Terms of Louisbourg’s Surrender

The surrender articles stipulated that the garrison should be sent to England, prisoners of war in British ships and that all artillery, arms, munitions and stores be turned over..

Our special project presenting the definitive account of France in Canada by Francis Parkman, one of America’s greatest historians.

Previously in Montcalm and Wolfe, Volume 7 of the French in Canada series. Continuing Chapter 19.

Great was the emotion in the council; and one of its members, D’Anthonay, lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of Volontaires Étrangers, was sent to propose less rigorous terms. Amherst would not speak with him; and jointly with Boscawen dispatched this note to the Governor:

Sir,
We have just received the reply which it has pleased your Excellency to make as to the conditions of the capitulation offered you. We shall not change in the least our views regarding them. It depends on your Excellency to accept them or not; and you will have the goodness to give your answer, yes or no, within half an hour. We have the honor to be, etc.,

E. BOSCAWEN.

J. AMHERST.[1]

Drucour answered as follows: —

Gentlemen,
To reply to your Excellencies in as few words as possible, I have the honor to repeat that my position also remains the same and that I persist in my first resolution.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

The Chevalier de Drucour

[1: Translated from the Journal of Drucour.]

In other words, he refused the English terms and declared his purpose to abide the assault. Loppinot was sent back to the English camp with this note of defiance. He was no sooner gone than Prévost, the intendant, an officer of functions purely civil, brought the Governor a memorial which, with or without the knowledge of the military authorities, he had drawn up in anticipation of the emergency. “The violent resolution which the council continues to hold,” said this document,

obliges me, for the good of the state, the preservation of the King’s subjects and the averting of horrors shocking to humanity, to lay before your eyes the consequences that may ensue. What will become of the four thousand souls who compose the families of this town, of the thousand or twelve hundred sick in the hospitals and the officers and crews of our unfortunate ships? They will be delivered over to carnage and the rage of an unbridled soldiery, eager for plunder and impelled to deeds of horror by pretended resentment at what has formerly happened in Canada. Thus, they will all be destroyed and the memory of their fate will live forever in our colonies….”

It remains, Monsieur,” continues the paper,

to remind you that the councils you have held thus far have been composed of none but military officers. I am not surprised at their views. The glory of the King’s arm and the honor of their several corps have inspired them. You and I alone are charged with the administration of the colony and the care of the King’s subjects who compose it. These gentlemen, therefore, have had no regard for them. They think only of themselves and their soldiers, whose business it is to encounter the utmost extremity of peril. It is at the prayer of an intimidated people that I lay before you the considerations specified in this memorial.”

“In view of these considerations,” writes Drucour, “joined to the impossibility of resisting an assault, M. le Chevalier de Courserac undertook in my behalf to run after the bearer of my answer to the English commander and bring it back.” It is evident that the bearer of the note had been in no hurry to deliver it, for he had scarcely got beyond the fortifications when Courserac overtook and stopped him. D’Anthonay, with Duvivier, major of the battalion of Artois and Loppinot, the first messenger, was then sent to the English camp, empowered to accept the terms imposed. An English spectator thus describes their arrival: “A lieutenant-colonel came running out of the garrison, making signs at a distance and bawling out as loud as he could, ‘We accept! We accept!‘ He was followed by two others; and they were all conducted to General Amherst’s headquarters.”[2] At eleven o’clock at night they returned with the articles of capitulation and the following letter:

[2: Authentic Account of the Siege of Louisbourg, by a Spectator.]

The articles stipulated that the garrison should be sent to England, prisoners of war, in British ships; that all artillery, arms, munitions and stores, both in Louisbourg and elsewhere on the Island of Cape Breton, as well as on Isle St.-Jean, now Prince Edward’s Island, should be given up intact; that the gate of the Dauphin’s Bastion should be delivered to the British troops at eight o’clock in the morning; and that the garrison should lay down their arms at noon. The victors, on their part, promised to give the French sick and wounded the same care as their own and to protect private property from pillage.

Drucour signed the paper at midnight and in the morning a body of grenadiers took possession of the Dauphin’s Gate. The rude soldiery poured in, swarthy with wind and sun and begrimed with smoke and dust; the garrison, drawn up on the esplanade, flung down their muskets and marched from the ground with tears of rage; the cross of St. George floated over the shattered rampart; and Louisbourg, with the two great islands that depended on it, passed to the British Crown. Guards were posted, a stern discipline was enforced, and perfect order maintained. The conquerors and the conquered exchanged greetings and the English general was lavish of courtesies to the brave lady who had aided the defense so well. “Every favor she asked was granted,” says a Frenchman present.

Drucour and his garrison had made a gallant defense. It had been his aim to prolong the siege till it should be too late for Amherst to cooperate with Abercromby in an attack on Canada and in this, at least, he succeeded.

Five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven officers, soldiers and sailors were prisoners in the hands of the victors. Eighteen mortars and two hundred and twenty-one cannon were found in the town, along with a great quantity of arms, munitions and stores.[3] At the middle of August such of the prisoners as were not disabled by wounds or sickness were embarked for England and the merchants and inhabitants were sent to France. Brigadier Whitmore, as governor of Louisbourg, remained with four regiments to hold guard over the desolation they had made.

[3: Account of the Guns, Mortars, Shot, Shell, etc., found in the Town of Louisbourg upon its Surrender this day, signed Jeffrey Amherst, 27 July, 1758.]

The fall of the French stronghold was hailed in England with noisy rapture. Addresses of congratulation to the King poured in from all the cities of the kingdom and the captured flags were hung in St. Paul’s amid the roar of cannon and the shouts of the populace. The provinces shared these rejoicings. Sermons of thanksgiving resounded from countless New England pulpits. At Newport there were fireworks and illuminations; and, adds the pious reporter, “We have reason to believe that Christians will make wise and religious improvement of so signal a favor of Divine Providence.” At Philadelphia a like display was seen, with music and universal ringing of bells. At Boston “a stately bonfire like a pyramid was kindled on the top of Fort Hill, which made a lofty and prodigious blaze;” though here certain jealous patriots protested against celebrating a victory won by British regulars and not by New England men. At New York there was a grand official dinner at the Province Arms in Broadway, where every loyal toast was echoed by the cannon of Fort George; and illuminations and fireworks closed the day.[4] In the camp of Abercromby at Lake George, Chaplain Cleaveland, of Bagley’s Massachusetts regiment, wrote: ‘The General put out orders that the breastwork should be lined with troops and to fire three rounds for joy and give thanks to God in a religious way.”[5] But nowhere did the tidings find a warmer welcome than in the small detached forts scattered through the solitudes of Nova Scotia, where the military exiles, restless from inaction, listened with greedy ears for every word from the great world whence they were banished. So slow were their communications with it that the fall of Louisbourg was known in England before it had reached them, all. Captain John Knox, then in garrison at Annapolis, tells how it was greeted there more than five weeks after the event. It was the sixth of September. A sloop from Boston was seen coming up the bay. Soldiers and officers ran down to the wharf to ask for news. “Every soul,” says Knox, “was impatient, yet shy of asking; at length, the vessel being come near enough to be spoken to, I called out, ‘What news from Louisbourg?’ To which the master simply replied and with some gravity, ‘Nothing strange.’ This answer, which was so coldly delivered, threw us all into great consternation and we looked at each other without being able to speak; some of us even turned away with an intent to return to the fort. At length one of our soldiers, not yet satisfied, called out with some warmth: ‘Damn you, Pumpkin, isn’t Louisbourg taken yet?’ The poor New England man then answered: ‘Taken, yes, above a month ago and I have been there since; but if you have never heard it before, I have got a good parcel of letters for you now.’ If our apprehensions were great at first, words are insufficient to express our transports at this speech, the latter part of which we hardly waited for; but instantly all hats flew off and we made the neighboring woods resound with our cheers and huzzas for almost half an hour. The master of the sloop was amazed beyond expression and declared he thought we had heard of the success of our arms eastward before and had sought to banter him.”[6] At night there was a grand bonfire and universal festivity in the fort and village.

[4: These particulars are from the provincial newspapers.]

[5: Cleaveland, Journal.]

[6: Knox, Historical Journal, I. 158.]

Amherst proceeded to complete his conquest by the subjection of all the adjacent possessions of France. Major Dalling was sent to occupy Port Espagnol, now Sydney. Colonel Monckton was dispatched to the Bay of Fundy and the River St. John with an order “to destroy the vermin who are settled there.”[7] Lord Rollo, with the thirty-fifth regiment and two battalions of the sixtieth, received the submission of Isle St.-Jean and tried to remove the inhabitants, — with small success; for out of more than four thousand he could catch but seven hundred.[8]

[7: Orders of Amherst to Wolfe, 15 Aug. 1758; Ibid, to Monckton, 24 Aug. 1758; Report of Monckton, 12 Nov. 1758.]

[8: Villejouin, commandant à l’Isle St.-Jean, au Ministre, 8 Sept. 1758.]

The ardent and indomitable Wolfe had been the life of the siege. Wherever there was need of a quick eye, a prompt decision and a bold dash, there his lank figure was always in the front. Yet he was only half pleased with what had been done. The capture of Louisbourg, he thought, should be but the prelude of greater conquests; and he had hoped that the fleet and army would sail up the St. Lawrence and attack Quebec. Impetuous and impatient by nature and irritable with disease, he chafed at the delay that followed the capitulation and wrote to his father a few days after it: “We are gathering strawberries and other wild fruits of the country, with a seeming indifference about what is doing in other parts of the world. Our army, however, on the continent wants our help.” Growing more anxious, he sent Amherst a note to ask his intentions; and the General replied, “What I most wish to do is to go to Quebec. I have proposed it to the Admiral and yesterday he seemed to think it impracticable.” On which Wolfe wrote again: “If the Admiral will not carry us to Quebec, reinforcements should certainly be sent to the continent without losing a moment. This damned French garrison take up our time and attention, which might be better bestowed. The transports are ready and a small convoy would carry a brigade to Boston or New York. With the rest of the troops we might make an offensive and destructive war in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I beg pardon for this freedom but I cannot look coolly upon the bloody inroads of those hell-hounds, the Canadians; and if nothing further is to be done, I must desire leave to quit the army.”

From Montcalm and Wolfe, Chapter 19 by Francis Parkman

To be continued.

The below is from Francis Parkman’s Preface to this book.

A very large amount of unpublished material has been used in its preparation, consisting for the most part of documents copied from the archives and libraries of France and England, especially from the Archives de la Marine et des Colonies, the Archives de la Guerre, and the Archives Nationales at Paris, and the Public Record Office and the British Museum at London. The papers copied for the present work in France alone exceed six thousand folio pages of manuscript, additional and supplementary to the “Paris Documents” procured for the State of New York under the agency of Mr. Brodhead. The copies made in England form ten volumes, besides many English documents consulted in the original manuscript. Great numbers of autograph letters, diaries, and other writings of persons engaged in the war have also been examined on this side of the Atlantic.

I owe to the kindness of the present Marquis de Montcalm the permission to copy all the letters written by his ancestor, General Montcalm, when in America, to members of his family in France. General Montcalm, from his first arrival in Canada to a few days before his death, also carried on an active correspondence with one of his chief officers, Bourlamaque, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. These autograph letters are now preserved in a private collection. I have examined them and obtained copies of the whole. They form an interesting complement to the official correspondence of the writer, and throw the most curious side-lights on the persons and events of the time.

Besides manuscripts, the printed matter in the form of books, pamphlets, contemporary newspapers, and other publications relating to the American part of the Seven Years’ War, is varied and abundant; and I believe I may safely say that nothing in it of much consequence has escaped me. The liberality of some of the older States of the Union, especially New York and Pennsylvania, in printing the voluminous records of their colonial history, has saved me a deal of tedious labor.

The whole of this published and unpublished mass of evidence has been read and collated with extreme care, and more than common pains have been taken to secure accuracy of statement. The study of books and papers, however, could not alone answer the purpose. The plan of the work was formed in early youth; and though various causes have long delayed its execution, it has always been kept in view. Meanwhile, I have visited and examined every spot where events of any importance in connection with the contest took place, and have observed with attention such scenes and persons as might help to illustrate those I meant to describe. In short, the subject has been studied as much from life and in the open air as at the library table.

BOSTON, Sept. 16, 1884.

MORE INFORMATION