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Researching the
Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada
CONSTRUCTION
CHRONOLOGY FOR THE ROYAL BATTERY:
ACTUAL AND PROPOSED
1714 - PRESENT
BY
ERIC KRAUSE
SEPTEMBER, 1982
Report H B 16
Return (Table of Contents) /retour
1750 - 1774
ABBREVIATIONS:
Date | P | A | PA | Description of Activity | Comment | Reference |
1750 | A |
1750 - Barracks (Note: this work completed by
15 August A. Magasin basement 1. Filled in with earth, gravel and sand up to ground floor level - 25 cubic toises 2 pieds 5 pouces of material used B. Officers Rooms 1. Enduits and repairs C. Bakery
1. Enduit repairs to the flooring and the mouth
of the oven D. Barracks: general repairs using wood from various demolitions
1. Doors E. Barracks dormers 1. Closed off with Boston boards F. Commanders Rooms
1. 6 pieds high x 3
pieds wide plank door replacement G. Glass work
1. 212 glass panes cleaned and glazed with
mastic H. Officers Latrine 1. Lock with 2 keys installed I. Guard House
1. Hinge replacement for the door J. Soldiers Rooms 1. Three (3) locks for three corridor doors K. Flank Door 1. A lock for the door 1 L. Advanced Barrier Gate
1. Repairs to the four strap hinges M. Interior Barrier Gate
1. Lock and key supplied |
31 December 1750, C11B, Vol. 29, folio 296-297. | |||
1751 | A |
- Height of Seawall
1. Various 12 to 15 pieds depending on the sea and what it leaves behind - Chemin Couvert 1. Height of land A 248 toises from the battery was 102 pieds 4 pouces higher than the covered - Landward side
1. Two faces - Barracks Roof 8 July, 1766, 1. In place |
14 December 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folio 159v., 169-171; 20November 1751, C11A, Vol. 126, pièce 88; 20 November 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folio 194; 24 November 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folios 67, 138v; 1751-25; 8 July, 1766, Halifax Crown Grant Book, Book 6, p. 593; 1751, 32 | |||
P |
-
Establishment of a redoubt on Height A with a
communication between
it and the Royal Battery - Establishment of a redoubt on a smaller hillbetween Height A and the Royal Battery - Chemin Couvert
1. Together with the two faces of the rentrant
place d'armes, the branches require 900
8 1/2 pieds long palissades - Rentrant Place D'armes 1. Together with the branches of the chemin couvert, the two faces require nine hundred 8 1/2 pieds long palissades |
ditto | ||||
A |
- Distances
1. 1600 toises from the town by land - Right Flank 1. Covered way around the right flank not completed as of this date. Required
|
ditto | ||||
P |
-
Repairs still required (some discussed first
in 1749)
1. Earth - Demolition of the Royal Battery with its re-establishment on Pointe a Rosse on Height A
|
ditto | ||||
A |
-
Number of Embrasures
1.
Right face: 10 - Existing platform of the faces and Eperon in poor condition
1. Totally cover the terreplain so that there
was no banquette from one embrasure to another |
- Right flank should read Left flank and vice-versa | ditto | |||
P |
-
Replacement platforms A. Two faces
B . Epèron
C. Two Flanks
|
ditto | ||||
A | -
Sieur Gratian D'Arrigrand Grant of Land 1. "in the harbour of Louisbourg ... Beginning three hundred feet from High Water mark, at the Head of a Cove which lies about half a mile to the Eastward of the Grand Battery; and from thence to run West ten chains; thence North West one hundred and fifty eight chains; thence North eight hundred and eighty chains; thence South West one hundred and fifty eight chains; thence West ten chains till it meets the first mentioned boundary ..." |
ditto | ||||
PA | 2 entrance drawbridges over the double ditch | ditto | ||||
1752 | A |
-
Decision not to destroy the Royal
Battery - Decision not to build the redoubts in the heights of land |
15 March 1752, B, Vol. 95, folio 270-270v. | |||
1753 | A |
- Plans in Boucher's
Cabinet:
1. "Plan et Elevation de la batterie
Royale" |
- A listing of plans in Boucher's Cabinet. The list does not date them, but they wouold be 1753 or earlier | 27 August 1753, C11A, Vol. 126, pièce 62. | ||
1755 | A |
-
Gun platforms rebuilt from one end to the
other 1. now easy to move cannons to the flanks if required - Francis Piggot (English Ship Pilot) in Louisbourg for 6 weeks
1. "the Grand Battery is repaired" |
25 August 1755, C11B, Vol. 35, folios 84-84v; 23 July 1757, War Office 71, Vol. 130, p. 48-49. | |||
1757 | A |
- Wooden platform
- Masonry merlons revetted in wood |
1757, B4, Vol. 76, folio 24. | |||
1758 | A |
- Platforms intact prior to the siege
French Demolition of the Royal Battery
- 3 June: demolition process begins - 8 June: formal request made to demolish the Royal Battery
1. Orders
given to make the platforms inoperative |
3 June 1758, B4, Vol. 80, folio 116v; 8 June 1758, B4, Vol. 80, folio 125v; Report A-M1, Supplement 1758; 28 August 1758, C.O. 5, Vol. 53, folio 191v; 5 November 1760, Procter Diary, p. 53. | |||
P |
-
Repair the barracks as an infirmary and hospital for the navy - Mount a small guard as a cover for the Men of Wars using the watering place and to discourage the Indians from approaching the sides and head of the harbour |
ditto | ||||
1759 | A | -
mill behind the
Grand Battery - "Ruins of the late grand Battery" - A plan of the Grand Battery as it was rebuilt by the English in the year 1759 at Louisbourg - grand Battreay [sic] |
Anonymous, General orders in Wolfe's Army During the Expedition Up the River St. Lawrence, 1759, p. 8.; 24 May 1759, See Knox Journal in Brian Connell The Siege of Québec, p. 114-115; | |||
1760 | A |
-
English Demolition of the Royal Battery
1. The works
of the Grand Battery are almost down |
Gibson Clough Journal, Plans N.D. 237, 221; 26 October 1760, War Office 14, folios 10-11; Journal of Gibson Clough, p. 38, Library of the Artillery Institution, Journal of Demolition, p. 189. | |||
1766 | A |
Gratien D'Arrigrand Grant
1.
Commander in
Chief in Nova Scotia renewed
the original 1751 D'Arrigrand grant of land |
8 July 1766 Halifax, Crown Grant Book, Book 6, p. 393. | |||
1768 | A |
-
List of improvements near the Grand Battery
1. Lawrence Kavanagh
2. Thomas & Richard Wheel
3. Thomas Mortho
4. William Brimigion
5. Matthew Rowe
6. Gregory Townsend
7. Elias Gerrot
- Lots
|
26 Sept. 1768, Privy Council 1, Vol. 54/63B; Foster, W,. Post Occupation History of the old French Town of Louisbourg, 1760-1930, p. 29. | |||
1771 | A |
-
Grant of land Halifax Crown
|
Halifax Crown Lands Office, Book 8, p. 229. | |||
1774 | A |
-
Lots
|
Foster, W,. Post Occupation History of the old French Town of Louisbourg, 1760-1930, p. 34. |