Battle of Falmouth (1703)

Battle of Falmouth (1703)
Part of Queen Anne's War
Date 10–19 August 1703 Location Falmouth, Maine Result French and Wabanaki Confederacy victory
Belligerents
New England	French colonists  Abenaki
Commanders and leaders
Cyprian Southack John March (wounded) Captain John Larrabee	Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin Father Sebastian Rale Moxus Wanongonet Escumbuit Sampson
Strength
	500 Indians unknown Frenchmen
Casualties and losses
reports vary; 25 killed; prisoners taken	unknown

Not to be confused with the Battle of Falmouth (1690)

The Battle of Falmouth was fought at Falmouth, Maine when the Canadiens and Wabanaki Confederacy attacked the English New Casco Fort. The battle was part of the Northeast Coast Campaign (1703) during Queen Anne's War.

The border area between Acadia and New England in the early 18th century remained contested after battles between French and English colonists (and their allied Native Americans) during King William's War in the 1690s failed to resolve territorial disputes. New France defined the western border of Acadia as the Kennebec River in what is now southern Maine, while the English Province of Massachusetts Bay formally claimed all of the land between the Piscataqua and St. Croix Rivers (all of present-day Maine). During the 1670s the English had established settlements between the Kennebec River and Penobscot Bay, contesting claims by the French and the local Abenaki people to the area.

The French had established Catholic missions at Norridgewock and Penobscot, and there was a French settlement of long standing in Penobscot Bay near the site of modern Castine, Maine. All of these sites had been used as bases for attacks on English settlers during King William's War. The frontier areas between the Saint Lawrence River and the primarily coastal settlements of Massachusetts and New York were still dominated by natives (primarily Abenaki and Iroquois), and the Hudson River–Lake Champlain corridor had also been used for raiding expeditions in both directions in earlier conflicts. Although the Indian threat had receded somewhat due to reductions in the native population as a result of disease and the last war, they were still seen to pose a potent threat to outlying settlements.

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