De Villiers' combined force of Canadians, Mi'kmaq…

February 1747 CE

De Villiers' combined force of Canadians, Mi'kmaq and Acadians amounts to about five hundred men.

A French account states de Villiers left the Beaubassin area with two hundred and fifty Canadians and fifty Mi'kmaq.

These troops, as previously mentioned, are further augmented by additional Mi'kmaq as well as Acadians.

The French, on the night of February 10 in a blinding snowstorm and utilizing the element of surprise, attack ten of the houses in which the New Englanders are billeted.

Other than sentries, most of the New England personnel are asleep.

The French are initially successful in the close-range fighting that follows.

Colonel Noble is killed along with four other British officers and the French take most of the houses, killing over sixty British troops in fierce close-range fighting that also claims the lives of many of the attackers.

De Villiers' left arm as shattered almost immediately by a musket ball, a wound that will later lead to his death.

He is replaced by his second-in-command, La Corne.

The battle continues to rage across the village where the British manage o hold several houses.

The Canadians also attack and capture the small fort at Hortonviille and the two British supply sloops moored in the Basin.

Eventually the British force rallies to concentrate their troops in a stronghold within a stone house in the center of the village, which they hold with three hundred and fifty men and several small artillery pieces.

The British make a sally from the stone house in the afternoon to try to recover their supply vessels but are unable to fight their way through deep snow drifts and are forced to retire to the stone house.

The fighting continues until the next morning when a cease fire is arranged to end the stand-off as the French are unable to storm the stone house while the British are running out of ammunition and food.

This truce stands throughout the day and the following morning the New Englanders agree to capitulate under honorable terms.

Captain Charles Morris reports sixty-seven New England troops killed, including their commander Colonel Noble, along with upwards of forty taken prisoner, and forty more being wounded or sick.

Morris estimates the French had lost thirty men but that the Acadians later "affirmed they saw buried by both parties one hundred and twenty men."

This would put the French losses at fifty-three.

After the cease-fire, both sides agree to terms that allow the British to return to Annapolis Royal.

The three hundred and fifty British in the stone house are allowed to keep their arms and march back to Annapolis Royal while the French retain the British troops captured in the fighting as well as the two supply sloops.

The British march away with full honors of war, but ...