Battle of Lake Champlain - The History Junkie

Date: October 11 - 13, 1776

Commanders: British: Sir Guy Carleton and Captain Thomas Pringle. American: Benedict Arnold and David Waterbury

British Perspective: In 1775, the British lost control of their outposts along the Hudson River Valley at Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort St. John. Rebel raiders also seized or destroyed British ships operating on Lake Champlain, which considerably weakened the Crown’s control of the region.

After successfully thwarting the American-Canadian offensive, the British followed their defeated foe south into the American colonies. Control of Lake Champlain was essential to both sides and in order to threaten the Americans from the north, the British knew they had to control that important waterway.

Because the long and narrow lake was closed to deep water traffic on both ends, Gen. Sir Guy Carleton was forced to organize a large flotilla of ships to be hauled in for duty on the inland lake. Most of the ships were small vessels with rows and sails and thus unsuited for moving against the wind.

The ships were dismantled at Chambly and transported overland across the river narrows to St. John, where they were reassembled, a tremendous feat accomplished in a mere 28 days. In the wake of the larger ships were 400 smaller vessels loaded with 7,000 British soldiers and Indians preparing for an invasion of New York.

General Carleton’s naval commander, Capt. Thomas Pringle finally set off from St. John on the 4th of October, moving slowly south down Richelieu River in search of the Patriot ships they knew had been operating on the lake. One week later, the British fleet sailed past Cumberland Head and below Valcour Island before realizing the American flotilla was arrayed between the island and the lake’s western shore.

Once Captain Pringle maneuvered his fleet to block southern access to Arnold, the battle for Lake Champlain was underway.

American Perspective: On May 14, 1775, at Skenesboro (now Whitehall), New York, 50 Patriots led by Col. Benedict Arnold captured a British schooner. Arnold sailed the vessel to St. John on the Richelieu River, where, on the 18th of May, he discovered 10 more British ships of varying sizes.

His men destroyed five and captured the remaining five, among them a 70-ton sloop. Arnold’s amazing feat wiped out the Crown’s maritime supremacy on Lake Champlain while simultaneously establishing an American ad-hock naval presence on the key lake. Although luck played a part in his success, Arnold was an experienced sea captain before the war and was skilled on the water.

During the summer and fall of 1775, the Americans conducted an unsuccessful campaign to wrest Canada from British occupation. Rebuffed, the Patriots retreated in the spring of 1776, with the tiny American fleet following as it sailed south down Lake Champlain toward New York.

In an effort to hold the lake and delay the British, Arnold set about building a larger fleet nearly from scratch. Although the odds were long, he pulled the tools and craftsman together and used available timber to construct his small ships in the southern reaches of the waterway at Crown Point and Skenesboro.

The backbone of his “fleet” comprised four stout flat-bottomed galleys, each crewed by 80 men. These galleys were about 70 feet long and 20 feet across, with a short mast and lateen sail. Their armament is open to some dispute, but it is likely each possessed one or more of the following: 18-pounders, 12-pounders, 9-pounders, and 4-pounders, together with swivel guns on the quarterdeck. Eight smaller “gondolas” were also cobbled together.

These flat-bottomed vessels were 53 feet long, with a beam of 15.5 feet and a draft of four feet. Each had a small single mast with two small sails and a crew of 45 working three guns: a 12-pounder in the bow and two 9-pounders amidships. Like the larger galleys, the gondolas were also equipped with oars.

With his fleet finished and the British approaching, Arnold cleverly moved his motley flotilla into the narrow strait between a southwest portion of Valcour Island and the New York shore. He knew his fleet was not evenly matched with that of the enemy and decided instead to rely on stealth and unexpected tactics to make up for his lack of artillery and numbers.

With a scout ship, he watched the main channel and waited for the more powerful British fleet to appear. Arnold took the galley Congress as his flagship, while his second in command, Gen. David Waterbury, took station on the galley Washington.

The Fighting: Inexplicably, Captain Pringle and General Carleton failed to conduct a proper reconnaissance and, on the morning of October 11, overshot their enemy. The result was that the American fleet was not spotted until the British ships had sailed past the southern tip of Valcour Island. This mistake gave Arnold’s small fleet the wind and at least some advantage he otherwise would not have enjoyed.

Fearing Carleton would move north and use the wind to come around Valcour Island and down the passage behind him, Arnold ordered several ships to sally out and engage the British, hoping to lure them into the southern channel of the island’s southwest tip. When he saw how large the enemy flotilla was, however, Arnold pulled back and prepared to fight with his ships arrayed in a line across the narrow channel.

At about 11:00 a.m., the British pressed the attack. The American schooner Royal Savage was the engagement’s first casualty. Enemy fire damaged the ship early when it ripped away from the schooner’s rigging and shattered a mast. During the attempt to escape, Royal Savage ran aground off the southwestern corner of the island. (Captain Hawley may have deliberately pushed his crippled ship aground to save the lives of his men, who stood to their guns until they were eventually driven away.) Losing the schooner, especially so early in the fight, was a blow the Americans could ill afford.

Arnold’s navy stood fast and exchanged artillery fire for hours with the larger enemy fleet, with much of the action unfolding at a range of about 350 to 400 yards. The ships were small difficult to handle under the weather conditions of the day, and battle smoke obscured much of the fighting in the narrow channel. These factors contributed to poor shooting, the combat thus lasting much longer than it otherwise would have.

Arnold is said to have personally aimed many of the guns aboard Congress because of a lack of trained gunners. Both sides suffered direct hits and losses, with the Americans taking the lion’s share of the iron. One of the key Patriot high points of the battle was the damage inflicted against the British schooner Carleton, which killed and wounded many of her crew. Only the brave actions of a 19-year-old midshipman who found himself in command saved the vessel.

Dusk fell on Lake Champlain about 5:00 p.m., and the British warships pulled back another 300 or 400 yards. During this time, Pringle’s powerful flagship Inflexible let loose with five medium-ranged broadsides that crippled many of the American ships and rendered most of Arnold’s guns unserviceable. Darkness ended the action.

Arnold was justifiably proud of the fight his flotilla had waged, but his losses were significant. The grounded Royal Savage was burned by the British. Enemy gunfire had torn apart masts and rigging on the galleys Congress and Washington. Each had also been hulled numerous times. Neither would be fit for action anytime soon, if ever again. The gondolas in New York and Philadelphia had also fared poorly.

The former lost every officer except her captain, while the crew of the latter had been decimated by flying iron balls and wooden splinters, the ship itself crippled; she sank an hour after the artillery fell silent. The darkness had also masked a less visible American weakness. The fighting had not only cut many Patriot ships to pieces but had nearly exhausted Arnold’s supply of ammunition. Another round of fighting could only end in defeat for the Americans, a reality that prompted Arnold to prepare an escape.

Beneath an overcast night sky, the Americans muffled their oars and lined their ships into a single file. At 7:00 p.m., the Trumbull led the American column directly southward along the western shore through a heavy fog. When the sun rose on October 12, the battered American fleet had slipped away safely but was only eight miles distant from Valcour Island. Arnold’s problems were only beginning. The gondolas in Providence and New York were so badly damaged they had to be scuttled. Jersey hit a rock and, coupled with previous battle damage, had to be abandoned.

The daring escape angered the British commanders, who had gone to sleep that night, believing Arnold was trapped and ripe for destruction. An immediate pursuit was launched. All that day, the British rowed after Arnold, both sides fighting the wind now blowing up from the south. Early on the morning of October 13, the wind changed back to the north, and Pringle’s warships overtook the crippled American fleet near Split Rock Point. The fighting began anew with a focused attack by Inflexible and Maria against Arnold’s larger ships.

General Waterbury’s Washington and more than 100 men surrendered when the pair of British ships bracketed the crippled galley. The galley Lee ran up against rocks near the shore and was left to her fate. Inflexible, Maria and the badly damaged but still dangerous Carleton moved alongside Arnold’s flagship Congress, spraying her decks with grapeshot that ripped apart rigging and bodies while cannonballs smashed their way through the flagship’s already porous hull. Woefully outgunned, Arnold knew if he did not get away, his entire fleet and every crewman would be killed or captured.

In a stunning display of seamanship and leadership, Arnold ordered his remaining ships to turn into the wind and make a run past the British for Buttonmould Bay on the Vermont shore. His enemy could not sail into the wind, and some reports claim the bay was too shallow for the larger British vessels to enter safely.

Once inside this sanctuary, the Americans stripped the ships of everything of value and scuttled them. Their mission at an end, Arnold and his men marched overland to Crown Point. He could not hold that position, and so continued his journey to Fort Ticonderoga, which he and his 200 survivors reached at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of October 14.

For more in-depth research about the Battle of Lake Champlain, read the book Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution written by Theodore Savas and J. David Dameron.

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