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PRELIMINARY HISTORICAL REPORT, ROYAL BATTERY NUMBER 2

By John Humphreys 

October 15, 1964

(Fortress of Louisbourg Report Number H F 5)

INTRODUCTION

When I began the research for this report in June I was given the following instructions:

• 1. To prepare: a descriptive chronology of the battery's construction, occupation, and use
• 2. To prepare sketches outlining the battery as originally built and as later modified
• 3. To extract and append any research material of particular relevance

A chronology of the battery's initial construction comprises Section I of this report. Modifications to the original construction are described in Section II, and the battery's occupation and use are outlined in Section III. Nineteen diagrams of the battery taken from the plans held at Ottawa are reproduced in the Plan Appendix [Report H F 6], which is referred to throughout Sections I and II. All material concerning the battery found in the sources listed below has been extracted and typed out, and is to be found in the Research Notes Appendix. This appendix is referred to in the footnotes in all sections of the report.

The sources researched were the following:

• Arch. Col. C11B
• Arch. Col. C11A
• Arch. Col. C11C
• Arch. Col. B
• Arch. Col. C11G
• Arch. Col. F3
• Arch. Mar. 3JJ
• Arch. Col. F1A, v. 18-20, 21-35, 37-45
• Com. Tech du Génie
• Génie Mss. Réliés
• Min. Guerre
• AFC DFC Am. Sept.
• AN Marine
• Bibl. du Génie, Insp. Gén.

Unless specified otherwise, inclusion of a series in the above list i9ndicates that I have researched all the volumes or articles of that series which were in the microfilm library at Ottawa as of September 15, 1964. In addition, I researched the follo0wing English sources:

• Gibson's Journal, 1745. PAC Lib. No. RF 5060.5.G5.1847
• Louisbourg's Journals 1745. De Forest Ed. Louisbourg Lib.
• Military Diaries of Croton Soldiers. PAC Lib. No. F74.G9G3
• Pepperell's Journal, 1745. PAC Lib. No. F5060.5.P46.1910
• Accurate Journal, 1745. PAC Lib. No. F5060.5.P46
• Emerson's Diary, 1745. PAC Lib. No. E198.E53
• Journal of Sloop Union, 1745. PAC Lib. No. F5060.5.M39
• William Amherst's Journal, 1758. PAC Lib. No. E199.A54
• Remarks on a letter, etc. 1757. PAC Lib. No. I-229

The anonymous "Letter of an Inhabitant of Louisbourg" was also consulted for the 1745 siege. The largest remaining gap in the research appears to be the official correspondence during the period of British occupation in the 1740's, and during the years immediately following the second siege. Admiralty and Colonial records and correspondence at the Public Archives of Canada should be consulted for this, and the Demolition reports might provide useful details of the battery's configuration in 1758. Any French diaries or journals not included in the series already researched should also be consulted. In conducting any further research it should be borne in mind that the definitive toisé of the battery has not yet been unearthed - it appears in none of the series I have researched. The study of this document would be extremely useful for clarifying the state of the battery at the close of its initial construction.

                                                                                                  Respectively submitted,

                                                                                                   John Humphreys

October 15, 1964

Harvard University

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