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Northeast Coast campaign (1745)

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Northeast Coast campaign (1745)
Part of King George's War

Commander Samuel Waldo
Date19 July – 5 September 1745
Location
Result French and Wabanaki Confederacy victory
Belligerents
"The Pine Tree flag of New England" 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.

Background

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Fort Richmond (Maine)

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).

The campaign

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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]

Aftermath

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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]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Folsom, p. 242
  2. ^ a b c d Williamson (1832), p. 239.
  3. ^ Folsom, G. (1830). History of Saco and Biddeford: With Notices of Other Early Settlements, and of Proprietary Governments, in Maine, Including the Provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia. A. C. Putnam. p. 243. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  4. ^ "Bradbury memorial. Records of some of the descendants of Thomas Bradbury, of Agamenticus (York) in 1634, and of Salisbury, Mass. in 1638, with a brief sketch of the Bradburys of England. Comp. chiefly from the collections of the late John Merrill Bradbury, of Ipswich, Mass". Portland [Me.] Brown, Thurston. 1890. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  5. ^ Maine Historical Society (1995). Collections of the Maine Historical Society. Vol. 4. Heritage Books. p. 147. ISBN 9780788401725. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  6. ^ a b c d Williamson (1832), p. 241.
  7. ^ Scott, Tod (2016). "Mi'kmaw Armed Resistance to British Expansion in Northern New England (1676–1761)". Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. 19: 1–18.
  8. ^ a b Williamson (1832), p. 240.
  9. ^ Williamson (1832), pp. 217–218.
  10. ^ Fort George replaced Fort Andros which was built during King William's War (1688).
  11. ^ Williamson (1832), pp. 88, 97.
  12. ^ "Correspondence of William Shirley: Governor of Massachusetts and Military". p. 258. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  13. ^ Williamson (1832), p. 256.
  14. ^ "Correspondence of William Shirley: Governor of Massachusetts and Military ... Governor Shirley letter to Captain Bradbury, July 22, 1745". Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  15. ^ Folsom, p. 243
  16. ^ Williamson (1832), p. 236.
  17. ^ Williamson (1832), p. 237.
  18. ^ a b Williamson (1832), p. 238.
  19. ^ a b Williamson (1832), p. 242.

References

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