Saint John Fortifications, 1630–1956

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

This is the first in what so far is a two-volume project conceived by
Dr. Marc Milner, a military historian at the University of New
Brunswick. The two authors are eminently qualified researchers. Roger
Sarty is former senior historian at the Directorate of History, National
Defence Headquarters and most recently deputy director of the Canadian
War Museum. Doug Knight, a retired Canadian Army engineer, is a
researcher at the Canadian War Museum.

Their compact study begins with a description of the port of Saint
John, site of New Brunswick’s most important defence facility, and
concludes with a two-page primer on historic fortifications. Chapter 2,
on Frontier Forts, 1632–1783, features what the authors call the
Acadian civil war (1632–45) between two rivals who “disliked each
other intensely,” Charles LaTour and Charles d’Aulnay. The role
played by Madame LaTour in defending her husband’s interests is
perhaps the one story most New Brunswickers remember from their
province’s history, and the authors tell it clearly and succinctly.
Chapters 3 and 4 on Fortress Systems, 1793–1914, discuss how the
British military establishment built facilities to protect the port of
Saint John during their long tenure as imperial protectors.

The longest and best-illustrated final chapter covers 1914–56 and
efforts just prior to and during the two world wars to make up for years
of military neglect. The closest the first conflict came to testing
Saint John’s defences was in August 1918, when a U-boat destroyed a
four-masted schooner off Grand Manan at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
In May 1942, a German U-boat lay submerged off Saint John for six days
and nights, after which its commander concluded that the port was not
used as a loading terminal for convoys. These are just two out of many
nuggets from a study that sheds new light (especially for non-military
buffs) on New Brunswick’s history.