St. John River Campaign
Encyclopedia
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
when Colonel Robert Monckton
Robert Monckton
Robert Monckton was an officer of the British army and a colonial administrator in British North America. He had a distinguished military and political career, being second in command to General Wolfe at the battle of Quebec and subsequently being the Governor of New York State...
led a force of 1150 British soldiers to destroy the Acadian settlements along the banks of the Saint John River (New Brunswick) until they reached the largest village of Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas (present day Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art...
) in February 1759. Monckton was accompanied by New England Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
led by Joseph Goreham
Joseph Goreham
Joseph Goreham was a British army commander during the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War.- Family :...
, Captain Benoni Danks
Benoni Danks
Benoni Danks was a New England Ranger and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Cumberland County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1765 to 1770....
, Moses Hazen
Moses Hazen
Moses Hazen was a Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he saw action in the French and Indian War with Rogers' Rangers. His service included particularly brutal raids during the Expulsion of the Acadians and...
and George Scott.
Under the naval command of Silvanus Cobb, the British started at the bottem of the river with raiding Kennebecais and Managoueche (City of St. John), where the British built Fort Frederick. Then they moved up the river and raided Grimross (Gagetown, New Brunswick
Gagetown, New Brunswick
Gagetown is a Canadian village in Queens County, New Brunswick. It is situated on the west bank of the Saint John River and is the county's shire town.-Acadians:...
), Jemseg
Jemseg, New Brunswick
Jemseg is a Canadian rural community in Queens County, New Brunswick. It is located on the east bank of the Jemseg River along its short run from Grand Lake to the Saint John River...
, and finally they reached Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas.
There were about 100 Acadian families on the St. John River, with a large concentration at Ste Anne. Most of whom had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations, such as the Ile Saint-Jean Campaign
Ile Saint-Jean Campaign
The Ile Saint-Jean Campaign was a series of military operations in fall 1758, during the French and Indian War, to deport the Acadians that either lived on Ile Saint-Jean or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations...
. There was also about 1000 Maliseet.
According to one historian, the level of Acadian suffering greatly increased in the late summer of 1758. Along with campaigns on Ile Saint-Jean
Ile Saint-Jean Campaign
The Ile Saint-Jean Campaign was a series of military operations in fall 1758, during the French and Indian War, to deport the Acadians that either lived on Ile Saint-Jean or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations...
, in the Gult of St. Lawrence
Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign (1758)
The Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when British forces raided villages along present-day New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe were in command of the naval and...
, at Cape Sable Island and the Petitcodiac River Campaign
Petitcodiac River Campaign
The Petitcodiac River Campaign was a series of British military operations from June to November 1758, during the French and Indian War, to deport the Acadians that either lived along the Petitcodiac River or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations, such as the Ile Saint-Jean...
, the British targeted the St. John River.
Historical context
The British Conquest of AcadiaSiege of Port Royal (1710)
The Siege of Port Royal , also known as the Conquest of Acadia, was conducted by British regular and provincial forces under the command of Francis Nicholson against a French Acadian garrison under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, at the Acadian capital, Port Royal...
happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour. During the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.
Acadians had lived in the St. John valley almost continuously since the early seventeenth century. After the Conquest of Acadia (1710), Acadians migrated from peninsula Nova Scotia to the French-occupied Saint John River. These Acadians were seen as the most resistant to British rule in the region. As late as 1748, there were only twelve French-speaking families living on the river. With the rapid migration of Acadians to the river over the next decade, the area became the center of Acadian life in the maritime region.
The first wave of these deportations
Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755)
The Bay of Fundy Campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when the British ordered the Expulsion of the Acadians from Acadia after the Battle of Beausejour . The Campaign started at Chignecto and then quickly moved to Grand Pré, Rivière-aux-Canards, Pisiguit, Cobequid, and finally Port...
began in 1755 with the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755)
Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755)
The Bay of Fundy Campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when the British ordered the Expulsion of the Acadians from Acadia after the Battle of Beausejour . The Campaign started at Chignecto and then quickly moved to Grand Pré, Rivière-aux-Canards, Pisiguit, Cobequid, and finally Port...
. During the explusion, the St. John River valley became the center of Acadian and Algonkian resistance to the British military in the region. The leader of the resistance was French militia officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot
Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot
Charles Deschamps de Boishébert , was the leader of the Acadian resistance to the Expulsion of the Acadians. He settled and tried to protect Acadians refugees along the rivers of New Brunswick. Fort Boishebert is named after him...
. He was stationed at Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas and from there issued orders for various raids such as the Raid on Lunenburg (1756) and the Battle of Petitcodiac
Battle of Petitcodiac
The Battle of Petitcodiac was fought during the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the French and Indian War. The battle was fought between the British colonial troops and Acadian resistance fighters led by French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert on September 4, 1755 at the Acadian village of...
(1755). He was also responsible to locate the Acadian refugees along the St. John River.
After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758)
Siege of Louisbourg (1758)
The Siege of Louisbourg was a pivotal battle of the Seven Years' War in 1758 which ended the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada and led directly to the loss of Quebec in 1759 and the remainder of French North America the following year.-Background:The British government realized that with the...
, the second wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians began with the Ile Saint-Jean Campaign
Ile Saint-Jean Campaign
The Ile Saint-Jean Campaign was a series of military operations in fall 1758, during the French and Indian War, to deport the Acadians that either lived on Ile Saint-Jean or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations...
(campaign against present-day Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
), and the removal of Acadians from Ile Royale (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
). As a result, Acadians fled these areas for the villages along the banks of the St. John River, including the largest communities at Grimrose (present day Gagetown, New Brunswick) and Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas.
Fort Frederick
On September 13, 1758, Monckton and a strong force of regulars and rangers left Halifax and arrived at the mouth of the St. John River a week later. While Fort MenagouecheFort Menagoueche
Fort Menagoueche was a French fort at the mouth of the St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada. French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot built the fort during Father Le Loutre's War and eventually burned it himself as the French retreated after losing the Battle of...
had been destroyed (1755), when the British arrived, a few militia members fired shots from the site and fled upstream in boats. The armed sloop Providence was wrecked in the Reversing Falls trying to follow.
Monckton established a new base of operations by reconstructing Fort Menagoueche, which he renamed Fort Frederick. Establishing Fort Frederick allowed the British to virtually cut off the communications and supplies to the villages on the St. John River.
Monckton was accompanied by the New England Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
, which had three companies that were commanded by Joseph Goreham
Joseph Goreham
Joseph Goreham was a British army commander during the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War.- Family :...
, Captain Benoni Danks
Benoni Danks
Benoni Danks was a New England Ranger and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Cumberland County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1765 to 1770....
and George Scott.
When Monckton and his troops appeared on the St. John River, Boishébert retreated. The Acadians were left unprotected in their settlements at Grimross, Jemseg and Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. Boishébert directed Acadians to go to Quebec City.
Raid on Grimrose
On October 1 Monckton left Fort Frederick with his boats, regulars and rangers above the Reversing FallsReversing Falls
The Reversing Falls are a series of rapids on the Saint John River located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where the river runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy....
. Two days later, they arrived at the village of Grimrose. The village of 50 families that had migrated there in 1755 were forced to abandon their homes. Monckton’s troops burned every building, tourched the fields, and killed all the livestock.
Raid on Jemseg
Jemseg, New Brunswick
Jemseg is a Canadian rural community in Queens County, New Brunswick. It is located on the east bank of the Jemseg River along its short run from Grand Lake to the Saint John River...
and burned it to the ground. Then he returned to Fort Frederick at the mouth of the St. John River.
Raid on Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas
Monckton did not continue on to Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas (present day Fredericton, New BrunswickFredericton, New Brunswick
Fredericton is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art...
) because of the pending winter. Then, afraid of being trapped by the frozen river, he turned around at Maugerville
Maugerville, New Brunswick
Maugerville is a community in Sunbury County in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. In 1759, members of the Perley Colony, land-seekers from present-day Maine, settled in the area...
and went back to Fort Frederick, and afterwards sailed for Halifax with thirty Acadian families as prisoners. Major Robert Morris was put in charge of the fort.
Almost three months later, on February 1759, Monckton sent Captain John McCurdy and his rangers out from Fort Frederick to go to Ste. Anne's Point on snow- shoes. Captain McCurdy died of an accident along the way and was replaced by Lieutenant Moses Hazen
Moses Hazen
Moses Hazen was a Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, he saw action in the French and Indian War with Rogers' Rangers. His service included particularly brutal raids during the Expulsion of the Acadians and...
. When the Acadians realized the British were going to continue their advance, they retreated to the Maliseet village at Aukpaque (Ecoupag) for protection.
On 18 February 1759, Lieutenant Hazen and about fifteen men arrived at Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. They pillaged and burned the village of 147 buildings, including two Mass-houses and all of the barns and stables. They burned a large store-house, and with it a large quantity of hay, wheat, peas, oats, etc., killing 212 horses, about 5 head of cattle, a large number of hogs and so forth. They also burned the church (located just west of Old Government House, Fredericton).
As well, the rangers scalped six Acadians and took six prisoners. There is a written record of one of the Acadian survivors Joseph Godin-Bellefontaine. He reported that the rangers restrained him and then massacred his family in front of him. There are other primary sources that support his assertions. (While the French military hired Natives to gather British scalps, the British military hired Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
to gather Native scalps. The scalping of Acadians in this instance was unique for the Maritimes. New Englanders had been scalping native peoples in the area for generations, but unlike the French on Ile Royale, they had refrained from authorizing the taking of scalps from individuals identified as being of European descent.) On 18 May 1759 a group of soldiers left the confines of Fort Frederick to go fishing. They were attacked by a group of native warriors and fled to the protection of the fortress walls. One soldier did not make it and the natives carted him off. Again on 15 June 1759, another party of soldiers was out fishing on the river and was ambushed by a militia of Acadians and natives. During the fight the soldiers fought from the confines of a sloop while others fired cannons from the fort. One of the soldiers was killed and scalped and another was badly wounded. The soldiers pursued the militia but was unable to find it.
The command at Fort Frederick was not convinced the village was totally destroyed and sent at least three more expeditions up river to Ste Anne between July and September 1759. The soldiers captured some Acadians along the way, burned their homes, destroyed their crops and slaughtered their cattle. The September expedition involved more than 90 men. At present-day French Lake on the Oromocto River
Oromocto River
The Oromocto River is a tributary of the Saint John River in southwest New Brunswick, Canada.The Oromocto River is formed by the combination of the North and South Branches near Fredericton Junction, and flows north-northeast for 42 kilometres to its mouth at the Saint John River in the town of...
, they met fierce resistance from the Acadians, and resulted in the death of at least seven rangers.
Consequences
Because the British campaign destroyed their supplies, the few surviving Acadians in the area suffered famine. Canada’s Governor VaudreuilPierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal
Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal was a Canadian-born French colonial governor in North America...
reported 1600 Acadians immigrated to Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
in 1759. During this same winter, Quebec also suffered a famine and a smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
epidemic broke out, killing over 300 Acadian refugees. Some returned to St. John only to be imprisoned on Georges Island in Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality.-Harbour description:The harbour is called Jipugtug by the Mi'kmaq first nation, anglisized as Chebucto...
.
In the spring of 1759 twenty-nine of the refugees from the St. John River area went farther up the St. Lawrence to the area around Bécancour, Quebec
Bécancour, Quebec
Bécancour is a town in the Centre-du-Québec region of Québec, Canada; it is the seat of the Bécancour Regional County Municipality. It is located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the confluence of the Bécancour River, opposite Trois-Rivières.Wôlinak, an Abenaki Indian reserve, is...
, where they successfully established a community.
After the fall of Quebec
Battle of the Plains of Abraham
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War...
on September 18, 1759, the resistance ended. The Maliseet and Acadians of the St. John River surrendered to the British at Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland
Fort Beauséjour
Fort Beauséjour, was built during Father Le Loutre's War from 1751-1755; it is located at the Isthmus of Chignecto in present-day Aulac, New Brunswick, Canada...
. On 2 January 1760 most of the Acadian men who had come to Fort Frederck were boarded onto ships. The next day, the women and children were put on board, and the ship sailed for Halifax. Within weeks of their arrival in the provincial capital the captured Acadians were bound for France.
In 1762, Lieutenant Gilfred Studholme, who commnaded the garrison at Saint John, was unsuccessful in removing the remaining Acadians from the St. John River in preparation for the arrival of the New England Planters
New England Planters
The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the Acadian Expulsion...
.
Secondary sources
- Patterson, Stephen E. 1744-1763: Colonial Wars and Aboriginal Peoples. In Phillip Buckner and John Reid (eds.) The Atlantic Region to Conderation: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1994. pp.125-155
- Campbell, Gary. The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec. Goose Lane Editions and the New Brunswick Military Heriage Project. 2005
- John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press.pp. 199–200
- Geoffrey Plank. "New England Soldiers in the Saint John River Valley: 1758-1760" in New England and the Maritime provinces: connections and comparisons By Stephen Hornsby, John G. Reid. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2005. pp. 59–73
- John Faragher. A Great and Nobel Scheme. Norton. 2005. p. 405.
- William O. Raymond. The River St. John: Its Physical Features, Legends and History from 1604 to 1784. St. John, New Brunswick. 1910. pp. 96-107
- Le village acadien de la Pointe-Sainte-Anne (Fredericton), Fidèle Thériault
- L.M.B. Maxwell An Outline of the History of Central New Brunswick to the Time of Confederation, 1937. (Republish in 1984 by the York-Sunbury Historical Society.)
- Macfarlane, W. G. Fredericton History; Two Centuries of Romance, War, Privation and Struggle, 1981