FORTRESS SECURITY AND MILITARY JUSTICE AT LOUISBOURG, 1720-45

BY

MARGARET FORTIER

1980

Report H E 14

Fortress of Louisbourg

Return/retour

SIZE OF GUARD

By 1744 there were five guardposts to be manned within the Fortress of Louisbourg:

1. Place D'Armes of the Bastion Du Roi - the guardhouse on the townward Place D'Armes had been in use for only four years by 1744. From 1724 to 1740 the corps de garde was situated in the barracks on the north side of the central passageway, opposite the chapel. Until 1733 this was the only guard mounted in Louisbourg. Even after the establishment of the other corps de garde, the guard of the Bastion De Roi was responsible for the personal security of the governor, as well as the guarding of the prison. [1]

2. Porte Dauphine - the first guard was mounted here in 1733. Governor St. Ovide believed that a guard at the Porte Dauphine was essential since the powder magazine was within the adjacent bastion, everyone entered and left the town through this gate, merchants left their goods on the nearby quay, and the inhabitants addressed themselves to this post if some disorder arose in the city during the night. Despite its importance, the guard was removed from this post that same year. The governor charged that the commissaire-ordonnateur had failed to provide all that was necessary for its continued operation. The Minister of the Marine agreed that a guard was needed at the Porte Dauphine. He ordered Commissaire-Ordonnateur Le Nornant to furnish all that was required for its maintenance, and the guard was re-established. [2]

3. Porte De La Reine - though less important due to the low volume of traffic through this gate, the guard of the Porte De La Reine had a wide area under its jurisdiction. In addition to the gate itself, the guard was also responsible for the security of the Bastion De La Reine and the Bastion Princesse. Completed in 1738, the first guard was probably not sent to this post until the following year.

4. Porte Maurepas - both the officers' and soldiers' guardhouses at this gate were completed and ready for use in 1744. The jurisdiction of its guard included both the Brouillan and Maurepas bastions as well as the gate itself.

5. Pièce De La Grave - also occupied in 1744, this corps de garde was to be responsible for the security of the king's storehouses and the treasury, in addition to part of the seaward front. [3]

In the fall of 1743 Duquesnel wrote that there would not be sufficient soldiers in the garrison to mount guards at the Porte Maurepas and the Pièce De La Grave the following spring. However, it is likely that guards were established at both these posts in 1744. With the March 1744 declaration of war against Great Britain, security became essential. Moreover, since the minister had decreed that Louisbourg would receive no additional troops that year, the commandant would have had to make do with the number of men at his disposal. [4] While such undertakings as the expedition against Port Royal took soldiers away from the fortress that summer, the reduced needs of construction would have freed others for guard duty.

It is impossible to say how many men were actually at each corps de garde. In 1741 Duquesnel outlined what he considered to be the minimum number of troops required to guard a place the size of Louisbourg. Part of a plea for more troops, Duquesnel hoped to show that if the various guardposts were supplied with even the minimum number of men necessary, a total of 443 soldiers would be employed standing guard, while less than 100 would be available for other duties. [5]

Louisbourg required relatively few sentries. Its fortifications were simple, with no extensive outer works to be protected and nothing to obstruct the view from one bastion to another. Sentries could see clearly all that passed between the works, making it unnecessary to place men - even at night - in the middle of the curtains or at the bastions' re-entrant angles as was done in Europe. [6]

Duquesnel, in his 1741 proposal, listed a total of 22 sentries distributed among the five guardposts. The total number of men he allotted to each post for a 24 hour period would have assured that no sentry was forced to stand guard more than four to five hours. While it is reasonable to assume that sentries were indeed posted at each of the places mentioned by Duquesnel, it is likely that a minimum of six hours sentry duty faced each member of the guard. In 1733 the guard sent to the Porte Dauphine included 12 soldiers (the 1741 list would have put 20 soldiers there in addition to three non-commissioned officers and a drummer). This post supplied three sentries for the full 24 hour period and one additional sentry during the night-time hours. Each of the 12 men, therefore, would have stood guard for at least six hours with perhaps three standing an additional two hours watch. [7] It is likely that this was the typical arrangement, and that the number of soldiers at each post ranged from 12 at the Porte Dauphine to 20 at the Pièce De La Grave. The sentry posts listed by Duquesnel in 1741 were:

Place D'Armes

-before the arms
- at the flanked angle of the Bastion Du Roi
- at the governor's door
- at the prison

Porte Dauphine

-before the arms
- at the gate of the covered way
- at the powder magazine
- at the flanked angle of the Bastion Dauphin at night only

Porte De La Reine

-before the arms
- at the gate of the covered way
- on the platform of the Bastion Princesse
- at the flanked angle of the Bastion De La Reine

Porte Maurepas

-before the arms
- at the gate of the covered way
- at the flanked angle of the Bastion Maurepas
- at the flanked angle of the Bastion Brouillan

Pièce De La Grave

-before the arms
- at the door of the king's storehouse- at the door of the hospital
- at the door of the treasury
- at the batterie du port [8]

And, because it supplied sentries to other buildings in the town, it was probably the Piece De La Grave guardhouse which supplied the guard for the English prisoners brought from Canso in 1744.

Despite the relatively small number of sentries which had to be provided by each corps de garde, Louisbourg's officers would have had difficulty complying with the ordinances which regulated the composition of the guard in Places De Guerre. These ordinances were formulated for garrisons which were both larger and less concerned with providing workers for construction projects. Unfortunately, the documents offer little indication what procedures were followed at Louisbourg.

According to an ordinance issued in 1666, each company in a garrison was to be divided into three squads which would take turns mounting the guard. By this means one-third of the garrison would always be on guard duty and one of the three soldiers which the regulations said should share a bed would always be away for the night. [9] This system could not have been used in Louisbourg because of the number of soldiers involved in construction.

Except for the years during which Verville was chief engineer (1715-25), there are no statistics to indicate exactly how many men were employed standing guard, nor is there a company by company breakdown for any period. However, it is evident that the majority of the soldiers were workers. The completion of each new corps de garde necessitated that additional soldiers be made to stand guard, though the strength, health and stamina of individual soldiers probably remained the chief criteria for determining who would work and who would mount the guard. Inevitably, the larger the guard came to be, the "healthier" it would have been since men who would have previously been designated to work on the fortifications would now have to be included in its members. Older or less healthy men would have continued to be selected for the guard before those who were younger and more robust. But, by 1744, the guard would not have consisted only of cadets and those unable to perform hard work as it had during the early years of construction. [10]

In addition to soldiers, each day's guard was to include officers, sergeants, corporals and drummers. Due to the doubling of the number of drummers attached to the Compagnies Franches in 1741, there was a sufficient number in the garrison to supply the requisite drummer to each corps de garde on a regular three day rotation. [11] The small size of the Louisbourg garrison, however, created problems with regard to the participation of officers and non-commissioned officers in the fortress' guard.

1. Officers - According to the ordinances, all infantry officers of a garrison with the exception of lieutenant-colonels, commanders of battalions, and captains commanding in the absence of the officiers majors (governor, lieutenant de roi and major) were to take turns mounting guard. Officers were to appear with gorget and spontoon at the changing of the guard, to sleep at the guardpost without disrobing, and to remain at the post at all times except for one hour at noon and one hour in the evening (6 P.M.) when they could leave to take their meals. During the officer's absence he was to be replaced by one who was due to mount the guard the next day. [12]

Captains were to observe rotation among themselves for guard duty with no one standing guard twice until all others had done so once. Subaltern officers were to do the same. If, as in the case of Louisbourg, the officer corps was not large enough to allow for a captain and a subaltern at each post, the captains were permitted to rotate with the lieutenants and ensigns. No captain was to mount the guard twice until all subalterns had done so once. [13]

In 1744 there were 38 officers serving with the Louisbourg garrison - 32 in the Compagnies Franches, 4 in the Karrer Regiment and 2 in the artillery company. Of these, as many as 18 may have been unavailable for guard duty at different times during the year. Two were commanding the artillery and were therefore excused from the guard, one was in France (Enseigne en pied Le Neuf De La Vallière), one was in poor health (the Karrer commander, Schonherr), and the rest were detached to the batteries, the outposts or the expedition against Port Royal. In addition, Jean Chrisostome Loppinot, who was performing the duties of garçon-major, may have been exempted from the guard.

Even if all 18 were unavailable at the same time, the remaining 20 would have been sufficient to have an officer at each of the five guardposts within the walls on a three day rotation. It is likely, however, that there were times when a corps de garde was without an officer. During the summer months there were numerous assignments which took officers away from Louisbourg. By the winter of 1744, however, there should have been no problem providing an officer for each guardpost since the four stationed at the Batterie De L'Ile were to be recalled to the fortress in November, and those involved in the Acadia expedition returned that same month. 14

2. Sergeants - Regulations called for at least one sergeant at each guardpost. At Louisbourg, especially in 1744, there must have been
numerous occasions when there were not enough sergeants to go around. There were 16 Compagnies Franches and 6 Karrer sergeants in the garrison (apart from the artillery). Of these, two were probably with their company at the Batterie Royale, one was stationed at
the Batterie De L'Ile, one was with Enseigne en pied Chevalier Du Vivier at Ile St. Jean, and one was probably with Lieutenant
Benoist at Port Toulouse. Detachments, work details and the expedition against Port Royale would have brought the number available for
guard duty below the minimum of 15 required for a normal three day rotation.

3. Corporals - The situation with regard to corporals would have been even more serious since there were supposed to be at least two at each guardpost; that is, a minimum of 30 needed for a three day rotation at five guardposts. In 1744 there were only 24 or 25 corporals in the garrison - 16 French and 8 or 9 Swiss. Allowing for corporals at the two batteries, as well as the outposts of Ile St. Jean and Port Toulouse, there would have been barely enough to provide one at each post on a three day rotation.

Since the duties of the corporals at the corps de garde were many and varied, it would have been necessary for them to have assistance if only one were sent to each port. Sergeants could have performed some of the corporal's tasks or cadets could have been given some of their responsibilities (though in 1744 eleven cadets were absent from Louisbourg for at least part of the summer). Another option would have been the appointment of anspessades (corporals' assistants who taught exercises to recruits, posted sentries, and generally performed any of the duties of a corporal). The corporal at the Place D'Armes guardhouse would have been in need of special help since he had the added responsibility of the prison. Although it is possible that a two day rotation was used for corporals, it is more likely that one corporal was placed at the less busy and less important posts such as the Porte Maurepas while, whenever a sufficient number were available, two were sent to the guardhouses of the Place D'Armes and the Porte Dauphine.

Usually, therefore, the guard of each of Louisbourg's five corps de garde would have included from 12 to 20 soldiers, one or two corporals, a sergeant, an officer and a drummer. The governor or commandant was given some discretion concerning the composition and placement of guards, but unfortunately there is little indication how Louisbourg's commanders chose to exercise it. All that is certain is that in the years 1744 and 1745 it would have been virtually impossible for Louisbourg to conform strictly to the rules for the guard as laid down in the ordinances.

Return/retour