Raid on Dartmouth (1751)

Raid on Dartmouth
Part of Father Le Loutre’s War
John George Pyke, Only image of survivor of the Raid on Dartmouth (1751)
Date May 13, 1751 Location Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Result Acadian and Mi’kmaq victory
Belligerents
Mi'kmaq militia Acadian militia	British America
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Broussard (Beausoleil)	Captain William Clapham Lt. Clark, Warburton's Regiment (wounded) Sgt. ?, 45th Regiment  † Superior officer ?, 45th Regiment †
Strength
60 Acadian and Mi'kmaq	60 British regulars and rangers
Casualties and losses
disputed: Cornwallis: 6 Mi'kmaq Salusbury: one or two Mi'kmaq	disputed: Cornwallis: 4 killed; 6 prisoners; Wilson's journal: 15 killed, 7 wounded (3 die in hospital), 6 prisoners;, Salusbury journal: 20 killed; London Magazine: 8 settlers and a few officers killed, 14 prisoners

The Raid on Dartmouth (also referred to as the Dartmouth Massacre) occurred during Father Le Loutre’s War on May 13, 1751 when a Mi’kmaq and Acadia militia from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers and wounding British regulars. The town was protected by a blockhouse on Blackburn Hill with William Clapham's Rangers and British regulars from the 45th Regiment of Foot. This raid was one of seven the Natives and Acadians would conduct against the town during the war.

Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. To prevent the establishment of Protestant settlements in the region, Mi'kmaq raided the early British settlements of present-day Shelburne (1715) and Canso (1720). A generation later, Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War.

Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. By the time Cornwallis had arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of the Wabanaki Confederacy (which included the Mi'kmaq) protecting their land by killing British civilians along the New England/ Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).

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