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The Northeast Coast campaign (also known as the Six Terrible Days) (10 August – 6 October 1703) was the first major campaign of Queen Anne's War in New England. Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin led 500 troops made up of French colonial forces and the Wabanaki Confederacy of Acadia (200 Mi'kmaq and others from Norridgewock). They attacked English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Wells and Casco Bay (now the Portland, Maine area), burning more than 15 leagues of New England country and killing or capturing more than 150 people. The English colonists were able to protect some of their settlements, but a number of others were destroyed and abandoned. Historian Samuel Drake reported that, "Maine had nearly received her death-blow" as a result of the campaign. (Wikipedia, citations omitted)
The attack so stunned the Province of Massachusetts, that a day of prayer and fasting was mandated:
"It pleased God August 10th & 11th to suffer ye barbarous and treacherous Indians to break forth upon ye people in ye Eastern parts wr in those two days were killed and taken at wells saco Casco & other places about 170 persons. upon ye acct of wch and to Implore ye Smile of heaven on our forces sent out against them Septembr 23d was appointed by ye Authority as a day of General fasting and prayer throout ye province & attended." (Records of the First Church of Plymouth, Mass., 1:197)
Sources
- "Lost Boy Found in Quebec 300 Years Later", All Things Maine, Nov. 20, 2005.
- "Northeast Coast Campaign (1703)", Wikipedia, visited June 20, 2018.