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The New Hampshire Gazette Domestic News August 18, 1758
Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
An officer on the Louisbourg expedition reports French deserters, harsh conditions among German soldiers sold into French service, and courteous exchanges between General Amherst and the French governor's lady during the siege.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 99.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 0.0% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 96.39% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 98.57% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 97.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 95.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
Extract of a Letter from an Officer on the Expedition against Louisbourg, dated June 24, 1758.
"We have between 20 and 30 Deserters from the French, most of whom are from a German Regiment, enlisted by Col. Fischer for the Prussian Service, and sold by him to the French four Years ago, since which Time they have been at Louisbourg, rather (as they themselves say) Slaves than Soldiers, without Pay, or scarce Provision to maintain them, but labouring at their Works like Brutes. They have longed for an English Invasion, and intended to desert in one Body a few Days after we landed, but were betrayed, and the Principals hanged; there have been 16 Men seen hanging over the Ramparts together, Part of the Regiment; and we hear that two of them are not suffered to do Duty together, or converse with one another; they are daily coming in, and are employed as Marines on board the Men of War, they say, that since the English appeared they have met with more indulgent Treatment than ever they had before.
"General Amherst appears very clear and alert in his Business, is very active and inquisitive in the Motions of the French, as well as our Proceedings against them.
"Last Week Brigadier Wolfe received a Compliment, with a Pyramid of Sweetmeats, from the Governor's Lady, by a Flag of Truce sent to the Eastern shore, by whom he returned his, with a Pine-Apple, which he happened to have.
P.S. This Moment General Amherst received a Compliment, with some fresh Butter, from the Governor's Lady, made by herself, which she sent by a Drummer that was sent into the City this Day with a Flag of Truce, but have not heard what Return he has made, or intends.—This is strange Complaisance between inveterate Enemies!"
"We have between 20 and 30 Deserters from the French, most of whom are from a German Regiment, enlisted by Col. Fischer for the Prussian Service, and sold by him to the French four Years ago, since which Time they have been at Louisbourg, rather (as they themselves say) Slaves than Soldiers, without Pay, or scarce Provision to maintain them, but labouring at their Works like Brutes. They have longed for an English Invasion, and intended to desert in one Body a few Days after we landed, but were betrayed, and the Principals hanged; there have been 16 Men seen hanging over the Ramparts together, Part of the Regiment; and we hear that two of them are not suffered to do Duty together, or converse with one another; they are daily coming in, and are employed as Marines on board the Men of War, they say, that since the English appeared they have met with more indulgent Treatment than ever they had before.
"General Amherst appears very clear and alert in his Business, is very active and inquisitive in the Motions of the French, as well as our Proceedings against them.
"Last Week Brigadier Wolfe received a Compliment, with a Pyramid of Sweetmeats, from the Governor's Lady, by a Flag of Truce sent to the Eastern shore, by whom he returned his, with a Pine-Apple, which he happened to have.
P.S. This Moment General Amherst received a Compliment, with some fresh Butter, from the Governor's Lady, made by herself, which she sent by a Drummer that was sent into the City this Day with a Flag of Truce, but have not heard what Return he has made, or intends.—This is strange Complaisance between inveterate Enemies!"
What sub-type of article is it?
Military
What keywords are associated?
Louisbourg Siege
French Deserters
General Amherst
Brigadier Wolfe
What entities or persons were involved?
General Amherst
Brigadier Wolfe
Col. Fischer
Where did it happen?
Louisbourg
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Louisbourg
Event Date
June 24, 1758
Key Persons
General Amherst
Brigadier Wolfe
Col. Fischer
Outcome
sixteen deserters hanged; deserters daily coming in and employed as marines.