The Siege of Fort Beauséjour, 1755

Almost since Champlain’s men first settled on St. Croix Island in 1604, the French and the English fought for control of Acadia, a huge area consisting of today’s Maritime Provinces and parts of Quebec and Maine. The British assault on Fort Beauséjour in 1755 was the final act in this long struggle. The frontier between the two imperial powers lay along the Chignecto Isthmus, the neck of low, fertile marshlands and parallel ridges joining Nova Scotia to the mainland. Of great strategic importanc…