(Much of the information
used in this introduction was compiled by James P. Millard
and the full text, as well as a general history of Lake
Champlain, can be found at https://www.historiclakes.org) |
The Battle of Lake Champlain
Theodore Roosevelt was 23 when
he published
The Naval War of 1812. The full text can be found at
https://www.gutenberg.net/etext/9104
THIS LAKE, which had hitherto played but an inconspicuous
part, was now to become the scene of the greatest naval battle
of the war. A British army of 11,000 men under Sir George Prevost
undertook the invasion of New York by advancing up the western
bank of Lake Champlain. This advance was impracticable unless
there was a sufficiently strong British naval force to drive
back the American squadron at the same time. Accordingly, the
British began to construct a frigate, the Confiance, to be added
to their already existing force, which conisted of a brig, two
sloops, and 12 or 14 gun-boats.
The British army advanced slowly toward Plattsburg,
which was held by General Macomb with less than 2,000 effective
American troops. Captain Thomas Macdonough, the American commodore,
took the lake a day or two before his antagonist, and came to
anchor in Plattsburg harbor. (The titles of captain and
commodore here were apparently courtesies due Lieutenant Macdonough
because of his responsibility for captaining a ship and commanding
a squadron) The British fleet, under Captain George Downie,
moved from Isle-aux-Noix on Sept. 8th, and on the morning of
the 11th sailed into Plattsburg harbor.
Macdonough and Downie were hurried into action
before they had time to prepare themselves thoroughly; but it
was a disadvantage common to both, and arose from the nature
of the case, which called for immediate action.
MACDONOUGH'S FORCE
Name |
Tons |
Crew |
Broadside
(lbs) |
Metal, from long
or short guns (lbs) |
Saratoga |
734 |
240 |
414 |
long, 96
short, 318
|
Eagle |
500 |
150 |
264 |
long, 72
short, 192
|
Ticonderoga |
350 |
112 |
180 |
long, 84
short, 96 |
Preble |
80 |
30 |
36 |
long, 36 |
Six gun-boats |
420 |
246 |
252 |
long, 144
short, 108 |
Four gun-boats |
160 |
104 |
48 |
long, 48 |
In all, 14 vessels of 2,244 tons and 882 men,
with 86 guns throwing at a broadside 1,194 lbs. of shot, 480
from long, and 714 from short guns.
DOWNIE'S SQUADRON
Name |
Tons |
Crew |
Broadside
(lbs) |
Metal, from
long
or short guns (lbs) |
Confiance |
1200 |
325 |
480 |
long, 384
short, 96
|
Linnet |
350 |
125 |
96 |
long, 96
|
Chubb |
112 |
50 |
96 |
long, 6
short, 90 |
Finch |
110 |
50 |
84 |
long, 12
short, 72 |
Five gun-boats |
350 |
205 |
254 |
long 12
short, 72 |
Seven gun-boats |
280 |
182 |
182 |
long, 54
short, 128 |
Commodore Thomas Macdonough
Macdonough saw that the British would be forced
to make the attack in order to get the control of the waters.
On this long, narrow lake the winds usually blow pretty nearly
north or south, and the set of the current is of course northward;
all the vessels, being flat and shallow, could not beat to windward
well, so there was little chance of the British making the attack
when there was a southerly wind blowing. So late in the season
there was danger of sudden and furious gales, which would make
it risky for Downie to wait outside the bay till the wind suited
him; and inside the bay the wind was pretty sure to be light
and baffling. Young Macdonough (then but 28 years of age) calculated
all these chances very coolly and decided to await the attack
at anchor in Plattsburg Bay, with the head of his line so far
to the north that it could hardly be turned; and then proceeded
to make all the other preparations with the same foresight.
Not only were his vessels provided with springs, but also with
anchors to be used astern in any emergency. The Saratoga was
further prepared for a change of wind, or for the necessity
of winding ship, by having a kedge planted broad off on each
of her bows, with a hawser and preventer hawser (hanging in
bights under water) leading from each quarter to the kedge on
that side. There had not been time to train the men thoroughly
at the guns; and to make these produce their full effect the
constant supervision of the officers had to be exerted. The
British were laboring under this same disadvantage, but neither
side felt the want very much, as the smooth water, stationary
position of the ships, and fair range, made the fire of both
sides very destructive.
(click to enlarge)
Plattsburg Bay is deep and opens to the southward;
so that a wind which would enable the British to sail up the
lake would force them to beat when entering the bay. The east
side of the mouth of the bay is formed by Cumberland Head; the
entrance is about a mile and a half across, and the other boundary,
southwest from the Head, is an extensive shoal, and a small,
low island. This is called Crab Island, and on it was a hospital
and one six-pounder gun, which was to be manned in case of necessity
by the strongest patients. Macdonough had anchored in a north-and-south
line a little to the south of the outlet of the Saranac, and
out of range of the shore batteries, being two miles from the
western shore. The head of his line was so near Cumberland Head
that an attempt to turn it would place the opponent under a
very heavy fire, while to the south the shoal prevented a flank
attack. The Eagle lay to the north, flanked on each side by
a couple of gun-boats; then came the Saratoga, with three gun-boats
between her and the Ticonderoga, the next in line; then came
three gun-boats and the Preble. The four large vessels were
at anchor; the galleys being under their sweeps and forming
a second line about 40 yards back, some of them keeping their
places and some not doing so. By this arrangement his line could
not be doubled upon, there was not room to anchor on his broadside
out of reach of his carronades, and the enemy was forced to
attack by standing in bows on.
The morning of September 11th opened with a light
breeze from the northeast. Downie's fleet weighed anchor at
daylight, and came down the lake with the wind nearly aft, the
booms of the two sloops swinging out to starboard. At half-past
seven, the people in the ships could see their adversaries'
upper sails across the narrow strip of land ending in Cumberland
Head, before the British doubled the latter. Captain Downie
hove to with his four large vessels when he had fairly opened
the Bay, and waited for his galleys to overtake him. Then his
four vessels filled on the starboard tack and headed for the
American line, going abreast, the Chubb to the north, heading
well to windward of the Eagle, for whose bows the Linnet was
headed, while the Confiance was to be laid athwart the hawse
of the Saratoga; the Finch was to leeward with the twelve gun-boats,
and was to engage the rear of the American line.
As the English squadron stood bravely in, young
Macdonough, who feared his foes not at all, but his God a great
deal, knelt for a moment, with his officers on the quarter-deck;
and then ensued a few minutes of perfect quiet, the men waiting
with grim expectancy for the opening of the fight. The Eagle
spoke first with her long 18's, but to no effect, for the shot
fell short. Then, as the Linnet passed the Saratoga, she fired
her broadside of long 12's, but her shot also fell short, except
one that struck a hen-coop which happened to be aboard the Saratoga.
There was a game cock inside, and, instead of being frightened
at his sudden release, he jumped up on a gun-slide, clapped
his wings, and crowed lustily. The men laughed and cheered;
and immediately afterward Macdonough himself fired the first
shot from one of the long guns. The 24-pound ball struck the
Confiance near the hawse-hole and ranged the length of her deck,
killing and wounding several men. All the American long guns
now opened and were replied to by the British galleys.
The Confiance stood steadily on without replying.
But she was baffled by shifting winds, and was soon so cut up,
having both her port bow-anchors shot away, and suffering much
loss, that she was obliged to port her helm and come to while
still nearly a quarter of a mile distant from the Saratoga.
Captain Downie came to anchor in grand style -- securing every
thing carefully before he fired a gun, and then opening with
a terribly destructive broadside. The Chubb and Linnet stood
farther in, and anchored forward the Eagle's beam. Meanwhile
the Finch got abreast of the Ticonderoga, under her sweeps,
supported by the gunboats. The main fighting was thus to take
place between the vans, where the Eagle, Saratoga, and six or
seven gun-boats were engaged with the Chubb, Linnet, Confiance,
and two or three gun-boats; while in the rear, the Ticonderoga,
the Preble, and the other American galleys engaged the Finch
and the remaining nine or ten English galleys. The battle at
the foot of the line was fought on the part of the Americans
to prevent their flank being turned, and on the part of the
British to effect that object. At first, the fighting was at
long range, but gradually the British galleys closed up, firing
very well. The American galleys at this end of the line were
chiefly the small ones, armed with one 12-pounder apiece, and
they by degrees drew back before the heavy fire of their opponents.
About an hour after the discharge of the first gun had been
fired the Finch closed up toward the Ticonderoga, and was completely
crippled by a couple of broadsides from the latter. She drifted
helplessly down the line and grounded near Crab Island; some
of the convalescent patients manned the six-pounder and fired
a shot or two at her, when she struck, nearly half of her crew
being killed or wounded. About the same time the British gun-boats
forced the Preble out of line, whereupon she cut her cable and
drifted inshore out of the fight. Two or three of the British
gun-boats had already been sufficiently damaged by some of the
shot from the Ticonderoga's long guns to make them wary; and
the contest at this part of the line narrowed down to one between
the American schooner and the remaining British gun-boats, who
combined to make a most determined attack upon her. So hastily
had the squadron been fitted out that many of the matches for
her guns were at the last moment found to be defective. The
captain of one of the divisions was a midshipman, but sixteen
years old, Hiram Paulding. When he found the matches to be bad
he fired the guns of his section by having pistols flashed at
them, and continued this through the whole fight. The Ticonderoga's
commander, Lieut. Cassin, fought his schooner most nobly. He
kept walking the taffrail amidst showers of musketry and grape,
coolly watching the movements of the galleys and directing the
guns to be loaded with canister and bags of bullets, when the
enemy tried to board. The British galleys were handled with
determined gallantry, under the command of Lieutenant Bell.
Had they driven off the Ticonderoga they would have won the
day for their side, and they pushed up till they were not a
boat-hook's length distant, to try to carry her by boarding;
but every attempt was repulsed and they were forced to draw
off, some of them so crippled by the slaughter they had suffered
that they could hardly man the oars.
Water battle - Macdonough's victory, 1814
From an old print: The Centenary of the Battle of Plattsburg
(1914)
Floyd Harwood Collection
Meanwhile the fighting at the head of the line
had been even fiercer. The first broadside of the Confiance,
fired from 16 long 24's, double-shotted, coolly sighted, in
smooth water, at point-blank range, produced the most terrible
effect on the Saratoga. Her hull shivered all over with the
shock, and when the crash subsided nearly half of her people
were seen stretched on deck, for many had been knocked down
who were not seriously hurt. Among the slain was her first lieutenant,
Peter Gamble; he was kneeling down to sight the bow-gun, when
a shot entered the port, split the quoin, and drove a portion
of it against his side, killing him without breaking the skin.
The survivors carried on the fight with undiminished energy.
Macdonough himself worked like a common sailor, in pointing
and handling a favorite gun. While bending over to sight it
a round shot cut in two the spanker boom, which fell on his
head and struck him senseless for two or three minutes; he then
leaped to his feet and continued as before, when a shot took
off the head of the captain of the gun and drove it in his face
with such a force as to knock him to the other side of the deck.
But after the first broadside not so much injury was done; the
guns of the Confiance had been leveled to point-blank range,
and as the quoins were loosened by the successive discharges
they were not properly replaced, so that her broadsides kept
going higher and higher and doing less and less damage. Very
shortly after the beginning of the action her gallant captain
was slain. He was standing behind one of the long guns when
a shot from the Saratoga struck it and threw it completely off
the carriage against his right groin, killing him almost instantly.
His skin was not broken; a black mark, about the size of a small
plate, was the only visible injury. His watch was found flattened,
with its hands pointing to the very second at which he received
the fatal blow. As the contest went on the fire gradually decreased
in weight, the guns being disabled. The inexperience of both
crews partly caused this. The American sailors overloaded their
carronades so as to very much destroy the effect of their fire;
when the officers became disabled, the men would cram the guns
with shot till the last projected from the muzzle. Of course,
this lessened the execution, and also gradually crippled the
guns. On board the Confiance the confusion was even worse: after
the battle the charges of the guns were drawn, and on the side
she had fought one was found with a canvas bag containing two
round of shot rammed home and wadded without any powder; another
with two cartridges and no shot; and a third with a wad below
the cartridge.
At the extreme head of the line the advantage
had been with the British. The Chubb and Linnet had begun a
brisk engagement with the Eagle and American gun-boats. In a
short time the Chubb had her cable, bowsprit, and main-boom
shot away, drifted within the American lines, and was taken
possession of by one of the Saratoga's midshipmen. The Linnet
paid no attention to the American gunboats, directing her whole
fire against the Eagle, and the latter was, in addition, exposed
to part of the fire of the Confiance. After keeping up a heavy
fire for a long time her springs were shot away, and she came
up into the wind, hanging so that she could not return a shot
to the well-directed broadsides of the Linnet. Henly accordingly
cut his cable, started home his top-sails, ran down, and anchored
by the stern between and inshore of the Confiance and Ticonderoga,
from which position he opened on the Confiance. The Linnet now
directed her attention to the American gun-boats, which at this
end of the line were very well fought, but she soon drove them
off, and then sprung her broadside so as to rake the Saratoga
on her bows.
Macdonough by this time had his hands full, and
his fire was slackening; he was bearing the whole brunt of the
action, with the frigate on his beam and the brig raking him.
Twice his ship had been set on fire by the hot shot of the Confiance;
one by one his long guns were disabled by shot, and his carronades
were either treated the same way or else rendered useless by
excessive overcharging. Finally but a single carronade was left
in the starboard batteries, and on firing it the naval-bolt
broke, the gun flew off the carriage and fell down the main
hatch, leaving the Commodore without a single gun to oppose
to the few the Confiance still presented. The battle would have
been lost had not Macdonough's foresight provided the means
of retrieving it.
The anchor suspended astern of the Saratoga was
let go, and the men hauled in on the hawser that led to the
starboard quarter, bringing the ship's stern up over the kedge.
The ship now rode by the kedge and by a line that had been bent
to a bight in the stream cable, and she was raked badly by the
accurate fire of the Linnet. By rousing on the line the ship
was at length got so far round that the aftermost gun of the
port broadside bore on the Confiance. The men had been sent
forward to keep as much out of harm's way as possible, and now
some were at once called back to man the piece, which then opened
with effect. The next gun was treated in the same manner; but
the ship now hung and would go no farther round. The hawser
leading from the port quarter was then got forward under the
bows and passed aft to the starboard quarter, and a minute afterward
the ship's whole port battery opened with fatal effect. The
Confiance meanwhile had also attempted to round. Her springs,
like those of the Linnet, were on the starboard side, and so
of course could not be shot away as the Eagle's were; but, as
she had nothing but springs to rely on, her efforts did little
beyond forcing her forward, and she hung with her head to the
wind. She had lost over half of her crew, most of her guns on
the engaged side were dismounted, and her stout masts had been
splintered till they looked like bundles of matches; her sails
had been torn to rags, and she was forced to strike, about two
hours after she had fired the first broadside. Without pausing
a minute the Saratoga again hauled on her starboard hawser till
her broadside was sprung to bear on the Linnet, and the ship
and brig began a brisk fight, which the Eagle from her position
could take no part in, while the Ticonderoga was just finishing
up the British galleys.
The shattered and disabled state of the Linnet's
masts, sails, and yards precluded the most distant hope of Capt.
Pring's effecting his escape by cutting his cable; but he kept
up a most gallant fight with his greatly superior foe, in hopes
that some of the gun-boats would come and tow him off, and dispatched
a lieutenant to the Confiance to ascertain her state. The lieutenant
returned with news of Capt. Downie's death, while the British
gun-boats had been driven half a mile off; and, after having
maintained the fight single-handed for fifteen minutes, until,
from the number of shot between wind and water, the water had
risen a foot above her lower deck, the plucky little brig hauled
down her colors, and the fight ended, a little over two hours
and a half after the first gun had been fired. Not one of the
larger vessels had a mast that would bear canvas, and the prizes
were in a sinking condition.
On both sides the ships had been cut up in the
most extraordinary manner; the Saratoga had 55 shot-holes in
her hull, and the Confiance 105 in hers, and the Eagle and Linnet
had suffered in proportion. The number of killed and wounded
can not be exactly stated; it was probably about 200 on the
American side, and over 300 on the British.
Captain Macdonough at once returned the British
officers their swords. Captain Pring writes: "I have much
satisfaction in making you acquainted with the humane treatment
the wounded have received from Commodore Macdonough; they were
immediately removed to his own hospital on Crab Island, and
furnished with every requisite. His generous and polite attention
to myself, the officers, and men, will ever hereafter be gratefully
remembered." The effects of the victory were immediate
and of the highest importance. Sir George Prevost and his army
at once fled in great haste and confusion back to Canada, leaving
our northern frontier clear for the remainder of the war; while
the victory had a very great effect on the negotiations for
peace. (The British were apparently hoping to negotiate
a peace in which they kept much of what they had gained, which
could have amounted to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and much
of upstate New York as well.)
BRITISH LOSS
Name |
Tons |
Guns |
Remarks |
Brig |
100 |
10 |
Burnt by Lieut. Gregory |
Magnet |
187 |
12 |
Burnt by her crew |
Black Snake |
30 |
1 |
Captured |
Gun-boat |
50 |
2 |
Captured |
Gun-boat |
50 |
3 |
Captured |
Confiance |
1,200 |
37 |
Captured |
Linnet |
350 |
16 |
Captured |
Chubb |
112 |
11 |
Captured |
Finch |
110 |
11 |
Captured |
9 Vessels |
2,189 |
103 |
|
AMERICAN LOSS
Name |
Tons |
Guns |
Remarks |
Growler |
81 |
7 |
Captured |
Boat |
50 |
2 |
Captured |
Tigress |
96 |
1 |
Captured |
Scorpion |
86 |
2 |
Captured |
Ohio |
94 |
1 |
Captured |
Somers |
98 |
2 |
Captured |
6 Vessels |
505 |
15 |
Captured |