The Raid on Lunenburg (also known as the Sack of Lunenburg) occurs during the American Revolution when the US privateer, Captain Noah Stoddard of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and four other privateer vessels attack the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on July1, 1782.
Lunenburg is defended by militia leaders Colonel John Creighton and Major Dettlieb Christopher Jessen.
In Nova Scotia, the assault on Lunenburg wis the most spectacular raid of the war.
On the morning of July 1, Stoddard leads approximately one hundred and seventy US privateers in four heavily armed vessels and overpowers Lunenburg’s defense, capturing the blockhouses and burning the house of Jessen.
The privateers then loot the settlement and keep the militia at bay with the threat of destroying the entire town.
The American privateers plunder the town and take three prisoners, including Creighton, who are later released from Boston without a ransom having been paid.