Siege of Grand Pré

40th Regiment of Foot by David Morier, 1751

Military history of the Mi'kmaq
Miꞌkmaw warrior
Events
Battle of Port La Tour 1677 Raid on Salmon Falls 1690 Raid on Chignecto 1696 Avalon Peninsula Campaign 1696–97 Northeast Coast Campaign 1703 Raid on Grand Pré 1704 Siege of St. John's 1705 ‪Battle of St. John's 1709 Siege of Port Royal 1710 Raid on Port Roseway 1715 Battle of Winnepang 1722 Blockade of Annapolis Royal 1722 Raid on Canso 1744 Siege of Annapolis Royal 1744 Siege of Port Toulouse 1745 Siege of Louisbourg 1745 Naval battle off Tatamagouche 1745 ‪Battle at Port-la-Joye 1746 Battle of Grand Pré 1747 Raid on Dartmouth 1749 Siege of Grand Pre 1749 ‪Battle at St. Croix 1750 Battle at Chignecto 1750 Raid on Dartmouth 1751 Attack at Mocodome 1753 Battle of Fort Beauséjour 1755 Battle of Petitcodiac 1755 Battle of Bloody Creek 1757 Siege of Louisbourg 1758 Lunenburg Campaign 1758 Battle of Restigouche 1760 Halifax Treaties 1761
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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) protecting their land by killing British civilians along the New England/Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).[4]

To prevent the establishment of Protestant settlements in the region, Mi'kmaq raided the early British settlements of 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.[5]

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-Pré (Fort Vieux Logis) and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). (A British fort - Fort Anne - already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Cobequid remained without a fort.) There were numerous Mi'kmaq and Acadian raids on these fortifications such as the siege of Grand Pré.

Just prior to the Siege, on September 30, 1749, about forty Mi'kmaq attacked six men who were cutting trees at a saw mill in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Four of them were killed on the spot, one was taken prisoner and one escaped.[6] Two of the men were scalped and the heads of the others were cut off. A detachment of rangers was sent after the raiding party and cut off the heads of two Mi'kmaq and scalped one.[7]

On October 2, 1749, Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation. The siege of Grand Pré was the first recorded conflict after Cornwallis’ proclamation.

On November 27, 1749, 300 Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and an Acadian militia (11 Acadians) attacked Fort Vieux Logis at Grand-Pré .[8] The fort was under the command of John Handfield[2] of the 40th Regiment of Foot (Cornwallis' Regiment). The Native and Acadian militia killed the sentries (guards) who were firing on them.[9] The Natives then captured Lieutenant John Hamilton (Otho Hamilton's son) and eighteen soldiers under his command (including Handfield's son William),[10] while surveying the fort's environs.[lower-alpha 2] (They also captured six women and a soldier nearby.)[11] After the capture of the British soldiers, the native and Acadian militias made several attempts over the next week to lay siege to the fort before breaking off the engagement. When Gorham's Rangers arrived the militia had already departed with the prisoners to Chignecto.[12]

Captain Nicholas Cox

On March 18, 1750, Gorham's Rangers left Fort Sackville (Nova Scotia), under orders from Governor Cornwallis to march to Pisiquid (Windsor). Their mission was to establish a blockhouse at Pisiquid (i.e., Fort Edward), and to seize the property of Acadians who had participated in the Siege of Grand-Pré.[13] (En route, Gorham engaged the Mi’kmaq in the Battle at St. Croix).

The Mi’kmaq and Acadians continued raids on the Protestant settlements, such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751) and the Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1756). For the Maliseet, it was their first breach of the Peace Treaty that they had made with Cornwallis months earlier.[14]

The prisoners spent two years in captivity before being ransomed. In August 1751, Lt. John Hamilton (whose father Otho was formerly on the Nova Scotia Council) and his father-in-law from his first marriage William Shirriff (also a member of the Nova Scotia Council) negotiated the release for Hamilton and the other 60 Englishmen who had been imprisoned over the two years.[15][lower-alpha 3] (They were traded for a daughter of native chief Captain Sam (Jerome Atecouando[16] - a former soldier of Gorham's. She was taken prisoner at St. John River in 1748 by Gorham's Rangers and kept with Gorham's wife in Boston.[16][17]) The Governor and Council paid Le Loutre's ransom of £882 to release sixty prisoners of officers, soldiers and settlers, including Hamilton.[18] As late as June 1754, Captain Hamilton wrote Governor Lawrence a letter of support for Abbe Le Loutre.[19][lower-alpha 4]

• Fort Vieux Logis
• Hamilton's letter to Cornwallis 05 January 1750
• John Handfield in Acadia