Thunderclap: The Coming Struggle for Acadia

By Ronald Gaffney

“THUNDERCLAP: The Coming Struggle for Acadia” is a fictional tale set during King George’s War in America (an offshoot of the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe, 1740 – 1748) and its aftermath. It tells the story of how two military officers – one who is French and one British- are caught up in events leading to the so-called French and Indian War in the theatre of Acadia, 1755-1763. The French officer, a Lieutenant André, finds himself serving in the increasingly desperate effort to oust the British once and for all from their decades-old conquest of Nova Scotia (1710). The British officer, a Captain Bradford, fresh from serving in the suppression of the Scottish Rising (1745-1746), arrives in the midst of the war waged by France and its First Nation or ‘Indian’ allies against the British in Nova Scotia. He finds himself assisting the new British governor, Edward Cornwallis, with establishing an English `beachhead` settlement called “Halifax” and expanding British control over the restless French Acadian population through the construction of a series of forts in and around existing Acadian communities. While the careers of the two officers follow parallel yet separate courses during King George’s War, they inevitably cross paths and both participate in the cataclysmic clash known as the French and Indian War (1755-1763)-a final conflict which saw the Expulsion of much of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia and a determination of which European power- France or Great Britain- would ultimately emerge supreme on the battlefields of North America. A prequel to my novel “Fire Over Acadia”, this new tale introduces readers to the “backstory” for several of my primary characters, and completes a trilogy of tales about the colonial wars impacting Nova Scotia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984583376

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Copyright © 2020 by Ronald Gaffney.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Rev. date: 07/08/2020

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

INTRODUCTION

BEAUBASSIN

GRAND-PRÉ

QUÉBEC

LOUISBOURG

1751

1752 - 1753

1754-1755

CULLODEN

HALIFAX

CHIGNECTO

DARTMOUTH

LUNENBURG

BEAUSÉJOUR

PARIS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to acknowledge the ongoing love, assistance and support of my family during the process of writing this work, most especially my wife Cynthia, my sons Thomas and Charles and their families, without whom Thunderclap: The Coming Struggle for Acadia could not have been completed. The process of writing historical fiction is very labour-intensive: It consists of a lot of research, crafting believable characters and storylines, plus ensuring that the tale is both balanced and accurate from an historical perspective. My family has allowed me both the time and space to indulge in this all-consuming literary exercise and I heartily thank them for it.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

ACADIA – Established in 1605, Acadia was a French colony with its own governor who, in turn, was answerable to the Governor-General of New France at Québec. Located in the American Northeast, Acadia was valued by both early French and English colonists for its fish, forests, produce and strategic position astride important sea lanes.

ACADIANS – The original French emigrants from France to Acadia and their descendants. Eventually numbering in the thousands, they created settlements in what are today the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick along with portions of eastern Québec and eastern Maine, USA.

BEAUBASSIN – Founded between 1671 and 1672, Beaubassin was a significant Acadian agricultural settlement located on the Isthmus of Chignecto near present-day Amherst, Nova Scotia. Occasionally raided by New England rangers and their First Nation allies, the site of this French village was finally seized by British troops commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Lawrence in September, 1750, who raised a fort on a nearby ridge, Fort Lawrence.

BRITISH – Citizens of the United Kingdom, but in the context of this book, chiefly those persons from the British Isles, although the settlers in the Thirteen American Colonies were also considered British before the American Revolution (1776-1783).

BRIG - A two-mast, square-rigged sailing ship popular during the 18th century.

CHIGNECTO – An area in southeastern New Brunswick and northern Nova Scotia dominated by low- lying grasslands. Chignecto became the boundary between French -held Northern Acadia and the British territory of Nova Scotia, seized from the French in 1713. It featured two important fortifications: Fort Beauséjour (French) and Fort Lawrence (British).

CULLODEN – A Scottish village three miles east of Inverness, Scotland, and near the site of a major clash between British forces and their Scottish allies versus a mixed Scottish ’Jacobite’ and French force in April, 1746. The Franco-Jacobite army was decimated and all hopes of Jacobite leader Charles Stuart reclaiming the British throne for his royal line were put to rest permanently.

ENGLISH – In the context of this book, mainly the English speakers of Nova Scotia, whether from Great Britain or British North America, although occasionally used in relation to the peoples and militaries of Great Britain and the Thirteen British North American Colonies.

FRENCH – Subjects of the French Crown, whether from France or emigrants to the French colonies of New France and Acadia and later, the Acadian population in the Northeast after the British conquest of Nova Scotia in 1713. The term French is sometimes used in this book to describe both subjects and soldiers from France living beyond Acadia, as well as the Acadians themselves.

FRIGATE – Fast, manoeuvrable warship usually featuring cannons placed along a single, continuous deck.

FOREIGN PROTESTANTS – German, Swiss and French Protestant settlers brought to Nova Scotia by the British to help populate that colony.

GRAND PRÉ – Founded in 1680, Grand Pré was a sizable Acadian agricultural settlement featuring a renowned series of Acadian dikes and reclaimed farmland. The settlement was the object of English raids and was once dominated by a British fort, Fort Vieux Logis (1749) which became a beacon for First Nations attacks. Grand Pré was closely associated with the British removal of the Acadian population out of Nova Scotia in 1755.

HALIFAX – Founded in 1749 by British emigrants and their military, the town of Halifax on Nova Scotia’s southern coast quickly became an important naval base and ‘counterbalance’ to French Louisbourg. Halifax rapidly eclipsed the old British colonial capital of Annapolis Royal in terms of both population and economy.

ISLE ROYALE – Now, present-day Cape Breton Island and part of the province of Nova Scotia in Eastern Canada. Isle Royale became a ‘standalone’ French colony after the British acquisition of Acadia in 1713. It became home to an important fortress and settlement at Louisbourg on the Island’s southeastern coast.

ISLE SAINT -JEAN – Now, the present-day province of Prince Edward Island. It was a dependency of Isle Royale prior to the fall of the Louisbourg Fortress in 1758 and was surrendered to the British around that time.

LOUISBOURG – An important fortress town and capital of the French colony of Isle Royale after 1713. Captured by a New England force and the Royal Navy in 1745, the fortress was returned to France with the peace of 1748, but again fell victim to a British siege in 1758.

MALISEET – A First Nations aboriginal people occupying the St. John River Valley (or the river Saint-Jean to the French) now in the present- day province of New Brunswick, also called St. John’s Indians.

MI’KMAQ – A First Nations aboriginal people living throughout much of Maritime Canada and eastern Québec, also called Cape Sable Indians.

NEW ENGLANDERS – English inhabitants of the American Colonies stretching from Maine (a ‘district’ administered by Massachusetts) to Connecticut in northeastern America.

NOVA SCOTIA – Acquired by conquest in 1713, this British colony, formerly part of French Acadia, was contested by the French and First Nations tribes until 1760. The colony was chiefly centred on the peninsula of Nova Scotia but nominally included much of present- day New Brunswick, eastern Québec and eastern Maine, USA.

PROVINCIALS – Regiments of troops chiefly drawn from among the male population of the original Thirteen Colonies or British provinces.

RANGERS – A corps of frontiersmen originally formed in New England and officered by colonists, while the ranks were initially made up of New England First Nations warriors. Later, more non-aboriginal colonists joined the ranks and ranger units were deployed to both Nova Scotia and the northern American frontier, especially New York.

REGULARS – Troops serving in France’s or Great Britain’s standing armies, normally grouped together in various ‘numbered’ or named regiments.

SLOOP – A small square- rigged sailing ship with two or three masts.

SHIP OF THE LINE – The heaviest wooden warships used by the 18thcentury colonial powers, typically carrying in excess of 70 cannons and 600 men per ship.

*NOTES: 1. Before September 2, 1752, the French and British calendars did not align. There is a difference of between 10 or 11 days in the dates recorded by these European powers for significant events. I have chosen, for the most part, to cite the most commonly used dates for specific events (be they British or French) or I simply refer to the time of the month an event occurred.

2. Both the terms Sachem and Sakamaw are used in the book and roughly translate from First Nations dialects into an English description of a First Nations chief or headman, the former being a term commonly used for Abenaki and other Wabanaki leaders, exclusive of the Mi’kmaq, and the latter being the actual Mi’kmaq term of reference, sometimes used by both the British and French.

3. I refer to the Wabanaki in this book, denoting a Confederacy of Eastern Indian or First Nations tribes that was certainly active before 1760. The Abenaki of western Maine were associated with the Confederacy but this grouping consisted of several small, distinct nations. The Mi’kmaq were members of the alliance but their traditions, language and customs were quite unique when compared with their Wabanaki neighbours. The Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot were all closely aligned politically, militarily and culturally and spoke variations of the same language, an Algonkian dialect.

NOVA%20SCOTIA.jpg

Nova Scotia, 1755

David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com

INTRODUCTION

King George’s War (1744-1748) was France’s last best hope of wrestling Nova Scotia back from its British conquerors and restoring French Acadia. France had made several overt, and a number of covert, attempts to regain Nova Scotia since the Acadian capital of Port Royal fell to the British after a siege in 1710. All of Acadia was ceded by France to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. But what was Acadia? France had once claimed that all of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island (Isle Royale), Prince Edward Island (Isle Saint-Jean), mainland New Brunswick and the District of Maine as far as the Kennebec River constituted Acadia ; however, once Great Britain seized Port Royal (changing its name to Annapolis Royal) France quickly reconfigured its claim in order to retain vast swaths of territory in the Northeast: Suddenly, Acadia was only the surrendered fort at Port Royal and a small zone around that place, according to the French. The rest of what is today Maritime Canada and eastern Maine was alleged to be either possessed by the French by treaty or was held by the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq First Nations (all Wabanaki Nations) -who hosted French Acadian settlements and French military installations. Great Britain, of course, not only pushed back against such French claims but sent its settlers and soldiers east from Massachusetts well into Maine and expanded its zones of occupation within Nova Scotia-east from Annapolis Royal and around the fortified British fishing settlement at Canso. This created a great deal of friction between the English, Acadians and the First Nation tribes.

By 1744, with a war raging in Europe pitting France against Great Britain, the French, while barely holding on to their very vulnerable Louisbourg Fortress, decided to strike first: France sent its marines, Acadian ‘bushrangers’ and its Mi’kmaq and Maliseet First Nation allies against vulnerable British targets within Nova Scotia. Canso fell and Annapolis Royal was besieged. Deprived of heavy cannons and with no naval support, early French and First Nations efforts at capturing the British fort at Annapolis were unsuccessful, but France and her allies were far from done: Annapolis was surrounded in 1744, 1745 and again in 1746 with French and Indian land forces throwing themselves at the Annapolis fort (Fort Anne) in a desperate bid to raze the place. English settlements in Maine were also struck, but in a bid to strike back New Englanders mounted an impressive and ultimately successful effort to capture the Louisbourg Fortress in 1745. As blows were traded by the European powers, the fighting became increasingly brutal in America, with English rangers joining the fray against France’s Indian allies and both sides paying large bounties for the scalps of their adversaries.

Our story revolves around two protagonists: A French lieutenant, Charles Paul de Saint-André, who served with the Compagnies Franches de la Marine in New France and Acadia, and Captain Richard Bradford, an officer with the 45th Regiment of Foot, who fought in Scotland and America. Both did their best to serve their