Acadiensis/Volume 1/Number 4/Historic Louisburg as It Is To-day
Historic Louisburg as it is to-day
HERE are few towns in which the past and the present meet as pathetically as they do at Louisburg, once the Dunkirk of America, now a rising twentieth century shipping town. Louisburg has indeed seen its ups and downs. To-day the future of the new Louisburg is bright with promise. It already possesses a magnificent coaling pier erected by the Dominion Coal Company, and one or more large coaling steamers are always to be seen in its harbor. Only recently Louisburg elected its first mayor and town council. When the South Shore Line in Cape Breton becomes an established fact, Louisburg will receive a greatly increased importance. It is still spoken of as a possible port for a fast Atlantic service. The modern town, which is now growing rapidly, possesses several good churches and a number of stores and comfortable residences, but to the visitor its interest is naturally small compared with what remains of the Louisburg which flourished as the capital of lie Royale under the golden lilies of France. On leaving the Sydney and Louisburg train almost the first objects to meet one's eyes are two French cannon now mounted on modern gun-carriages supplied by the Dominion Government and located on a neatly sodded place d'armes, which is an exact model of the place d'armes of the old French fortifications. The cannons were procured from the harbor not many years ago from the sunken wreck of a French man-of-war.
Nearly every house in town possesses at least a few relics of the olden days, and cannon balls used in the siege are still constantly being unearthed. Unfortunately many relics have been carried off and thus lost to Cape Breton. It is a great pity that earlier in the day an organized effort was not made to collect relics and to preserve them in a small museum placed somewhere on the site of the ancient town. One memorial almost every one of the older dwelling houses possesses in its cellar wall and chimney.
The Casemates at Louisburg.
Nearly every cellar was built with stone taken from the fortifications and many a cottage chimney is composed of bricks manufactured in La Belle France. A drive of between two and three miles is necessary to bring one to all that remains of ancient Louisburg.
The country is flat, stony, and comparatively uninteresting in appearance. On the way, the Barachois, so frequently mentioned in the different accounts of the two sieges of Louisburg, is passed. The word, which is of uncertain derivation, means a pond separated from the sea by a narrow strip of beech or sand.
The first thought on reaching the ruins is of the immense expenditure of money and toil devoted to the construction of the ancient fortifications, now still massive even in their ruins. The various bastions, the King's, the Queen's, the Dauphin's, the Princess, and the Maurepas, may still be clearly traced. The most interesting features of the ruins are the casemates, tunnels of solid masonry, whither in time of bombardment the non-combatants, the women and the children, were sent for safety. Today they afford shelter from the cold and storm to the numerous sheep which wander undisturbed where once the sound of martial tread and the hurried call to arms were heard. It is very easy to conjure up pictures of the times when the English ships were hurling their deadly fire into the devoted town. Huddled like sheep in these dark and close abodes the women of French Louisburg, rich and poor alike, must have spent many and many a weary hour, now praying to Our Lady of Deliverance to crush the power of the assailants, now bewailing the loss of husband, or of brother, or of lover, and now trying to comfort the little ones in their dread of the terrible Anglais. Here doubtless the brave Madame de Drucour, the governor's wife, who at one time supplied with her own hands the cannons of the little garrison, may have given many a word of comfort to her sisters of less heroic build.
Amongst the other ruins may be seen the entrance to an underground passage way, which as yet has not been thoroughly explored. Indeed it is probable that were systematic excavations undertaken, many more relics might be discovered, and many points of interest, now matters of dispute, cleared up.
It is easy to follow the lines of the fortifications till the old burying grounds near Rochfort and Black Point are reached. Here rest unmarked by cross or tombstone, the bodies of hundreds of the gallant dead. French soldiers and merchants of the ancient faith rest here in ground unblessed by priest or bishop. Soldiers and sailors of Old England lie here far from the sound of the church bell and the calm lanes of the English villages that gave them birth. Here too repose the stern Puritan warriors of New England, farmers and clerks and fishermen by trade, but soldiers all by the inalienable right of Saxon birth.
The weakness of Louisburg lay undoubtedly on the land side; from the sea it was practically impregnable. Could the French only have prevented the landing, at the first siege of Pepperell and his colonials, at the second, of Wolfe and his regulars, the history of Cape Breton might have been far other than it is. Pepperell's success was, of course, far more phenomenal than the result of the second siege. Seeing the fortress to-day in its ruins, we can realize what it was in its glory, and can thus recognize the splendid audacity of Governor Shirley in daring to dream that his little expedition of untrained colonists could hope for a moment to oust the French from their greatest stronghold in America. The thought suggests itself: was it advisable or necessary for England, when once she had obtained possession of such a splendid fortress, to destroy it? With a little additional work it could have been made absolutely impregnable and would have served England's purpose well, far better indeed than Halifax, which was fortified about the time that Louisburg was destroyed. It is, of course, hinted that local influence in Halifax was brought to bear on the Imperial government.
The Louisburg Monument.
Seated on the grassy mounds that cover the old town it is easy to conjure up visions of the ancient glory, to rebuild the governor's stately mansion, to re-people it with the courtly soldiers and the beautiful daughters of France, to see again the stately dance or the gorgeous dinner party for the governor's friends. We can imagine the chapel standing in its ancient beauty, adorned with every fair device of art for glory and for beauty, the priest again singing the mass in the presence of a reverent congregation of soldiers and fine ladies, of fishermen and peasant girls. The guard house, the hospital with its faithful sisters ministering to the wounded, and "the wonderfully skilful surgeon" whose services the courtly Chevalier de Drucour sent word to Amherst were at the disposal of the wounded English officers. Looking along the seashore, which today is nothing but a place for the spreading of nets, we can picture the ancient sea wall up to which the boats from the ships in the harbor could come. Looking further yet the harbor is peopled with the old French warships, and further off, beyond the range of rocky islands which enclose it, lies the larger fleet that flies the red cross flag of Old England, the flag that is to replace the lilies of France on the battlements of Louisburg.
Of course every visitor should see the Louisburg monument dedicated on June 17th, 1895, and placed on the exact spot where, 150 years before, General Pepperell received the keys of the fortress from Governor Duchambon in the presence of the assembled troops. The monument, which was erected by the Society of Colonial Wars, is a polished granite shaft, standing on a base which rests on a square pedestal four feet high. The capital of the column is surmounted by a polished ball, two feet in diameter, of dark red granite. It is dedicated "To Our Heroic Dead," and bears inscriptions, giving the numbers of the Colonial, British and French forces that took part in the first siege.