| The History Project |
The Battle of Valcour Island |
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The Battle of Valcour was one of the most important battles in the American Revolutionary War. There were many things and people. But first, let's back up a little. The Revolutionary War started in April of 1775 at Lexington and Concord, so it had been going on for about 18 months. Most of the battles had been won by the British, and there really wasn't else. The Americans won a battle here and there, but most of the time they were retreating No battles were fought in Vermont that first year of 1775, although a lot of things were happening around in New England. Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill happened in Massachusetts. The battles at Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga were fought in New York across the lake. But it sounds like Vermont wasn't involved. Actually, Vermont was a very important element in the war. But don't forget this was a war with the thirteen colonies, and Vermont was the fourteenth state. Back then Vermont was part of New York and New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Grants was what they were called then, and the two colonies fought over who owned the Green Mountains. Vermont even became its own independent country in 1777. As I was saying, Vermont was very important. Lake Champlain was a big reason why. Lake Champlain was and is still the Gateway to North America. If you controlled the lake, you controlled what went in and out of northern America. There were a number of forts along the Lake, like Ft. Ticonderoga, Independence, Crown Point, and St. Frederick are some. These were important, so you could control the lake. But the British had other reasons to control Lake Champlain. The British commanders and other important officials had a plan to beat the Americans quick and easy. The idea was to split New England off from the rest of the colonies, then defeat them one half at a time. They would do this by sailing 13,000 soldiers led by Sir Guy Carleton and Thomas Pringle down the lake, recapture Fort Ticonderoga, then group up with General William Howe, who was near New York city going up against George Washington's army. But first they had to control Lake Champlain, which they thought would be a piece of cake, and could defeat the rebellious Americans. The Americans didn't even have a navy. George Washington got a last minute group of rag-tag boat and appointed Benedict Arnold as the navy commander. During July and August, the friendly farmers around helped get the boats together, fix masts, make oars, and repair sails for Arnold's fleet. The date was October 11, 1775. Arnold's commanding officer told him to disrupt the British efforts, then go attack the English troops and supplies at St. Jean in Canada. He also told him to avoid a fight. If he didn't, it would be the small New England fleet versus the largest and most powerful navy in the world. The odds were not very good. Benedict Arnold was not obeying orders that Friday. Instead of going north up the lake, he lined two schooners, four row galleys, a sloop, and nine gondolas in a defensive half crescent, bow to stern, across the cove that separates Valcour Island from the New York Shore. Though Arnold was disobeying orders, he was going about it wisely. The way the half circle of ships were lined made it so the British could only make room for a few ships to attack at a time. Thus the Americans could concentrate their fire on a certain ship and didn't have to worry about other boats interfering. Some of the American ships were Benedict Arnold's ship, the Congress, the favored Royal Savage (a maneuverable schooner), Philadelphia, Lee (a row galley), Trumbull, Washington, Spitfire, Savage, andJersey. Some of the British ships were the Maria (Sir Guy Carleton's ship), man-of-war Inflexible, the huge 300 foot long dreadnaught, Thunderer, and the Carleton. In most of the books and articles I read, this was quite confusing. Luckily for the Americans, the Thunderer and other large British ships were out of range and in back of the fast moving Indian canoes and other small gunboats. Arnold saw this, and saw his chance to sink several gunboats before the big ships got any closer. Arnold sent the Royal Savage out to fight. This was not a very good move, however. The ships Carleton and Inflexible caught a good breeze, came into range and fired at the schooner.
The Inflexible and Carleton slowly made its way into the channel. But as the Carleton came to the island, she neared some rocks and was forced toward the center of Arnold's ships. The commander of the Carleton, Lieutenant James Richard Dacres was severely injured and knocked unconscious. Another officer of the ship, Mr. Brown got his arm shot off. Even with all the American firing, though, two gunboats managed to tow the battered Carleton out of the group of ships. The Royal Savage ran ashore and the crew abandoned her. Some of the British gunboats attacked the helpless schooner. The fighting went on for a while, and the British were ahead of the Americans. The British stopped for night, but they anchored in a line trapping Arnold's beaten up fleet. Gen. Carleton and Cap. Pringle thought they had defeated the Americans. The Americans had gotten most the damage. Aboard the Congress, Arnold held a council with his officers. Outside, the flaming Royal Savage crackled until fire caught the magazine and it exploded. The Philadelphia who had caught a cannonball shot by the Inflexible, became the first ship in the Americans fleet to sink. The Congress was not in perfect condition, either. The Washington was hulled multiple times and the main mast shot through. "Both vessels are very leaky and need repairing," said Arnold. Benedict and the other officers agreed that escape was the only option left. They could not go north because the wind was too much for the ships. They agreed that to escape, they had to go through the British line. To do this, they got in a single file line led by Captain Warner in the Trumbull and with Arnold and the Congress in the rear. 2 things were in the Americans favor: it was very dark and foggy, and the wind from the north. It was as if the entire British fleet were asleep. Not one sentry saw or heard them as the line passed the Maria. So that October night, 14 American ships silently slipped by the British unnoticed. The next morning, Gen. Carleton was furious when he found the Americans gone, but he couldn't do anything about it because of the fog that Saturday morning, but when it lifted the British were hastily pursuing them. But even with the extra day, the Americans made very slow progress. They had left at 7:00 Friday, and by daylight they were only at Schuyler's Island, ten miles south of Valcour. Arnold anchored at the island and made as many necessary repairs as possible before the British could catch up
The morning of the thirteenth brought discouragement for the Americans. With all their effort they had used, they had only got to mouth of the Boquet River, only ten miles from Schuyler's Island. Even with the new wind from the north, and the switch from oars to sails, the fleet did not go any faster, and the only thing it did was to bring the Inflexible and other British ships closer. The Congress put up her two lateen sails, which helped her to speed up a little, but the Washington fell behind. As the gap between the Washington and the Congress widened, the gap between the Washington andInflexible widened. Soon the Inflexible (who had barely been touched 2 days earlier) came into range and the shots from her crew soon forced the Washington to strike her colors. (When the captain of the Royal Savage got killed, Cap. David Hawley was put in charge of the ship which later was lost. Hawley then was moved to being the captain of the Washington. Thus Hawley had lost 2 ships in 3 days.) The Lee and Jersey were also captured, along with a few others. Soon, the Congress along with 4 gondolas were the only American ships left. Then, the Inflexible, Carleton, and Maria caught up to the Congress. The Congress stood strong, and fought the 3 large powerful British ships alone, allowing the four gondolas to go ahead undisturbed. Some of the time the cannons from the Congress hit the British ships. Twelve times was the Congress hulled, and two iron balls stuck in the main mast cracking it down, not including that the sails and rigging were torn to pieces. The fighting went on, and the Congress neared present-day Button Bay, and up to another small bay later named after Arnold. The Inflexible tried to get alongside her and finish her off, and the American ship was pushed closer to the eastern part of the lake. Benedict Arnold went along with this, and sailed into the bay. There he gathered up all the small arms and cannons out of the boat and set it on fire. The men watched the fire in a moment of silence, as it made its way up the rigging and finally to the flag. The British were still trying to get into the small bay and into gun distance. But after the Congress burned down, the men along with their good leader, Benedict Arnold were off to Crown Point. Arnold wrote later, "I set her [the Congress] on fire with the four gondolas, with whose crews I reached Crown Point through that evening and very luckily escaped the Savages, who waylaid the road two hours after we passed." Out of 15 ships, only the Trumbull, Savage, Enterprise, and New York were not lost, but 11 ships were, ten on the thirteenth. Over 80 men were killed or wounded (27 from the Congress). One hundred ten men were captured, and the rest escaped. The British lost much less. Admiral Mahan said, "The little American Navy was wiped out, but never had any force, big or small, lived to better purpose or died more gloriously." He was right, too. Because of this action with Benedict Arnold, the British could not attack Fort Ti, and had to return to St. Jean for the winter. Historians say this was a large factor in the victory at Saratoga. With all this, what was a price of a few gondolas? This along with the battle at Hubbardton was probably the only time in the American Revolutionary War that the Americans lost for a good cause. The battle of Valcour Island, I think, was the most important battle in the entire war. |
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By Miles Miller |
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