The Ile Saint-Jean campaign was a series of military operations in fall 1758, during the Seven Years' War, to deport the Acadians who either lived on Ile Saint-Jean (present-day Prince Edward Island) or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Rollo led a force of 500 British troops (including James Rogers leading his company of Rogers Rangers) to take possession of Ile Saint-Jean.
The percentage of deported Acadians who died during this expulsion made it the deadliest of all the deportations during the Expulsion (1755–1762). The total number of Acadians deported during this campaign was second only to that of the Bay of Fundy campaign (1755).
Historical context
The British Conquest of Nova Scotia happened in 1710. As the British were now in possession of Acadia, present Nova Scotia, due to the Treaty of Utrecht changes in Acadian's fates occurred. They were given the choice to remove themselves from Nova Scotia or pledge allegiance to the British. The majority of French settlers and Acadians moved to Ile Royale after 1713. Ile Royale, also known as Cape Breton Island, became a French colony that consisted of two islands, Ile Royale and Ile Saint-Jean. Ile Saint-Jean was considered the agricultural addition of Ile Royale. Due to the fertile lands on Ile Saint-Jean, many Acadians chose it as a settlement. Another deciding factor was that the Governor-General Vaudreuil of New France believed the Acadians would prefer Ile Saint-Jean even though it was more defenceless against English attacks.
The Acadian mainland (now New Brunswick), Cape Breton Island and Isle Saint-Jean remained in French hands. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortresses of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour. During the Seven Years' War, the British sought both to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Nova Scotia.
Ile Saint-Jean began to change complexion from French to Acadian throughout the years following. The population continued to increase, from 1749-1755 the population quadrupled to around three thousand, making Ile Saint-Jean an essential part of the overall Acadian community.
Once the Acadians refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain, which would make them loyal to the crown, the British Lieutenant Governor, Charles Lawrence, as well as the Nova Scotia Council on July 28, 1755 made the decision to deport the Acadians. Some factors of the Ile Saint-Jean campaign were to deport the Acadians living on Ile Saint-Jean to allow for English and Scottish settlers a place to reside. Other reasons behind the deportation of Acadians from Ile Saint-Jean was part of the general British campaign to eliminate the possibilities of resistance along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in anticipation of an assault on Quebec, that was planned for the following year. It was estimated that 11,500 Acadians out of the 14,100 in the region were deported. During the deportation process, a great number of Acadian deaths occurred, making this British campaign one of the deadliest in The Expulsion.
The first wave of these deportations began in 1755, after Father Le Loutre's War, with the Bay of Fundy campaign (1755). Many Acadians fled those operations to the French colony of Ile Saint-Jean, now known as Prince Edward Island. Ile Saint-Jean's major and commandant was Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin. Villejouin occasionally sent Mi'kmaq to Nova Scotia to pillage and harass the English during this time. In the summer of 1756, for example, Villejouin sent seven Mi'kmaq to Fort Edward where they scalped two English people and returned to Villejouin with the scalps and a prisoner. (Rollo found numerous British scalps at the Governor's house when he took over Ile St. Jean. )
After capturing Louisbourg on Ile Royale (present-day Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) in 1758, the British began operations to deport Acadians from Ile St. Jean, Ile Royale, and present-day New Brunswick. According to one historian, this wave of operations was more brutal and considerably more devastating than the first.