The Taking of Louisburg 1745

V
“LOUISBURG MUST BE TAKEN”

However Shirley’s efforts to avert a present danger might succeed, nobody saw more clearly than he did that his measures only went half way toward their mark. With Louisburg intact, the enemy might sweep the coasts of New England with their expeditions, and her commerce from the seas. The return of spring, when warlike operations might be again resumed, was therefore looked forward to at Boston with the utmost uneasiness. Merchants would not risk their ships on the ocean. Fishermen dared not think of putting to sea for their customary voyages to the Grand Banks or the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here was a state of things which a people who lived by their commerce and fisheries could only contemplate with the most serious forebodings. It was fully equivalent to a blockade of their ports, a stoppage of their industries, with consequent stagnation paralyzing all their multitudinous occupations.

Public Opinion aroused.

Naturally the subject became a foremost matter of discussion in the official and social circles, in the pulpits, and in the tavern clubs of the New England capital. It was the serious topic in the counting-house and the table-talk at home. It drifted out among the laboring classes, who had so much at stake, with varied embellishment. It went out into the country, gathering to itself fresh rumors like a rolling snowball. In all these coteries, whether of the councillors over their wine, of the merchants around their punch-bowls, of the smutty smith at his forge, or the common dock-laborer, the same conclusion was reached, and constantly reiterated – Louisburg must be taken! – Yes; Louisburg must be taken! Upon this decision the people stood as one man.

It did not, however, enter into the minds of even the most sanguine advocates of this idea that they themselves would be shortly called upon to make it effective in the one way possible. Such a proposal would have been laughed at, at first. The general voice was that the land and naval forces of the kingdom ought to be employed for the reduction of Louisburg, because no others were available; but, meantime, a public opinion had been formed which only wanted a proper direction to turn it into a force capable of doing what it had decided upon. There was but one man in the province who was equal to this task.

That some other man may have had the same idea is but natural, when the same subject was uppermost in the minds of all; but where others tossed it to and fro, like a tennis-ball, only this one man grasped it with the force of a master mind.⁴ He was William Shirley, governor of Massachusetts.

William Shirley.

Governor Shirley soon showed himself the man for the crisis. He was a lawyer of good abilities, with a political reputation to make. He had a clear head, strong will, plausible manner, and immovable persistency in the pursuit of a favorite project. If not a military man by education, he had, at any rate, the military instinct. He was, moreover, a shrewd manager, not easily disheartened or turned aside from his purpose by a first rebuff, yet knowing how to yield when, by doing so, he could see his way to carry his point in the end.

The French, we remember, had made some prisoners at Canso, who were first taken to Louisburg, and then sent to Boston on parole. These captives knew the place, but our smuggling merchantmen knew it much better. They were able to give a pretty exact account of the condition of things at the fortress. We are now looking backward a little. But what seems to have made the strongest impression was the news that the garrison itself had been in open mutiny during the winter, most of the soldiers being Swiss, whose loyalty, it was supposed, had been more or less shaken.⁵

William Vaughan.

Whether William Vaughan,⁶ a New Hampshire merchant resident in Maine, first broached the project of taking Louisburg to Shirley, cannot now determined, but, let the honor belong primarily where it may, Vaughan’s scheme, as outlined by him, was too absurd for serious consideration, however strongly he may have believed in it himself. He seems to have belonged to the class of enthusiasts at whose breath obstacles vanish away; yet we are bound to say of him that his own easy confidence, with his habit of throwing himself heart and soul into whatever he undertook, gained over a good many others to his way of thinking. Shirley therefore encouraged Vaughan, who, after rendering really valuable services, became so thoroughly imbued with the notion that he was not only the originator of the expedition, but the chief actor in it, that the value of those services is somewhat obscured.

Governor Shirley’s project now was to take Louisburg, with such means as he himself could get together. He, too, was more or less carried away by the spirit which animated him, as men must be to make others believe in them, but he never lost his head. To a cool judgment, some of Shirley’s plans for assaulting Louisburg seem almost, if not quite, as irrational as Vaughan’s, yet Shirley was not the man to commit any overt act of folly, or shut his ears to prudent counsels. Being so well acquainted with the temper and spirit of the New England people, he knew that, before they would fight, they must be convinced. To this end, he strengthened himself with the proper arguments, wisely keeping his own counsel until everything should be ripe for action. He knew that the garrison of Louisburg was mutinous, that its isolated position invited an attack, and that the extensive works were much out of repair. Moreover, he had calculated, almost to a day, the time when the annual supplies of men and munitions would arrive from France. He knew that Quebec was too distant for effectively aiding Louisburg. An attack under such conditions seemed to hold out a tempting prospect of success; yet realizing, as Shirley did, that under any circumstances, no matter how favorable or alluring they might seem, the enterprise would be looked upon as one of unparalleled audacity, if not as utterly hopeless or visionary, he determined to stake his own political fortunes upon the issue and abide the result.

Counting the Chances of Success.

The garrison of Louisburg had been, in fact, in open revolt, the outbreak proving so serious that the commanding officer had begged his government to replace the disaffected troops with others, who could be depended upon. Shirley, therefore, reckoned on a half-hearted resistance or none at all. In a word, it was his plan to surprise and take the place before it could be re-enforced.

Shirley’s Plan.

After obtaining a pledge of secrecy from the members, Shirley proceeded to lay his project before the provincial legislature of Massachusetts, which was then in session. The governor’s statement, which was certainly cool and dispassionate, ran somewhat to this effect: “Gentlemen of the General Court, either we must take Louisburg or see our trade annihilated. If you are of my mind we will take it. I have reason to know that the garrison is insubordinate. There is good ground for believing that the commandant is afraid of his own men, that the works are out of repair and the stores running low. I need not dwell further on what is so well known to you all. Now, with four thousand such soldiers as this and the neighboring provinces can furnish, aided by a naval force similarly equipped, the place must surely fall into our hands. I have, moreover, strong hopes of aid from His Majesty’s ships, now in our waters. But the great thing is to throw our forces upon Louisburg before the enemy can hear of our design. Secrecy and celerity are therefore of the last importance. Consider well, gentlemen, that such an opportunity is not likely to occur again. What say you? is Louisburg to be ours or not?”

Shirley’s Plan rejected.

The conservative provincial assembly deliberated upon the proposal with closed doors, and with great unanimity rejected it. The sum of its decision was this: “If we risk nothing, we lose nothing. Should the enemy strike us, we can strike back again. We can ruin his commerce as well as he can destroy ours. Our policy is to stand on the defensive. Very possibly the men might be raised, but where are the arsenals to equip them; where is the money to come from to pay them; where are the engineers, the artillerists, the siege artillery, naval stores, and all the warlike material necessary to such a siege? Why, we haven’t a single soldier; we haven’t a penny. Surely your excellency must be jesting with us. It is a magnificent project, but visionary, your excellency, quite visionary.”

To make use of parliamentary terms, the governor had leave to withdraw, but those who dreamed that he would abandon his darling scheme at the first rebuff it met with, did not know William Shirley.

The Subject again brought up.

The affair was now no longer a secret. Indeed, it had already leaked out through a certain pious deacon, who most inconsiderately prayed for its success in the family circle. The project had been scotched, not killed. Men discussed it everywhere, now that it was an open secret, and the more it was talked of, the more firmly it took hold on the popular mind. The very audacity of the thing pleased the young and adventurous spirits, of whom there were plenty in the New England of that day. Vaughan now set himself to work among the merchants, who saw money to be made in furnishing supplies of every kind for the expedition; while on the other hand, if nothing was to be done, their ships and merchandise must lie idle for so long as the war might last. Little by little the indefatigable Shirley won men over to his views. People grew restive under a policy of inaction. Public sentiment seldom fails of having a wholesome effect upon legislatures, be they ever so settled in their own opinions. It was so in this case. Presently a petition, signed by many of the most influential merchants in the province, was laid on the speaker’s desk, so again bringing the subject up for legislative action.

The Project adopted.

This time the governor carried his point after a whole day’s animated debate. The measure, however, narrowly missed a second, and, perhaps, a final defeat, it having a majority of one vote only; and this result was owing to an accident which, as it was a good deal talked about at the time it happened, may as well be mentioned here. It so chanced that one of the opposition, while hurrying to the House in order to record his vote against the measure, had a fall in the street, and was taken home with a broken leg. There being a tie vote in consequence, Mr. Speaker Hutchinson gave the casting vote in favor of the measure, and so carried it.

If there had been hesitation before, there was none now. In order to prevent the news from getting abroad, all the seaports of Massachusetts were instantly shut by an embargo.⁷ The neighboring provinces were entreated to do the same thing. The supplies asked for were voted without debate. Even the emission of paper money, that bugbear of colonial financiers, was cheerfully consented to in the face of a royal order forbidding it. Those who before had been strongest in opposition now gave loyal support to the undertaking.

Free to act at last, Shirley now showed his splendid talent for organizing in full vigor. The work of raising troops, of chartering transports, of collecting arms, munitions, and stores of every kind, went on with an extraordinary impulse. Common smiths were turned into armorers; wheelwrights into artificers; women spent their evenings making bandages and scraping lint. Shirley’s board of war, created for the exigency, took supplies wherever found, paying for them with the paper money the Legislature had just authorized for the purpose. The patience with which these extraordinary war measures were submitted to best shows the temper of the people. The neighboring governments were entreated to join in the expedition and share in the glory. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey each promised contingents. The other provinces declined having anything to do with it, though New York made a most seasonable loan of ten heavy cannon, upon Shirley’s urgent entreaty, without which the siege must have lagged painfully. The governor had, indeed, suggested, when the deficiency of artillery was spoken of, that the cannon of the Royal Battery of Louisburg would help to make good that deficiency; but, as it was facetiously said at the time, this was too manifest a disposal of the skin before the bear was caught, though it is quite likely that the notion of supplying themselves from the enemy may have tickled the fancy of the young recruits.

When the application reached Philadelphia, Franklin expressed shrewd doubts of the feasibility of the undertaking. The provincial assembly did, however, vote some supply of provisions, as its contribution toward a campaign which nobody believed would be successful. New Jersey also contributed provisions and clothing. This was not quite what Shirley had hoped for, but could not in the least abate his efforts.

VI
THE ARMY AND ITS GENERAL

The next, and possibly most vital step of all, since the fate of the expedition must turn upon it, was to choose a commander. For this important station the province was quite as deficient in men of experience as it was in materials of war: with the difference that one could be created of raw substances while the other could not. Here the nicest tact and judgment were requisite to avoid making shipwreck of the whole enterprise. Not having a military man, the all-important thing was to find a popular one, around whom the provincial yeomanry could be induced to rally. But since he was not to be a soldier, he must be a man held high in the public esteem for his civic virtues. It was necessary to have a clean man, above all things: one placed outside of the political circles of Boston, and who, by sacrificing something himself to the common weal, should set an example of pure patriotism to his fellow-citizens. Again, it was no less important to select some one whose general capacity could not be called in question. Hence, as in every real emergency, the people cast about for their very best man from a political and personal standpoint, who, though he might have

“Never set a squadron in the field,”

could be thoroughly depended upon to act with an eye single to the good of the cause he had espoused.

William Pepperell to command.

In this exigency Shirley’s clear eye fell on William Pepperell, of Kittery, a gentleman of sterling though not shining qualities, whose wealth, social rank, and high personal worth promised to give character and weight to the post Shirley now destined him for. He was now forty-nine years old. Having held both civil and military offices under the province, Pepperell could not be said to be worse fitted for the place than others whose claims were brought forward, while, on the other hand, it was conceded that hardly another man in the province possessed the public confidence to a greater degree than he did. Still, he was no soldier, and the simple conferring of the title of general could not make him one, while his practical education must begin in the presence of the enemy – a school where, if capable men learn quickly, they do so, as a rule, only after experiencing repeated and severe punishments. That raw soldiers need the best generals, is a maxim of common-sense, but Shirley, in whom we now and then discover a certain disdain for such judgments, seems to have had no misgivings whatever as to Pepperell’s entire sufficiency so long as he, Shirley, gave the orders, and kept a firm hand over his lieutenant; nor can it be denied that if the expedition was to take place at all when it did, the choice was the very best that could have been made, all things considered.

That Shirley may have been influenced, in a measure, by personal reasons is not improbable, and the fact that Pepperell was neither intriguing nor ambitious, no doubt had due weight with a man like Shirley, who was both intriguing and ambitious, and who, though he ardently wished for success, did not wish for a rival.

No one seems to have felt his unfitness more than Pepperell himself, and it is equally to his honor that he finally yielded to considerations directly appealing to his patriotism and sense of duty. “You,” said Shirley to him, “are the only man who can safely carry our great enterprise through; if it fail the blame must lie at your door.” Much troubled in mind, Pepperell asked the Rev. George Whitefield, who happened to be his guest, what he thought of it. The celebrated preacher kindly, but decidedly, advised Pepperell against taking on himself so great a responsibility, telling him that he would either make himself an object for execration, if he failed, or of envy and malignity, if he should succeed.

Morale of the Army.

Shirley’s pertinacity, however, prevailed in the end. Pepperell’s own personal stake in the successful issue of the expedition was known to be as great as any man’s in the province, hence, his putting himself at the head of it did much to induce others of like good standing and estate to join him heart and hand, and their example, again, drew into the ranks a greater proportion of the well-to-do farmers and mechanics than was probably ever brought together in an army of equal numbers, either before or since. Hence, at Louisburg, as in our own time, when any extraordinary want arose, the general had only to call on the rank and file for the means to meet it.

Several gentlemen, who had the success of the undertaking strongly at heart, volunteered to go with Pepperell to the scene of action. Among them were that William Vaughan, previously mentioned, and one James Gibson, a prominent merchant of Boston, who wrote a journal of the siege from observations made on the spot, besides contributing five hundred pounds toward equipping the army for its work.⁸

A Crusade preached.

Pepperell’s appointment soon justified Shirley’s forecast. It gave general satisfaction among all ranks and orders of men. On the day that he accepted the command Pepperell advanced five thousand pounds to the provincial treasury. He also paid out of his own pocket the bounty money offered to recruits in the regiment he was raising in Maine. Orders were soon flying in every direction, and very soon everything caught the infection of his energy. The expedition at once felt an extraordinary momentum. Volunteers flocked to the different rendezvous. In fact, more offered themselves than could be accepted. Again the loud burr of the drum,

“The drums that beat at Louisburg and thundered in Quebec,”

was heard throughout New England. The one question of the day was “Are you going?” In fact, little else was talked of, for, now that the mustering of armed men gave form and consistency to what was so lately a crude project only, the fortunes of the province were felt to be embarked in its success. True to its traditions, the clergy preached the expedition into a crusade. Again the old bugbear of Romish aggression was made to serve the turn of the hour. Religious antipathies were inflamed to the point of fanaticism. One clergyman armed himself with a large hatchet, with which he said he purposed chopping up into kindling wood all the Popish images he should find adorning the altars of Louisburg. Still another drew up a plan of campaign which he submitted to the general. “Carthage must be destroyed!” became the watchword, while to show the hand of God powerfully working for the right, the celebrated George Whitefield wrote the Latin motto, embroidered on the expeditionary standard, —

“Never despair, Christ is with us.”

Thus the church militant was not only represented in the ranks and on the banner, but it was equally forward in proffering counsel. For example: one minister wrote to acquaint Shirley how the provincials should be saved from being blown up, in their camps, by the enemy’s mines. He wanted a patrol to go carefully over the camping-ground first. While one struck the ground with a heavy mallet, another should lay his ear to it, and if it sounded suspiciously hollow, he should instantly drive down a stake in order that the spot might be avoided.

Such anecdotes show us how earnestly all classes of men entered upon the work in hand. How to take Louisburg seemed the one engrossing subject of every man’s thoughts.

Having glanced at the qualifications of the general, we may now consider the composition of the army. We have already drawn attention to the excellent quality of its material. In embodying it for actual service, the old traditions of the British army were strictly followed.

The Army by Regiments.

The expeditionary corps was formed in ten battalions. They were Pepperell’s,⁹ Wolcott’s¹⁰ (of Connecticut), Waldo’s,¹¹ Dwight’s¹² (nominally an artillery battalion), Moulton’s,¹³ Willard’s, Hale’s,¹⁴ Richmond’s,¹⁵ Gorham’s, and Moore’s¹⁶ (of New Hampshire). One hundred and fifty men of this regiment were in the pay of Massachusetts. Pepperell’s, Waldo’s, and Moulton’s were mostly raised in the District of Maine. Pepperell said that one-third of the whole force came from Maine. Dwight was assigned to the command of the artillery, with the rank of brigadier; Gorham to the special service of landing the troops in the whaleboats, which had been provided, and of which he had charge. There was also an independent company of artificers, under Captain Bernard, and Lieutenant-Colonel Gridley was appointed chief engineer of the army.

Pepperell held the rank of lieutenant-general; Wolcott, that of major-general; and Waldo that of brigadier, the second place being given to Connecticut, in recognition of the prompt and valuable assistance given by that colony.

It goes badly equipped.

As a whole, the army was neither well armed nor properly equipped, or sufficiently provided with tents, ammunition, and stores. Too much haste had characterized its formation for a thorough organization, or for attention to details, too little knowledge for the instruction in their duties of either officers or men. It is true that some of them had seen more or less bush-fighting in the Indian wars, and that all were expert marksmen or skilful woodsmen, but to call such an unwieldy and undisciplined assemblage of men, who had been thus suddenly called away from their workshops and ploughs, an army, were a libel upon the name.

Commodore Edward Tyng¹⁷ was put in command of the colonial squadron destined to escort the army to its destination, to cover its landing, and afterwards to act in conjunction with it on the spot.

Hutchinson, Belknap.

The writers of the time tell us that “the winter proved so favorable that all sorts of outdoor business was carried on as well, and with as great despatch, as at any other season of the year.” The month of February, in particular, proved very mild. The rivers and harbors were open, and the fruitfulness of the preceding season had made provisions plenty. Douglass thinks that “some guardian angel” must have preserved the troops from taking the small-pox, which broke out in Boston about the time of their embarkation. All these fortunate accidents were hailed as omens of success.