Battle of Fort Loyal
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The Battle of Falmouth (also known as the Battle of Fort Loyal) (May 16–20, 1690) involved Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière and Baron de St Castin leading troops as well as the
Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner") is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Miꞌkmaq, Maliseet ( ...
(
Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...
and Maliseet from Fort Meductic) in
New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
to capture and destroy Fort Loyal and the English settlement on the Falmouth neck (site of present-day
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
), then part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The commander of the fort was Captain Sylvanus Davis. After two days of siege, the settlement's fort, called Fort Loyal (sometimes spelled "Loyall"), surrendered. The community's buildings were burned, including the wooden stockade fort, and its people were either killed or taken prisoner. The fall of Fort Loyal (Casco) led to the near depopulation of Europeans in Maine. Native forces were then able to attack the New Hampshire frontier without reprisal.


Historical context

The earliest garrison at Falmouth was Fort Loyal (1678) in what was then the center of town, the foot of India Street. During
King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand All ...
, on Major Benjamin Church's first expedition into Acadia, on September 21, 1689, he and 250 troops defended a group of English settlers trying to establish themselves at
Falmouth, Maine Falmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 12,444 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area. This northern suburb of Portlan ...
(present-day
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
). Natives killed 21 of his men; however, he was successful and the natives retreated. Church then returned to Boston, leaving the small group of English settlers unprotected.The history of the great Indian war of 1675 and 1676, commonly called Philip ... By Benjamin Church, Thomas Church, Samuel Gardner Drake, pp. 175-176 Hertel was chosen by Governor Frontenac to lead an expedition in 1690 that successfully raided Salmon Falls on the Maine-New Hampshire border, and then moved on to destroy Fort Loyal on Falmouth Neck (site of present-day
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
).


Battle

In May 1690, four hundred to five hundred French and Indian troops under the command of Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière and Baron de St Castin attacked the settlement. Grossly outnumbered, the settlers held out for four days before surrendering. Eventually two hundred were murdered and left in a large heap a few paces from what is now the popular Benkay sushi restaurant. Davis was taken prisoner to Quebec. A relief expedition under command of Shadrach Walton came too late to save the people from the massacre.


Aftermath

When Church returned to the village later that summer, he buried the dead. James Alexander was taken captive along with 100 other prisoners. He was taken back to the Maliseet headquarters on the Saint John River at Meductic,
New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
. "James Alexander, a Jersey man," was, with John Gyles, tortured at an Indian village on the Saint John River. Two Mi'kmaq families whose friends were killed by New England fishermen travelled many miles to avenge themselves on the captives. They were reported to have yelled and danced around their victims; tossed and threw them; held them by the hair and beat them - sometimes with an axe - and did this all day, compelling them also to dance and sing, until at night they were thrown out exhausted. Alexander, after a second torture, ran to the woods, but hunger drove him back to his tormentors. His fate is unknown. Captain Davis spent four months as a prisoner in Canada. Both Falmouth and Arrowsic remained uninhabited until 1714 and 1716 respectively. The fort was replaced and named Fort Falmouth in 1742 leading up to King George's War. On 28 May 1690 there was an attack at Fox Point, New Hampshire.


See also

* Military history of the Maliseet people


References

*Hull, John Thomas
''The Siege and Capture of Fort Loyall''

Captain Sylvanus Davis' account of the battle. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d ser., I (1825), 101–12 William Kingsford. History of Canada, Vol. 2, p. 339
Endnotes {{coord, 43, 39, 41.3, N, 70, 15, 19.1, W, source:jawiki, display=title Falmouth Fort Loyal Falmouth (Portland) Falmouth (Portland) Falmouth Pre-statehood history of Maine Casco Bay History of Portland, Maine 1690 in Massachusetts 1690 in the Thirteen Colonies Falmouth 1690 Falmouth 1690 Falmouth 1690 Falmouth 1690 Massacres in 1690