Fort Menagoueche

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Fort Menagouèche
St. John, New Brunswick,  Canada
Type Historical French Fort
Official name: Fort Charnisay National Historic Site of Canada
Designated: 1923
Site information
Owner  Canada: National Historic Sites of Canada
Controlled by 1751-1755:  France
1758-?:  British Empire
?-present:  Canada
Site history
Built 1751
In use 1751-1755:  France Warehouse/Way Station
1758-?:  British Empire Fort
?-present:  Canada Museum
Built by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot  France

Fort Menagoueche (French: Fort Menagouèche) was a French fort at the mouth of the St. John River, New Brunswick, Canada. French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot built the fort during Father Le Loutre's War and eventually burned it himself as the French retreated after losing the Battle of Beausejour. It was reconstructed as Fort Frederick by the British.

Due to the succession of strategic French and British forts at this location, the site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923.[1]

History

Marquis de Boishébert - Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot (1753)

Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.[2] By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War.[3] The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1751), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).[4]

Within 18 months of establishing Halifax, the British also took firm control of peninsula Nova Scotia by building fortifications in all the major Acadian communities: present-day Windsor (Fort Edward); Grand Pre (Fort Vieux Logis) and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). (A British fort already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Cobequid remained without a fort.)[5]

The only land route between Louisbourg and Quebec went from Baie Verte through Chignecto, along the Bay of Fundy and up the St. John River.[6] With the establishment of Halifax, the Canadians recognized at once the threat it represented and that the St. John River corridor might be used to attack Quebec City itself.[7] To protect this vital gateway, at the beginning of 1749, the French strategically constructed three forts within 18 months along the route: one at Baie Verte (Fort Gaspareaux), one at Chignecto (Fort Beausejour) and another at the mouth of the St. John River (Fort Menagoueche).

Establishment

Monument to Fort Menagoueche, St. John, New Brunswick
Fort Frederick built by order of Hon. Col. Robert Monckton on the entrance of the St. John River in the Bay of Fundy, 1758

Boishebert abandoned Fort Boishebert and moved further down the river to build Fort Menagouche. With 65 Canadians and 120 natives, he rebuilt the ruined Fort St. Jean.[8] Fort Menagoueche was effectively a fortified warehouse manned by a small garrison. It was built in 1751 by the order of the Marquis de la Jonquière as a way station between Fort Beauséjour and Louisbourg and Québec.

Communication with Fort Beauséjour across the Isthmus of Chignecto was at first via an ancient portage route, but, in 1754, a road was built linking the two forts. Communication by sea was possible in the summer to Québec, Louisbourg and France.

Immediately after the Battle of Fort Beauséjour (1755), Robert Monckton sent a detachment under the command of John Rous to take Fort Menagoueche. De Boishebert knew that he faced a superior force so he burned the fort and retreated up the river to undertake guerrilla warfare. The destruction of Fort Menagoueche left Louisbourg as the last French fort in Acadia.[9] Boishebert made his first strike in the Battle of Petitcodiac. The British then reconstructed the fortress and named it Fort Frederick in the St. John River Campaign (1758).[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fort Charnisay. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2008; Thomas Beamish Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 7
  3. ↑ Wicken, p. 181; Griffith, p. 390; Also see http://www.northeastarch.com/vieux_logis.html
  4. ↑ John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press.
  5. ↑ John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press.
  6. ↑ Campbell, Gary. The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec. Goose Lane Editions and the New Brunswick Military Heritage Project. 2005, p. 25
  7. ↑ Patterson, 1994, p. 131
  8. ↑ Roger Sarty and Doug Knight. Saint John Fortifications. 2003. p. 27
  9. ↑ Roger Sarty and Doug Knight. Saint John Fortifications. 2003. p. 29
  10. ↑ Roger Sarty and Doug Knight. Saint John Fortifications. 2003. p. 31; John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press.pp. 199-200; F. Thériault, p. 11
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