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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
Extracts of Matters of Historical Interest from "The Huissier, News For and About the Fortress of Louisbourg Heritage Presentation Staff" By The Fortress of Louisbourg Heritage Presentation Staff
THE HUISSIER
(July 9, 2009)
Mortars in Louisbourg
By Sandy Balcolm, Historian
Mortars in the 18th century were a type of artillery cast in iron or brass that
fired explosive
shells in a high trajectory. They consisted
of a short squat barrel, typically set at 45’ on a stout carriage bed. Mortar
barrels were either
cast whole with the bed or
with trunnions and were removable from their beds. Mortars varied in size with
the largest ones (12
to 13 inch (30.4 to 33.0
cm) bore) firing shells that weighed close to 200 pounds (90 kg).
Because of their high trajectory fire, mortars were valued in siege warfare as
they could fire over
walls either in attack or in defence.
In both sieges, mortars played key roles for Louisbourg’s attackers and the
defenders. In 1745, a
significant turning point
in the first siege came late in the siege when the New Englanders used a large
mortar on Lighthouse
Point to silence the Island
Battery (a critical harbour-entrance defence). For their part, French gunners
used a large mortar
(nicknamed le Comte
de Maurepas), mounted near the right flank of the King’s Bastion to slow siege
battery operations
against the town.
In 1758, during the significantly larger second siege, the French used 12 large
iron or brass
mortars (10” bore or larger)
and 5 smaller mortars in the town’s defence. A key moment in the second siege
came when an exploding
British mortar
shell started a fire on a large French warship, which then spread to two nearby
French warships,
destroying them as
well.
After 1758, the British took away serviceable artillery pieces as they gradually
reduced and then
abandoned Louisbourg’s
defences.
(By Sandy Balcom)