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England and France went back to war in
1701, and once again the backwash hit their American colonies.
The new
war was called the War of Spanish Succession in Europe and Queen
Anne's War in North America. It was fought to decide who would
be given the Spanish throne after the death of King Carlos II.
None of the European issues had any bearing on life in North
America, but it was another opportunity for New England to grab
the rich Acadian peninsula.
In 1701, Jacques de Brouillan, who
was then governor in Acadia, tried in vain to negotiate
neutrality with the Americans, but Joseph Dudley, the new
English governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, had other
ideas. His troops struck in 1702 at Penobscot, but were driven
back. Over the next several years, Acadians and some of their
Indian allies retaliated, hitting village after village as far
south as Portland, Maine. At the same time, troops from Quebec
attacked New England, striking at Deerfield, Connecticut, where
200 British were killed or taken prisoner during the night of
February 26, 1704.
In May 1704, three British warships,
four transports, and 36 other ships, loaded with 1,300 men,
headed for Acadia under the command of Colonel Benjamin
Church, who had successfully raided the Beaubassin area of the
Acadian peninsula in 1696. He had orders from Governor Dudley to
burn every home in Acadia, smash all of the dikes
protecting recovered lands, and to haul off everything and
everyone he could.
Church took Penobscot easily and
killed or imprisoned everyone there. He then moved to
Passamoquoddy Bay, at the mouth of the Saint Croix River, and
looted and destroyed everything there. He arrived at Port Royal
on July 2, 1704, but had to retreat three days later because of
the stiff Acadian resistance. He did burn a number of homes and
took 30 prisoners.
At Grand Pré, the Acadians
fled into the woods after smashing their dikes to flood the
low-lying shore and make it impossible for Church to unload his
troops. At
Beaubassin, British troops went ashore during a heavy
fog on July 28. They burned about 20 houses and killed all of
the livestock they found, and returned to New England.
The British struck again at Port
Royal on June 6, 1707. More than 1,000 men were aboard the
British ships sent from Boston. According to Charles Mahaffie,
"In terms of numbers and guns, they were a mighty army. Their
problem was that they did not know what they were doing. They
were laborers, fishermen, and mechanics, led by officers as
unprepared as their men. The generalissimo was Colonel John
March, a militia officer who had seen frontier service and whose
courage was undoubted, but who knew little about warfare of
cannonade and siege and nothing about commanding big forces. His
counterpart on the French side, in contrast, was a capable
professional, an experienced soldier named Daniel d'Auger de
Subercase."
Subercase was the latest royal
governor sent to
Acadia and, finally, perhaps as much by
luck as by planning, this successor to Brouillan was the right
man in the right place at the right time. After a 10-day siege,
March ordered his men back to their ships, leaving behind about
100 dead and as many wounded. He withdrew to Portland, Maine,
where Governor Dudley sent him reinforcements with orders to try
again.
When March did not move quickly
enough, Dudley replaced him with Colonel Francis Wainright. On
August 20, 1707, some 2,000 men and about 20 ships stood off
Port Royal. Once again, Subercase was ready for them.
The Acadians, who were warned of the
approaching fleet by friendly Indians, had dug in for defense.
The British withdrew after a 16-day siege and heavy losses. On
the night of September 4, they pulled out for Massachusetts,
going home to an angry reception from citizens who feared the
French and wanted them killed, captured, and shipped someplace
else.
But, if the Acadians could not be
dislodged by land attacks, there were other ways to accomplish
the goal. The British controlled the Atlantic and guarded the
coast of North America so closely that
Acadia was cut off
from France. Besieged as they were, the Acadians could not farm
or hunt, and had to be supplied by the mother country.
The handful of French soldiers
defending Acadia were hungry and tired of war on Monday,
October 6, 1710, when ships from New England returned to the
Annapolis Basin, this time under the command of Francis
Nicholson, and under the eye of Samuel Vetch, an ambitious
Scotsman who had a promise of governorship of Canada if he could
take it from the French. Vetch had put together the attacking
force and made Nicholson its commander in chief.
This time, the siege lasted a week,
but Subercase did not have the men or material he needed. On
Saturday, October 11, Subercase wrote to Nicholson, "I now write
to you to tell you, Sir, that for to (sic) prevent the spilling
of both English and French Blood, I am ready to hold up both
hands for a Capitulation that will be honorable to both of us."
The final articles of surrender were
signed on October 13, 1710. They decreed, among other things,
that inhabitants of Port Royal "within cannon shot of the
fort...shall remain upon their estates, with their corn, cattle,
and furniture...they taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity
to Her Sacred Majesty of Great Britain."
The banner of France was raised for
the last time at Port Royal at sunrise on Thursday, October 16,
1710. Midway through the morning, French officials and soldiers
and their families, 258 people, paraded from the little fort,
boarded British ships, and sailed for home. As they left,
British and American troops and officers marched into the fort,
hoisted the Union Jack, toasted Queen Anne, and gave the town
her name. It has been Annapolis Royal since then.
In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht ended
the War of Spanish Succession in Europe. It ceded
Acadia
and Newfoundland to Great Britain. This time it stayed in
British hands.
According to the language of the
treaty, "...all Nova Scotia or
Acadia, with its ancient
Boundaries; as also the City of Port Royal, now called Annapolis
Royal, and all other things in those Parts, which depend on the
said Lands and Islands; together with the Dominion, Propriety,
and Possession of the said Islands, Lands, and Places; and all
Right whatsoever, by Treaties, or by any other way obtained,
which the most Christian King, the Crown of France, or any of
the Subjects thereof, have hitherto had to the said Islands,
Lands, and Places, and the Inhabitants of the same, are yielded
and made over to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown for
ever."
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