t out by the Major destroyed upwards
of 150 houses and barns, much grain and a good many cattle. They
captured 30 prisoners, including women and children. The Acadian seem
to have made some resistance, however, and a Lieutenant McCormack and
three men of Captain McCurdy's Company and two men of the Light
Infantry were captured by them.

The troops that had served in the St. John river expedition were now
distributed among the garrisons at Fort Cumberland, Windsor, Annapolis
and Halifax, with the exception of McCurdy's, Stark's and Brewer's
companies of Rangers and a small detachment of artillery, ordered to
remain at Fort Frederick under command of Major Morris. This was a
more considerable garrison than could well find accommodation there
during the winter, but such was not Monckton's intention, for he
writes in his journal: "The Fuel of the Garrison not being as yet
lay'd in, I leave the three companies of Rangers, viz., McCurdy's,
Stark's, and Brewer's, and have ordered that Captain McCurdy's company
should Hutt and remain the Winter, the other two after compleating the
wood to come to Halifax in the vessels I had left them."

Monckton sailed for Halifax in the man-of-war "Squirrel" on the 21st
of November, and with him went the 2nd Battalion of the Royal American
Regiment of which he was the commander.

In the month of January following, a tragic event took place at or
near St. Anne's, an account of which has been left us by our early
historians, Peter Fisher and Moses H. Perley, in substance as
follows:

After the winter season had fairly set in, a party of the rangers at
Fort Frederick, under Captain McCurdy, set out on snow-shoes to
reconnoitre the country and to ascertain the state of the French
settlements up the river. The first night after their departure they
encamped at Kingston Creek, not far from the Belleisle, on a very
steep hillside. That night Captain McCurdy lost his life by the
falling of a large birch tree, which one of the rangers cut down on
the hillside--the tree came thundering down the mountain and killed
the Captain instantly, Lieutenant Moses Hazen[44] succeeded to the
command, and the party continued up the river to St. Ann's Point (now
Fredericton), where they found quite a town. They set fire to the
chapel and other buildings, but a number of the French settlers
gathered together, whereupon the Rangers retreated, and, being hotly
pursued committed several atrocious acts upon the peop