(1745)
The French commander of Louisbourg fortress at the entrance to the St. Lawrence River launched the renewed Anglo‐French war in 1744 by capturing Canso, besieging Annapolis (Nova Scotia), and encouraging raids on New England shipping. New England responded by besieging Louisbourg with 4,000 volunteers, led by William Pepperrell and supported by Commodore Peter Warren's British naval squadron. With French aid intercepted, and the fortress bombarded by both field cannon and those of its own captured Grand Battery, Louisbourg's 600‐man garrison surrendered after a 39‐day siege in which 101 attackers and 53 defenders were killed.
Louisbourg's fall had wide‐ranging consequences. Cancellation of Britain's planned invasion of Canada in 1746 allowed relieved Canadian defenders to capture both Fort Massachusetts and Saratoga. France's Indian allies in the Ohio Valley, deprived of supplies by the siege of Louisbourg, formed a pro‐British “Indian Conspiracy.” France sent a massive sixty‐four‐vessel armada to Louisbourg, only to have it disrupted en route by storms, calms, and disease. Naval escalation strained British colonial resources, necessitating imperial assistance and causing the frictions that provoked a three‐day impressment riot in Boston late in 1747. New Englanders felt betrayed when Britain returned Louisbourg to the French at the Peace of Aix‐la‐Chapelle (1748).
[See also Canada, U.S. Military Involvement in.]
Bibliography
- G. A. Rawlyk, Yankees at Louisbourg, 1967
