The Battle of Bloody Creek

The Monument Marking the Battle at Bloody Creek, NS

The Battle of Bloody Creek is written up in several history books from the Annapolis Valley. However not all of them tell about the ghostly screams that were heard for years later at this spot.

The battle happened on the morning of June 10, 1711. Eighty men from the garrison at Annapolis Royal set out up the Annapolis River in search of firewood.

The men travelled in a whale boat and two flat boats. They stayed together for most of the trip but the flat boats got tied up in the out going tides and ended up about a mile behind the whaler.

The whaler turned in the estuary at Bloody Creek, (not named that then) and sailed up looking for wood that could be used. Not far up this stream though the boat was ambushed by Indians who were hiding out in the bushes along the stream.

Behind them but too far away to help, the men in the flat boats heard the screams and gun shots. They rowed frantically to catch up and lend their comrades a hand, only to find themselves caught in the same trap. Thirty of the eighty men who set out that day were murdered on the banks of the stream and the other fifty were made prisoners.

Bloody Creek, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia
This did not end the brutality along this quiet little stream. The second battle of Bloody Creek happened forty-six years later December 8, 1757 when the same fate fell on another force of men. In this ambush there were twenty-four men lost.

It is said that on a dark night if you are walking by this spot you can hear the men’s screams of death as they are being slaughtered. Some say it is only the wind rustling in the leaves of the trees and bushes while others believe it is the battle being relived over and over again.

One very late night my son was hitch-hiking back from visiting a girlfriend in Bridgetown. Not having much luck with finding a ride he was faced with crossing this area. Having heard the stories of the battle of Bloody Creek ghost not long before this, he was a little apprehensive about going by this area. He did not waste any time going by to see if he heard any screams when the wind came up just as he approached the bridge.

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