Battle of Fort Beauséjour

Battle of Fort Beauséjour
Part of the Seven Years' War
Lewis Parker's Camp of the British 43rd Regiment at Fort Beauséjour features grenadiers and regular infantry at the siege.
Date June 3-16, 1755 Location Near Sackville, New Brunswick Result British victory
Combatants
Kingdom of France	Kingdom of Great Britain
Commanders
Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor	Robert Monckton
Strength
Unknown	2,000
Casualties
162 dead, wounded, or captured	Unknown

The Battle of Fort Beauséjour marked the opening of a British-American offensive in the French and Indian War. From June 3 to the French capitulation of June 16, 1755, a powerful British army under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Monckton staged out of nearby Fort Lawrence and besieged the garrison of Fort Beauséjour in the goal of opening the Isthmus of Chignecto to British control.

Although the commander of Fort Beausejour, the Marquis Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor, subject to intense bombardment, defied the British for two weeks, there was little the French could realistically do to lift the siege in the face of overwhelming British superiority. On June 16, after British mortar fire breached defective fortification works and badly mauled the garrison, de Vergor surrendered.

The next day, the French abandoned nearby Fort Gaspareaux, severing communications with Acadia.

The campaign of 1755 was not strategically decisive and did little to threaten New France's territorial integrity, with Edward Braddock's simultaneous thrust into the Ohio Valley ending in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela. However the impact on the local population was catastrophic. French-speaking Acadians, who previously had declared neutrality in the conflict between France and Britain, participated in the battle on behalf of the French. This open breach of neutrality, though it was their duty (Hand, p. 50), was viewed by the British as unacceptable. Under the direction of Monckton, Acadians in the surrounding area, and later throughout Acadia, were rounded up and either imprisoned or deported.

See more at Great Upheaval.

Further reading

• Chris M. Hand, The Siege of Fort Beausejour 1755, Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions/New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, 2004.

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