The Deadly Feud of Fort La Tour

At Portland Point in the harbour of the modern-day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, there is little to suggest that a great stone-and-timber fort, with an imposing gatehouse, central courtyard, assorted living quarters, chapel, dispensary, workshops, bakery and storage sheds - all surrounded by a wooden palisade - once stood on the brow of the hill. The broken cannon barrels, musket balls and shards of crockery that archaeologists discovered during 1950's excavations of the fort's site merely hinted at the blood, sweat and tears that were spilled on its smoking ruins in 1645, when a raging and ruthless Acadian governor finally overcame the fierce resistance of its valiant defender, Françoise Marie Jacquelin.

Saint John's First Fort: While the mouth of the Saint John River has been the site of human habitation for at least 4,000 years, Fort La Tour, built by French fur trader Charles de St. Étienne de la Tour in 1632, was the area's first European settlement. La Tour had arrived in the New World with his father, at the age of 14, as part of de Mont's and Champlain's short-lived Port Royal colony. He was one of the few original French colonists to remain in Acadia despite the constant turmoil of territorial clashes and trading disputes, as fur trading rivals jostled for control of the maritime frontier.

Double Trouble: In 1640, when the accomplished and well-educated Françoise Marie Jacquelin agreed to marry La Tour and join him in the New World, she was well aware that her new husband had gained prominence as the governor of Acadia, appointed by the King of France. But she may not have known that bureaucratic haziness, bolstered by aristocratic influence, had awarded a second governorship to La Tour's arch-enemy, Charles de Menou d'Aulnay. She was soon caught up in a microcosmic civil war between the rival fur traders, as they battled ferociously over resources and jurisdictions. Pitched battles at sea, desperate trans-Atlantic runs for supplies and reinforcements, and dramatic and narrow escapes were probably more than the French noblewoman had originally bargained for, but she performed her acts of matrimonial loyalty with legendary courage and valour.

The final test of Madame La Tour's strength came in April of 1645. When d'Aulnay discovered that Charles de La Tour had left his fort to go to Boston for supplies, he launched a brutal and overpowering attack on his enemy's headquarters. From the Saint John River, ship's cannon fired relentlessly into the fort, iron missiles ripped through the palisade and grapeshot shattered the windows. The fort's few dozen defenders were no match for d'Aulnay's well-equipped forces, but Françoise Marie Jacquelin remained fierce, defiant, and undeniably in charge. Although historical record is unclear, it suggests that betrayal, not capitulation, brought about d'Aulnay's final storming of the parapets.

Deadly Deception: As Jacquelin bravely rallied her troops to meet the enemy invaders, d'Aulnay convinced her to put down her arms in exchange for mercy and fair treatment. But when he entered the burning, carnage-strewn fort and realized that he had suffered losses at the hands of such a small number of defenders, he quickly broke his promise. As Madame La Tour looked on, her wrists bound and a rope tied around her neck, all but one of the soldiers of Fort La Tour was hung. (The survivor was cruelly forced to be the executioner.) Françoise Marie Jacquelin's life was spared, but she died just 3 weeks later, of unrecorded causes; her son survived and was sent to France by the victorious d'Aulnay. That Charles de La Tour, beneficiary of Françoise Marie Jacquelin's loyalty and courage, returned to Acadia, rebuilt his business, and went on to marry d'Aulnay's wealthy widow is perhaps a testament to the ruthless ambition and single-minded determination that characterized the fur trading founders of New France.

Acadians in Exile

For the casual historian, making sense of the sovereignty see-saw that took place in Canada's Maritimes during the 18th century can be a challenging exercise. As the French and the British vied for control over present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, treaties were negotiated and re-negotiated, boundaries were drawn and re-drawn, and strategic forts, such as Louisbourg, were captured, lost, and captured once again.

But while skirmishes, quarrels, disputes and outright combat kept military commanders - and cartographers - gainfully employed, the Acadians (descendants of the French who had stayed behind when Champlain abandoned the colony of Port Royal) went quietly about their business, draining the salt marshes of the Bay of Fundy, building dikes, growing crops, and raising livestock in Nova Scotia's fertile Annapolis Valley. For several decades, they enjoyed a "Golden Age," living prosperously off the land, and maintaining a position of political neutrality that insulated them from military conflict.

The Great Dispersal: In 1755, however, the "Golden Age" came to an abrupt and tragic end when it was replaced by the "Le Grand Dérangement." Acadians were called upon to swear allegiance to the British crown, and to take up arms against the French; when they refused to do so, their British governor ordered mass arrests and deportations. From 1755 to 1763, thousands of Acadians were rounded up and shipped to Boston, Louisiana, Bermuda and beyond. Villages were destroyed, families were separated, and many deportees died of shipwreck or disease.

Saint John River Haven: In the years leading up to the great dispersal, a few Acadians had already made their way to the north shore of the Bay of Fundy and the mouth of the Saint John River, where Maliseet traders had long maintained a base. In 1732, anticipating British pressure, several Acadian families founded a community further upriver, near modern-day Fredericton, known as "Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas" (St. Anne's Point). The community's population of less than 100 swelled to more than 1,000 in 1755, as Acadians escaping the deportation fled north into the safety of the Saint John River Valley. In one dramatic incident, several exiled families were rescued by fellow Acadians (under the leadership of maverick military commander Charles des Champs de Boishébert) as they were being carried away on a British transport ship to South Carolina.

Hazen's Horror: But the haven of the Saint John Valley proved to be short-lived. In 1759, after their successful attack on the fortress of Louisbourg, the British swept up the Saint John River, destroying St. Anne, taking prisoners, and murdering women and children. (Even General Jeffrey Amherst, commander of the British army, expressed his distaste for the brutality of the Saint John River Campaign, led by Lieutenant Moses Hazen of the colonial Rangers militia.)

Madawaska Move: Survivors of the British assault dispersed once more, heading further up the Saint John River and into Quebec. As tensions eased, some Acadians returned to their land in the lower valley, only to find that British settlers had taken over their farms. But they remained in the area, moving upriver from St. Anne to the communities of Ecoupag and Kennebeccassis, and settling into an uneasy but relatively peaceful relationship with the British. But once again the French farmers were uprooted. In 1785, as the American Revolution came to an end, Loyalist refugees poured into the Saint John River Valley, claiming the lands of the "French Squatters," as the Acadians were called. The displaced Acadians moved upriver once again, settling once and for all above Grand Falls in the upper Saint John areas of Madawaska, Maine and Edmunston, New Brunswick. They were joined by several Canadian families who moved south from the St. Lawrence Valley, solidifying cultural ties that had developed during the Acadians' years in exile. In 1790, the British government finally recognized their land claims on the banks of the upper Saint John.

Travelling the Temiscouata Portage

The Acadians who fled north through the Saint John River Valley, to the villages of the St. Lawrence River's south shore during the "Le Grand Dérangement" followed the route that came to be known as the Temiscouata Portage. The Portage served as an alternative to the principal travel and communication route of the St. Lawrence River, and the only alternative during the months of December to April, when the St. Lawrence was frozen.

The Temiscouata Portage began in the late 1600's as a combined canoe and footpath route leading from the Bay of Fundy, up the Saint John River to its confluence with the Madawaska River, up the Madawaska River to Lake Temiscouata, across the Lake, and over a rocky 50-kilometre stretch known as the "Grand Portage" to the St. Lawrence River at Notre Dame du Portage above Rivière du Loup.

Some exiled Acadians, who used the route to flee from British troops into the upper Saint John Valley, became expert in its navigation. In the years before they were driven even further north on the Saint John, to the Madawaska region, they served as "express carriers," using the Portage to deliver mail between Quebec City and the British port of Halifax.

By 1755, the Portage appeared as a rudimentary road on a map of North America. Overland sections of the route were gradually being improved; during the last stages of the American Revolution, the British Governor Haldimand used the road to send dispatches to Halifax and New York, and took steps to make the road passable for horses. It became the sole overland winter route for mail, troop movements, and other communication between the port of Halifax and Quebec City.

The Portage proved not only useful, but indispensable, to the British during the War of 1812. Large bodies of troops passed over the route during the winter months; one regiment made a famous march by snowshoe in early in 1813. It was also used to move troops during the rebellions of Lower Canada in 1837, and by the 1840's, had been improved to the point that it could be traversed by sleighs.

The strategic significance of the Temiscouata road led to a protracted series of jurisdictional conflicts between Maine and New Brunswick, culminating in the "Aroostock War" of 1838 - 1839. The crisis began with the seizure of a United States land agent who had been sent to the region to expel Canadian lumberjacks who had entered the disputed area. After his arrest, both Maine and New Brunswick called out their militias, and both the British and American governments approved war funds. Confrontation was averted by a truce, followed by the negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which left the Portage territory in British hands and maintained communication between Quebec, Fredericton and Halifax.

The largest military force ever to travel the Temiscouata Portage passed over it by sleigh in January of 1862, when 7,000 British soldiers were sent to respond to an American threat in the St. Lawrence River. The crisis finally convinced the British that a faster, more reliable alternative to the St. Lawrence waterway was both a defensive and commercial necessity, and work began on the construction of an intercolonial railway.