The Duc d'Anville expedition was sent from France to recapture Louisbourg and take peninsular Acadia. The expedition was the largest military force ever to set sail for the New World prior to the American Revolutionary War. This effort was the fourth and final French attempt to regain the Nova Scotian capital, Annapolis Royal, during King George's War. The Expedition was also supported on land by a force from Quebec under the command of Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay. Along with recapturing Acadia from the British, d'Anville was ordered to "consign Boston to flames, ravage New England and waste the British West Indies." News of the expedition spread fear throughout New York and New England.
Samuel Scott's Action between HMS Nottingham and the Mars. Le Mars was returning to France after the failed Duc d'Anville Expedition, 11 October 1746 and was subsequently captured.
Admiral Jean-Baptiste Louis Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld de Roye, Duc d'Anville
Duc d'Anville approaching Chebucto, Westin Hotel Murial (inset), Halifax, Nova Scotia
Duc d'Anville Encampment Monument, Birch Cove, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Fortress of Louisbourg is a tourist attraction as a National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its two sieges, especially that of 1758, were turning points in the Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada.
Diorama of the Fortress of Louisbourg in 1758
Colored engraving depicting the Siege of Louisbourg
The Louisbourg Cross, on permanent loan to the fortress since 1995
The Government of Canada rebuilt one-fifth of the town, and its fortifications; the multi-year work commenced in 1963.