Battle at Chignecto

{{Short description|1750 battle}} {{Infobox military conflict | image = GovernorOfNovaScotiaCharlesLawrence.jpg | image_size = | caption = Charles Lawrence | conflict = Battle at Chignecto | partof = Father Le Loutre's War | date = September 3, 1750 | place = Chignecto, Nova Scotia | coordinates = {{coord|45.916639|-64.165806|type:event|display=inline,title}} | result = British victory | combatant2 = {{flagicon|Kingdom of Great Britain}} Great Britain {{flagicon image|Red Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg}} British America | combatant1 = Mi'kmaq militia Acadian militia | commander2 = Charles Lawrence John Gorham Captain John Rous Silvanus Cobb Horatio Gates Captain William Clapham Colonel Peregrine Lascelles John Salusbury Hugh Warburton<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnovasco02murd_0/page/186/mode/1up?q=%22lascelles+regiment%22|title = A history of Nova-Scotia, or Acadie|year = 1865}}</ref> Joseph Gorham Joshua Winslow John Brewse (wounded)<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Maxwell |last=Sutherland |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/brewse_john_4E.html |title=Brewse, John |volume=4}}</ref> Captain William Rickson<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/wolfeinscotlandi00find/page/206/mode/1up?q=cornwallis|title=Wolfe in Scotland in the '45 and from 1749 to 1753|year=1928}}</ref> Francis Bartelo{{KIA}} Henry Grace {{POW}}<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyoflifesuf00grac/page/10/mode/1up?q=cornwallis The history of the life and sufferings of Henry Grace, of Basingstoke in the county of Southampton. Being a narrative of the hardships he underwent during several years captivity among the savages in North America, ... Written by himself]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=DiAngelis |first=Heather Nicole |date=2011 |title=Determining Reliability in Indian Captivity Narratives |url=https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5928&context=etd |website=William & Mary}}</ref> | commander1 = Jean-Louis Le Loutre Louis de La Corne Louis Le Neuf de la Valiere Joseph Broussard (Beausoliel) Chief Étienne Bâtard Father Charles Germain<ref>{{cite DCB |title=Germain, Charles |first=Micheline D. |last=Johnson |volume=4 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/germain_charles_4E.html}}</ref> | strength2 = 700 British regulars and New England Rangers | strength1 = 300 Mi'kmaq and Acadian militia | casualties2 = 20 killed;<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyoflifesuf00grac/page/10/mode/1up?q=halifax p. 10]</ref> 3 killed, 12 missing <ref>[https://web.lib.unb.ca/winslow/fullimagerecord.cgi?level=3&id=1075&DOCURL=%2F%77%69%6E%73%6C%6F%77%2F%66%75%6C%6C%72%65%63%6F%72%64%2E%63%67%69%3F%69%64%3D%31%31%39%26%6C%65%76%65%6C%3D%32%26%42%41%43%4B%53%54%52%3D%6C%65%76%65%6C%3D%32%26%66%69%65%6C%64%73%3D%54%69%74%6C%65%2C%43%72%65%61%74%6F%72%5F%6E%61%6D%65%2C%53%75%62%6A%65%63%74%2C%53%6F%75%72%63%65%2C%45%54%43%5F%53%65%71%75%65%6E%63%65%26%43%72%65%61%74%6F%72%5F%6E%61%6D%65%3D%26%54%69%74%6C%65%3D%26%53%75%62%6A%65%63%74%3D%26%53%6F%75%72%63%65%3D%31%2D%26%4B%65%79%77%6F%72%64%3D%26%4C%41%4E%47%3D%26%62%6F%6F%6C%65%61%6E%3D%41%4E%44%26%6F%72%64%65%72%5F%62%79%3D%49%64%65%6E%74%69%66%69%65%72%26%61%6C%6C%3D%26%6C%69%6D%69%74%3D%35%26%62%61%63%6B%75%72%6C%3D Winslow's journal]</ref> | casualties1 = 7-8 Mi'kmaq<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/jrnl-trade-plantations/vol9/pp109-126 Minutes of Board of Trade. 9 Nov. 1750]</ref> | campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Father Le Loutre's War}} }}

The '''Battle at Chignecto''' happened during Father Le Loutre's War when Charles Lawrence, in command of the 45th Regiment of Foot (Hugh Warburton's regiment) and the 47th Regiment (Peregrine Lascelles' regiment), John Gorham in command of the Rangers and Captain John Rous in command of the navy, fought against the French monarchists at Chignecto.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NIJ8XEhb5SwC&pg=PA164 Salsbury's journal re: Gates]</ref> This battle was the first attempt by the British to occupy the head of the Bay of Fundy since the disastrous Battle of Grand Pré three years earlier. They fought against a militia made up of Mi'kmaq and Acadians led by Jean-Louis Le Loutre and Joseph Broussard (Beausoliel). The battle happened at Isthmus of Chignecto, Nova Scotia on 3 September 1750.

==Background==

Despite the British conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. By the time Cornwallis had arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of the Wabanaki Confederacy (which included the Mi'kmaq) launching raids on British colonial settlements along the New England/ Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).<ref>{{cite journal |first=Tod |last=Scott |title=Mi'kmaw Armed Resistance to British Expansion in Northern New England (1676–1761) |journal=Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society |volume=19 |date=2016 |pages=1–18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Reid|first1=John G.|authorlink1=John G. Reid|last2=Baker|first2=Emerson W.|authorlink2=Emerson Baker|title=Essays on Northeastern North America, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TM3AlH-lTscC&pg=PA129|year=2008|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-9137-6|pages=129–152|chapter=Amerindian Power in the Early Modern Northeast: A Reappraisal|doi=10.3138/9781442688032|jstor=10.3138/9781442688032.12}}</ref>{{sfnp|Grenier|2008|pp=154-155}}

To prevent the establishment of British colonial settlements in the region, Mi'kmaq launched raids on present-day Shelburne (1715) and Canso (1720). A generation later, Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.<ref>{{harvp|Grenier|2008}}; Thomas Beamish Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 7</ref>

Within 18 months of establishing Halifax, the British also took firm control of peninsula Nova Scotia by building fortifications in all the major Acadian communities: present-day Windsor (Fort Edward); Grand Pre (Fort Vieux Logis) and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). (A British fort already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Cobequid remained without a fort.) After the raid in Dartmouth in 1749, on October 2, 1749, Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation to stop the raids. The Siege of Grand Pre was the first recorded conflict in the region after the raid on Dartmouth.

==Battle==

On 23 April, Lawrence was unsuccessful in getting a base at Chignecto because Le Loutre led 70 Mi'kmaq and 30 Acadians in burning the village of Beaubassin, preventing Lawrence from using its supplies to establish a fort.<ref>M de la Valiere Journal 15 September 1751</ref><ref>Gentleman's Magazine Vol 20 July 1750 p. 295</ref> (According to the historian Frank Patterson, the Acadians at Cobequid also burned their homes as they retreated from the British to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia in 1754.<ref>Frank Harris Patterson. ''History of Tatamagouche'', Halifax: Royal Print & Litho., 1917 (also Mika, Belleville: 1973), p. 19</ref>) Lawrence retreated, but he returned in September 1750.

On September 3, 1750 Captain John Rous, Lawrence and Gorham led over 700 men (including the 40th, 45th and 47th Regiments) to Chignecto, where Mi'kmaq and Acadians opposed their landing.<ref>[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441295;view=1up;seq=315 London Magazine, 1750, p. 291]</ref> They had thrown up a breastwork from behind which they opposed the landing. They killed twenty British, who in turn killed several Mi'kmaq. The Mi'kmaq and Acadians killed Captain Francis Bartelo in the Battle at Chignecto.<ref>Thomas Beamish Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 19; {{harvp|Griffiths|2005|p=391}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NIJ8XEhb5SwC&dq=Horatio+Gates+halifax+nova+scotia&pg=PA164 p. 160]</ref> Le Loutre's militia eventually withdrew to Beausejour, burning the rest of the Acadians' crops and houses as they went.{{sfnp|Grenier|2008|p=159}}

== Aftermath == On 15 October (N.S.) a group of Micmacs disguised as French officers called a member of the Nova Scotia Council Edward How to a conference. This trap, organized by Étienne Bâtard, gave him the opportunity to wound How seriously, and How died five or six days later, according to Captain La Vallière (probably Louis Leneuf de La Vallière), the only eye-witness.<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Micheline D. |last=Johnson |title=Bâtard, Étienne |volume=3 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/batard_etienne_3E.html}}</ref> After the battle, the British built Fort Lawrence at Chignecto and the Mi'kmaq people and Acadians continued with numerous raids on Dartmouth and Halifax.

== Gallery == <gallery> File:Battle of Chignecto by Charles Morris (inset of A chart of the sea coasts of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, 1755).png|Battle of Chignecto by Charles Morris (inset of A chart of the sea coasts of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, 1755) File:BeaubassinFortBeausejourBell.jpg|A bell retrieved by Le Loutre Beaubassin church during the battle File:40thRegimentOfFootByDavid Morier.png|Grenadier, 40th Regiment of Foot by David Morier, 1751 File:MonumentatBattleatChignecto.jpg|Monument to a village that was burned during the Battle at Chignecto File:LOUIS-FRANCOIS La CORNE.jpg|Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne, Commander at Beausejour File:HoratioGatesByStuart crop.jpg|Horatio Gates (45th Regiment) File:Lieutenant Joshua Winslow.jpg|Joshua Winslow - portrait while serving at Fort Lawrence (1755) File:45thRegimentOfFootByDavid Morier.png|45th Regiment of Foot By David Morier, 1751 General Peregrine Lascelles (1685–1772).jpg|Peregrine Lascelles (47th Regiment) File:Winckworth Tonge, Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia.jpg|Winckworth Tonge (45th Regiment) </gallery>

==References== ===Endnotes=== {{Reflist}}

===Primary sources=== * [https://archive.org/details/historyoflifesuf00grac/page/10/mode/1up?q=cornwallis The history of the life and sufferings of Henry Grace, of Basingstoke in the county of Southampton. Being a narrative of the hardships he underwent during several years captivity among the savages in North America, ... Written by himself] * [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=aeu.ark:/13960/t4th9j13f&view=1up&seq=92 Letters concerning the Battle of Chignecto. 1750.] * [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441295;view=1up;seq=315 London Magazine, July 1750, p. 291] *[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441295&view=image&seq=411&q1=nova%20scotia London Magazine, August 1750, p. 371] * [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011441295&view=image&seq=571&q1=halifax London Magazine. Nov. 1750, Vol. 19. p. 521] * [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011436469;view=1up;seq=397 The London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer ... v.21 1752, p. 359] * [https://web.lib.unb.ca/winslow/fullimagerecord.cgi?level=3&id=1065&DOCURL=%2F%77%69%6E%73%6C%6F%77%2F%66%75%6C%6C%72%65%63%6F%72%64%2E%63%67%69%3F%69%64%3D%31%31%39%26%6C%65%76%65%6C%3D%32%26%42%41%43%4B%53%54%52%3D%6C%65%76%65%6C%3D%32%26%66%69%65%6C%64%73%3D%54%69%74%6C%65%2C%43%72%65%61%74%6F%72%5F%6E%61%6D%65%2C%53%75%62%6A%65%63%74%2C%53%6F%75%72%63%65%2C%45%54%43%5F%53%65%71%75%65%6E%63%65%26%43%72%65%61%74%6F%72%5F%6E%61%6D%65%3D%26%54%69%74%6C%65%3D%26%53%75%62%6A%65%63%74%3D%26%53%6F%75%72%63%65%3D%31%2D%26%4B%65%79%77%6F%72%64%3D%26%4C%41%4E%47%3D%26%62%6F%6F%6C%65%61%6E%3D%41%4E%44%26%6F%72%64%65%72%5F%62%79%3D%49%64%65%6E%74%69%66%69%65%72%26%61%6C%6C%3D%26%6C%69%6D%69%74%3D%35%26%62%61%63%6B%75%72%6C%3D The journal of Joshua Winslow, recording his participation in the events of the year 1750 memorable in the history of Nova Scotia]

==Literature cited== * {{cite book|last=Faragher|first=John Mack|author-link=John Mack Faragher|title=A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland|url=https://archive.org/details/greatnoblescheme00fara|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=W.W Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-05135-3}} * {{cite book|last=Grenier|first=John|title=The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVG5h6G5fWMC&pg=PP1|year=2008|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3876-3}} * {{cite book|last=Griffiths|first=N.E.S.|author-link=Naomi E. S. Griffiths|title=From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604-1755|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cG4wSmIlziYC&pg=PP1|year=2005|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=978-0-7735-2699-0}} * Landry, Peter. ''The Lion & The Lily''. Vol. 1. Victoria: Trafford, 2007. * {{cite book |last=Murdoch |first=Beamish |author-link=Beamish Murdoch |title=A History of Nova-Scotia, Or Acadie |volume=II |date=1866 |publisher=J. Barnes |location=Halifax |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorynovasco01murdgoog|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorynovasco01murdgoog/page/n186 166]–167}} * Rompkey, Ronald, ed. ''Expeditions of Honour: The Journal of John Salusbury in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1749-53''. Newark: U of Delaware P, Newark, 1982.

Category:1750 in Nova Scotia Category:Military history of Acadia Category:Military history of Nova Scotia Category:Military history of New England Category:Military history of the Thirteen Colonies Category:Acadian history Chignecto Chignecto Category:Mi'kmaq in Canada Chignecto Category:Father Le Loutre's War Category:First Nations history in Nova Scotia