Louisburg, Canada
Louisburg, Canada
LOUISBURG, CANADA. Erected at enormous expense by the French beginning in 1720, this powerful fortress on the eastern shore of Cape Breton Island was second only to Quebec City in importance during the French regime. It guarded the approaches to the St. Lawrence and was the center of the cod fisheries. Captured in June 1745 by a force of New England colonists led by William Pepperrell, with the support of a British squadron under Peter Warren, it was returned to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, to the intense resentment of the British colonists. A British expeditionary force under Jeffery Amherst recaptured it in July 1758. The English spelling is Louisburg, but some writers favor Louisbourg, the French spelling.
SEE ALSO Amherst, Jeffery (1717–1797); Colonial Wars; Pepperrell, Sir William; Shirley, William.
revised by Harold E. Selesky