LE ROUGE, G.-L. - L’Isthme de L’Acadie, Baye du Beaubassin, en Anglois Shegnekto, environs du Fort Beausejour

A French military map of the Acadian Isthmus of Chignecto, showing the area around Fort Beauséjour / Fort Cumberland, Baye du Beaubassin, and the approaches from the Bay of Fundy, published in Paris by Georges-Louis Le Rouge in 1755, at the moment of the British capture of the fort and the opening of the Acadian crisis.
Engraved by Georges-Louis Le Rouge, an engraver who was notable for his collaboration with English and American sources, particularly Benjamin Franklin.

The map shows the strip of land between the Bay of Fundy and the Baie Verte at the border between present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which is of immense strategic importance. Detail on the map is exemplary of early colonial surveys, with topography, rivers, place names, and cultivated areas shown. Fort Cumberland (also known as Fort du Beausejour), Fort St. Laurent, and Fort Caspereau are all named, with the roads that connect them shown. The extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy are hinted at, with a huge sandbank that is uncovered at low tide shown, while depth soundings are also provided.

The Isthmus of Chignecto, on which Fort Beausejour sat, had been the subject of contention since the 17th century. This Isthmus, which connects Nova Scotia to the rest of mainland Canada, is located at the end of the Bay of Fundy. Since Nova Scotia was a British colony and the region to the west was historically French, this narrow strip of land was extensively fought over. The English led raids on French settlements in the area during King William's War and Queen Anne's War, and at least three skirmishes happened there between 1749 and 1751 during Father Le Loutre's War.

This map evidently postdates the battle, as well as the manuscript map held by the Library of Congress called A Plan of Chignecto. This latter map refers to the fort as being French, while the presented map gives the fort the name "Cumberland" in addition to "Beausejour," which it was only referred to after the war. This map was instead drawn on a survey conducted by a British officer in June shortly after the battle, which was published in England by Jefferys and likely reached Le Rouge this way.