Battle at Chignecto The Battle at Chignecto happened during Father Le Loutre ’ s War and was fought by 700 troops made up of British regulars led by Charles Lawrence , New England Rangers led by John Gorham and Captain John Rous led the navy . This battle was the first attempt by the New Englanders to occupy the head of the Bay of Fundy since the disastrous Battle of Grand Pré three years earlier . They fought against a militia made up of Mi ’ kmaq and Acadians led by Jean - Louis Le Loutre and Joseph Broussard ( Beausoliel ) . The battle happened at Isthmus of Chignecto , Nova Scotia on 3 September 1750 . Historical context . Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710 , Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi ' kmaq . By the time Cornwallis had arrived in Halifax , there was a long history of the Wabanaki Confederacy ( which included the Mi ' kmaq ) protecting their land by killing British civilians along the New England / Acadia border in Maine ( See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688 , 1703 , 1723 , 1724 , 1745 , 1746 , 1747 ) . To prevent the establishment of Protestant settlements in the region , Mi ' kmaq raided the early British settlements of present - day Shelburne ( 1715 ) and Canso ( 1720 ) . A generation later , Father Le Loutre ' s War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21 , 1749 . By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi ' kmaq ( 1726 ) , which were signed after Father Rale ' s War . Within 18 months of establishing Halifax , the British also took firm control of peninsula Nova Scotia by building fortifications in all the major Acadian communities : present - day Windsor ( Fort Edward ) ; Grand Pre ( Fort Vieux Logis ) and Chignecto ( Fort Lawrence ) . ( A British fort already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal , Nova Scotia . Cobequid remained without a fort . ) After the raid in Dartmouth in 1749 , on October 2 , 1749 , Cornwallis offered a bounty on the head of every Mi ' kmaq . He set the amount at the same rate that the Mi ' kmaq received from the French for British scalps . As well , to carry out this task , two companies of rangers were raised , one led by Captain Francis Bartelo and the other by Captain William Clapham . These two companies served alongside that of John Gorham ' s company . The three companies scoured the land around looking for Mi ' kmaq . After the destruction of Mirligueche ( later known as Lunenburg , Nova Scotia ) , the Siege of Grand Pre was the first recorded conflict after Cornwallis ’ bounty proclamation . In May 1750 , Lawrence was unsuccessful in getting a base at Chignecto because Le Loutre burned the village of Beaubassin , preventing Lawrence from using its supplies to establish a fort . ( According to the historian Frank Patterson , the Acadians at Cobequid also burned their homes as they retreated from the British to Tatamagouche , Nova Scotia in 1754 . ) Lawrence retreated , but he returned in September 1750 . The Battle . On September 3 , 1750 Captain John Rous , Lawrence and Gorham led over 700 men to Chignecto , where Mi ’ kmaq and Acadians opposed their landing . They had thrown up a breastwork from behind which they opposed the landing . They killed twenty British , who in turn killed several Mi ’ kmaq . Le Loutre ' s militia eventually withdrew to Beausejour , burning the rest of the Acadians ' crops and houses as they went . Aftermath . On 15 October ( N . S . ) a group of Micmacs disguised as French officers called a member of the Nova Scotia Council Edward How to a conference . This trap , organized by Étienne Bâtard , gave him the opportunity to wound How seriously , and How died five or six days later , according to Captain La Vallière ( probably Louis Leneuf de La Vallière ) , the only eye - witness . After the battle , the British built Fort Lawrence at Chignecto and the Mi ' kmaq people and Acadians continued with numerous raids on Dartmouth and Halifax . References . Endnotes Primary Sources