THE FIRST BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN
Arnold on Lake
Cha'mplain
THE FIRST BATTLE
OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN
The
possession of Lakes Champlain and George WM felt early in the war to be of
strategic importance. Not only did these lakes furnish an excellent waterway
from Canada to the Colonies, but it was the design of the British that
Carleton's army from Canada should rendez vous about Albany and thereby cut off
all communica tions ,between the northern and southern Colonies. The American
Army had invaded Canada in September, 1775, and during the following winter it
had held Governor Guy Carleton shut up in Quebec. On the arrival of a
British fleet
with reinforcements, the Americans retreated to Crown Point, where they arrived
on July 3, 1776. Brigadier-General Benedict Arnold, who, earlier in his career
as a West India merchant, had at times commanded his own ships, started
immediately to build a fleet on the lakes in competition with the British. Late
in July, he was appointed by Gates to the command of the naval forces on the
lakes. By October, he was able to muster one sloop, three schooners, eight
gondolas, and four galleys. These vessels mounted altogether ninety-four cannon,
from 2-pounders to 18-pounders, and they were manned by 700 officers and men,
according to Arnold, "a wretched motley crew; the marines the refuse of every
regiment, and the seamen few of them ever wet with salt water. " Arnold chose
for his flagship one of the galleys, the Congress, a vessel of fifty-foot
keel and of thirteen- foot beam, mounting one 18-pounder, one 12-pounder, and
two 6- pounders.
But the British, with their greater resources in skilled seamen and in
manufactured articles, won this race in building a fleet. Captain Charles
Douglas, who had charge of the construction work of the enemy, had ready in
twenty-eight days a full-rigged ship, the Enterprise, carrying eighteen
12-pounders. She had been begun at Quebec, and had been brought from the St.
Lawrence up the Richelieu~ The Enterprise was of 180 tons burden, and
greatly exceeded in size and armament 'any of Arnold's fleet. Early in October,
General Sir Guy Carle- ton, thanks to Captain Douglas' energy in ship-building,
had under his command one ship, two schooners, one radeau (raft), one large
gondola, twenty gunboats and Four armed tenders. The British. fleet in the St.
Lawrence furnished Carleton with 700 experienced officers and Seamen. The enemy
also had a large detachment of savages under Major Thomas Carleton
The first squadron
battle to be fought by Americans, , 'a strife of pygmies for the prize of a
continent," as Mahan styles it, was begun on October 11, 1776. Arnold was lying
in wait for Carleton behind Valcour Island, not far from the site of a later
battle of Lake Champlain (September 11, 1814), where the struggle was again for
the control of this great waterway.
As the British van, coming down under a fair north wind, with full press of
sail, passed the Americans before discovering Arnold's fleet, Carleton's heavier
vessels had to beat back slowly to help his hard-pressed gunboats. The Americans
fought desperately from eleven o'clock in the morning till five O 'clock that
afternoon. With the British attacking in front and the Indians occupying the
shore in the rear, Arnold was indeed "between the devil and the deep sea." That
night, however, under cover of the lake mist, he slipped through the British
line toward 'l'iconderoga. The British gave chase, and on the two days following
they continued the battle~ Finally, Arnold beached his boats, and fought with
desperate courage until his men had fired their gondolas and taken refuge in the
woods. Most of Arnold's vessels were either captured or destroyed. In this
battle the enemy captured 110 prisoners, among them being General Waterbury, the
second in command. Arnold, with the rest of his men, made good his escape to
Crown Point.
Although Arnold had lost his fleet, the delay which he then forced on Carleton
was of the greatest advantage to the Americans. ' , Never had any force," says
Mahan, "big or small, lived to better purpose, or died more gloriously; for it
had saved the lake for that year. " The delay 'compelled Carleton to give up his
plan of joining Howe to the south. When, next year, Burgoyne, renewing the
attempt, invaded New York, he had not the aid which Carleton could have relied
on in 1776. Hence Arnold's work on the lakes opened the way for the surrender of
Burgoyne at Saratoga.
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