Raid on Canso
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Raid on Canso | |||||||
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Part of King George's War | |||||||
Fort William Augustus, Canso | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Mi'kmaq militia ) | Great Britain | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
François Dupont Duvivier | George Ryall (POW) | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Troupes de la marine |
40th Regiment | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
17 vessels
351 soldiers
|
over 100 men several ships | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
5 prisoners,[1] 2 wounded, 1 killed[2] | 1 killed, 4 wounded, about 100 captured |
The Raid on Canso was an attack by French forces from
Background
The inhabitants of Louisbourg received word of France's declaration of war on Great Britain on May 3, 1744. The colony had been facing dwindling provisions, a situation which was aggravated when the news of war brought the threat of British action cutting off the supply lines of Louisbourg. Under these circumstances, the continuance of the colony's provisioning necessitated military action. Furthermore, orders from
Battle
The expedition of
Aftermath
The success of the raid on Canso caused great excitement and celebration in Louisbourg, bolstering the morale of the French citizenry and their native allies, while depriving Britain of a strategic base in eastern Nova Scotia. However the task of maintaining more than one hundred prisoners taxed the colony's already strained food supply.
Once the 40th regiment's officers and men were paroled in September 1744, the regiment was evacuated to Boston where they (particularly John Bradstreet) provided valuable information on the defences of Louisbourg for the British siege the following year.[7] Governor Shirley was having difficulty raising troops requested by Mascarene and therefore he ordered the ex-Canso garrison to Annapolis Royal.[8]
The raid was followed by
See also
References
- Endnotes
- ^ Pote, William (1896). The Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr., during his Captivity in the French and Indian War from May, 1745, to August, 1747. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 75.
- ^ a b Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Vol. I. Boston. 1792. pp. 22-23.
- ^ Joseph Emerson. Diary kept at the Siege of Louisburg. March 15-August 14, 1745. Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1910, pp. 10-11.
- ^ Johnson, Micheline D. (1974). "Padanuques, Jacques". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. III (1741–1770) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. Donahue used the same strategy of posing as a French ship to entrap Chief Pandanuques as he does in the Naval battle off Tatamagouche, after which Donahue was tortured and killed by the Mi'kmaq.
- ^ Pierre Malliard.MEMORIAL OF THE Motives of the Savages, called Mickmakis and Maricheets, for continuing the War with England since the last Peace.
- ^ Drake, Samuel G. (1870). A Particular History of the Five Years French and Indian War in New England and Parts Adjacent, ... Sometime Called Governor Shirley's War. Boston: Samuel G. Drake. p. 77.
- ^ "The 40th Regiment of Foot in North America during the French and Indian War".
- ISBN 978-1-55109-740-4.
- ^ Geoffrey Plank. An Unsettled Conquest, 2001. p. 110.
- Texts
- Bernard Pothier. The Siege of Annapolis Royal, 1744. The Nova Scotia Historical Review. 59-71
- Johnson, A.J.B. The Summer of 1744: A Portrait of Life in 18th-Century Louisbourg. Parks Canada, 2002.
- George A. Rawlyk. Yankees at Louisbourg: The Story of the First Siege, 1745. Brenton Books. 1999.
- McLennan, J.S. (1918). Louisbourg, from Its Foundation to Its Fall, 1713-1758. London: Macmillan. p. 111.