Why was louisbourg important

Pepperrell Named Leader In order to encourage enlistments, a popular leader would be required. Shirley persuaded William Pepperrell, a well-known and successful merchant and trader, to take command of the venture.

After expressing some misgivings over his lack of military experience, he accepted the assignment as a matter of duty. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of his nomination and acceptance.

Recruiting of men in Massachusetts was vigorous and met with success. Over 3, volunteered for land duty and 1, for ship duty. Shirley's appeals to the other colonies for help met with mingled success: Connecticut offered a man force if the post of second in command was given to its Roger Walcott; Rhode Island offered men and a ship; New York offered the loan only of ten pounder cannon; New Jersey and Pennsylvania offered no help; and New Hampshire offered men but only if Massachusetts paid of them!

Shirley accepted all these offers at the conditions proposed. The Jamaica command took no action, but Warren showed interest because of his conviction that Louisbourg must be taken. Events moved along rapidly and on March 24th embarkation of troops started in Boston. One week later Shirley received the welcome news from Warren that he was starting north with four warships to assist.

After rough passages for some ships, the transports began to arrive at the rendezvous port of Canso, Nova Scotia early in April and on April 23rd Warren's squadron was welcomed as was the Connecticut contingent in their own ships.

Landings Begin On May 10th moderating weather and the melting of ice at the destination allowed the combined fleets to sail from Canso. The next day all ships arrived and anchored in Gabarus Bay, three miles west of the Citadel. Landing of troops commenced the next morning and a good campsite was picked. A small force of French troops sallied from the fortress to offer at least token resistance to the landings, but it was easily beaten off. By evening of the 11th 2, troops were ashore without casualty.

All troops were ashore the next day after "wading-into the water to their middles and higher — and were obliged to lay on the cold ground and in their wet cloaths under no better covering than boughs laid together". About midnight on the 12th the ubiquitous Vaughn, now a colonel, was ordered to lead a force of men to reconnoiter the settlement and area around the Grand Battery, its capture being the first order of business for the expedition.

Most of the men got out of hand, set fire to warehouses and homes and returned to camp with such plunder as they could carry. Vaughn and 12 of his men remained at the scene and at dawn he observed that the Grand Battery appeared deserted!

The French had abandoned it as indefensible from the land side on the day before. Vaughn and his small band took possession at once and with it 28 pounder heavy cannon, two pounders, and appreciable ammunition. The cannon had been spiked, but gunsmiths with the expedition were able to clear then with some effort and the next day some of them were firing at the main bastion.

Events followed rapidly from this point on. On May 15th French fishing villages north of Louisbourg were destroyed by a naval force, this to satisfy New England's fishing interests. Many of the captured heavy cannon were placed on heavy sledges and dragged by manpower from the Grand Battery to. Hundreds of men were used to move these great guns through supposedly impassable low ground and over rocky points. By May 30th the attackers had completed a series of entrenchments and two advanced batteries that kept the West Gate under heavy bombardment.

On June 6th a surprise night attack on the French Island Battery by men failed completely, with 60 men killed and taken prisoner — the first and only real set-back of the campaign. This view, from the northeast, shows the Dauphine Gate, the main entrance to the town in the foreground, and the Dauphine Demi-Bastion to the right. Both were severely damaged by the New Englanders in the siege.

By June 21st, Pepperrell had completed batteries on Lighthouse Point and taken the Island Battery under- fire from- this higher point. To the chagrin of the New Englanders, only three years later the town was restored to the French by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In Louisbourg was besieged a second time. Without a strong navy to patrol the sea beyond its walls, Louisbourg was impossible to defend.

Attacking with 13, troops supported by a 14, crew on board ships, a British army captured the fortress in seven weeks. Determined that Louisbourg would never again become a fortified French base, the British demolished the fortress walls. Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site. Etienne Verrier was criticized for his siege craft and he vastly overspent his estimates to build his house, but if you appreciate the aesthetic flair of Louisbourg and its public architecture, give the designer his due.

This was another house full of children, for Lieutenant Pierre Benoist c had seven children in his two marriages. One died young killed with her mother by smallpox. The literate minority could instruct their children at home with alphabets and primers, and all children were expected to learn prayers and catechism.

Soon after puberty, boys were apprenticed into trades and professions and learned the skills they needed on the job. The bare storehouse walls on the left side of Rue Toulouse are interrupted by a large public well, one of several in the town for those without wells in their yards.

Few drank water in any case. Listen for the bell ringing the hours from the slim tower - the clock below it has only an hour hand. Sense the solidity in the warm stone as you follow the long lines out to either end, where the prevailing symmetry has been broken by a delay -now an endless one - in raising the right end of the roof to match the left end.

The defects of this elegant barracks harassed its builders and residents almost from the start of construction in Its roof slates were fire resistant but leaky, its mortar and beams and floors prone to crack or rot, its fireplaces drafty and smoking. This was no priest-ridden colony. Though almost all the people were Catholic, the Church had neither abundant property nor independent wealth. The patron above the altar is the saint-king of France, Louis IX. There are also the remains of an unidentified child buried here.

Beyond the chapel, the apartments of the governor dominate this wing and all the citadel. Most of the governors who lived in these apartments were middle-aged navel officers, more practiced in military affairs than in government.

His body, exhumed from beneath the chapel floor in , revealed the range of illnesses that had killed him - he had lost a leg in combat and also suffered from arthritis, arteriosclerosis, and dental abscesses. The long detailed inventory made of the estate he left guided both the design and the furnishing of these reconstructed rooms. The troops could drill and muster in the space that remained. Close scrutiny of this big building can reveal how an empire was run. To maintain royal sway over far-flung colonies, paperwork was as vital as fortresses and fleets.

While the engineer built Louisbourg and the governor symbolized its authority, the man who lived here kept the colony running. In the offices overlooking the quay, the administrator and his clerks filled up books of correspondence, maintained the colonial accounts, and compiled their statistical reports for the Ministry of Marine.

Built as a private residence, the house became royal property in and expanded with the power of its occupants. The administrators were professional servants of the Crown who hoped to win promotion by proving themselves here. Duly promoted, he went on to both fortune and disgrace as the last Intendant of New France.

The stables behind the residence, at the corner of Rue Royale, are another sign of authority. Boats were needed more than horses in this colony. Few homeowners built large stables like these and a horse and carriage proclaimed wealth and prestige.

This establishment catered to the well to do of Louisbourg and their taste for gambling. Here visiting captains and merchants, waiting for their vessel to be reloaded for the return voyage to Quebec or France, could play cards or other games of chance. Born in Acadia, she came to Louisbourg in the widow of a corsair captain, a privateer, with three young children. She is surrounded by family in Louisbourg, as many of her grown children and the children of her cousin, Joseph Dugas, live nearby.

In the open square facing Le Billard stands a carcan- a post with an iron collar- where those found guilty of relatively petty crimes, such as minor theft, might be sentenced to stay so that the public could witness their punishment.

Justice was demonstrative: part of its value was that the general public see it was carried out and thus be satisfied that justice was done or be deterred from crime themselves. His kinship ties extended throughout the colonial elite, and he received choice postings around the colony. De la Plagne sometimes used his troops as domestiques in his home, and a young soldier called La Fleur later used the knowledge he had gained working in this house. On a dark night in he scaled the fence, forced a window and robbed his captain of a few coins.

It was not a planned theft - swift discovery and conviction saw the soldier branded and whipped through the streets.