The Siege of 1758

It was near midnight, June 1, 1758, when the lookouts on Cape Breton Island noticed something odd. The fog that had covered the island for weeks, now cleared enough to show lights off shore. Dawn revealed a large fleet laying outside Gabarous Bay, six miles west of Louisbourg. Worse yet, the ships flew a white banner with a red cross, the colors of Briton's Royal Navy.

The fortified towns of Louisbourg and Québec were the main French strongholds in North America. The British prime minister decided to attack both, with Louisbourg as the first target. When the decisive struggle began in 1758, Britain sent 39 warships, 155 transports, and nearly 30,000 soldiers and sailors. Louisbourg was defended by 10 naval vessels and nearly 7000 soldiers and sailors. This was to be the largest battle in North America until the American Civil War over 100 years later and is still the great sea borne invasion in North American history. (Editor's note: For a successful invasion the preferred ratio is at least 4:1 for the attacker. )

The commander-in-chief of the expedition was Major General Jeffery Amherst. Amherst's naval commander was Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen. Amherst's field commander, was recently promoted Brigadier General James Wolfe. A slender, sickly man who suffered from several maladies, but a shortage of courage was not one of them. He was an officer highly respected by his troops.

The British commanders expected a hard fight for Louisbourg. The Chevier de Drucour, it's governor, was an experienced professional skilled in fortress warfare. His troops numbered thirty-one hundred regulars, plus a thousand Canadians and five hundred Indians. The citadel mounted two hundred and seventy-seven guns on it's walls, not to mention those in the Grand and Island batteries and a new battery at Lighthouse Point. There were also ten warships in the harbor, ships-of-the-line and frigates, with over five hundred guns and three thousand seamen. Drucour had cannons aimed on likely landing sites. Trenches topped with sandbags overlooked the beaches from the cliffs

Louisbourg's defenders were ready and eager to meet any invaders. But no sooner did Amherst's fleet arrive than fog rolled in and covered it. Each morning soldiers peered into the grayness, but nothing could be seen but fog. Finally, the fog lifted and at dawn, June 8, 1758, Amherst gave the order to attack.

Slowly the warships lined up broadside to the citadel and the shore batteries. Troops climbed down rope ladders hung over the sides of the transports, and into waiting longboats. Their orders were to land quickly and clear off the beach to allow the artillery to be brought ashore.

The longboats had gone only a short distance when the warships opened fire. The boom of cannon rolled across the water to the crowded boats. The men heard the roar and felt the vibrations in their guts, drifting gun smoke stung their eyes.

Twelve hundred Frenchmen watched Wolfe's approach from their trenches. They held their fire until the possible moment, then opened up with everything they had. Boats flew apart in showers of splinters. Boats overturned, dumping men into the sea, to be dragged down by their backpacks.

Wolfe watched as weeks of planning were shot to pieces. As he was about to call a retreat, he saw three boats enter a rocky cove on the left of the French works. Realizing that this was the opening he needed, he led his men into the cove. The sea claimed many boats and lives. Many made it to shore, soaked to the bone, their weapons and powder flasks wet and almost useless. This reduced the assault to close quarter fixed bayonets and drawn swords. The French, shocked at the tenacity of Wolfe's troops, scattered and ran. Wolfe persued them almost to the gates of the town, with the light infantry, rangers, Fraser's Highlanders, and the grenadiers of the first, fifteenth, seventeenth, and twenty-second regiments.

Once the British secured the beachhead, the French deserted their entrenchment's around the cove. They left behind many pieces of cannon still mounted, from twenty-four pounders on down, including some mortars. Within a week, Wolfe had the citadel surrounded by big guns. Before the circle closed, Governor Drucour abandoned his outlying fortifications at Grand Battery and Lighthouse Point. Wolfe then took over the French positions and employed his heavy artillery, which included forty-two pounders. Before long the Island Battery, harbor and eastern walls of Louisbourg were wracked by cannon fire.

Wolfe received orders to march with a large detachment, and take possession of the Light-House Point, which, with the Island battery, form the entrance of the harbor. About 2 A.M. on 12, June, Major Scott marched with 500 Light Infantry and Rangers, making a sweep through the woods, in order to take the Light-House battery. Near 5 A.M., he was followed by General Wolfe, with four companies of Grenadiers, and twelve-hundred men detached from the line. They found the battery destroyed by the enemy. Once this area was secured, Wolfe had artillery moved in by sea. From here Wolfe opened fire on the Island battery on the night of the 19th, but it took until the 25th to silence the battery.

With one lucky shot, the entire French water force was reduced to floating fire balls. The exploding shell landed on the deck of the Célébre, setting off the barrels of gunpowder stored there. The fire jumped from ship to ship, destroying all but two warships, the Prudent and Bienfaisant. At midnight on July 25th, Amherst sent 25 boatloads of Marines into the harbor. Splitting into two units they made for their objective, the last two warships. Now the Fortress of Louisbourg was bombarded from three sides.

The next morning, Drucour asked for the terms of surrender. Amherst promised the French regulars their lives, but no honors of war. No terms were offered to the Canadians or the Indians; if captured they would be treated the same as the garrison at Ft William Henry. Drucour refused these terms, but after he was presented with a request for surrender from the civilians, he accepted the conditions. As the British prepared to occupy the town, the Canadians and Indians fled in their canoes. The French troops were sent to England as Prisoners of War and remained there for five years. The civilian population was deported to France.

During the action the English fired off 14,630 shots and 3,390 "shells and carcasses"; so, too, they fired off 750,000 rounds of musket shot (they ran out). Overall, the British used 1,493 barrels of gun powder. Such efforts on the part of the British led to the achievement of their goal; and, in the process, wrought terrible damage and injury; and -- death to a number of brave souls. Though it proved to be difficult to get accurate counts, the English thought that the number of French killed or wounded amounted to a high of 1,000. For the British, it was: 172, killed; 352, wounded; for a total of 524.

The work was not done. A significant division, however, was to go with Wolfe, who was under orders to sail for "River Gaspie." Another division was sent to Monckton, who had been at Halifax throughout, with orders to go to the Bay of Fundy and then up the St. John River; he was to clean out any French establishments found.

British naval ships with Wolfe and his troops aboard,during the month of September, sailed along the coast of an area we now know as northern New Brunswick and then along up the Gaspé coast: they made regular stops along the way. The idea was to deliver blows to all the French communities to the west of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The orders were to burn everything that was found so that no aid could be expected by the French from these parts should the British launch an attack up the St. Lawrence come the spring of 1759. Wolfe carried out his duties with typical dispatch and efficiency.

The capture of Louisbourg and the destruction of all the remaining forts and outposts in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island sealed the fate of the now isolated Quebec.

Two years after its recapture in 1758--this time by the British Army--engineers planted explosive charges in Louisbourg's fortifications and blew the massive walls into piles of rubble. For the next two centuries these ruins would bear silent witness to the turbulent role the Fortress of Louisbourg had played in North American history.

 

**Ile Royale, which comprised present-day Cape Breton (also known as Ile Royale) and Prince Edward Island (Ile St. Jean), was a colony in itself, separate from the vast expanse along the St. Lawrence River and the eastern Great Lakes that was known as Canada or New France.