Few Canadians realize how close the colony of Nova Scotia came to joining the American Revolutionary War in 1775. Many Nova Scotians were immigrants from New England, including the Planters who, some twenty years earlier, had taken over the farms of the expelled Acadians. Between family ties and unrestrained privateering, there was much sympathy in Nova Scotia for the American Patriots. In Hope Restored, Robert Dallison tells the story of how the British raised two regiments and sent their members to the area that, as a result, became New Brunswick, thus overcoming the groundswell and fending off Patriot attacks. These soldiers had two jobs: to fight the Americans, and to settle the land as a bulwark against invasion. Spem reduxit (hope restored) became their motto and the motto of the province they founded. As well as telling the story of the Loyalist regiments, Hope Restored describes many Loyalist and Revolutionary War sites, some of which can be visited today. Among them are the Loyalist Encampment and Cemetery in Fredericton, Saint John's Fort Howe, and the MacDonald Farm Provincial Historic Park in Northumberland County. Hope Restored is the second book in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series published by Goose Lane Editions in collaboration with the New Brunswick Military Heritage Project. Written by historians and military personnel, the books in this series will explore subjects ranging from New Brunswick's pivotal role in the American Revolution to one veteran's account of caring for World War I cavalry horses.
