Beaujeu at Grand Pré

 Today's anniversary. For more on Beaujeu see the event at Old Fort Niagara below.

From here http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?BioId=35617

His 28,000-word journal of the 10-month campaign includes a detailed account of their greatest exploit. After a 150-mile march in bitter mid-winter, 300 Canadians and Indians attacked 500 New Englanders billeted in Grand Pré and forced their surrender after bloody fighting (11 Feb. 1747) [see Arthur Noble]. In several separate columns, they made a stealthy approach in the middle of the night. “A sentry who spotted us cried Who goes there? . . . We saw the watchkeeper come at once to the door. But the night was so dark, and we were hugging the ground so carefully, making no noise, that although we were within thirty paces, he considered it a false alarm and went back inside again. . . . In less than ten minutes we took the guardhouse. . . . All around we could hear musket fire. In every direction we could see men moving without being able to distinguish if they were our people or the enemy. . . . We had almost all lost our snowshoes and the amount of snow prevented us from moving smartly. . . . We would have been more gratified with our achievements if we had been able to learn that the other detachments had had as good success.”