Reduction of Louisburg.
This expedition, and its success, are one of the most striking events in American warfare. It established the New England character for a daring and enterprising spirit, and it became equally the boast and the fear of Britain. The daring and the prowess that effected such an achievement, might one day be arrayed against the integrity of the British empire in America. Pious people considered that this victory was wrought out by a special guiding and cöoperating Providence.
After the loss of Louisburg, the conflicts on the borders became more frequent and fatal. The enemy was exasperated, and determined to give the colonists no rest. Various places on the Connecticut were accordingly attacked, but chiefly settlements in New Hampshire, the results of which were very distressing to individual families. Charlestown, Keene, New Hopkinton, Contoocook, Rochester, and many other places whose situations exposed them to the enemy were attacked, and a greater or less number of individuals were killed, wounded, or captured.
One attack may be stated in detail; it followed the surrender of Fort Massachusetts to Vaudreuil's French and Indian forces, an honourable capitulation, which took place in the summer of 1746, the fort having defended itself as long as its ammunition lasted. The narrative is given in the language of another: "Immediately after the surrender of Fort Massachusetts, about fifty of Vaudreuil's Indians passed Hoosack mountain, for the purpose of making depredations at Deerfield, about forty miles eastward. Arriving near the village on Sunday, they reconnoitered the north meadow, for the purpose of selecting a place of attack upon the people, as they should commence their labor the next morning. Not finding a point of attack suited to their design, which seems to have been rather to capture than to secure scalps, they proceeded about two miles south, to a place called the Bars, where were a couple of houses, owned by the families of Arnsden and Allen, but now deserted; and early in the morning formed an ambuscade on the margin of a meadow, under the cover of a thicket of alders, near which was a quantity of mown hay. The laborers of the two families, accompanied by several children, then residing in Deerfield village, proceeded to their work in the early part of the day, and commenced their business very near the Indians, who now considered their prey as certain. But a little before they commenced their attack, Mr. Eleazer Hawks, one of the neighboring inhabitants, went out for fowling; and, approaching near the ambuscade, was shot down and scalped. Alarmed at the fire, the persons fled down a creek towards a mill, fiercely pursued by the Indians. Simeon Arnsden, a lad, was seized, killed and scalped; Samuel Allen, John Sadler, and Adonijah Gillet, made a stand under the bank of Deerfield river, near the mouth of the mill creek, whence they opened a fire on the Indians. Soon overpowered, Allen and Gillet fell; but Sadler escaped to an island, and thence across the river, under a shower of balls. In the mean time, others, making for the road leading to the town, were closely pursued, and Oliver Arnsden, after a vigorous struggle for his life, was barbarously butchered. Eunice, a daughter, and two sons of Allen (Samuel and Caleb) were in the field; Eunice was knocked down by a tomahawk, and her skull fractured, but, in the hurry, was left unscalped. Samuel was made prisoner, and Caleb effected his escape by running through a piece of corn, though the Indians passed very near him. Notwithstanding the severity of her wounds, Eunice recovered, and lived to an advanced age."[24]
Although the war between England and France was terminated by the treaty of peace at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 18th of October, 1743, yet tranquillity did not immediately follow. The frontiers continued to be ravaged, and the comfort and progress of the settlers were seriously interrupted, for a time, beyond the general pacification. The basis of the peace, as settled at Aix-la-Chapelle, was the mutual restoration of all places taken during the war: Louisburg, the pride and glory of the war, reverted to the French, to the grief and mortification of New England.
