Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century warfare centered on sieges, not seeking out and destroying the enemy's army in battle. A captured fortress or town was a bargaining piece in the inevitable peace treaty between warring monarchs, an approach even more prevalent during the long and bitter colonial conflicts in North America. Given the vast distances involved, the lack of manpower, and limited logistical resources, each war in North America became one of position--a war of forts. Sentinels by the Sea: Coastal Fortifications of Colonial New England and Nova Scotia by award-winning historian Michael G. Laramie examines the network of forts that stood in opposition to one another during the lengthy conflict between France and England, from 1689 to 1763, in northeastern North America.
The story of these strongholds, from the earliest in Boston Harbor to the major fortress at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, is compiled from a wide range of primary sources: firsthand letters, journals, and accounts from the cabinet ministers and policy makers in Paris, London, Quebec, and Boston, to the personal correspondence and observations of the military engineers and soldiers who faced the challenge of the building these works, as well as the perils that came with attacking or defending them. Their exploits and efforts would not only determine the fate of these fortifications, but also play a prominent role in settling the matter of whether France or Great Britain would control North America and its resources. Fully illustrated, Sentinels by the Sea provides details of the design, construction, armaments, and battles surrounding these important forts that stretched across one of the most contested areas in North American history.