Joseph BROUSSARD dit BEAUSOLEIL
LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

After yet another war erupted between Britain and France in 1754, the Acadians were again caught in the middle of it. When British and New England forces attacked Fort Beauséjour at Chignecto in June 1755, Broussards were among the area Acadians who were serving in the fort as militia, though they may have left the fort a few days before it surrendered on June 16. Governor Lawrence was so incensed to find so-called French Neutrals fighting with French regulars at Beauséjour that he ordered his officers to deport the Chignecto Acadians to the southernmost British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard...

Before the deportation ships arrived at Chignecto, some of the Acadians being held at forts Cumberland (formerly Beauséjour) and Lawrence managed to escape, Joseph dit Beausoleil among them. He rejoined his wife and younger children at Petitcoudiac, and they headed into the wilderness north of their home, not only hiding from the British patrols sent out to capture them but also engaging in what today is called guerrilla warfare, including privateering in the Bay of Fundy to harass British shipping. For a time, Beausoleil's "headquarters" was at Shediac on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore, where he coordinated his resistance activities with Canadian Lieutenant Charles Deschamps de Boishébert, who had commanded French forces on Rivière St.-Jean.

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