Macdonough's Victory on Lake Champlain, by Edward Tufnell. (l-r): Macdonough's flagship USS Saratoga, HMS Confiance, and the US Brig Eagle, offPlattsburgh, New York, 11 September 1814. Richelieu and Hudson Rivers, connected by Lake Champlain between them. This force was opposed by a mere 2,500 men who were dug in on the south bank of the Saranac River at the town of Plattsburgh, New York, near the US-Canadian border. Lake Champlain, not one of the Great Lakes, was about to be the scene of a most crucial battle. While the Americans held a strong position at Plattsburgh, few doubt that the British could have taken it. Once they were past this small force, there was no US army within hundreds of miles to stop them. It's hard to say how far into the United States the British would have penetrated, suffice it to say this large a force astride a strategic invasion route would have had very bad consequences for the US. But there was a catch. Sir George Prevost, the British commander, was loath to proceed south without a protected waterborne supply line. To protect this line, another hastily built squadron, under Captain Robert Downie, sailed to confront the just-completed ships of the US Navy, commanded by Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough. Macdonough had wisely positioned his ships at anchor in Plattsburgh Bay, open to the
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south. To sail down from their base on the Richelieu River, the British would need a northerly wind, but, once around the point at Cumberland Head, they would have to work to windward to get at the Americans. On Sunday, 11 September 1814, a year and a day after Perry's victory on Lake Erie, a combined army-navy attack was made on the American position at Plattsburgh. The British army was taking its time, waiting on artillery to soften up the American position and reduce British casualties in assaulting the dug-in defenders. On the lake, Downie's squadron did its best to close the range as rapidly as possible and anchor abeam of its opponents. As at Lake Erie, the battle was hard fought and bloody, and at the center was another artillery duel at close range between stationary ships. The Americans, for a time, appeared to be getting the worst of it, but Macdonough had prudently rigged multiple anchors and spring lines to be able to warp his flagship around at the crucial moment and present a fresh broadside to the enemy. Soon thereafter the British were compelled to surrender in a sinking condition. A few small gunboats managed to escape, but the victory was complete.
Two-and-a-half hours after the shooting started, it died off. As the powder smoke cleared, Prevost looked out over the harbor to see the Stars and Stripes flying from every vessel, not a Royal Navy ensign in sight. With no means of protecting his waterborne supply column, Prevost saw no point in risking casualties to make an assault on Plattsburgh if he could go no further. To the chagrin of his officers and the inestimable relief of the Americans, the British invasion turned back, into Canada. National salvation has never hung on a more slender thread than the anchor cables of Macdonough's ships. There be the short tour of two-and-ahalf years of toil and blood on the northern waters of our Inland Seas, whereby the US Navy pulled the national fat out of the fire and preserved us a nation. j:, Captain "Walter Rybka serves as administrator for the combined Erie Maritime Museum and US Brig Niagara's operations, a project of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, and is Niagara's senior captain. He is an editorial advisor for Sea History and a member of the Tall Ships America advisory board, and he serves as president of the Council ofAmerican Maritime Museums.
SEA HISTORY 138, SPRING 2012