Massachusetts Governor William Shirley, in response to the assaults on Annapolis Royal that were being staged at Grand Pré (and Chignecto),  had sent Colonel Arthur Noble and hundreds of New England soldiers to secure control over Grand Pré.

A force of one hundred men under the command of Captain Charles Morris had been sent to Grand Pré in early December 1746.

These troops had been joined eventually by troops under the command of Captains Jedidiah Preble and Benjamin Goldthwait, and Colonel Gorham's Rangers.

Colonel Noble arrives by sea with an additional one hundred men in early January 1747.

In all there are approximately five hundred New England troops stationed at Grand Pré.

Initially the troops are billeted at Grand Pré and several communities nearby.

Upon Noble's arrival, he orders the troops brought into Grand Pré, where they are billeted in twenty-four houses that extend across the village for nearly two and a half miles.

Some of the Inhabitants at Grand Pré warn the New Englanders that Ramezay has a plan to attack them.

The warning is ignored as the New Englanders feel that such an attack that would mean an impractical long march through deep snow and across frozen rivers. 

The Canadian force, after the rigors of the previous year's campaign in Nova Scotia, is weakened by illness, including Ramezay, which is why he delegates command of the attack on Grand Prè to Captain Nicolas Antoine II Coulon de Villiers.

Born in Contrecœur, Quebec, as a son of Nicolas-Antoine Coulon de Villiers and Angelique Jarret de Verchères, his three brothers are Louis Coulon de Villiers, François Coulon de Villiers and Joseph Coulon de Jumonville.

Coulon de Villiers had fought against the Sauks in his youth and had become commander of Fort St. Joseph (Niles, Michigan) after the death of his father in battle.

Returning to Quebec in 1742, he had on October 9, 1743, married Madeleine-Marie-Anne Tarieu de La Pérade, the widow of Richard Testu de La Richardière.

The French embark on January 21, 1747, on a twenty-one day winter march to the Minas.

The troops, on snowshoes and utilizing sleds, cross to Bay Verte, follow the Northumberland shore to Tatamagouche, cross the Cobequid Mountains to Cobequid Bay near present-day Truro, and by February 2 have reached the Shubenacadie River, which they find blocked by ice and too dangerous for the main force to cross.

De Villiers orders Boishébert to cross the river with ten men and to block the roads so that word of the impending attack is not spread by the locals.

The Canadian force has been joined throughout the trek by both Acadian militia and Mi'kmaq warriors.

Further assistance comes when they are sheltered and fed by local Acadian families who also provide information on the New England positions.

There are Acadians, however, who are not allies.

With the lower Shubenacadie River blocked by ice, the main force travels the eastern shore of the river until they pass the tidal reach and there cross over to the western side.

They quickly cross overland to the Kennetcook River and then on to the Acadian village at Pisiguit, where the villagers replenish their food supplies, which had been running low for several days.

Despite a raging blizzard, the troops are on their final march by midday on February 10, taking the old Acadian road over Horton Mountain to Melanson Village in the Gaspereau Valley, just a few miles from Grand Pré.

At Melanson the troops are joined by Acadian guides, who will lead them directly to the houses where the New English are billeted.

De Villiers' combined force of Canadians, Mi'kmaq and Acadians amounts to about five hundred men.

A French account states de Villiers left the Beaubassin area with two hundred and fifty Canadians and fifty Mi'kmaq.

These troops, as previously mentioned, are further augmented by additional Mi'kmaq as well as Acadians.

The French, on the night of February 10 in a blinding snowstorm and utilizing the element of surprise, attack ten of the houses in which the New Englanders are billeted.

Other than sentries, most of the New England personnel are asleep.

The French are initially successful in the close-range fighting that follows.

Colonel Noble is killed along with four other British officers and the French take most of the houses, killing over sixty British troops in fierce close-range fighting that also claims the lives of many of the attackers.

De Villiers' left arm as shattered almost immediately by a musket ball, a wound that will later lead to his death.

He is replaced by his second-in-command, La Corne.

The battle continues to rage across the village where the British manage o hold several houses.

The Canadians also attack and capture the small fort at Hortonviille and the two British supply sloops moored in the Basin.

Eventually the British force rallies to concentrate their troops in a stronghold within a stone house in the center of the village, which they hold with three hundred and fifty men and several small artillery pieces.

The British make a sally from the stone house in the afternoon to try to recover their supply vessels but are unable to fight their way through deep snow drifts and are forced to retire to the stone house.

The fighting continues until the next morning when a cease fire is arranged to end the stand-off as the French are unable to storm the stone house while the British are running out of ammunition and food.

This truce stands throughout the day and the following morning the New Englanders agree to capitulate under honorable terms.

Captain Charles Morris reports sixty-seven New England troops killed, including their commander Colonel Noble, along with upwards of forty taken prisoner, and forty more being wounded or sick.

Morris estimates the French had lost thirty men but that the Acadians later "affirmed they saw buried by both parties one hundred and twenty men."

This would put the French losses at fifty-three.

After the cease-fire, both sides agree to terms that allow the British to return to Annapolis Royal.

The three hundred and fifty British in the stone house are allowed to keep their arms and march back to Annapolis Royal while the French retain the British troops captured in the fighting as well as the two supply sloops.

The British march away with full honors of war, but ...

...the six-day march back through deep snow, unassisted by snowshoes, invites fatigue, influenza, and fever, causing the loss of another one hundred and fifty men.

The French later retire from Grand-Pré, initially to Noel, Nova Scotia, (in the Cobequid region), taking with them prisoners of war as well as both French and New England wounded.

The more severely wounded are left under the care of the Acadians at Grand Pré.

Some of the prisoners will be released to the New Englanders in the spring, while the others are sent to Québec and then to Boston.

The battle has slowed the British advance to occupy the head of the Bay of Fundy.

The New Englanders, returning to Grand Pré shortly after, in March, 1747, take possession of the stone house and require the inhabitants to renew their  promise of obedience to the British Government.