26 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
ment of guard over tlie guns, were taken prisoners in the advanced 
trench, in a night sally of the Acadians. (. Muster roll ; and Parkman y 
Yol. I., p. 252.) The bombardment demolished the French barracks; 
one of our 13-in. shells, which entered a French casemate, killed Ensign 
Hay (a prisoner), and also three French officers, wounding two others; 
but Governor Lawrence adds the extraordinary announcement that 
after four days* bombardment the fort surrendered “ before we had 
mounted a single cannon on our batteries.” 1 Governor Lawrence was 
an American. Another extraordinary incident connected with this 
siege of Fort Cumberland is thus narrated, in 1757, by Captain John 
Knox, 43rd Regiment, in his “ Journal ” :— 
“ Octo. y 1757—Fort Cumberland. The enemy had a chain of Forts between 
this and Bay Verde. ... I cannot dismiss this subject without relating that 
when the French were in possession of this garrison (1755) they had no artillery ; 
however, being remarkably fruitful of invention, they were not at a loss to deceive 
their enemies at Fort Lawrence, for they provided a' parcel of hircli, and other 
hard, well-grown trees, which they shaped and bored after the fashion of cannon, 
securing them from end to end with cordage; and from one of these they con¬ 
stantly fired a morning and evening gun (as is customary in garrison) ; but, upon 
the reduction of this place, and a spirited enquiry after the cannon, they found 
themselves obliged to discover their ingenious device .” 2 3 
Was this infantry journalist a wag ? 
Against this, Governor Lawrence’s despatch of 28th June, 1755, 
states :—“ The Fort Beau-sejour had 26 pieces of cannon mounted. 
The French had also cannon mounted on a blockade on their side of 
the river.” The French account reads :—“ II etoit garni de vingt-et- 
une joieces de canons , d’un mortier de 16 ponces.”—Memoires sur le 
Canada , pp. 45-6 . Twenty-four cannon, one mortar, according to 
American State Records. ( Montcalm and Wolfe , Yol. I., p. 241.) 
Parkman, who had consulted American State Records, reports (Yol. I., 
p. 249) that the fire from the French cannon destroyed one of our 
small mortars : that the fire was brisk on both sides ; and that, after 
the capitulation, the British flag on Fort Beau-sejour was saluted by 
our gunners with “ a general discharge of the French cannon” (p. 
251). 
The explanation is given by the American writer, Parkman, who 
quotes (Yol. I., p. 250) from the Journal of Surgeon John Thomas, 
that the shells from our large mortars (13-in.) bursting through one 
bomb-proof killed six officers, and also Ensign Hay, a prisoner; and 
as the Commandant Yergor and the political Priest, Le Loutre, were at 
the time in an adjacent <f bomb-proof,” the effect was immediate ; and 
the white flag was instantly hoisted before our gunners had time to get 
their (other) cannon into position. The French account in Memoir es sur 
le Canada , p. 49, is :— <s Enfin le 16 au matin , une bombe tombee sur une 
casemate ...... ce que fit rendre le Fort .(and 
quotes names of the killed and wounded) . . . Le General Anglois 
1 Despatches 28 June, 1755. London Gazette, No. 9497. Brigadier Monckton distinguished 
himself at Louishourg in 1768 ; and fell nobly at Quebec, 1759, where Wolfe was mortally wounded 
in leading on the gallant Louisbourg Grenadiers. 
3 “ Campaign in North America ” (Knox). Vol. I., pp. 58, 59, 
