On 11 October 1776 an American flotilla of fifteen vessels under General Benedict Arnold, anchored behind Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, fought a British fleet put together at St. John's. By the British reports, the wind kept most of their ships out of the fight, which by Arnold's account went on until dark. That night the Americans slipped past the British line. Two days later they were caught near Split Rock, and after a fight of some hours Arnold ran his galley and several gondolas ashore nearer Crown Point and burned them. Carleton did not attack Fort Ticonderoga that year, and the offensive from Canada waited until 1777.
Battle of Valcour Island
11 October 1776 · 250 years ago
Two fleets on a lake
Lake Champlain lay on the water route between the St. Lawrence and New York, and in 1776 the British could not advance along it without ships. Arnold built a flotilla to hold it; Curtis Fahey lists two schooners, four galleys, eight gondolas and several smaller vessels. Arnold complained, in words Fahey quotes, that "we have a wretched motley Crew, in the Fleet; the Marines the Refuse of every Regiment, and the Seamen, few of them, ever wet with salt Water".1
On 23 September Arnold took up his position at Valcour Island. Mahan says he had there all the American vessels on the lake but one schooner and one galley, fifteen in all, and Carleton also counted fifteen sail. Arnold wrote, as Mahan quotes him, that his line lay "in such a form that few vessels can attack us at the same time, and those will be exposed to the fire of the whole fleet".2
Against him came a fleet put together at St. John's. The list in the London Gazette gives the ship Inflexible of eighteen twelve-pounders, the schooners Maria and Carleton, the radeau Thunderer, the gondola Loyal Convert, twenty gunboats and four armed long boats, and Mahan names the same ships and twenty gunboats. Captain Georg Pausch of the Hanau artillery, who fought in one of the boats, counted "about 27 batteaux". Thomas Pringle commanded from the Maria, with Carleton on board.3
The battle
On 11 October the British ran south past the island before a fair wind and found the Americans anchored in a line across the passage between the island and the western shore. Arnold sent the galleys and the schooner Royal Savage under way. By his account she "by some bad Management fell to Leward" and was run onto the point of Valcour; Carleton and Mahan put her ashore at the south end of the island. The wind that had brought the British there now kept them from working their whole force up the passage, Carleton and Pringle reported.4
Pringle and Carleton wrote that only the Carleton and the gunboats got into action, and that they were called off when the rest could not get up. Pausch saw the Maria, the Carleton and the Inflexible come up in turn. Douglas, as Mahan quotes him, wrote that "five broadsides" from the Inflexible "silenced their whole line".5
By Arnold's account the engagement became general at half past eleven, and some of the enemy ships and all their gondolas came within musket shot and kept up "a Very hot fire with Round & Grape Shott untill five OClock", then drew back and fired until dark. "We suffered much for want of Seamen & Gunners, I was obliged myself to Point Most of the Guns on board the Congress," he wrote. Pausch, who saw Lieutenant Dufais's boat blow up, wrote, in W. L. Stone's translation: "The cannon of the Rebels were well served".6
Douglas wrote of the British loss: "Eight whereof were killed out right, and Six wounded on Board of the Carleton"; Mahan gives the Carleton's loss as eight killed and six wounded. Carleton reported a gunboat served by the Hessian artillery sunk, and Mahan an artillery boat. The British set the stranded Royal Savage on fire. Arnold wrote that the gondola Philadelphia was "hulled in so many Places that She Sank" about an hour after the fighting ended. Arnold put his killed and wounded that day at "abt Sixty". Carleton reported about thirty British sailors and artillerymen killed and wounded.7
Slipping away
After consulting Waterbury, his second in command, and Colonel Wigglesworth, Arnold decided to retire to Crown Point, every vessel's ammunition being "Nearly three fourths spent". At seven o'clock the Trumbull led off, the gondolas and small vessels followed, and the galleys Congress and Washington brought up the rear. Pringle had anchored his fleet in a line to cut off the retreat, a purpose "frustrated by the extreme Obscurity of the Night". Carleton wrote that the Americans escaped "unobserved by any of our guard boats or cruizers". Mahan adds a heavy fog. Michael Barbieri writes in the Journal of the American Revolution that they moved with muffled sweeps and a shrouded lantern in the stern to guide the following ship.8
Run down at Split Rock
The flotilla anchored at Schuyler Island to stop its leaks, and two gondolas were sunk there. On the 13th the wind turned against the Americans and for the British, who caught them near Split Rock. The Washington, "in such a shattered Condition", struck after a few broadsides, with Waterbury on board. A ship and two schooners then attacked the Congress; Arnold says the fire lasted "about five Glasses", Pringle that the action lasted two hours. Arnold ran the Congress ashore in a small creek ten miles from Crown Point on the east side and set her on fire with four gondolas; Pringle counts five gondolas. Arnold and the crews reached Crown Point through the woods.9
On 15 October General Horatio Gates wrote to General Philip Schuyler: "It has pleased providence to preserve Genl Arnold. Few Men ever met with so many hair Breadth Scapes in so short a space of time".10
The chase and what it bought
Arnold wrote: "Of our whole Fleet we have saved only two Gallies, two small schooners, one Gondola and one Sloop". Carleton told Lord George Germain that only three of fifteen sail had escaped. Mahan counts ten vessels lost out of fifteen. Arnold put the whole American loss at "Eighty odd", and Mahan the killed and wounded at over eighty. By Arnold's account Carleton returned Waterbury with 110 prisoners. Pringle put the British killed and wounded in the two actions below forty, Douglas between thirty and forty.11
Carleton told Germain that the Americans had burned the buildings at Crown Point and retired to Ticonderoga, adding: "The Season is so far advanced, that I cannot yet pretend to inform your Lordship whether any Thing farther can be done this Year". He did not attack Ticonderoga. Lieutenant John Starke of the Maria wrote: "The Season of the year being far advanced, the expedition against Ticonderoga was postponed untill the following year". G. P. Browne, in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, counts this among three occasions in 1776 when Carleton "failed to press home an apparent advantage". Fahey calls the British victory "a hollow one", because the time spent building a navy meant that the offensive had to be postponed until the following year. Mahan judged that the flotilla "had saved the Lake for that year", and that the delay, "with all that it involved, was obtained by the Lake campaign of 1776". The campaign of 1777 is told in our article on Saratoga, and Arnold's later career in our biography of Benedict Arnold.12
Battle of Rocoux, 1746: Maurice de Saxe's victory outside Liège
11 October 1746 · 280 years ago
Near Liège, Marshal Saxe's French army fought a British, Dutch, Hanoverian and Austrian army under Charles of Lorraine in the Austrian Succession war. The French won and confirmed their hold on the Austrian Netherlands, but the allies escaped destruction.
Read the full story of Battle of Rocoux, 1746: Maurice de Saxe's victory outside Liège ›Also on this day
1797: off the Dutch coast, between Camperdown and Egmont, the British North Sea fleet of Admiral Adam Duncan defeated the Dutch fleet of Admiral De Winter. De Winter told Duncan, in words J. K. Laughton quotes in the Dictionary of National Biography, that "the government in Holland, much against his opinion, insisted on his going to sea to show they had done so". Duncan signaled his ships to break the enemy's line and engage from leeward, getting between the Dutch and the land. Both Dutch flagships struck, and Duncan reported that De Winter was brought aboard his Venerable. Duncan reported "Eight or Nine" ships taken, and "no less than Two Hundred and Fifty Men killed and wounded" on each Dutch flagship. Clowes counts seven ships of the line, two 50s and two frigates in British hands when the action ceased. Duncan was raised to the peerage as Viscount Duncan of Camperdown.13
