the soldiers treasured up as
direct manifestations of Divine favor. Moses Coffin, of Newbury, who
officiated in the double capacity of chaplain and drummer, and who had
been nicknamed in consequence the “drum ecclesiastic,” carried a small
pocket-Bible about with him wherever he went. On returning to camp,
after an engagement with the enemy, he found that a bullet had passed
nearly through the sacred book, thus, undoubtedly, saving his life.
Frolics in Camp.
The relaxation from discipline has been more or less commented upon by
several writers, as if it implied a grave delinquency in the head of the
army. We are of the opinion, however, that it was the safety-valve of
_this_ army, under the extraordinary pressure laid upon it. So while we
may smile at the comparison made by Douglass, who says that the siege
resembled a “Cambridge Commencement,” or at the antics described by
Belknap,[23] we need not feel ourselves bound to accept their
conclusions. This author says: “Those who were on the spot, have
frequently in my hearing laughed at the recital of their own
irregularities, and expressed their admiration when they reflected on
the almost miraculous preservation of the army from destruction. They
indeed presented a formidable front to the enemy, but the rear was a
scene of confusion and frolic. While some were on duty at the trenches,
others were racing, wrestling, pitching quoits, firing at marks or
birds, or running after shot from the enemy’s guns for which they
received a bounty.”
Our Fascine Batteries.
In his unscientific way, Pepperell was daily tightening his grasp upon
Louisburg. Gridley,[24] who acted in the capacity of chief engineer, had
picked up from books all the knowledge he possessed, but he soon showed
a natural aptitude for that branch of the service. Dwight, the chief of
artillery, is not known ever to have pointed a shotted gun in his life.
Instead of gradual approaches, of zigzags and épaulements, the ground
was simply staked out where the batteries were to be placed. After dark
the working parties started for the spot, carrying bundles of fascines
on their backs, laid them on the lines, and then began digging the
trenches and throwing up the embankment by the light of their lanterns.
All the batteries at Louisburg were constructed in this simple fashion.
The work of making the platforms, getting up the cannon, and mounting
them, was attended with far greater labor and risk.
The Advanced Battery opens Fire May 18.
In this manner a fascine battery covered by a trench in front, on which
the provincials had been working like beavers for two days and nights,
was raised within two hundred and fifty yards of the West Gate, against
which it began sending its shot on the 18th. This was by much the most
dangerous effort that the besiegers had yet made, and the enemy at once
trained every gun upon it that would bear, in the hope of either
demolishing or silencing the work. It was so near that the men in the
trenches, and those on the walls, kept up a continual fire of musketry
at each other, interspersed with sallies of wit, whenever there was a
lull in the firing. The French gunners, who were kept well supplied with
wine, would drink to the besiegers, and invite them over to breakfast or
to take a glass of wine.
[Illustration: THE LIGHTHOUSE, WITH DÉBRIS OF OLD WORKS.]
Cannon discovered.
In two days the fire of our guns had beaten down the drawbridges, part
of the West Gate, and some of the adjoining wall. Pepperell complains at
this time of his want of good gunners, also of a sufficient supply of
powder to make good the daily consumption, of which he had no previous
conception, but is cheered by finding thirty cannon sunk at low-water
mark on the opposite side of the harbor, which he designed mounting at
the lighthouse forthwith, for attacking the Island Battery. Gorham’s
regiment was posted there with this object. Thus again were the enemy
furnishing means for their own destruction. Foreseeing that this
fortification would shut the port to ships coming to his relief,
Duchambon sent a hundred men across the harbor to drive off the
provincials. A sharp fight ensued, in which the enemy were defeated.
Titcomb’s Battery at Work.
By this time another fascine battery situated by the shore, at a point
nine hundred yards from the walls, began raking the Circular Battery of
the enemy, in conjunction with the direct fire from our Advanced
Battery. It was called Titcomb’s, from the officer in charge, Major
Moses Titcomb of Hale’s regiment. These two fortifications were now
knocking to pieces the northwest corner of the enemy’s ponderous works,
known as the Dauphin Bastion. We were now playing on Louisburg from
three batteries on the shore of the harbor, three in the rear of these,
and had another in process of construction at the lighthouse, all of
which, except the last, had been completed under fire within twenty
days, without recourse to any scientific rules whatever.
Capture of the Vigilant.
In spite of Warren’s watchfulness one vessel had slipped through his
squadron into Louisburg unperceived, bringing supplies to the besieged,
An event now took place which, to use Pepperell’s words, “produced a
burst of joy in the army, and animated the men with fresh courage to
persevere.” The annual supply ship from France, for which our fleet had
been constantly on the lookout, had run close in with the harbor in a
thick fog, undiscovered by our vessels, and wholly unsuspicious of
danger herself. When the fog lifted she was seen and engaged by the
Mermaid, a forty-gun frigate, until the rest of the squadron could come
to her aid, when, after a spirited combat, the French ship was forced to
strike her colors. The prize proved to be the Vigilant, a new sixty-gun
ship, loaded with stores and munitions for Louisburg. She was soon put
in fighting trim again, and manned by drafts made from the army and
transports.
Warren proposes to attack.
By the 24th, two more heavy ships, which the ministry had sent out
immediately upon receiving Shirley’s advices that the expedition had
been decided upon,[25] now joined Warren, who at length felt himself
emboldened to ask Pepperell’s co-operation in the following plan of
attack. It was proposed to distribute sixteen hundred men, to be taken
from the army, among the ships of war, all of which should then go into
the harbor and attack the enemy’s batteries vigorously. Under cover of
this fire, the soldiers, with the marines from the ships, were to land
and assault the city. Pepperell himself was to have no share in this
business, except as a looker-on, but was to put his troops under the
command of an officer of marines who should take his orders from Warren
only.
This implied censure to the conduct of the army and its chief, followed
up the next day by the tart question of “Pray how came the Island
Battery not to be attacked?” seems to have goaded Pepperell into giving
the order for a night attack upon that strong post. Indeed, Pepperell’s
perplexities were growing every hour. On the day he received Warren’s
cool proposition to take the control of the army out of his hands, he
had been obliged to send off a flying column in pursuit of a force which
his scouts had reported was at Mirá Bay, fifteen miles from his camp. In
fact, the forces which Duchambon had recalled from Annapolis were
watching their chance either to make a dash into Louisburg, or throw
themselves upon the besiegers’ trenches unawares.
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:—
[Illustration: REMAINS OF CASEMATES AT LOUISBURG.]
“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.”
[22]General John Nixon is one of those referred to.
[23]Douglass (Summary), Belknap (“History of New Hampshire”) and
Hutchinson (“History of Massachusetts Bay”) have accounts of the
Louisburg expedition. Douglass and Hutchinson wrote
contemporaneously, and were well informed, the latter especially,
upon all points relating to the inception and organization. Of their
military criticism it is needless to speak. There is a host of
authorities, both French and English, most of which are collected in
Vol. V. “Narrative and Critical History of America.”
[24]Richard Gridley subsequently laid out the works at Bunker Hill and
Dorchester Heights, in much the same manner.
[25]Shirley’s second messenger, Captain Loring, on presenting his
despatches, was allowed but twelve hours in London, being then
ordered on board the Princess Mary, one of the ships referred to.
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.
[26]The surrender caused great rejoicing in the colonies, as was natural
it should, with all except those who had always predicted its
failure. For some reason the news did not reach Boston until July 2,
in the night. At daybreak the inhabitants were aroused from their
slumbers by the thunder of cannon. The whole day was given up to
rejoicings. A public thanksgiving was observed on the 18th. The news
reached London on the 20th. The Tower guns were fired, and at night
London was illuminated. Similar demonstrations occurred in all the
cities and large towns of the kingdom. At Versailles the news caused
deep gloom. De Luynes speaks of it thus in his Memoirs: “People have
been willing to doubt about this affair of Louisburg, but unhappily
it is only too certain. These misfortunes have given rise to
altercations among ministers. It is urged that M. Maurepas is at
fault in having allowed Louisburg to fall for want of munitions. The
friends of M. Maurepas contend that he did all that was possible,
but could not obtain the necessary funds from the Treasury.” The
government got ready two fleets to retake Louisburg. One was
scattered or sunk by storms in 1746, and one was destroyed by Lord
Anson, in 1747, off Cape Finisterre.
[27]The amount was £183,649 to Massachusetts, £16,355 to New Hampshire,
£28,863 to Connecticut, and £6,332 to Rhode Island. Quite a large
portion was paid in copper coins.
[28]Among others the navy took a Spanish Indiaman, having $2,000,000,
besides gold and silver ingots to a large value, stowed under her
cargo of cocoa. The estimated value of all the prizes was nearly a
million sterling, of which enormous sum only one colonial vessel got
a share.