Northeast Coast Campaign (1703)

Northeast Coast campaign (1703)
Part of Queen Anne's War
Date 10 August – 6 October 1703 Location present-day coastal Maine, from Casco Bay south Result French and Wabanaki Confederacy victory
Belligerents
New England	French colonists  Abenaki
Commanders and leaders
Cyprian Southack John March (wounded) Captain John Larrabee Captain Summersby (Portsmouth) Captain Wadley (Wells) Captain Davis Captain Richard Hunnewell (Black Point) † Lt. Wyat (Black Point)	Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin Father Sebastian Rale Moxus Wanongonet Escumbuit Sampson
Strength
	500 Indians unknown Frenchmen
Casualties and losses
reports vary; killed captured more than 300	approximately 15 killed; 15 captured

The Northeast Coast campaign (also known as the Six Terrible Days) (10 August – 6 October 1703) was the first major campaign of Queen Anne's War in New England. Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin led 500 troops made up of French colonial forces and the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia (200 Mi'kmaq and others from Norridgewock). They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Wells and Casco Bay (now the Portland, Maine area), burning more than 15 leagues of New England country and killing or capturing more than 150 people. The English colonists were able to protect some of their settlements, but a number of others were destroyed and abandoned. Historian Samuel Drake reported that, "Maine had nearly received her death-blow" as a result of the campaign.

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.

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