Fort Beauséjour Fort Beauséjour ( ) ( later known as Fort Cumberland ) was built by the French during Father Le Loutre ' s War from 1751 – 1755 ; it is located at the Isthmus of Chignecto in present - day Aulac , New Brunswick , Canada . The property is now a National Historic Site of Canada officially known as Fort Beauséjour – Fort Cumberland National Historic Site . To maintain the land route between Louisbourg and Quebec , the French built this fort and two satellite installations : one at present - day Port Elgin , New Brunswick ( Fort Gaspareaux ) and the other at present - day Saint John , New Brunswick ( Fort Menagoueche ) . Fort Beauséjour is notable as the site of the Battle of Fort Beauséjour , which was both the final act in the long fight between Britain and France for control of Acadia , and the opening act of the final struggle between the two great empires for North America . Renamed in 1755 Fort Cumberland by the British , who were victorious , it was the site of the Battle of Fort Cumberland during the American Revolutionary War . Historical context . Fort Beauséjour was one of several French forts erected after King George ' s War ( 1748 ) to strengthen the French position in North America against the British . Louisbourg was rebuilt ( 1749 ) , Fort Niagara was established on Lake Ontario ( 1749 ) , Fort Duquesne was constructed near present - day Pittsburgh ( 1749 ) , and Fort Rouille was built ( 1750 ) . In Acadia , Fort Menagoueche was built to the west of the mouth of the St . John River ( 1748 ) , further up the river they re - occupied Fort Nerepis ( 1749 ) , Fort Gadiaque - a fortified supply depot - was built at Indian Island ( Skull Island ) , Shediac Bay ( 1749 ) . Following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 , the part of Acadia which is known today as peninsular Nova Scotia changed from French to British control , and became another British colony on the eastern seaboard . Due to disagreements in interpretation of the treaty provisions delineating Acadia ' s boundaries , the ownership of present - day New Brunswick continued to be disputed . An informal dividing line was eventually established on the Isthmus of Chignecto at the Missiguash River . As tensions between France and Britain escalated in the 1740s , the territorial dispute over colonial limits became an important issue . Father Le Loutre ' s War . One historian suggests that the French were probably using Beauséjour Ridge , just to the west of the Missiguash , as a camp as early as 1744 . During Father Le Loutre ' s War , on May 1 , 1750 , Major Charles Lawrence arrived with 400 men to secure the Beauséjour Ridge . Finding a landing impossible , given the presence of French troops , the flotilla moved further up the basin to the village of Beaubassin , on a second ridge immediately east of the Missaguash . When it was clear that Lawrence intended to land , the local priest , Abbé Jean - Louis le Loutre , ordered the village burnt to ensure the British could not use it . The displaced Acadians took refuge with the French encampment on Beauséjour Ridge . In May 1750 , Lawrence was ill - prepared to build a fort or to launch an attack on the French , so he retreated . He returned in September 1750 with a force of 700 men . Le Loutre and Acadian militia leader Joseph Broussard resisted the British assault . The British troops defeated them and began construction of Fort Lawrence near the site of the ruined Acadian village of Beaubassin . The work on the fort proceeded rapidly and the facility was completed within weeks . Construction of Fort Beauséjour . France responded to the construction of Fort Lawrence in September 1750 . Work on the French fortress did not begin until the following spring , but by April 1751 construction was underway under the command of Claude - Antoine de Bermen de La Martinière . By the early summer of 1751 , La Valiere reported , approximately 250 Acadians had enrolled in the local militia . Construction was slow , and the fort was incomplete when it was attacked in 1755 . It was still a more substantial construction than Fort Lawrence , given its earthworks and commanding position overlooking the Cumberland Basin . In 1753 , Le Loutre and the Acadians began to build a cathedral just outside the fort . At about the same time , the French built two satellite forts , Fort Gaspareaux and Fort Menagoueche , to shore up defenses of Acadia . For four years , until the outbreak of the French and Indian War , garrisons at Fort Beauséjour and Fort Lawrence kept watch across the frontier between French and British territory on the Isthmus of Chignecto . In 1754 , Louis Du Pont Duchambon de Vergor became the commander of Fort Beausejour . Battle of Fort Beauséjour . On June 4 , 1755 the British conquest of all of France ' s North American territory began when a force of British regulars and New England militia attacked Fort Beauséjour from Fort Lawrence under command of Lt . Col . Robert Monckton . Le Loutre and Broussard were active in the unsuccessful defense . The British - led force took control of Fort Beauséjour by June 16 , 1755 , after which they changed its name to Fort Cumberland . Le Loutre ' s last act of defiance was to burn the cathedral so that it would not fall into the hands of the British . He was eventually captured , and imprisoned for eight years for his role leading the resistance against the British occupation of Acadia . Fort Cumberland . French and Indian War . The Deportation of the Acadians . In the months following the fort ' s capture , British forces ordered the Acadians living in the Beaubassin region to sign an oath of allegiance to the British Crown . However , the Acadians refused because , fearing retaliation from both sides , they preferred to remain neutral . Although Le Loutre and Broussard escaped , some of the remaining captured Acadians reported that they had been coerced into assisting in the defense of Fort Beauséjour . The British used this fact against them and in August 1755 , they began deporting Acadians under the orders of Charles Lawrence , now Governor of Nova Scotia . This event was the start of what would come to be known as the Great Upheaval ( " le Grand Dérangement " ) of Acadian society . It commenced with the Acadians in the Beaubassin region . British forces burnt Acadian homes at Beaubassin and the vicinity of the fort to prevent their return . As the British army had relocated to the more substantial facility at Fort Cumberland , they abandoned and burned Fort Lawrence on October 12 , 1756 . Fort Cumberland became one of four sites in which the British imprisoned or temporarily held Acadians during the nine years of the expulsion . ( The other sites were Fort Edward ( Nova Scotia ) ; Fort Frederick , Saint John , New Brunswick , and Fort Charlotte , Georges Island , Halifax . ) Acadian and Mi ' kmaq resistance . Under the leadership of French officer Boishébert , Acadians and Mi ' kmaq fought the deportation from their homeland . In the early spring of 1756 , a band of Acadian and Mi ' kmaq partisans ambushed a small party of New England soldiers ' cutting wood for Fort Cumberland , killing and mutilating nine men . In April 1757 , after raiding Fort Edward , a band of Acadian and Mi ' kmaq partisans also raided Fort Cumberland , killing and scalping two men and taking two prisoners . On July 20 , 1757 Mi ' kmaq captured two of Gorham ' s rangers outside Fort Cumberland . In March 1758 , forty Acadian and Mi ' kmaq attacked a schooner at Fort Cumberland and killed its master and two sailors . In the winter of 1759 , five British soldiers on patrol were ambushed while crossing a bridge near Fort Cumberland . They were ritually scalped and their bodies were mutilated as was common in frontier warfare . Battle of Fort Cumberland . The Beauséjour Ridge fort became a strategically important British military emplacement during the American Revolutionary War as it guarded the overland route to peninsular Nova Scotia and also the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy . In 1776 , early in American Revolutionary War , Fort Cumberland and its garrison of the Royal Fencible American Regiment repelled several rebel attacks from local guerrillas led by the American sympathizer Jonathan Eddy . This event had historical significance as the imperial loyalties of some Nova Scotian settlers ( especially recent planters ) were suspect ; and if Fort Cumberland had fallen , Nova Scotia might have joined in the revolutionary effort . War of 1812 . Fort Cumberland was abandoned in the late 1780s . With the British resumption of hostilities with the United States in 1812 , British forces reoccupied and refurbished the fort . Although it did not see any action during this conflict , the presence of a British garrison served as a deterrent to attack . The British military in 1835 declared the fort surplus property . It was abandoned . Legacy . In 1920 , the property was declared a National Historic Site of Canada . A museum has been built there and portions of the fort restored . Its major earthworks command a view of Chignecto Bay . On 28 June 1985 Canada Post issued ' Fort Beauséjour . ' one of the 20 stamps in the “ Forts Across Canada Series ” ( 1983 & 1985 ) . The stamps are perforated 12Â½ x 13 and were printed by Ashton - Potter Limited based on the designs by Rolf P . Harder . Affiliations . The Museum is affiliated with : CMA , CHIN , and Virtual Museum of Canada . References . Primary Sources Endnotes