While the Envieux and Profond chased the retreating English their new prize, under the command of local pilot and corsair Jean Baptiste, made sail for St. John. Unfortunately the tides and poor weather, coupled with the ship’s impaired performance, resulted in Baptiste running her up onto the rocks at the mouth of the St. John River. At length the Newport was freed, and soon all three French vessels dropped anchor at St. John. The supplies destined for Villebon were unloaded over the next few days, including an impressive array of artillery for the new fort. Attention was also turned toward repairs on the Newport and a crew for the prize. With these matters seen to, some fifty Abenaki were taken on board and the three vessels set off for Pentagoet. Here Iberville finished the repairs on the Newport while he waited several weeks for Castin’s native allies to appear. By the end of the first week of August Castin had assembled 240 Abenaki and 25 colonial marines. When added to the one hundred or so Micmac already on board, and a complement of the vessels crews to man the artillery, it put Iberville’s numbers close to five hundred men or about five times that of the English garrison of Fort William Henry.6
The force departed in two detachments, with Castin and his native warriors traveling to Pemaquid by canoes while the rest of the expedition sailed aboard Iberville’s warships. The fleet anchored about a league from the English fort a few hours before sunrise on August 15. Iberville summoned the stronghold’s commander, Captain Pasco Chubb, to surrender, but the latter replied that he would not yield even “if the sea were covered with French vessels and the land with Indians.” The French commander had expected as much, and while the opening formalities of the siege were being enacted his men had been busy landing cannon and marking out trenches to approach the fort.
The French pressed their siege trenches forward throughout the morning to the flash of musketry or thunder of cannon as the fort’s defenders attempted to repulse their efforts. By afternoon a firing battery of two large mortars and two twelve-pounders had been erected a few hundred yards from the fort. A little before two o’clock a call rang out and one of the mortars let out a hollow thump as its bomb arced through the air, clearing the fort and exploding behind it. The next shot was long as well, but after that the crew found the range and several rounds fell within the confines of the fort. The point being made, Castin ordered the guns to stop firing and sent a surrender demand to Chubb. The French envoy met with Chubb and a few of his officers outside the fort and informed the English commander that if the fort was not surrendered by the time the next mortar was fired “he did not know whether there would be man, woman, or child saved; for the Indians would come in upon us if our walls were breached, and would give no quarter.”7
Given the garrison’s past conduct toward the Abenaki the threat resonated with the English, but to convince Chubb of the futility of resisting he was invited to send an envoy to the French camp. The English commander agreed and sent a sergeant from the garrison. The man returned an hour later to report about the French battery. Six more cannon had just been landed and would be in position within a day or two. The enemy appeared to be six hundred strong, five hundred Abenaki and one hundred French, and this did not include the crews on the warships, which numbered several hundred.
Chubb, latter claimed by many to be a marginal officer, was in a predicament. It is true that he had a new stone and earth fort to stand behind, with over a dozen guns mounted on its ramparts and a garrison of ninety-two men, forty of whom had just arrived from Massachusetts. They were well provisioned and sufficient in number to guard the walls of the structure. If determined there was little doubt that the English garrison could seriously contest the French siege, but part of the problem was the enemy had attacked in a direction where only one cannon could be brought to bear against them, and after firing this gun a few times the ramparts beneath it began to crumble. To make matters worse the enemy had cut them off from their water supply, and with news that the French warships had beaten off a New Englander fleet in the area there was little hope of timely relief.
In the end Chubb surrendered the fort on the condition that the garrison would be allowed to keep their personal possessions and would be carried back to Boston where they would be exchanged for French and Indian prisoners being held there. Iberville agreed to the terms and marched the garrison out as prisoners of war. The gates were opened and the fort ransacked. A half-dead Abenaki was found in the fort’s jail, which set off a furor among Castin’s allies. Fortunately Iberville had been wise enough to immediately ship the garrison off to a small island in the bay where he could keep a close guard over them. When everything of value had been taken efforts turned toward destroying the fort by pulling down its walls and putting everything that would burn to the torch.8
News of Fort William Henry traveled the length of New England like a shock wave. The fort, reputed to be one of the strongest in North America, had fallen in less than twenty-four hours. Captain Chubb, who along with the rest of the garrison was returned when Iberville held up his end of the surrender, was accused of treason and thrown in jail. The militia was called out, and there was fear that Iberville’s next target would be Portsmouth, but at least in this regard Governor Stoughton of Massachusetts was fortunate. The frigates HMS Arundel and HMS Orford had just arrived at Boston with a number of merchantmen in tow. Stoughton contracted a large merchant ship fitted out with thirty-six guns and, along with the Sorling and the Province galley, sent the two Royal Navy warships out in pursuit of Iberville.
The hastily constructed English fleet nearly accomplished their task. They surprised the French who were lying at anchor with the captured Newport at Mount Desert Island. Had the wind not suddenly died off, Iberville might have had a serious dilemma on his hands, but instead he used the cover of darkness to slip away. He was briefly sighted the next morning, but foggy weather ended any hopes of a pursuit. The English, however, were not to return empty-handed. As the Orford was returning from this chase it captured a French shallop, which held Captain Villeau and twenty-three marines bound for St. John.9
The New England response to the fall of Fort William Henry came quicker than anticipated. This was in part because earlier in the year the Massachusetts assembly had sanctioned another eastern expedition under Major Church. This was to be Church’s fourth expedition of the war, and this time he approached the matter differently. Throughout the spring and earlier summer Church traveled from New Hampshire to Connecticut recruiting men for the venture. He also recruited a large number of Bay Indians to man the whaleboats he had constructed for his force. In the past the major had been frustrated by his enemy discovering his movements before he was in a position to strike. By employing the whaleboats he could have the major vessels carrying the expedition anchor out of sight while his forces moved forward undetected. The boats would also give his war party the ability to navigate the inland waterways in search of his quarry, which would not only make his movements faster but offer the opportunity to strike with the element of surprise.
Church was in Boston seeing to the final details of his campaign when reports arrived about Fort William Henry. The news only added more urgency to the preparations, and a few days later the major and a part of his force set sail for the rendezvous point at Portsmouth. Church and his men waited a week at Portsmouth while the remaining troops arrived. His presence brought relief to those who feared a French attack on the seaport, and during this time Church sent out detachments of his men to scout the frontier and guard the settlements. By August 22, close to four hundred men had arrived—enough to convince Church to move forward. A part of the army was loaded aboard three brigantines and dispatched to Winter Harbor. Their orders were to secure the area and send out scouts in search of the enemy. Church and the rest of his forces, traveling by whaleboat, would follow a few days later.10
At Winter Harbor Church found no sign of the enemy. Fearing that he might be too late, and that the French and Indian army that had besieged Fort William Henry had scattered, Church advanced up t
he coast toward Penobscot Bay, a known French and Indian rendezvous point. The major was cautious to mask his approach and sat in ambush at this location for several days without observing anything. There was no sign of the enemy. Acting on information from one of his men who had been a prisoner in the region the detachment ascended the Penobscot River to the Great Falls in search of an Abenaki village. No village was found, but an Abenaki canoe ambushed by some of Church’s men contained a letter from one of the Jesuit fathers in the region that spoke about the construction of a French fort at the mouth of the St. John River and the artillery recently delivered by Iberville that would be mounted in this structure.11
With the new information, Church was for returning to the brigantines and descending on St. John. The enemy was clearly alerted to the expedition’s presence, meaning that there was nothing else to be accomplished here. The ship’s captains, however, were not so keen on the idea. They might well find a French warship or a privateer at St. John, and none of the English ships were heavily armed, being fitted out primarily as transports. Instead a compromise was struck and the detachment set sail for Chignecto in Acadia. Here they burned and plundered several French villages and skirmished with a handful of French settlers.12
With their task in Chignecto complete, the expedition seemed to have a change of heart and set sail for St. John. The ships hid at a nearby island while Church and some of his men landed on the west bank of the St. John River. Fanning out into the woods the detachment advanced until they were opposite the old French fort on the east bank. From their vantage point they saw a dozen men at work erecting new fortifications. After monitoring the enemy’s activities for a while Church withdrew. The next morning his entire force, including the transports, moved forward at sunrise and seized the partially fashioned fort. The surprise was near total and most of the work crew scattered into the woods, leaving Church with a single wounded prisoner. After being treated for his wounds the French corporal proved of help by showing Church where the fort’s heavy cannon were buried. There was some discussion of moving upstream and attacking Governor Villebon’s Fort St. Joseph, but this was dismissed when it was revealed that the water level in the river was currently too low for the boats. Satisfied with his take of twelve French cannon and a number of other stores, Church spent the next few days loading everything onto the boats for a return trip to Boston, and after a false start when the winds shifted, he set to sea.
A few hours later one of the lookouts gave a cry and pointed to three sails on the horizon. With the distinct possibility that the vessels were French the fleet prepared for action. It soon proved unnecessary, as the ships were seen flying English colors. They turned out to be the Royal Navy frigate Arundel, the Province galley, and a small sloop. Onboard were one hundred men under the command of Lt. Colonel John Hathorne. Hathorne had orders from the governor placing Church and his men under his command for an attempt on the new fortifications at St. John and Fort St. Joseph farther upriver. Church was less than delighted by the orders and was further aggravated after he informed Hathorne of his recent actions. The latter listened but still elected to pursue an attack on Villebon’s headquarters. Church argued that there was little more to accomplish, but Hathorne ended the conversation by informing the major “that he must attend to his orders.”13
For Governor Villebon all had been relatively quiet after the capture and destruction of Fort William Henry. That is until Church attacked the fort being built at the mouth of the St. John River. Within a few days matters turned far worse. On October 9, Villebon dispatched an officer and seven men to the site of Fort St. John with provisions for the detachment there. A dozen miles from Fort St. Joseph this party encountered a soldier from the detachment constructing the new fort. The man was exhausted from his trek but informed them that two frigates and four other transports had entered the harbor and landed two hundred English and Indians before the partially built fort. Taken completely by surprise the detachment of fifty men was scattered after a few shots. He knew that one Frenchman had been killed and another one taken but had no idea what had become of his commander and the rest of the detachment.14
The detachment returned to Fort St. Joseph with the news. The information was enough for Villebon to write Father Simon, a missionary in the area, urging him to come to Fort St. Joseph as quickly as possible with all the Abenaki he could muster. A number of other messengers were sent out as well with simple instructions to convince the natives they came across to march to Villebon’s aid. As reinforcements trickled into the fort and were set to work bolstering its defenses, the governor sent an officer named Neuvillette and three men downriver to look for the English. Neuvillette did not have to look hard. On October 16, the scouting party returned informing Villebon that they had encountered the enemy a few miles below Jemseg. Although the morning mists had allowed them to approach within a pistol shot, it was too difficult to make out anything more then several small vessels in the river.
Taken with the other information it was enough to convince Villebon that the English were serious about making an attempt on Fort St. Joseph. He ordered a house near the fort torn down and the fort’s munitions to be distributed among his garrison. The cannon were checked and supplied with additional powder and buckets of water positioned throughout the fort to deal with any threat of fire. On October 17, twelve French settlers entered the fort, raising the governor’s numbers to around one hundred men. After assembling the garrison and giving a rousing speech, which ended with three cheers of “Vive le roi,” there was little left to do but wait.
It did not turn out to be much of a wait. The sound of barking dogs all night convinced the garrison that the enemy was near, and not long after daybreak the sight of a whaleboat full of men moving upriver confirmed what everyone expected. Two more vessels appeared behind the first one, and when they approached to within half a cannon shot Villebon gave the order to fire. A series of commands echoed out, and one by one a string of cannon mounted along the fort’s ramparts shattered the quiet landscape. The French failed to hit their targets but succeeded in forcing the three English ships to disembark along the eastern shore.
For the next hour the English and French traded shouts of “Viva le roi,” and “God save the king.” As Church’s men crept closer to the south bank of the Nashwaak River they came within musket range of the fort. With the thirty-yard-wide ribbon of water between the two parties a brisk exchange commenced, with the French side occasionally punctuating their effort with one of the fort’s cannon, which sent grapeshot tearing through the woods like a cloud of angry hornets. The fort’s fire, quite intense at times, still did not prevent the English from erecting a redoubt, and by nightfall a battery of three three-pound guns had been raised on the south bank of the river.15
It was an uneasy night for the attackers, as Villebon prevented them from lighting fires by directing volleys of grapeshot toward any sign of light. At daybreak the firing began again. Around eight o’clock the English brought their new battery into play, adding to the cacophony. One of the enemy guns proved too exposed and its crew was quickly chased away by musket fire. The other two guns required a more concerted effort on the part of the defenders, but within a few hours one English gun had been dismounted and the other abandoned under the focused bombardment. The firing remained steady from both sides until nightfall. Shortly after sunset the English lit a large portion of the shore on fire. Villebon immediately suspected that the English were covering their retreat and ordered all the garrison’s guns to open fire. The governor was correct and no doubt the French fire sped the New England forces on their way.
By October 21 it was over. Hathorne’s troops had returned to their vessels and the fleet had put back out to sea for Boston. Fort St. Joseph had proven too difficult of a nut to crack. The problem was as Church had stated; the water level was unusually low for this time of year. This limited the approach toward the fort, particularly from the logistics side, but more importantly it limited what artillery c
ould be brought before the structure. Had it been possible to carry a battery of twelve-pounders upriver, the siege of Fort St. Joseph likely would have ended much differently. As it was the attack had cost the French one killed and several wounded—a small price given the circumstances.
English losses in the attack on Fort St. Joseph are not mentioned in any of the journals and documents of the time. Given the more exposed nature of the attackers the numbers are probably twice that of the French—still a small number given the resources committed. What is certain is that the St. John campaign and Church’s earlier expedition had accomplished little. It was true that they had the French cannon destined for the fort at St. John in their hands, as well as a good number of artillery supplies, but overall they failed to achieve their goals. Coupled with the loss of Pemaquid, a vulnerable frontier, rumors of French warships prowling off the coast, and a failed harvest, it proved too much for the bay colony.16
In late September Governor Stoughton and the Massachusetts council directly appealed to the king for his help. “The French interest is greatly advanced and your Majesty’s interest is languishing,” Governor Stoughton wrote, after recounting the disastrous year for the colony.
The places from which you have been supplied with naval stores are in danger to be seized, and our trade both north and south is greatly decayed. The charge of war has lain heavy on this province, Connecticut having contributed little and Rhode Island and New Hampshire nothing at all to the support of your interest, but having drawn a considerable charge on us for their defence. We therefore implore your royal aid.17
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