Northeast Coast campaign (1745) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of King George's War | |||||||
Commander Samuel Waldo | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
New England |
French colonists Wabanaki Confederacy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Commander
Samuel Waldo (Falmouth)
[1] Captain Jonathan Bean Captain Mochus [2] Captain Thomas Bradbury (Saco) [3] [4] [5] Jabez Bradbury (Fort St. George, Thomaston) |
Colonel Morris
† Captain Sam † Colonel Job [6] | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
625 |
unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
approximately 30 persons killed or captured | unknown |
The Northeast Coast campaign (1745) occurred during King George's War from 19 July until 5 September 1745. [7] Three weeks after the British Siege of Louisbourg (1745), the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia retaliated by attacking New England settlements along the coast of present-day Maine below the Kennebec River, the former border of Acadia. They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Berwick and St. Georges (Thomaston, Maine), within two months there were 11 raids - every town on the frontier had been attacked. [8] Casco (also known as Falmouth and Portland) was the principal settlement.
After the two attacks on Annapolis Royal in 1744, Governor William Shirley put a bounty on the Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet on Oct 20. [9] The following year, during the campaign, on August 23, 1745, Shirley declared war against the rest of the Wabanaki Confederacy – the Penobscot and Kennebec tribes. [8] In response to the New England expedition against Louisbourg which finished in June 1745, the Wabanaki retaliated by attacking the New England border. [2] New England braced itself for such an attack by appointing a provisional force of 450 to defend the frontier. After the attacks began they increased the number of soldiers by 175 men. [2] Massachusetts established forts along the border with Acadia: Fort George at Brunswick (1715), [10] St. George's Fort at Thomaston (1720), and Fort Richmond (1721) at Richmond. [11] Fort Frederick was established at Pemaquid (Bristol, Maine).
Part of a series on the |
Military history of Nova Scotia |
---|
The campaign began when, on July 19, Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, Maliseet and some from St. Francois attacked Fort St.George (Thomaston) and New Castle. [12] They set fire to numerous buildings; killed cattle and took one villager captive. [13] [14] They also killed a person at Saco. [15] At the same time, Penobscot and Norridgewock attacked Fort Frederick at Pemaquid. [16] They took captive a woman, which alarmed the garrison but she escaped. The same month they killed a boy at Topsham and a man at New Meadows. [17] In the same month, 30 Wabanaki attacked North Yarmouth and killed a man. At Flying-point they killed three members of a family and taking a daughter prisoner to Canada. During this raid on Flying-point, they also killed one man, made another prisoner, while another escaped. [18] St. Georges garrison at Thomaston was attacked again and one company of men was killed, while three other men were taken captive. [18] Near the garrison, two women were captured: one was taken to Canada, while the other escaped. [2] They attacked Scarborough and one man killed. [6] Then at Sheepscot they attacked and killed two and wounded one. [6] On Sept 5 tribes of the Confederacy attacked Thomston (St. Georges) for the third time, killing and scalping two people. [6]
In response to these events, Shirley sent more troops and munitions to the Maine frontier over the winter, anticipating the Wabanaki campaign in the spring of 1746. [19] There were nine raids in the campaign of 1746 and 12 raids in the Northeast Coast campaign of 1747. [19]