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Historical Background

 

The year is 1758, the fifth year of the unofficial warfare in North America between Britain and France, known to English speakers as “The French and Canadian War”, and the third year of the officially declared Seven Years’ War. Despite superior resources, British and American colonial forces have made only limited gains against a vigorous French and Canadian resistance. Since the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, Britain has made the conquest of Canada her first priority, developing a strategy of a massive triple attack by way of the Ohio Valley, Lake Champlain, and the St Lawrence River. In 1757, a major amphibious operation was directed towards the capture of Louisbourg, the key to the St Lawrence, but the intervention of a French Fleet repulsed the British invasion before it could land. The massacre of the Anglo-American garrison of Fort William by France’s Indian allies added to the year’s gloomy news.

 

Now the ineffectual British commander, the Earl of Loudon, has been replaced by the businesslike General Amherst, and the planned triple attack will now commence in earnest. General Amherst will personally lead the largest of the three armies in a renewed attack on Louisbourg, whilst Generals Abercrombie and Forbes target, respectively, forts Ticonderoga and Duquesne. The hope is for a rapid capture of Louisbourg, in time for an assault down the St Lawrence to Quebec before the bad winter weather sets in. Louisbourg cannot realistically be bypassed as even a small French squadron in Louisbourg Harbour could raid British shipping moving through Cabot Strait, making it most difficult for the British to maintain a secure supply line to forces in any siege of Quebec.

 

On the French side, major European troop commitments since the start of the Seven Years’ War, limited command of the sea, and only a small population of colonists in Canada to draw upon for militia, puts France at a considerable disadvantage in North America. In 1757, a large naval force successfully slipped through the British blockade of France’s ports to gain temporary sea superiority in the Northwest Atlantic, but a similar strategy has failed for 1758 due to increased vigilance of the Royal Navy, and only a few small squadrons have reached North America to aid the hard-pressed defenders. The French and Canadians must thus divide their inferior forces to meet threats from three directions and hope to stall the British for another year, when the French navy will have another attempt to intervene and bring French metropolitan regiments as reinforcements. Also, the French hope to win victories in Europe against Britain and her allies that will bring the war to a favourable end, and gain territory elsewhere which can be exchanged for a return of French losses in Canada. After all, the British captured Louisbourg in 1745 during the War of Austrian Succession, only to hand it back in 1748 in exchange for Madras, captured by the French in 1746. Thus provided the French can hold the key towns of Quebec and Montreal until the war is decided in Europe, there is an excellent chance that French Canada can be fully resurrected.

 

Description of Louisbourg

 

The town that would come to be known as Louisbourg was founded by French colonists departing Newfoundland in 1713 as it was ceded to the British. It was sited on a good harbour on the Atlantic side of Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island), and, with both Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Newfoundland in British hands, it soon came to be an important naval base with the vital role of maintaining the sea route between the St Lawrence and France. Fortifications were constructed in 1720 to protect the naval base and growing town. The fortifications were insufficient to prevent the capture of Louisbourg by a force of New Englanders, who expelled the French population and made some improvements to the fortifications. However, the return of Louisbourg to France in 1748 led to the return of French settlers, and the doubling of the former garrison.

 

As at 1758, Louisbourg has a population of about 4,500 civilians. The town is surrounded by a substantial stone rampart, with 6 bastions, the Piece de la Grave battery covering the Inner Harbour, and a surrounding ditch, covered way, and glacis. The particularly important Dauphin Bastion has been reinforced (by the British in fact) with a second, raised line of gun positions (cavilier) inside the bastion, and by another gun position (the “Eperon”) projected into the harbour. The budget has not extended, however, to the provision of counterguards, ravelins, demi-lunes or other such outworks normally considered important in prolonging resistance by fortress defenders.  Also, there is no citadel in the fortress as a last line of defence- there is a massive stone building within the King’s Bastion, but it is constructed along civilian lines. Although some of the fortifications had been in a poor state of repair at the commencement of 1757, efforts to make the fortress ready for the (ultimately abortive) British attack of that year mean that the works are now in a reasonable condition. Also, the fortress’ magazines and food stores are well-stocked to withstand a long siege.

 

In terms of positions lying outside the fortress walls, the main emphasis has been to protect the harbour against enemy warships attempting to enter harbour through the fairly narrow deep channel between Lighthouse Point and Battery Island. Fortified batteries have been established on Battery Island, and facing the channel (Royal Battery). Plans have been made to build a fort on Lighthouse Point, but the money was never available, and so the Point is instead protected only by a makeshift battery, vulnerable on the landward side. Similarly vulnerable is the Royal Battery- once again plans for landward defences have fallen victim to budgetary constraints. A fourth battery is located on Rochefort Point.

 

Another valuable legacy of the 1757 defence of Louisbourg is a line of coastal field fortifications guarding against landings in the coves to the south-west of Louisbourg off Gabarus bay (field fortifications are in map zones 31-34). The fortifications consist of a lengthy seaward-facing breastwork fronted by abatis and supported by firing positions for light and swivel guns. Due to the fact that the fortifications are a makeshift affair running for some 5,000 yards, they do not represent a continuous, impermeable barrier, but if adequately manned with troops they should represent a significant obstacle to a British landing. Nevertheless, the coves of Gabarus Bay still represent the most promising are for an invader to land, as an amphibious assault conducted under the guns of the fortress would be rather foolhardy, and the coastline northeast of Lighthouse Point is too rocky to permit a major landing.

 

Present Situation

 

It is 2 June, 1758. The British fleet gathers under drizzling rain in Gabarus Bay (sea zone O) after a 5-day voyage from Halifax, observed by French detachments along the shoreline. The French were expecting the Fleet- preparations for an attack on this scale could not be concealed- and so their forces are prepared. Reinforcements in the form of the Cambis Regiment have just been landed at Port Dauphin (also on Cape Breton Island, about 50 kilometres northwest of Louisbourg) by a French squadron under Commodore Duchaffault, which has now put to sea once more and is in the Gulf of St Lawrence en route to Quebec. Apart from the Cambis Regiment, no other regular troops can be spared for Louisbourg, but an irregular force of Canadians, Acadian partisans, and Indians is being gathered at Miramichi (northeast coast of New Brunswick) under the able irregular officer, Lieutenant Charles Deschamps de Boishebert, currently en route to Miramichi from Quebec in a schooner with 80 Canadian irregulars to form the core of the force. Boishebert served at Louisbourg leading irregulars in 1757, and knows the area well.

 

All British forces start in Gabarus Bay (sea zone O). Apart from Duchaffault’s squadron and Boishebert’s irregular force (who may or may not enter the map later, by way of Argument), the French forces start on the game map, and are distributed as set out in the “Forces” section.