Battle of Fort Beauséjour

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Battle of Fort Beauséjour
Part of the Seven Years' War
Lewis Parker's Camp of the British 43rd Regiment at Fort Beauséjour features grenadiers and regular infantry at the siege.
Date June 3-16, 1755 Location near Sackville, New Brunswick Result British victory
Combatants
France	Britain
Commanders
Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor	Robert Monckton
Strength
162	2,000
Casualties
162 dead, wounded, or captured	Unknown

Seven Years' War in North America: The French and Indian War
Jumonville Glen – Great Meadows – Fort Beauséjour – Monongahela – Kittanning – Lake George – Fort Bull – Fort Oswego – Fort William Henry – Louisbourg - Fort Carillon – Fort Frontenac - Fort Duquesne – Fort Ligonier – Ticonderoga – Fort Niagara – Beauport – Quebec – Sainte-Foy – Restigouche - Thousand Islands – Signal Hill

The Battle of Fort Beauséjour marked the opening of a British-American offensive in the French and Indian War. From June 3 to the French capitulation of June 16, 1755, a powerful British army under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Monckton staged out of nearby Fort Lawrence and besieged the garrison of Fort Beauséjour in the goal of opening the Isthmus of Chignecto to British control.

Although de Vergor, subject to intense bombardment, defied the British for two weeks, there was little the French could realistically do to lift the siege in the face of overwhelming British superiority. On June 16, British mortar fire breached defective fortification works and badly mauled the garrison. de Vergor surrendered.

The next day, the French abandoned nearby Fort Gaspareau, severing communications with Acadia. However, the campaign of 1755 was not strategically decisive and did little to threaten New France's territorial integrity, with Edward Braddock's simultaneous thrust into the Ohio Valley ending in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela.