The St. John River campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when Colonel Robert Monckton led a force of 1150 British soldiers to destroy the Acadian settlements along the banks of the Saint John River until they reached the largest village of Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas (present day Fredericton, New Brunswick) in February 1759.^[3][4] Monckton was accompanied by Captain George Scott as well as New England Rangers led by Joseph Goreham, Captain Benoni Danks, as well as William Stark and Moses Hazen, both of Rogers' Rangers.^[2][3]

Quick Facts Saint John River campaign, Date ...

Saint John River campaign
Part of the French and Indian War
Robert Monckton, British commander in the Saint John River campaign
Date November 1758 – February 1759 Location Saint John River, present-day New Brunswick Result British victory
Commanders and leaders
Robert Monckton George Scott Joseph Gorham Moses Hazen Benoni Danks Silvanus Cobb William Stark Jonathan Brewer John McCurdy †	Joseph Broussard (Beausoliel) Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot Joseph Godin dit Beauséjour Charles Germain[1]
Units involved
40th Regiment of Foot Gorham's Rangers Danks' Rangers Roger's Rangers[2]	Acadia militia Wabanaki Confederacy (Maliseet militia and Mi'kmaq militia)

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Under the naval command of Silvanus Cobb, the British started at the bottom of the river with raiding Kennebecasis and Managoueche (City of Saint John), where the British built Fort Frederick. Then they moved up the river and raided Grimross (Arcadia, New Brunswick), Jemseg, and finally they reached Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas.

The Acadian militia was led by French officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot and Acadian Joseph Godin dit Bellefontaine. There were about 100 Acadian families on the Saint John River, with a large concentration at Ste Anne.^[5] Most of them had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations, such as the Ile Saint-Jean campaign.^[6] There were also about 1000 Maliseet.^[7]

According to one historian, the level of Acadian suffering greatly increased in the late summer of 1758. Along with campaigns on Ile Saint-Jean, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at Cape Sable, and the Petitcodiac River campaign, the British targeted the Saint John River.^[8]

The British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour.^[9] During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.^[10]

Acadians had lived in the Saint John valley almost continuously since the early seventeenth century.^[11] After the Conquest of Acadia (1710), Acadians migrated from peninsula Nova Scotia to the French-occupied Saint John River. These Acadians were seen as the most resistant to British rule in the region.^[12]

The Saint John River residents had always proven effective at resisting the British. The Maliseet militia, from their base at Meductic, conducted effective warfare along with the Mi'kmaq militia against New England throughout the colonial wars. As late as 1748, there were only twelve French-speaking families living on the river.^[11] On October 28, 1748, at the end of King George's War, the Acadians and Mi'kmaq prevented John Gorham from landing to acquire an oath of allegiance. His rangers were fired upon killing three of the rangers and wounding three, while Gorham took two Mi'kmaq prisoner.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} In 1749, at the beginning of Father Le Loutre's War, Boishebert rebuked British naval officer John Rous at St. John.^[18] Boishébert built Fort Boishebert after withdrawing from the mouth of the Saint John River under the terms of an agreement arranged by Captain John Rous and Edward How. The fort was subsequently abandoned in 1751 by Ignace-Philippe Aubert de Gaspé^[19] when the French reestablished their control and fortified the mouth of the Saint John River with Fort Menagoueche. In 1749, Boishebert assigned Acadian Joseph Godin dit Bellefontaine to lead the Acadian militia in the St. John Region.

In April 1755, while searching for a wrecked vessel at Port La Tour, Cobb discovered the French schooner Marguerite (Margarett), taking war supplies to the Saint John River for Boishebert at Fort Menagoueche. Cobb returned to Halifax with the news and was ordered by Governor Charles Lawrence to blockade the harbour until Captain William Kensey arrived in the warship HMS Vulture, and then to assist Kensey in capturing the French prize and taking it to Halifax.^[20] During this time the British took captive a sergeant of Boishebert's detachment Grandcour, who was caught at the mouth of the river.^[21]

Immediately after the Battle of Fort Beauséjour (1755), Robert Monckton sent a detachment under the command of John Rous to take Fort Menagoueche. De Boishebert knew that he faced a superior force so he burned the fort, however, he maintained control of the river through guerrilla warfare.^[22] The destruction of Fort Menagoueche left Louisbourg as the last French fort in Acadia.^[23] Boishebert made his first strike in the Battle of Petitcodiac.^[24]

The first wave of these deportations began in 1755 with the Bay of Fundy campaign (1755). During the expulsion, the Saint John River valley became the center of the Acadian and Wabanaki Confederacy resistance to the British military in the region.^[25] The leader of the resistance was French militia officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot. In February 1756, Governor Vaudreuil ordered Boishebert "to maintain, to the last extremity, the post on the River St. John."^[26] On February 8, 1756, Acadians ambushed a British vessel at the mouth of the Saint John River, forcing it to return to Port Royal.^[27] He was stationed at Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas and from there issued orders for various raids such as the Raid on Lunenburg (1756) and the Battle of Petitcodiac (1755). He was also responsible to locate the Acadian refugees along the Saint John River.

After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), the second wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians began with the Ile Saint-Jean campaign (campaign against present-day Prince Edward Island), and the removal of Acadians from Ile Royale (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). As a result, Acadians fled these areas for the villages along the banks of the Saint John River, including the largest communities at Grimross (present day Arcadia, New Brunswick) and Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas.

Due to the campaign targeting their supplies, the remaining Acadians in the area experienced famine. Governor Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal reported that 1,600 Acadians immigrated to Québec City in 1759. During this same winter, Quebec also suffered a famine and a smallpox epidemic broke out, killing over 300 Acadian refugees in the region.^[49] Some returned to St. John only to be imprisoned on Georges Island in Halifax Harbour.

In the spring of 1759 twenty-nine of the refugees from the Saint John River area went farther up the St. Lawrence to the area around Bécancour, Quebec, where they successfully established a community.^[50]

After the fall of Quebec on September 18, 1759, the resistance ended. The Maliseet and Acadians of the Saint John River surrendered to the British at Fort Frederick^[51] and Fort Cumberland.^[52] On 2 January 1760 most of the Acadian men who had come to Fort Frederck were boarded onto ships. The next day, the women and children were put on board, and the ship sailed for Halifax. Within weeks of their arrival in the provincial capital the captured Acadians were bound for France.^[53]

In 1761, there were 42 Acadians at St Ann and 10–12 at Grimross.^[54] In 1762, Lieutenant Gilfred Studholme, who commanded the garrison at Saint John, was unsuccessful in removing the remaining Acadians from the Saint John River in preparation for the arrival of the New England Planters.^[55] With the migration of returning Acadians after the close of the Seven Years' War in the 1760s to the river valley and other areas of what is now New Brunswick, the region became the center of Acadian life in the maritime region.^[11]

• Military history of the Acadians
• History of New Brunswick
• Military history of the Maliseet people