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Having now taken the adult male inhabitants prisoners, there still remained for Willard to complete his orgy of destruction by burning the habitations and the buildings in the village. About noon taking a small party with him, he crossed over the French River to the main village, situated on the rising ground to the South of the junction of the French with Waugh’s River. At that time it consisted of a cluster of twelve buildings situated in irregularly and partly cleared and cultivated ground which extended perhaps from what is now McCully’s Hill to the Church. One of these, the Chapel, set in a burial-ground on the rise of the hill, at the rear of the old schoolhouse lot was likely the most conspicuous. Here too, were two warehouses, which the French evidently used as depots for storing goods on the route to and from Louisbourg in one were rum, molasses and iron ware; in the other rum, sugar, molasses and wine. The other nine buildings were the dwellings, barns and stables of the few Acadian peasants, who had cleared, stumped and cultivated the adjoining acres of upland. Even in his hour of reckless destruction, Willard however took care to save the rum, which his men drew off and filled in as many bottles as they could carry. Then, the torch was applied, and soon nothing but smoke, embers and ashes remained of the Acadian village of Tatamagouche. Back |
