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Updated: May 14, 2025
Let it suffice us first to take Louisbourg from the foe. But that once done, I shall know no rest, day or night, till I stand as victor at the walls of Quebec!" "Do not leave Gabarus Bay until I have effected a landing!" So spoke Admiral Boscawen; and when the word was known, a cheer ran through the squadron from end to end.
But as '68 lay at anchor' in Canso harbour, while others 'came dropping in from day to day, as there were 4,270 militiamen on board, in addition to all the stores, and as the French counted '96 transports' making for Gabarus Bay, there could not have been less than 100, while the crews could hardly have mustered less than an average of 20 men each.
In America, however, he was to win his lasting laurels. On the 2d of June, the fleet arrived at the Bay of Gabarus, about seven miles to the west of Louisburg. The latter place was garrisoned by two thousand five hundred regulars, and three hundred militia, and subsequently reinforced by upwards of four hundred Canadians and Indians.
On the eighth day of June, the troops being assembled in the boats before day-break, in three divisions, several sloops and frigates, that were stationed along shore in the bay of Gabarus, began to scour the beach with their shot; and after the fire had continued about a quarter of an hour, the boats, containing the division on the left, were rowed toward the shore, under the command of brigadier-general Wolfe, an accomplished officer, who, in the sequel, displayed very extraordinary proofs of military genius.
Of course, the men could not be landed under the fire of the fortress. But two miles south of it, and running westward from it for many miles more, was Gabarus Bay with an open beach. For several days the Atlantic waves dashed against the shore so furiously that no boat could live through their breakers.
The French had been expecting them for at least a month; as scouts kept appearing almost every day, while Hardy's squadron of nine sail had been maintaining a sort of open blockade. On the night of June 1 the French look-outs in Gabarus Bay saw more lights than usual to the southward.
Amherst took command of the troops; and the expedition held its way till the second of June, when they saw the rocky shore-line of Cape Breton, and descried the masts of the French squadron in the harbor of Louisbourg. The Authentic Account of the Reduction of Louisbourg, by a Spectator, puts the force at 11,326 men, besides officers. Boscawen sailed into Gabarus Bay.
After landing the troops, the transports, and some of the men of war, went into Gabarus Bay, where the admiral allowed the captains of the former to land their men, being sickly, on a small peninsula, which they engaged to defend from the enemy.
General Forbes, a resolute Scotch veteran, was to march on Fort Duquesne, General Abercromby was to lay siege to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and General Amherst, with Admiral Boscawen, was to attack the fortress of Louisbourg, which was acknowledged as the key of the St. Lawrence. The English fleet anchored in Gabarus Bay, to the southward of Louisbourg, on the 2nd of June, 1758.
Boscawen took his advice, and declared that he would not leave Gabarus Bay till he had fulfilled his instructions and set the troops on shore. West of Louisbourg there were three accessible places, Freshwater Cove, four miles from the town, and Flat Point, and White Point, which were nearer, the last being within a mile of the fortifications.
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