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Significant Historical Happenings: 1758.
In Connection With:
Bk. 1, Pt. 7. - "The Second Siege of Louisbourg.
- FEBRUARY, 1758:
§February 24th: Boscawen's fleet clears the English Channel.
- MARCH, 1758:
§March 19th: Hardy arrives at Halifax aboard the Captain. He finds the squadron that had "wintered at Halifax in a great state of forwardness." Hardy detaches part of his fleet and puts it under Durrell with instructions to go to New York and arrange for the transportation of the soldiers who had wintered over there.
§March 24th/28th: A French naval fleet of six men-o-war with supplies and men makes its way into Louisbourg Harbour.
- APRIL, 1758:
§April 5th: Hardy leaves Halifax with eight ships of the line and one frigate. In short order Hardy is capturing French supply ships off of Louisbourg and arranging for them to be run into Halifax.
§April 23rd: Lawrence and his battalion leave Boston; they arrive Halifax on the 28th.
§April 28th: By this time quite a collection of ships had arrived at Halifax from England, including Ordinance Store Ships, war ships, and transports. (The transports had Amherst's Regiments aboard.)
§April: Louisbourg: The French are now manning the beach defences erected the previous year.
- MAY, 1758:
§May 7: Drucour brings the Port Toulose (St. Peters) and Port Dauphin (St. Anne's) garrisons into Louisbourg. (See map.)
§May 9th: Boscawen, finally, arrives at Halifax with nine ships of the line, one frigate and two fire ships. With one or two exceptions all the ships arrived "healthy." Wolfe arrives on the 80 gun Princess Amelia.
§May 12th: One of the ships that had been off Louisbourg with Hardy's squadron comes into Halifax Harbour with a report: snow storms, French ships may have gotten into harbour and entrenchment work under way on the shores.
§May 13th: Halifax: Brigadiers give orders to exercise the men and to keep them "in health and vigour."
§May, 16th: Durrell's detachment arrives back at Halifax, from New York having on board the 17th and 22nd Regiments, together with "Artillery and Stores." The fleet includes 2 men-o-war, three frigates and "Thirty-two empty Transports and Victualers."
§May 20th: Governor Lawrence signs a proclamation calling for a representative assembly, the first in the province. The government in Nova Scotia, up to this time, consisted of an appointed group of men headed up by the governor or lieutenant governor.
§May 21st: Halifax: Admiral Boscawen issues his orders in respect to the landings when at Louisbourg.
§May 24th: Halifax: Wolfe throws a party at the Great Pontack.
§May 29th: The invasion fleet leaves Halifax.
§May 29th: Du Chaffault de Besné's fleet moors itself in St Anne's Bay. Aboard is the Cambis Regiment which is destined for Louisbourg.
- JUNE, 1758:
§June 2nd: The fleet, after sailing in "light airs," arrives at Garbarus Bay, several miles south-west of Louisbourg.
§June 6th: The troops are loaded into the boats but after rowing to the shore find it impossible to land.
§June 7th (Wednesday): "Hoping that the next day would bring better weather, Boscawen gave orders to the captains to have their boats at the transports at midnight, and that profound silence should be observed."
§June 7th: The Cambis regiment marches into Louisbourg. They had marched overland from Baie des Espagnols (Sydney) having been ferried there from St Anne's. Drucour immediately assigns these new arrivals to the shore positions at White Point and Flat Point.
§June 8: the English troops effect a landing and advance to within a cannon shot of the fortress of Louisbourg.
§June 8th/9th: The Royal Battery is abandoned.
§June 9th/10th: The battery at the Lighthouse Point is abandoned.
§June 16th: "Due to continuing bad weather it was 16 June before a moderate reserve of 12 days provisions was landed."
§June 17: Weather had been bad, and, it would appear, that only now does Amherst come ashore to personally look over the ground, and, accompanied by his officers, rides out toward the citadel.
§June 18: the first 24-lb gun is landed.
§June 19th-20: the Lighthouse Battery built on the spot by the English starts its deadly fire.
§June 21st: Minutes of Council at Halifax: "Mr. Josiah Marshall proposed to build a workhouse, 50 feet long, 20 feet wide and 8 feet high, in the town. The timber to be laid close, with a roof double boarded and shingled; to have 4 windows on each side, each window to have nine panes of glass and three iron grates; to have a stair case in the entry and a whipping post."
§June 27th-28: Five vessels are sunk by the French in an effort to block the mouth of Louisbourg harbour.
- JULY, 1758:
§July 6th: During the night, within Louisbourg, "a shell exploded in the crowded hospital, killing the surgeon of the Volontaires Etrangers, and dangerously wounding two of the brothers."
§July 9th: 700 French, under Lieutenant-Colonel Michel Martin de Bourzt, make a brief night sortie out of the fort "skirted the coast as far as Cape Noir, passed the British lines in dramatic silence," and took over one of the British position's held by the Forbes' Grenadiers. They didn't hold it for long, for the British soon forced the French back into their fort.
§July 21st: A "red-hot" cannon ball from one of the English land batteries ignites some powder on the Célèbre; it, the Entreprenant, and the Capricieux are lost to a raging fire.
§July 22nd: A fire within the city spreads to the King's Bastion.
§July 23rd: The Queen's Bastion catches fire.
§July 25th: English marines sneak into Louisbourg Harbour and manage to cut out the Prudent and the Bienfaisant.
§July 26th: Louisbourg capitulates.
§July 30th: Hardy's fleet comes in; and, Boscawen's on August 1st. A most impressive sight as about 130 sailing vessels fill up Louisbourg Harbour.
- AUGUST, 1758:
§August 1st: News is received of Abercromby's defeat at Ticonderoga.
§August 8th: A British detachment issues out of Louisbourg and after capturing St. Anne and Spanish Bay (Sydney) proceed to Isle St Jean (present day Prince Edward Island) and after some forceful representations made to the French Lieutenant-Governor at Port la Joie (current day Charlottetown). The garrison of 500 soldiers, after "several hours" of sword rattling, surrenders.
§August 15: Most of the more important French residents of Louisbourg are returned to France, including "Drucour, his lady and retinue." They embark on English vessels.
§August 15: A number of the British troops are sent to Halifax.
§August 30: Amherst sails for Boston. (Arrives September 13th.)
- SEPTEMBER, 1758:
§August/September: British naval ships raid French villages right up to the Gaspe coast.
§August/September: 3540 French people are taken off of Isle St. Jean and deported to France.
§September 26th: Lawrence arrives back at Halifax from Louisbourg.
- OCTOBER, 1758:
§October 1st: The first Representative Assembly ever held in what is now known as Canada meets at the Court House at Halifax (corner of Buckingham and Argyle). No longer was Nova Scotia to look to the laws of another English colony (Virginia) to see what was legal or not: the province came of age.
§October 2nd: The first assembly met. It was to consist of 22 members, 4 elected by the freeholders of the township of Halifax, 2 from the township of Lunenburg, and 16 from the province at large.
§October 1st: Boscawen sails for England with most of his ships. He leaves "behind sixteen men-o-war to deal with the local situation over the winter and to serve as an advance guard for operations planned against Quebec in the spring." Durrell is left behind to command the fleet.
- DECEMBER, 1758:
§December: The newly created legislative assembly is in "full cry" against the Admiralty Court and attempts, in the face of the Governor's "firm but polite refusal," to bring the Court under its jurisdiction. The assembly, which by and large represented the merchant class, does not succeed.
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Peter Landry
2012 (2020)