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Acadian Retreat: Part II

After the fall of Louisburg and Ile Royale, the British plans against New France were to take control of the Maritimes coastal areas before moving on to target Quebec, and finally Montreal. The fall of Louisburg however had taken much longer than desired, which would put a strain on supplies. In order to minimize and mitigate these shortfalls Amherst sent orders to make up some of the difference from the colonies, since they were closer and would arrive sooner, as his orders from London were to take Quebec before the end of the year and he was not sure if this would be possible. Later on, this pressure on the colonies to help fund the war would be one of their many grievances against the British government.

The first stage of the campaign would be deployments up the Petitcodiac River and on the Ile de Saint Jean, as soon as the weather permitted in Spring. The Acadian residents there knew in advance though that the British were coming. Many opted to flee, also as soon as the weather permitted. Amherst’s plans were for the deportation of Acadian back to France, as complaints from the colonies about receiving the relocated French settlers from the prior years had been mounting.

Ile de Saint Jean

The retreat began with Acadians fleeing Ile Royale the prior year for Ile de Saint Jean or the mainland, or face getting deported to New England. While the British were waiting longer for better conditions, many settlers, Acadian militia and Mi’kmaq allies, took to small boats with whatever they could to break up channels in the ice to allow routes of escape from Ile de Saint Jean to the mainland. Accounts form the period, both Acadian and British indicate numerous drowning or deaths from exposure during the exodus, but it was only a fraction of the far greater number that successfully fled the island.

The British landed on southern shore of Ile de Saint Jean on April 4th, 1759 and proceeded northwards. The found similar sights as on Ile Royale, abandoned homes and farms, empty of provisions and livestock or slaughtered and left to rot and freeze. No provisioning of the army from seizing local stores was to be had. Although Amherst had expected this based on Ile Royale, and accounted for it in his logistics, he still thought it would be less thorough than what was encountered. This kept his supply situation on quite the margin.

From April to July the British had rounded up the Acadians that had refused to flee or were unable to do so in time, and taken full control over the island. Those who surrendered and swore allegiances (or successfully hid from the British) were allowed to stay on the island, but accounts numbers this at only 125 known persons; the rest were deported to France. By the end of the Ile de Saint Jean campaign, the British had suffered 1 dead and 5 wounded soldiers for 10 dead settlers, in only a single altercation on the island. About 20 families from Ile Royale and Ile Saint Jean fled to the Ile de Madaline.

Of ~4000 Acadian settlers on Ile Royale, 1500 were deported to New England. Half of those that had fled the prior year (~1250 persons) went to Ile de Saint Jean, the other half fled to the mainland. Captured Intelligence thus put Ile de Saint Jean population at some ~5400 persons. Over two-thirds, some ~3600 persons, fled to the mainland during the Spring and Summer of 1759 during the British campaign, while some 200 were found dead by drowning or exposure washed up on the northwestern shore. British records indicated some 1,665 Acadian French were deported to France from the Ile de Saint Jean. (*unlike OTL no ships sunk on their way to France, but there were deaths from disease and starvation on board)

Based on this information, Amerst and the other British officers rightly came to the conclusion that the Acadians were receiving aid, perhaps from elements of the French fleet, and increased their patrols of the Maritime waters.

Petitcodiac River

While the Ile de Saint Jean campaign was mostly free of bloodshed, the same cannot be said of the British campaign on the Petitcodiac river. Likewise, this campaign began after sufficient ice melt, on the April 15th.

Most of those who had fled Ile Saint Jean landed north of the river and established a refugee camp along the Miramichi river were spared from the conflict along the Petitcodiac. The rest were had went to camps along the Petitcodiac or Saint John river.

The larger number of refugees allowed for a larger swelling of the Acadian Militia, who put up a greater resistance to British efforts at their expulsion, but only in terms of having more numbers. The greater population however also put a strain on resources in the area, which would make for a very difficult ’59-60 winter for the French and Mi’kmaq.

Over the course of six months, from April to September, the British along with New England Rangers fought a bloody guerilla campaign against the Acadians, the Mi’kmaq, and some Maliseet. Joseph Brousard was the principal leader of the Acadian resistance, while Benoni Danks was the principal leader of the New England Rangers.

Danks was initially successful in finding and destroying several small settlements during April, but ran into an Acadian-Mi’kmaq ambush upriver that he barely escaped. Amerhest then committed some additional 800 regulars to the campaign in May. By the campaign’s end, the British and the New England Rangers would suffer some 255 dead and wounded, while the Acadian and Mi’kmaq suffered at least over 400 known dead. There were far more dead than wounded as scalps were being taken and sold by both sides. By the campaigns end in September 1759, most Acadians had retreated further inland, or to additional camps on the Penobscot, Miramichi, or Restigouche rivers. Later on, when faced with winter and low supplies many Acadians opted to settle into numerous Mi’kmaq villages further in the interior. The Petiticodiac river campaign would only yield the known capture and deportment to France of 259 Acadian prisoners.

Additional campaigns against the Acadians along the Saint John, Penobscot, and Miramichi rivers, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence would occur in the Summer and Fall of 1759, before Amherst, facing time pressure to pursue a campaign against Quebec ,would alter some of the priorities.