This plan of 1742 illustrates the harbour at Louisbourg and the surrounding area. The peninsula on which the town arose is dotted with hills which, according to good fortification practice, ought to have been encompassed by the fortifications. Such an undertaking, however, would have been tremendously expensive. The engineers at Louisbourg concluded that the marshy terrain around the hills would deter any enemy from dragging cannon to suitable locations on the hills. The highest hills were included in the defenses, but the builders' faith in the marshlands as a deterrent to the enemy's use of the remaining heights proved to be misplaced. An invading force of New Englanders in 1745 and the British in 1758 succeeded in placing cannon on hills a short distance from the low-lying Dauphin Gate the main landward entrance to Louisbourg and proceeded to rain terror on the defenders. Identified here are the Island Battery (A), the Royal Battery (B), the King's Bastion (C), and the Dauphin Gate (D).
This and the preceding illustration are but two of over 500 maps, plans and views of Louisbourg and the vicinity which have been gathered from archives in Canada, the United States, Britain and France. Such resources assist researchers as they seek to reconstruct the town and fortress of Louisbourg and to tell the story of their eighteenth-century occupants.
Courtesy: Archives du GÄnie, Paris (14 - tablette-5)
