West Jeddore, Nova Scotia

West Jeddore is a rural community of the Halifax Regional Municipality in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

West Jeddore in Nova Scotia

History

Battle at Winnepang (Jeddore Harbour)
Main article: Battle of Winnepang

On July 22, 1722, immediately after the declaration of Dummer's War, Governor Richard Philipps commissioned Capt. John Elliot and Capt. John Robinson in two sloops with regiments to protect the fishery at Canso, Nova Scotia and retrieve the New England prisoners.[1] There was a Mi'kmaq camping place at near-by West Jeddore.[2] There were thirty-nine natives at Winnepang (present-day Jeddore Harbour) harbouring prisoners in seven vessels. Capt. Elliot and Bradstreet arrived in the harbour and attacked the natives in a two-hour naval battle.[3] A boarding party led by Bradstreet overwhelmed the natives with hand grenades and disciplined fire.[1] Capt. Elliot and several of his men were badly wounded. Five of the men were killed.[4]

As the Mi'kmaq tried to swim ashore to escape, the New Englanders opened fire on them. Thirty-five natives were killed. The New Englanders managed to rescue fifteen prisoners from the vessels, while discovering that nine had been killed.[5]

Only five native bodies were recovered from the battle. The New Englanders decapitated the corpses and set the severed heads on spikes surrounding Canso's new fort.[6]

See also

References
  1. Grenier, John (2008). The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8061-3876-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Bruce Furguson. Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia, p. 314
  3. Plank, Geoffrey (2001). An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign Against the Peoples of Acadia. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-8122-0710-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  4. Gesner, Abraham (1847). New Brunswick: With Notes for Emigrants. Comprehending the Early History, an Account of the Indians, Settlement ... London: Simmonds & Ward. p. 35.
    • Grenier (2008), p. 60, reports there was only one New Englander killed and several wounded.
  5. Murdoch, Beamish (1865). A History of Nova-Scotia, Or Acadie. Vol. I. Halifax: J. Barnes. p. 399.
    • Plank (2001), p. 78, states that New Englanders set fire to Mi'kmaq vessels. The warriors tried to swim to land, but the New England men fired on them in the water. Twenty two were reported killed. Only five bodies were recovered and the New Englanders decapitated the corpses and set the severed heads on pikes surrounding Canso's new fort. Murdoch's and Plank's versions differ slightly.
  6. Plank (2001), p. 78
    • Grenier (2008), p. 60, reports that only five natives survived and that all were wounded. He reports that two Mi'maq heads were place on spikes at Canso.


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