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MAY

       Mr. Seth Pomeroy, a gunsmith from Northampton, will write his family, “Louisburg is an exceedingly strong place and seems impregnable. It looks as if our campaign would last long, but I am willing to stay until God’s time comes to deliver the city into our hands.” From the bosom of New England his wife will respond, “Suffer no anxious thought to rest in your mind about me. The whole town is much engaged with concern for the expedition, how Providence will order the affair, for which religious meetings every week are maintained. I leave you in the hand of God.”
In order to attack, it will be necessary to drag the cannon over bogs on sledges built by Colonel Meserve, a carpenter, and to be carried by men with straps over their shoulders who will sink to their knees in mud.
     Turf and brush houses will compose their shelter; and the earth will serve as their beds. Thick fogs are common, but the weather will be fair.
     Only six hundred regular soldiers and one thousand Breton militia hold the fort. Four or five attempts will be made to seize the island battery, and will prove unsuccessful. On May 26th, a party of volunteers will enlist for a vigorous attack by night. “But now Providence seemed remarkably to frown upon the affair,” The invaders will be discovered, and deadly gunfire will assault their boats before they land. Only a few will reach the shore to engage in a severe battle for an hour, and will finally be driven back to their boats. Sixty men are dead and one hundred and sixteen are captured.
     The American invaders will next erect a battery on Lighthouse Cliff near the north cape of the harbor, and guns from the royal battery will be trained upon the north west gate of the fortress. Still no breach has been made and either the walls of the fort must be scaled, or the expedition abandoned.
     Several British men-of-war have joined the naval officers and have agreed to enter the harbor and bombard the city while land forces will attempt to enter it by Storm.
     The garrison will be discomfited, and on May 18th, Douglas, commander of the “Mermaid”, will decoy the “Vigilant”, a French gunner of sixty-four cannon into the British fleet. After several hours of battle, the French ship will be taken within sight of the besieged town. The Governor, sinking in despondency, will send out a flag of truce and on June 17th, the city, the fort, and the batteries will be surrendered. A minister from New England will soon preach in the French chapel.
     The American invaders marching to the place and beholding its strength, will find their hearts sink within: “God has gone out of the way of His common Providence,” they admit, “in a remarkable and almost miraculous manner to incline the hearts of the French to give up, and deliver this strong city into our hands.” The strongest fortress of North America will capitulate to an army of undisciplined mechanics, farmers, and fishermen from New England, and will prove to be England’s greatest success during the war.

1, 1776 --Germany. Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at Ingolstadt founds the secret society known as the “Illuminati.” It is patterned after the Jesuit Order and the combating of religion is its object. Each candidate must give a written promise to tell no one of the society. They receive no information about their superiors or about the origin of the society, but are led to believe the order can be traced to antiquity, and that its members have included even Popes and Cardinals. In order to establish an academy of scholars, Mr. Weishaupt encourages his associates not to shrink even from theft of manuscripts because “sin is only that which is hurtful, and if the profit is greater than the damage, it becomes a virtue.” But it will be Baron Von Zwach who will strengthen the society by connecting it with freemasonry.


 

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