Father Rale's War - Nova Scotia Theatre

Nova Scotia Theatre

In response to the blockade of capital Annapolis Royal, New England launched a campaign to end the blockade at the end of July 1722, and retrieved over 86 New England prisoners taken by the natives. One of these operations resulted in the Battle at Winnepang (Jeddore Harbour), in which 35 natives and five New Englanders were killed. Only five native bodies were recovered from the battle, and the New Englanders decapitated the corpses and set the severed heads on pikes surrounding Canso's new fort.

During the war a church was erected at the Catholic mission in the Mi'kmaq village of Shubenacadie (Saint Anne's Mission). In 1723, the village of Canso was raided again by the Mi'kmaq, who killed five fishermen. In this same year, the New Englanders built a twelve-gun blockhouse to guard the village and fishery.

The worst moment of the war for Annapolis Royal came on 4 July 1724 when a group of sixty Mi'kmaq and Maliseets raided the capital. They killed and scalped a sergeant and a private, wounded four more soldiers, and terrorized the village. They also burned houses and took prisoners. The British responded by executing one of the Mi'kmaq hostages on the same spot the sergeant was killed. They also burned three Acadian houses in retaliation. As a result of the raid, three blockhouses were built to protect the town. The Acadian church was moved closer to the fort so that it could be more easily monitored.

In 1725, sixty Abenakis and Mi'kmaq launched another attack on Canso, destroying two houses and killing six people.