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Battle of Valcour Island

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 12 months ago

Battle of Valcour Island

October 11th to 13th 1776

 

Link to a period map of Lake Champlain

 

An American squadron faces a British squadron on Lake Champlain.

 

AmericanGunsCaptainTypeBritishGunsCaptainType
Enterprise12DickensonSloopInflexible18John SchankShip
Royal Savage12David HawleySchoonerMaria14Thomas PringleSchooner
Revenge8SeamanSchoonerCarleton12James Richard DacresSchooner
New Haven3MansfieldGondolaThunderer14George ScottRadeau
Providence3SimondsGondolaLoyal Convert7Edward LongcroftGondola
Boston3GondolaPlus 20 Gunboats1Gunboats
Spitfire3UlmerGondola
Philadelphia3RiceGondola
Connecticut3GrantGondola
Jersey3GrimesGondola
New York3ReedGondola
Lee6DavisGalley
Trumbull8Seth WarnerGalley
Congress8Benedict ArnoldGalley
Washington8David WaterburyGalley

 

Account of the Battle

Taken from A NAVAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Vol 1 by Gardner W Allen

 

The British fleet anchored during the night of October 10 between Grand and Long Islands and got under way the next morning with a northeast wind. It was seen at eight o clock by the Americans off Cumberland Head. Waterbury promptly went on board the Congress to consult with Arnold, to whom he expressed the " opinion that the fleet ought immediately to come to sail and fight them on a retreat in main Lake, as they were so much superior to us in number and strength, and we being in such a disadvantageous harbour to fight a number so much superior and the enemy being able with their small boats to surround us on every side, as I knew they could, we lying between an island and the main. But General Arnold was of the opinion that it was best to draw the fleet in a line where we lay, in the bay of Valcour. The fleet very soon came up with us and surrounded us, when a very hot engagement ensued."

 

Through neglecting to reconnoitre, the British did not discover the American fleet until they had passed Valcour Island, and it was then necessary to attack from the leeward, at a disadvantage. Arnold, in his report of October 12 to General Gates, says that when the British were first seen on the morning of the 11th, " we immediately prepared to receive them, the gallies and Royal Savage were ordered under way, the rest of our fleet lay at anchor. At Eleven O Clock the enemy ran under the lee of Valcour & began the attack. The schooner Royal Savage by some bad management fell to lee-ward and was first attacked, one of her masts was wounded & her rigging shot away; the Captain thought prudent to run her on the point of Valcour, where all the men were saved. ... At half past twelve the engagement became general & very warm. Some of the enemy s ships & all their Gondolas beat & rowed up within musket shot of us. ... The Enemy landed a large number of Indians on the Island & each shore, who kept an incessant fire on us, but did little damage; the Enemy had to appearance upwards of one thousand men in batteaus prepared for boarding. We suffered much for want of Seamen and gunners; I was obliged myself to point most of the guns on board the Congress, which I believe did good execution." The enemy " continued a very hot fire with round & Grape Shot until five O Clock when they thought proper to retire to about six or seven hundred yards distance & continued their fire until dark." Arnold's decision to hold his ground and fight was wise ; retreat would have been demoralizing and disastrous.

 

Captain Pringle's report, dated October 15, says: " Upon the 11th I came up with the rebel fleet commanded by Benedict Arnold. They were at anchor under the island of Valicour and formed a strong line extending from the island to the west side of the continent. The wind was so unfavorable that for a considerable time nothing could be brought into action with them but the gun boats; the Carleton schooner, commanded by Mr. Dacres, by much perseverance at last got to their assistance, but as none of the other vessels of the fleet could then get up, I did not think it by any means adviseable to continue so partial and unequal a combat. Consequently, with the approbation of his excellency general Carleton, who did me the honour of being on board the Maria, I called off the Carleton and gun boats and brought the whole fleet to anchor in a line as near as possible to the rebels, that their retreat might be cut off."

 

Of the American losses Arnold says: " The Congress and Washington have suffered greatly; the latter lost her first Lieutenant killed, Captain and Master wounded. . . . The Congress received seven shot between wind and water, was hulled a dozen times, had her main mast wounded in two places, & her yard in one; the Washington was hulled a number of times, her main mast shot through & must have a new one. Both vessels are very leaky and want repairing. . . . The New York lost all her officers except her Captain. The Philadelphia was hulled in so many places that she sunk about one hour after the engagement was over. The whole killed & wounded amounted to about sixty." After dark the British set fire to the Royal Savage, fearing that the Americans would again take possession of her and float her , she soon blew up. In concluding his report Arnold says: "I cannot in justice to the officers in the fleet omit mentioning their spirited conduct during the action."

 

After the battle was over it was evident that the American fleet could not endure another day’s contest under such disadvantages. "On consulting with General David Waterbury & Colonel Wigglesworth," says Arnold, " it was thought prudent to return to Crown point, every vessel s ammunition being nearly three fourths spent & the Enemy greatly superior to us in Ships and men. At 7 O'Clock Col. Wigglesworth in the Trumbull got under way, the Gondolas and small vessels followed, & the Congress and Washington brought up the rear; the Enemy did not attempt to molest us." Waterbury says that a council was held, "to secure a retreat through their fleet to get to Crown Point, which was done with so much secrecy that we went through them entirely undiscovered." It is remarkable that thirteen American vessels should have been able to pass through the British fleet without detection. Pringle merely says that his purpose to cut off their retreat was " frustrated by the extreme obscurity of the night, and in the morning the rebels had got a considerable distance from us up the Lake." l It has been suggested that Arnold led his fleet around the north end of Valcour and so avoided the British fleet.

 

The Americans retreated south up the lake, and early in the morning, October 12, reached Schuyler’s Island, ten miles from Valcour. Here Arnold wrote his report to General Gates of the preceding day’s battle, adding: " Most of the fleet is this minute come to an anchor; the Wind is small to the Southward. The Enemy's fleet is under way to Leeward and beating up. As soon as our leaks are stopp’d the whole fleet will make the utmost dispatch to Crown point, where I beg you will send ammunition & your farther orders for us. On the whole, I think we have had a very fortunate escape." But it was too early to talk of escape, with the enemy in hot pursuit. Such repairs as were possible were hastily made; two of the gondolas were so much injured that it was necessary to abandon them, and they were sunk. " We remained no longer at Schuyler's Island," says Arnold in a later report, " than to stop our leaks and mend the sails of the Washington. At two o clock P.M., the 12th, weighed anchor with a fresh breeze to the south ward. The enemy s fleet at the same time got under way; our gondola made very little way ahead. "Waterbury says of his vessel, the Washington, that she was "so torn to pieces that it was almost impossible to keep her above water; my sails was so shot that carrying sail split them from foot to head." " In the evening," continues Arnold, " the wind moderated and we made such progress that at six o'clock next morning we were about off Willsborough, twenty-eight miles from Crown Point. The enemy’s fleet were very little way above Schuyler s Island. The wind breezed up to the southward, so that we gained very little by beating or rowing; at the same time the enemy took a fresh breeze from the northeast, and by the time we had reached Split Rock, were alongside of us. The Washington and Congress were in the rear; the rest of our fleet were ahead, except two gondolas sunk at Schuyler’s Island."

 

Waterbury’s story of the retreat on the night of October 12 and the next morning gives fuller details. " The enemy still pursued all night. I found next morning that they gained upon us very fast and that they would very soon overtake me. The rest of the fleet all being much ahead of me, I sent my boat on board of General Arnold, to get liberty to put my wounded in the boat and send them forward and run my vessel on shore and blow her up. I received for answer, by no means to run her ashore, but to push forward to Split Rock, where he would draw the fleet in a line and engage them again; but when I came to Split Rock, the whole fleet was making their escape as fast as they could and left me in the rear to fall into the enemy s hands. But before I struck to them, the ship of eighteen twelve-pounders Inflexible and a schooner of fourteen six-pounders Maria had surrounded me, which obliged me to strike, and I thought it prudent to surrender myself prisoner pf war."

 

Arnold's narrative of the running fight continues: " The Washington galley was in such a shattered condition and had so many men killed and wounded, she struck to the enemy after receiving a few broadsides. We were then attacked in the Congress galley by a ship mounting eighteen twelve-pounders, a schooner of fourteen sixes and one of twelve sixes, two under our stern and one on our broadsides, within musket shot. They kept up an incessant fire on us for about five glasses with round and grape shot, which we returned as briskly. The sails, rigging and hull of the Congress were shattered and torn in pieces, the First Lieutenant and three men killed, when to prevent her falling into the enemy’s hands, who had seven sail around me, I ran her ashore in a small creek ten miles from Crown Point, on the east side; when, after saving our small arms, I set her on fire with four gondolas, with whose crews I reached Crown Point through the woods that evening and very luckily escaped the savages who waylaid the road in two hours after we passed." Pringle's report says: "Upon the 13th I again saw 11 sail of their fleet making off to Crown Point, who, after a chase of seven hours, I came up with in the Maria, having the Carleton and Inflexible a small distance astern; the rest of the fleet almost out of sight. The action began at twelve o’clock and lasted two hours, at which time Arnold in the Congress galley and five gondolas ran on shore and were directly abandoned and blown up by the enemy, a circumstance they were greatly favoured in by the wind being off shore and the narrowness of the lake." The British loss in killed and wounded was about forty. A letter from Albany, dated October 17, says that the second engagement was fought " most of the time in musket shot, very warm and sharp, in which our men conducted with inimitable spirit and bravery, but were obliged to submit to superior strength. In this affair our fleet is almost totally ruined; only one galley escaped, with sloop Enterprise and two small schooners and one gondola; the rest all taken, burnt and destroyed." The Washington " is the only vessel that the enemy possessed themselves of. Col. Wigglesworth in the Trumbull galley is arrived at Ticonderoga." Arnold concludes his story of this series of disasters by recounting that at four o clock in the morning of October 14 he reached Ticonderoga "exceedingly fatigued and unwell, having been without sleep or refreshment for near three days. Of our whole fleet we have saved only two galleys, two small schooners, one gondola and one sloop. General Waterbury with one hundred and ten prisoners were returned on parole by Carleton last night. On board of the Congress we had twenty odd men killed and wounded. Our whole loss amounts to eighty odd. The enemy’s fleet were last night three miles below Crown Point; their army is doubtless at their heels." An early attack on Ticonderoga was expected.

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