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An Event Chronology Based on Louisbourg Accounts Not Available in the Archives of the Fortress of Louisbourg, By Eric Krause, Krause House Info-Research Solutions, 2004 - Present

1775

• April 22, 1775

[1745]

Letter of an old English Merchant to the Earl of Sandwich,
upon the Expedition to Louisbourg.—[From the Daily Advertiser.]
My Lord, London, April 22, 1775.

I HAVE waited a considerable time, in expectation, either that some abler advocate for the living and the dead, would have exposed the fallacy of your late extraordinary harangue in the House of Lords, as it was printed in the public newspapers ; or that a positive contradiction would have appeared from authority ; I mean a solemn asseveration that you never made use of such absurd terms, or related such an improbable particular instance, attended with such ludicrous circumstances concerning the brave Sir Peter Warren, and the equally brave North Americans: This latter expectation was rather reasonable in me, because, though I was admitted to the honour of being present at the memorable siege of Louisbourg, in 1745, I cannot, in these times of inquisitorial secrecy, be admitted to the like honour at the assemblies of the British sages ; I mean, in the Houses of Lords or Commons, and of course cannot depend upon what may be said to have passed there; the constituents of the Commons are rudely thrust out of the gallery of their own House, and as that celebrated botanist, philosopher, favourite, and Knight of the Polar Star, Sir John Hill, says, in the preface to his animadversions upon the Royal Society, I have the honour not to be a member of either. But, my Lord, I was an eye-witness to the siege in question, was much nearer than Sir Peter, at the time of, and assisted to cover, the landing, which was heroically effected ; and I do most absolutely deny your second-hand character, and account given of the Americans, if it is yours, to be true : I was also frequently an ear-witness to the declarations of Sir Peter, which were always directly contrary to what he hath been lately made to relate ; I therefore also sincerely believe that part of the harangue in question not

Letter of an old English Merchant to the Earl of Sandwich. 109

to be true. You know, my good Lord, dead men tell no tales ; it is well for some they cannot, or perhaps, if they could, in this refined and free thinking age, they would not be believed, no, not even Moses and the Prophets, were they to arise. Your Lordship will excuse the quotation ; you was always extravagantly fond of the scriptures, at least I have been told so ; and one tale, my good Lord, may be as true as another, you know : and yet, after all, your Lordship, far from declaiming so fallaciously, may never have even seen the ludicrous tale, you are represented to have so ludicrously embellished. You may, my Lord, be infinitely above reading of newspapers ; nevertheless, in justice to your Lordship, as well as the rest of the concerned, it once more makes its appearance, with a few remarks; and would your Lordship condescend so far, you might learn how injuriously to your honour, you have been libelled in the public prints.

____"As to their prowess, I remember very well, when I had the honour to be at the Board at which I now preside, I had the curiosity to inquire about the surprising feats said to be performed by those people [the Americans] at the siege of Louisbourg, of the great naval officer who commanded on that expedition, as able and honest a seaman as ever lived (Sir Peter Warren) who told me very frankly, they were the greatest set of cowards and poltroons he ever knew; they were all bluster, noise, and conquest, before they got in the presence of their enemies, but then they were good for nothing. I remember a particular instance he told me, which, from the ludicrous circumstances attending it, made a very deep impression on my mind. Soon after their landing, there was a battery, called the Island Battery, which commanded the entrance of the harbour. Sir Peter having ordered them to attack it, they engaged to perform it; but what was the consequence ? They ran away on the first fire. And how did you manage ? Did you employ them afterwards, or upbraid them with their cowardice, says I ?—No, answered Sir Peter, neither would it have been prudent; I formed the marines and part of the ships' crews into a body, to act on shore; and instead of upbraiding them, I told them they had behaved like heroes; for, if I had acted otherwise, I should have never taken the town, as their presence and numbers were necessary to intimidate the besieged.

"Their numbers, [meaning the Americans at large] and extent of country both, will unite with their cowardice to render their conquest the more easy ; for, in the first place, it will be more difficult to assemble them, and when they are assembled, the more easy to defeat them. I would be better pleased, that the standing army should meet 200,000 of such a rabble, armed with old rusty firelocks, pistols, staves, clubs, and broomsticks, than 20,000, as the war would be at an end ; and instead of five victories, one on our part would be equally decisive."

Sir Peter Warren, then a Commodore only, was as able and honest a seaman as ever stept between the stem and stern of a ship. He might have been advised with ; nay, he certainly was, because the most perfect harmony subsisted between the land and sea officers; but he never ordered the land forces to attack any part of the fortifications, nor would they have engaged to perform such orders, if he had : the chief naval officer understood discipline much better, than to trench upon the province of General

Letter of an old English Merchant, &c. 110

Pepperell ; such orders must have bred ill blood. Can any man be brought to believe, that the General, or his brave volunteer irregulars, about 3,800 in number, every one of whom belonged to America, nay almost to a man * New-Englanders, would have suffered such treatment? Besides, would any mere naval officer, in his senses, have made himself unnecessarily responsible for consequences so hazardous! Lastly, and beyond all, who could have imagined that an English First Lord of the Admiralty would have espoused such a doctrine, and approved of such conduct ?

The Island Battery stood upon a small rock, almost inaccessible, about 20 yards broad, and 200 long, with a circular battery of 42 pounders, towards the neck of the harbour, in front, with a guard-house and barracks behind. How could they, the Americans, run away, then, on the first fire? Or where to? unless into the ocean; for the whaling and ship's boats were sunk, or obliged to draw off': As it was, they made a noble stand : one Brookes, an American officer, had nearly struck the flag of the fort, it was actually half down, when a French-Swiss trooper, clove his skull. Their courageous landing, their dragging of 18 pounders, several miles over rocks, and through morasses, their drilling of 42 pounders left in the deserted grand battery which had been spiked up by the French, and then conveying them round the north-east harbour to the light-house ; the speedy and close approach of the fascine batteries to the ramparts, and the general alertness of the successful besiegers, entitles them, surely, to more than a sneer; it justly entitles them to the real appellation of heroes : Could men, so circumstanced, exert themselves more ? Do such an handful of undisciplined soldiers deserve the opprobious epithets of cowards or poltroons ?

The admiral, it is true, blocked up the harbour effectually, and neglected nothing in the power of an experienced and valiant naval officer, on sea or shore, to assist the land forces; but did any one, besides your Lordship, ever hear him boast, that if he had acted otherwise, than by crouching and lying to cowards and poltroons, he should have taken the town ? Modesty is a constant attendant upon real merit; the admiral would have modestly insisted, that the fleet blocked up the port and did its duty, but that the army took the town.

You have been libelled, my Lord, or you have paid a poor compliment to the memory of Sir Peter Warren, and much poorer to the names of the brave North Americans who perished before the walls ; neither have you done justice to the survivers upon that expedition ; I bled in this business my Lord ; and, though an old Englishman, feel for the honour of the British

*"___ Inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, New-Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode-Island ; 3,850 voluntary soldiers, principally substantial persons, and men of beneficial occupations ; this brave, determined, though undisciplined band of soldiers, embarked from Boston on the 20th of March for Canso; and, pray for us, while we fight for you, was the valiant and endearing language wherewith they animated their desponding countrymen, on their departure from their families, their fortunes, and their occupations."

Rolt's Impartial Representation, &c. vol.4, fol. 13.

[Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society For the Year 1792. Vol. I Boston, 1968 (Reprint)]

• June 14, 1775
  Pennsylvania Gazette (Fair Use © Accessible Gazette Inc.)

[March 31, 1775]

An ACT to restrain the trade and commerce of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Providence Plantation, in North America, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the West Indies, and to prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on the Banks of Newfoundland, or other places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations....

... And it is hereby further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any ship or vessel, being the property of the subjects of Great Britain, not belonging to and fitted out from Great Britain or Ireland, or the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Alderney or Man, shall be found, after the 20th day of July, 1775, carrying on any fishery, of what nature or kind so ever, upon the Banks of Newfoundland, the coast of Labrador, or within the River or Gulph of Saint Lawrence, or upon the coast of cape breton, or Nova Scotia, or any other part of the coast of North America, ...

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