Louisbourg Falls to New Englanders

June 17, 1745

An expedition of untrained Massachusetts militia, funded by colonial assemblies and led by a merchant named William Pepperrell, captured the great French fortress of Louisbourg after a six-week siege. Britons at home barely understood what had happened. Americans did. They would remember, bitterly, when the fortress was handed back at Aix-la-Chapelle.