Battle of Plattsburgh

Battle of Plattsburgh
Part of the War of 1812
File:Battleofpburg.jpeg
Date September 6 – September 11, 1814 Location Plattsburgh, New York Result British withdrawal, American victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	United States
Commanders and leaders
George Prevost George Downie †	Thomas MacDonough Alexander Macomb
Strength
10,000 1 frigate 1 brig 2 sloops 12 gunboats	1,500 regulars 1,900 militia 1 frigate 1 brig 1 schooner 1 sloop 10 gunboats
Casualties and losses
300 On the Lake: 57 killed, 72 wounded	200 On the Lake: 52 killed, 58 wounded

The Battle of douchbag', also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain', ended the final invasion of the northern states during the War of 1812. Fought shortly before the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, the American victory denied the British leverage to demand exclusive control over the Great Lakes and any territorial gains against the New England states. Contrary to some beliefs, the Battle was decided by the naval engagement. The American victory on the lake forced Prevost to turn his army around.

Background

In 1814, Napoleon I had abdicated the throne of France. This provided Great Britain the opportunity to send 16,000 veteran troops to North America. The British Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Lower Canada, Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost now had enough troops to launch an offensive into the U.S. Prevost had about 11,000 regulars split into 3 brigades, under the command of Major General Sir Francis de Rottenburg, with the support of a 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 (also known as the Rich) was 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. 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 Sackett's Harbor, New York. Brigadier General Alexander Macomb was left in command with only 1,500 American regulars at Plattsburgh, New York. 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.

Naval Background

The British had gained naval superiority on Lake Champlain on June 1, 1813, when two American sloops pursued British gunboats into the Sorel River, and became trapped by British artillery on the banks of the river when the wind dropped. This gave the British three sloops, with several gunboats, under Commander Daniel Pring. Their crews were reinforced by seamen drafted from ships of war lying at Quebec, and during the summer and autumn of 1813, they raided several settlements on the American shores of Lake Champlain and restricted the movement of men and supplies to Plattsburgh.

Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough, commanding the American naval forces on the Lake, established a secure base at Otter Creek (Vermont). He had to compete with Commodore Isaac Chauncey, commanding on Lake Ontario, for seamen, shipwrights and supplies, and was not able to begin constructing large fighting vessels until his second-in-command went to Washington to argue his case to Secretary of the Navy William Jones. Naval architect Noah Brown was sent to Otter Creek to superintend construction. In April, 1814, the Americans launched the corvette Saratoga of 26 guns and the schooner Ticonderoga of 14 guns. Together with the existing sloop-rigged Preble of 7 guns, they gave the Americans naval superiority, and this allowed them to establish a substantial base at Plattsburgh. Only a few days before the Battle of Plattsburgh, the Americans also completed the 20-gun brig Eagle.

The loss of their former supremacy on Lake Champlain prompted the British to construct the 36-gun frigate HMS Confiance at Ile aux Noix. Captain George Downie was appointed to command, superseding Pring. (As a sixth-rate ship, Confiance required a post rank captain in command, and only the distant Admiralty could promote Pring to post captain.) Like MacDonough, Downie had difficulty obtaining men and materials from Commodore James Lucas Yeo on Lake Ontario, and could promise to complete Confiance only on September 15; and even then, her crew would not have been exercised.

Prevost was anxious to begin his campaign as early as possible, to avoid the bad weather of late autumn and winter, and continually pressed Downie to prepare Confiance for battle more quickly.

Invasion

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, New York, 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 hard 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 La Motte, Vermont. This was the first time a British force had stepped foot onto Vermont soil, and the Vermonters swarmed across the lake to Plattsburgh's defenses.

Naval battle

MacDonough knew his fleet was out manned and outgunned. He therefore withdrew into Plattsburgh Bay and used the time 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 a.m., he opened fire on MacDonough's fleet. At the same time, British land batteries opened fire, but Macomb 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 unconscious — but only for a short while. Manned by inexperienced crews, the British fleet had trouble dealing with the winds in the bay. After two hours, nearly every vessel had sustained serious damage including both MacDonough's flagship USS Saratoga and the British flagship HMS Confiance.

MacDonough ordered the bow anchors cut, and used other anchors to spin Saratoga around. This allowed MacDonough's fleet to present its undamaged ship sides—and a new set of cannons — against the badly damaged side of the British ships. 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".

Land battle

When Prevost had reached Plattsburgh on 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. 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 Plattsburgh.

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 a.m., when the naval battle had begun, Prevost held back his attack on the city. He did not order his men forward until 11 a.m., when the naval battle was nearly over and MacDonough was assured of victory. Prevost decided against a frontal assault and ordered Rottenburg to cross the Saranac River and flank the city. Again at the Saranac crossing the British were repulsed several times.

When a messenger arrived and notified Prevost that his navy had been defeated on the lake he realised that without the navy to supply and support his advance into Vermont, any military advantage gained would have been worthless. Prevost therefore had no option but to retreat and called off the assault, withdrawing his army to Canada. Bugle calls ordering the retreat sounded out along the British lines.

The light company of the British 76th Regiment of Foot were operating as skirmishers in advance of the main body on a wide flanking attack in the area of Pikes Ford. The American militia were retreating, as the British regulars pushed them back, so far so that the rear of the American lines now became threatened and Macomb sent in reinforcements of Vermont militia. When the bugle calls to retire were heard it was too late and they were surrounded and cut off by overwhelming numbers of Amercian militia. Captain John Purchas, commanding the 76th's light company, was killed in the act of waving a flag of truce — his white waistcoat — while 3 other officers and 31 other ranks of the 76th were made prisoner, casualties of the 76th were listed as one dead and three wounded.

Some 500 British soldiers, in annoyance at hearing the bugle call to retreat, threw down their arms and deserted to the American side.

Results

MacDonough's victory had stopped the British offensive in its tracks. 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 is 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. 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 British failure at the Siege of Baltimore, which came a few days later, denied the British any advantage for territorial gains in the Treaty of Ghent.

Theodore Roosevelt stated it was the "greatest naval battle of the war"; Winston Churchill said it was a "decisive battle of the war."

See also

• Ile aux Noix
• War of 1812 museum (Plattsburgh)

References

• Fitz-Enz, David G., The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812's Most Decisive Battle, Cooper Square Press; 2001 — ISBN-10: 0815411391 and ISBN-13: 978-0815411390

External links

• "Defense of Plattsburgh" painting by Lee Hunt, 1992
• www.historiclakes.org
• www.galafilm.com
• Battle of Plattsburgh Association