page_title: Citadel Hill (Fort George)
section_title: First Citadel (1749–1776)
hierarchical_section_title: Citadel Hill (Fort George) / Predecessors / First Citadel (1749–1776)
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of Halifax from the topmasthead Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 1749
context_page_description: Citadel Hill is a hill that is a National Historic Site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Four fortifications have been constructed on Citadel Hill since the city was founded by the English in 1749, and were referred to as Fort George—but only the third fort was officially named Fort George. According to General Orders of October 20, 1798, it was named after King George III. The first two and the fourth and current fort, were officially called the Halifax Citadel. The last is a concrete star fort.
  The Citadel is the fortified summit of Citadel Hill. The hill was first fortified in 1749, the year that Edward Cornwallis oversaw the development of the town of Halifax. Those fortifications were successively rebuilt to defend the town from various enemies. Construction and leveling have lowered the summit by ten to twelve metres. While never attacked, the Citadel was long the keystone to defence of the strategically important Halifax Harbour and its Royal Navy Dockyard.
  Today, Parks Canada operates the site as the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site of Canada. It has restored the fort to its appearance when built in the Victorian era.
context_section_description: The English founded Halifax in 1749 to establish a presence in Nova Scotia as a counterbalance to the French stronghold of Louisbourg, which the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) had returned to France. Halifax was a strategic centre during the next decade in the continuing Anglo-French rivalry in the region. The English had recruited Protestant settlers from England, the Palatine, and Switzerland, and constructed fortifications to protect them against raids by the French, colonial Acadians, and allies from the Wabanaki Confederacy (primarily the Mi'kmaq). This conflict is known to some historians as Father Le Loutre's War. 
  The war began shortly after Edward Cornwallis, appointed Governor of Nova Scotia, arrived on June 21, 1749, to establish Halifax. He traveled on a sloop of war, followed by 13 transports (some sources say 15) that carried a total of 1,176-2500 settlers. The Mi'kmaq believed that the British settlement at Halifax violated earlier treaties signed in 1726 after Father Rale's War. 
  On September 11, 1749, Cornwallis wrote to the Board of Trade, which supervised this colonial effort:
  "The Square at the top of the Hill is finished. These squares are done with double picquets, each picquet ten foot long and six inches thick. They likewise clear a Space of 30 feet without the Line and throw up the Trees by way of Barricade. When this work is compleated  [sic] I shall think the Town as secure against Indians as if it was regularly fortify'd."
  The first fort was a small redoubt, with a flagstaff and guardhouse near the summit just east of the south ravelin of the present citadel. It was part of the western perimeter wall for the old city, which was protected by five stockaded forts. The others were Horsemans Fort, Cornwallis Fort, Fort Lutrell, and Grenadier Fort. (The British built Fort Charlotte in 1750- named after King George's wife Charlotte - on Georges Island.)
  The fortified city walls, guarded by five stockaded forts to protect against Mi'kmaq, Acadian, and French attacks, was the centre of a network of fortifications Cornwallis built. Others included Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).
  During Father Le Loutre's War, the soldiers guarding Halifax were constantly on alert. The Mi'kmaq and Acadians raided the capital region (Halifax and Dartmouth) 12 times, four times against Halifax itself. The worst of these raids was what the British call the Dartmouth Massacre (1751). The first raid was in July 1750: the Mi'kmaq scalped Cornwallis' gardener, his son, and four others whom they had caught in the woods near Halifax. They buried the son, left the gardener's body exposed, and carried off the other four bodies.
  Cornwallis responded with orders to bring back the scalps of Mi'kmaq persons. In 1751, two attacks were made on blockhouses surrounding Halifax. The Mi'kmaq attacked the North Blockhouse (located at the north end of Joseph Howe Drive) and killed the men on guard. They also attacked near the South Blockhouse (located at the south end of Joseph Howe Drive), at a sawmill on a stream flowing from Chocolate Lake into the Northwest Arm. They killed two men. (Map of Halifax Blockhouses)
  In 1753, when Lawrence became governor of Nova Scotia, the Mi'kmaq again attacked the sawmills near the South Blockhouse on the Northwest Arm, where they killed three British. The Mi'kmaq made three attempts to retrieve the bodies for their scalps.
  Prominent Halifax business person Michael Francklin was captured by a Mi'kmaw raiding party in 1754 and held captive for three months. Adult captives were often held for ransom, to be raised by families or local communities
  The stockaded forts were also instrumental to the British during the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War). British soldiers stationed in Halifax helped conduct the expulsion of the Acadians, as many Acadians were imprisoned on Georges Island in Halifax harbour before their deportation. During the war, the Mi'kmaq and Acadians resisted the British throughout the provinc
caption: Depiction of Halifax and the surrounding fortifications, 1750. The settlement was protected by city walls and several forts acting as redoubts, including the First Citadel.
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