Nova Scotia during the American Revolution was an important factor in the British war effort.Weaver, Emily P. "Nova Scotia and New England During the Revolution", American Historical Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (Oct. 1904), 52-71 The most northern British colony on the Atlantic coast of North America, the Province of Nova Scotia did not join with the Thirteen Colonies, which fought for independence, achieving it with aid from European allies. At the outbreak, there was ambivalence in Nova Scotia over whether the colony should join the Americans in the war against Britain, and it was "almost the 14th American Colony." Largely as a result of American privateer raids on Nova Scotia villages, as the war continued, the population of Nova Scotia solidified their support for the British. Thousands of Loyalist refugees fled to Nova Scotia during the war, and many were resettled in the region after the signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris as "United Empire Loyalists". With the influx of Loyalist refugees, Nova Scotia was subdivided, creating New Brunswick in 1784.
Background In Nova Scotia was the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaq and then settled by the Catholic French Acadians, the British conquering a portion of the territory in 1710, but did not immediately settle it. With the establishment of the deepwater port of Halifax, which became the capital, the British began asserting control over the territory as a counter to French power in North America. Halifax became the North American station for the Royal Navy in 1759. Starting in 1755, the British took action against continuing Acadian attacks by forcibly expelling the Acadians, an estimated 14,000 over several years. Their lands were opened to English and Scots settlers. New Englanders, used to the harsh climate, came in fairly large numbers.
New Englanders objected to the British imposition of the Stamp Act 1765, but recent British immigrants and London-oriented business interests based in the port of Halifax the provincial capital, were more influential in keeping the colony loyal to the crown. The only major public protest was the hanging in effigy of the stamp distributor and Lord Bute. The act was implemented in both provinces, but Nova Scotia's stamp distributor resigned in January 1766, beset by ungrounded fears for his safety. Authorities there were ordered to allow ships bearing unstamped papers to enter its ports, and business continued unabated after the distributors ran out of stamps.
1775–1778 At the outbreak of the American Revolution, many Nova Scotians were New England-born and were sympathetic to the American Patriots. This support slowly eroded over the first two years of the war as American privateers attacked Nova Scotian villages and shipping to try to interrupt Nova Scotian trade with the American Loyalists still in New England. During the war, American privateers captured 225 vessels either leaving or arriving at Nova Scotia ports.
In June 1775, the Americans had their first naval victory over the British in the Battle of Machias where American privateer Jeremiah O'Brien and the men of Machias, Maine, captured a British war ship. In response to this defeat, in July 1775, the British sent from Halifax two armed sloops to Machias to capture the rebel captain and his men. On July 12, 1775, Jeremiah O'Brien sailing his schooner, the Machias Liberty, acting in concert with Colonel Benjamin Foster (in an East Machias schooner) captured these two British vessels in the Bay of Fundy.
The following month American privateers from Machias executed their third consecutive victory in the region by raiding St John.
In retaliation for the American victories at Machias and St. John, the British burned Falmouth (present-day Portland, Maine) in October 1775. The following month, in November 1775, the American Patriots retaliated by ships Hancock and from Marblehead raiding Charlottetown and Canso, Nova Scotia, where they took five prizes. (In the raid on Charlottetown, the privateers also sought revenge against Nathaniel Coffin, the Loyalist who cut down the Liberty Tree in Boston.) The first year of the war ended with the American privateer raid on Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
In 1775, rebellion began to foment within Nova Scotia. Governor Legge began to target prominent Protestant dissenters of the St. Matthew's Church: John Fillis and judge William Smith and John Frost (minister). The Governor also targeted judge Seth Harding from the Liverpool Township and he left on October 1775 and did not return. According to Cahill, as a result of "instances of non-legal repression and petty tyranny, such as the summary dismissals of Judge Smith and Justice Frost, had ended with the recall of Governor Legge [to London] in January 1776."
A small number of Nova Scotians went south to serve with the Continental Army against the British; upon the completion of the war these rebels were granted land in the Refugee Tract in what later became Ohio.
In 1776, there was also armed rebellion such as the Maugerville Rebellion (1776). The other attack was by land and led by Jonathan Eddy who led the Battle of Fort Cumberland. According to historian Barry Cahill, this rebellion led the Nova Scotia government to "use the formal law in sedition trials for an essential aspect of the official response to the American Revolution." The government arraigned dissenters John Seccombe and jailed Timothy Houghton for sedition (incitement to rebellion). Malachy Salter was convicted of sedition in 1777.
At the end of 1776, there were two significant American attacks on Nova Scotia. One of these assaults was by sea and led by John Paul Jones in the raid on Canso. In 1776, John Allan led the Maliseet to challenge the loyalists on Indian Island, New Brunswick, to join the rebel cause. History of the islands and islets in the Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick: from their earliest settlement to the present time, including sketches of shipwrecks and other events of exciting interest by Lorimer, J. G. (John Gordon). 1876. In 1776, two American privateers took four vessels at Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, and took the people of the hamlet prisoners.
In March 1777, in the first Continental Navy encounter with the Royal Navy, HMS Milford captured USS Cabot in the battle off Yarmouth. The crew of Cabot escaped to find protection among the local village, and two inhabitants of Yarmouth sheltered them for 30 days until they made their escape back to New England. The engagement between Milford and Cabot was one of several in the region. On 2 May 1777, in the Minas Basin Captain Collet ordered the capture the American privateer schooner Sea Duck, under the command of John Bohannan. He had the vessel taken to Windsor. In June, the American Patriots launched the St. John River expedition. In July 1777, HMS Amazon captured the privateer Active off of Cape Sable Island. In August 1777, the British raided Machias.
The following year, in April 1778 the American privateers again attacked Liverpool. On 9 August, American privateers attacked Cornwallis at present-day Kentville, which resulted in the British building Fort Hughes in the area. The fort could hold 56 soldiers. In 1778, the British schooner Hope also defeated an American privateer ship at Canso. Seven Patriots escaped but were later captured near Halifax. Prisoners were returned from Halifax to Boston on the Swift in September 1778. The Cartel Silver Eel took prisoners to Boston in October 1778. In 1779 Maugerville was raided again by Maliseets working with John Allan in Machias, Maine. A vessel was captured and two or three residents' homes were plundered. In response, a blockhouse was built at the mouth of Oromocto River also named Fort Hughes (named after the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir Richard Hughes). In June 1779, the British troops at Windsor captured 12 American privateers in the Bay of Fundy, where they cruised in a large boat, armed, plundering the vessels and the inhabitants. In 1779, American privateers returned to Canso and destroyed the fisheries, which were worth £50,000 a year to Britain.
1779–1782
In 1779 the British from Halifax adopted a strategy to seize parts of Maine, especially around Penobscot Bay, and make it a new colony to be called New Ireland. It was intended to be a permanent colony for Loyalists and a base for military action during the war.
In early July 1779, Francis McLean left Halifax and led a British naval and military force into Castine's commodious harbor, landed troops, and took control of the village. He began erecting Fort George on one of the highest points of the peninsula. Alarmed by this incursion, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts sent the Penobscot Expedition to lay siege to the fort and reclaim the territory. The siege started on July 25 and lasted three weeks until the arrival of British commander George Collier who defeated the American expedition. (The British held New Ireland, the planned loyalist homeland, until the end of the war. Instead, the British divided Nova Scotia and named the new Loyalist homeland New Brunswick.)
At the end of 1779, the British at Halifax experienced some significant losses. In December 1779 the schooner Hope wrecked near the Sambro Island Light on the Three Sisters Rocks. Captain Henry Baldwin and six other crew were killed. Weeks later, 170 British sailors died when two vessels – North and St Helena – were wrecked in a storm when entering Halifax harbour.
On 10 July 1780, in the Battle off Halifax, the British privateer brig Resolution (16 guns) under the command of Thomas Ross engaged the American privateer Viper (22 guns and 130 men) off Halifax at Sambro Light. In what one observer described as "one of the bloodiest battles in the history of privateering", the two privateers began a "severe engagement"Simeon Perkins Diary. Thursday 13 July 1780 during which both pounded each other with cannon fire for about 90 minutes. The engagement resulted in the surrender of Resolution and the death of up to 18 British and 33 American sailors.
In May 1781, the local Nova Scotia militia defeated American privateers in the Battle off Cape Split. The British and French also clashed in the Naval battle off Cape Breton. Finally, the privateers returned in the Raid on Annapolis Royal (1781). In the final year of attacks on Nova Scotia, the American privateers fought in the Naval battle off Halifax and the Raid on Lunenburg (1782).Salem Gazette, p. 11, 18 July 1782; Boston Post, 15 June 1782; and Hunt's Magazine, February, 1857, as cited by
Defence regiments
To guard against American privateer attacks, the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) (2nd battalion) was garrisoned at forts around Atlantic Canada. Fort Edward (Nova Scotia) in Windsor, Nova Scotia was the Regiment's headquarters to prevent a possible American land assault on Halifax from the Bay of Fundy. Also raised in Nova Scotia were the Royal Fencible American Regiment and the Royal Nova Scotia Volunteer Regiment. The King's Orange Rangers defended Liverpool, the second largest settlement in the colony. The Hessians also served in Nova Scotia for five years (1778–1783). They protected the colony from American privateers, such as when they responded to the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). They were led by Baron Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann von Seitz. There were 5000 British troops in Nova Scotia by 1778.
Naval defence