Siege of Louisbourg (1758)

During the Seven Years’ War a British flotilla comprising 157 sails of naval and transport vessels left Halifax on 28 May 1758, in an expedition against Louisbourg. On 8 June the British landed and began the siege of the fortress. The defenders were quite unprepared, both in plans and in materials. On 26 July, faced with a bombarded and starved civilian population, Governor Augustin de Boschenry de Drucour decided to surrender. The fall of Louisbourg sealed the fate of Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island), and the British adopted particularly harsh measures against the Acadians.