Battle of Plattsburgh
The
Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the
Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final invasion of the Northern states during the
War of 1812. Fought just prior to the signing of the
Treaty of Ghent, the American victory denied the British any leverage to demand exclusive control over the
Great Lakes and any territorial gains against the
New England states.
In 1814,
Emperor Napoleon had abdicated the throne of
France. This provided England the opportunity to send veteran troops to
North America. Governor-General
Sir George Prevost now had enough troops to launch an offensive into the U.S. Prevost had about 11,000 regulars, under the command of
Francis de Rottenburg, with the support of a British fleet under
George Downie. In the midst of the peace negotiations between the U.S. and Britain, Prevost wished to gain a significant victory in order to give Britain bargaining power to demand control of the Great Lakes waterway. Prevost chose to move down the
Richelieu River to
Lake Champlain. Since the Richelieu River was at the time the only waterway connecting Lake Champlain to the ocean, trade on that lake naturally had to be through
Canada.
General
George Izard was the American commander along the Northeast frontier. Just prior to Prevost's invasion, Secretary of War
John Armstrong ordered Izard to take the majority of his force, about 4,000 troops, to reinforce
Sacket's Harbor. Brigadier General
Alexander Macomb was left in command with only 1,500 American regulars at
Plattsburg, New York.
Thomas Macdonough, who commanded the naval forces on Lake Champlain, had been ordered by Secretary of the Navy
William Jones to build a fleet earlier that summer. By the fall of 1814, Macdonough had about 10 gunboats ready for action on the lake. Macomb ordered General
Benjamin Mooers to call out the
New York militia and appealed to the governor of
Vermont for militia. Soon, his force numbered over 3,000 regulars and militia. However the militia units were mostly untrained and hundreds more were unfit for duty. Macomb put the militia troops to use digging trenches and building fortifications. He even created an invalid battery on Crab Island that was to be manned by sick or wounded soldiers who were at least fit to fire the cannon. The townspeople of Plattsburgh had so little faith in Macomb's efforts to repulse the invasion that by September nearly all 3,000 inhabitants had fled the city. Plattsburgh was left occupied only by the American army.
On
September 4 Prevost began marching south. Macomb sent forward advance units to fight a delaying action to buy time for the Plattsburgh defenses. At
Chazy, the advance units first made contact with the British. Slowly falling back, the Americans set up road blocks, burned bridges and mislabeled streets to slow down the British. Meanwhile Macomb's forces worked feverishly to complete a series of
forts and
blockhouses circling Plattsburgh, which were essential to his defensive strategy. Prevost reached Plattsburgh on
September 6, but he did not attack. Instead, he waited for Captain Downie's fleet to reach Plattsburgh Bay. Several gunboats preceded Downie's main fleet into the lake. Captain Daniel Pring, the commander of the gunboats, set up a battery on Isle le Motte, which was Vermont territory. This was the first time a British force had stepped foot onto Vermont soil and now the Vermonters wholeheartedly swarmed across the lake to Plattsburg's defenses.
MacDonough knew his fleet was out manned and outgunned. He therefore withdrew into Plattsburgh Bay and used the time waiting to drill his sailors. The ships were anchored at the bow and the stern. Finally on
September 11 Downie's fleet reached Plattsburgh Bay and, at about 9 o'clock in the morning, opened fire on MacDonough's fleet. At the same time, British land batteries opened fire but Prevost held off the attack. In short order, every vessel was engaged in the battle. Shortly after the battle began, Downie was killed and MacDonough knocked unconsciousa new set of cannons--against the British badly damaged side. Personally taking command of one of the cannon, MacDonough ordered the unused and undamaged portside guns to open fire. The renewed fire was so devastating that
Confiance was unable to return the fire and soon lowered its colors. With most of the British fleet disabled or sinking, the British officers boarded
Saratoga to offer their swords [of surrender] to MacDonough. When he saw the officers, MacDonough replied, "Gentlemen return your swords to your scabbards, you are worthy of them".
When Prevost had reached Plattsburgh on the
September 6, he attempted to cross the
Saranac River and move in close to the city's defenses. Holding the bridge across the river was a small force of regulars under Major
John Ellis Wool. Wool's regulars repulsed each British attempt to cross the river, inflicting heavy losses. On September 7 Prevost abandoned his efforts to cross the river for the time being and instead began constructing batteries. The Americans responded with 'hot-shot', an artillery tactic in which the cannon balls were heated red-hot and quickly fired with the intention to set fire to the target. Macomb succeeded in setting fire to several buildings the British were using as cover and forcing them to withdraw further away. However, in the process, he did destroy about 16 buildings of Plattsburg. On September 9, a night raid succeeded in destroying a British
battery only 500 yards from one of the American fortifications. On
September 11, Prevost planned to overrun the city and trap the American fleet between the land batteries and Downie's navy. At 9 o'clock, when the naval battle begun, Prevost held back his attack on the city. He did not order his men forward until 11 o'clock when the naval battle was nearly over and Macdonough was ensured of victory. Prevost decided against a frontal assault and, instead, attempted to cross the Saranac River and flank the city. Again at the Saranac crossing the British were repulsed several times with heavy losses. To the west, another British flanking attack made some headway against the American militia. The militia retreated and the British regulars pushed them back so far that the rear of the American lines became threatened. Macomb sent in reinforcements of
Vermont militia which helped to stop the British at the
Salmon River. At this time, with the land attacks repulsed, a messenger arrived and notified Prevost that his navy had been defeated on the lake. Prevost decided to call off any further attacks and ordered a retreat.
The
Battle of Plattsburgh proved that, under capable leadership, raw American militia units could stand their own against seasoned British regulars. Also, Prevost had achieved what the U.S. government had been unable to do for the entire war up to that point: to bring the state of Vermont into the war.
Alexander Macomb was promoted to
Major General and became commanding general of the U.S. army in 1828.
Thomas Macdonough was promoted to
Commodore and would be remembered as the "Hero of Lake Champlain",
The British had used their victories at the
Battle of Bladensburg and the
Burning of Washington to counter any U.S. demands during the peace negotiations up to this point. Now the Americans were able to use the repulse at Plattsburgh to demand exclusive rights to Lake Champlain and deny the British exclusive rights to the
Great Lakes. The victory at Plattsburgh and the victory at the
Battle of Baltimore, which was to come just a few days later, would deny the British any advantage for territorial gains in the
Treaty of Ghent.
*
Theodore Roosevelt -
"greatest naval battle of the war."*
Winston Churchill -
"decisive battle of the war."*
Ile aux Noix*
"Defense of Plattsburg" painting by Lee Hunt, 1992* http://www.historiclakes.org/Plattsburg/Plattsburg.html
* http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/allbat.html
* http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/events/platts.html
* http://www.historiclakes.org/Plattsburg/plattsburgh3.htm
