Valcour Island

On October 11, 1776, warships clashed on the waters of Lake Champlain in what became known as the Battle of Valcour Island, sometimes called the Battle of Valcour Bay. Most of the fighting unfolded within Valcour Bay itself, a tight channel running between the New York shoreline and Valcour Island. Historians commonly point to this clash as among the earliest naval actions of the Revolutionary War, and it stands as one of the first engagements fought by the Continental Navy. Benedict Arnold led the American fleet, and the bulk of his vessels ended up captured or destroyed at the hands of a British force operating under General Guy Carleton's overall command. Even so, by putting up a fight for control of the lake, the Americans managed to delay British designs on reaching the upper Hudson River valley.

Earlier that year, in June, the Continental Army had pulled back from Quebec toward Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point once British forces received enormous reinforcements. The following months were spent strengthening these strongholds and adding vessels to the modest fleet already stationed on the lake. Meanwhile Carleton commanded 9,000 troops at Fort Saint-Jean, though he first had to assemble a fleet capable of ferrying them across the water. The Americans, in the course of their withdrawal, had already captured or wrecked most of the boats that had been on the lake. Come early October, the British had readied their fleet for launch, and it far outmatched the American ships in firepower.

When October 11 arrived, Arnold lured the British toward a spot he had deliberately selected to blunt their superior strength. The ensuing clash left numerous American vessels wrecked or badly damaged. Under cover of darkness that same night, Arnold managed to slip his fleet past the British lines, setting off a withdrawal toward Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Poor weather conditions slowed this retreat, and the British seized or ran aground and burned still more American ships before they could reach safety at Crown Point. Once he arrived there, Arnold ordered the fort's structures put to the torch before pulling back further to Ticonderoga.

Notably, four men serving in the British fleet would go on to become admirals in the Royal Navy: Thomas Pringle, James Dacres, Edward Pellew, and John Schank. Today, Valcour Bay itself carries National Historic Landmark status, an honor shared with USS Philadelphia, a vessel that sank not long after the October 11 fight and was later brought back up from the depths in 1935. Additionally, the wreck of Spitfire, discovered underwater in 1997, has earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Prelude

As the American army pulled back from Quebec, its soldiers made a point of seizing or wrecking every vessel on Lake Champlain that could aid the British cause. Arnold's men, serving as the army's rear guard, torched the sawmill and the fort itself when they left Fort Saint-Jean, and they sank or burned whatever boats they had no use for. Through these measures, the British found themselves with no immediate way onto the lake.

Both armies then turned to building fleets of their own, the British working from Saint-Jean while the Americans labored at Skenesborough, near the lake's opposite end (known today as Whitehall, New York). General Carleton had foreseen the challenge of moving forces across Lake Champlain back in 1775 while organizing Quebec's defenses, and he had arranged for prefabricated vessels to be shipped from Europe. Ten of these had reached his army by the time it arrived at Saint-Jean. Skilled shipwrights put these and additional vessels together along the upper Richelieu River. Among the ships built there was HMS Inflexible, a 180-ton sloop that workers had taken apart at Quebec City and hauled upriver piece by piece for reassembly. When finished, the British fleet numbered 33 vessels carrying over 80 guns altogether, giving it a clear advantage over the Americans' 15 ships and their 74 smaller cannons. Just two of Carleton's vessels, the 22-gun Inflexible and the 18-gun Thunderer, packed more firepower on their own than the entire American fleet combined. Rounding out the British force were the schooners HMS Maria (14 guns) and HMS Carleton (12 guns), the gundalow HMS Loyal Convert with 7 guns, and a flotilla of 28 single-masted gunboats each mounting a single cannon.

Building ships proved no simple matter for the American commanders overseeing the effort. Skilled shipwrights were scarce in the wilderness of upstate New York, forcing the Continental Navy to offer unusually generous pay to draw craftsmen away from coastal regions. Among all naval employees, only Commodore Esek Hopkins earned more than the carpenters brought in to construct vessels on Lake Champlain. By late July, Skenesborough's workforce had swelled past 200 shipwrights. Beyond skilled labor, the operation also demanded that specialized maritime materials and equipment be transported either to Skenesborough, where construction took place, or to Fort Ticonderoga, where the finished hulls were fitted for service.

Hermanus Schuyler, who may have been connected to Major General Philip Schuyler, directed the shipbuilding operation at Skenesborough, while military engineer Jeduthan Baldwin handled the outfitting. Schuyler's work, which began that April, aimed to produce vessels sturdier and more combat-ready than the shallow bateaux typically used to haul goods across the lake. Eventually two men with maritime backgrounds joined the effort: Arnold, a former ship's captain, and David Waterbury, who led Connecticut militia and had his own seafaring experience. Major General Horatio Gates, who held overall responsibility for the shipbuilding program, ultimately turned to Arnold for greater involvement, confessing that he himself remained "intirely uninform'd as to Marine Affairs."

Arnold embraced this new responsibility eagerly, and Gates rewarded his enthusiasm by placing him in command of the fleet, describing him as someone with "a perfect knowledge in maritime affairs" who was "besides, a most gallant and deserving officer." The transition was not smooth, however. Jacobus Wynkoop, the fleet's previous commander, refused to acknowledge Gates's authority over him and ultimately had to be taken into custody. Progress on the ships stalled considerably in mid-August when illness swept through the shipwrights. This particular sickness was a fever rather than smallpox, which the army's leadership had otherwise worked hard to keep isolated from healthy personnel.

Even as construction continued on both sides, the expanding American fleet kept watch over Lake Champlain's waters. During one sortie in August, Arnold led part of his fleet to the lake's far northern end, coming within

Battle

Captain Thomas Pringle led Carleton's fleet, accompanied by fifty unarmed vessels providing support, out onto Lake Champlain on October 9. The ships moved southward with caution, scanning the waters for any trace of Arnold's forces. By the night of October 10, they had dropped anchor roughly fifteen miles north of where Arnold actually waited, still having no idea where he was positioned. Favorable winds carried them further south the following day. Once they rounded the northern point of Valcour Island, Arnold dispatched Congress and Royal Savage to lure the British into engaging. A brief and largely harmless volley passed between the vessels before the pair attempted to rejoin the crescent formation Arnold had arranged. Royal Savage, however, could not push through the opposing headwinds and became stuck on the southern end of Valcour Island. British gunboats converged on her, prompting Captain Hawley and his crew to quickly evacuate. A boarding party from Loyal Convert seized the grounded ship and took twenty prisoners, but American fire soon drove them off. The British ultimately set Royal Savage ablaze, and with her went a substantial portion of Arnold's documents.

From there, the British gunboats along with Carleton positioned themselves within striking distance of the American line. Both Thunderer and Maria found the winds too strong to overcome and never entered the fight, whereas Inflexible managed to work her way far enough into the strait to take part. Close to half past noon, full combat erupted as both sides exchanged broadside and cannonade fire, a struggle that stretched across the entire afternoon. Revenge sustained heavy damage, and Philadelphia suffered similarly before sinking near 6:30 in the evening. Carleton drew particular attention from American gunners, whose fire devastated the lighter gundalows in her vicinity. Fortune eventually turned against her too when a well-placed shot severed the rope securing her in a broadside stance, leaving her exposed to serious harm before she could be pulled clear of American guns. The toll on her crew was steep, with eight killed and eight more wounded. Aboard Carleton, young midshipman Edward Pellew made a name for himself by steering the vessel to safety after her senior officers, Lieutenant James Richard Dacres included, had been wounded. Elsewhere, another well-aimed American shot struck a British gunboat's powder magazine, setting off an explosion that destroyed it.

As the sun began to set, Inflexible at last joined the fray, and her heavy cannon fire swiftly quieted much of what remained of Arnold's fleet. To cut off any chance of American forces retreating overland, the British began putting Native allies ashore, both on Valcour Island itself and along the lake's edge. Once night descended, Arnold's ships withdrew, and the British halted their assault, partly because several vessels had exhausted their ammunition supplies. Lieutenant James Hadden, who had commanded one of the gunboats that day, later observed that only about a third of the British fleet had seen any real fighting.

Retreat

By the time darkness fell on October 11, it was plain the fighting had turned decisively against the Americans. Nearly every vessel in their fleet had suffered damage or was taking on water, and around 60 men aboard had become casualties. The British, for their part, counted roughly 40 losses among their crews. Arnold recognized that defeating the British fleet outright was impossible, so he set his sights on reaching safety near Fort Crown Point, some 35 miles (56 km) to the south. Using the cover of a foggy, moonless night, his ships crept along with oars wrapped to silence them and lights kept to a minimum, slipping through a narrow passage roughly one mile (1.6 km) across that separated the British vessels from the western shoreline, where fires from Indian encampments still glowed. As morning broke, the Americans had made it to Schuyler Island, about 8 miles (13 km) further south. Carleton, furious to discover his quarry had slipped away, quickly dispatched his own fleet around Valcour Island in pursuit. Finding no sign of the Americans there, he pulled his ships back together and sent scouts out to locate Arnold's position.

Progress for the Americans remained slow, hampered by unfavorable winds and vessels that were both battered and taking on water. While anchored at Schuyler Island, the crews scuttled or burned Providence and Jersey, while hastily patching up the rest of the fleet. The cutter Lee was left behind along the western shoreline and later fell into British hands. Near two in the afternoon, the fleet pushed onward once more, battling harsh winds along with rain and sleet. Come the next morning, they remained better than 20 miles (32 km) short of Crown Point, and the silhouettes of British masts had appeared along the horizon. Once the wind shifted, it initially favored the British, allowing them to close the distance and unleash fire upon Congress and Washington, both trailing at the back of the American line. Arnold's first plan was to run the slower gunboats ashore near Split Rock, still 18 miles (29 km) from Crown Point.

Aftermath

Judging Crown Point incapable of holding against such a substantial British force, Arnold had it wrecked and left, shifting the troops stationed there back to Ticonderoga. Rather than sending his captives all the way to Quebec, General Carleton had them escorted back to Ticonderoga under a flag of truce. Once freed, these men praised Carleton so lavishly that officers sent them home, fearing their words might encourage other soldiers to desert. Now commanding the lake, British forces landed and took possession of Crown Point on the following day. For two weeks they held that position, sending scouts as far as three miles (4.8 km) from Ticonderoga. Since the fighting season was slipping away, with snow falling for the first time on October 20, and since keeping supply lines open through winter would prove difficult, Carleton chose to pull his forces back north to winter quarters. In this way, Arnold's strategy of buying time had worked. Baron Riedesel, who led the Hessian troops under Carleton, remarked that starting the expedition a month sooner would likely have brought the campaign to a complete finish that same year.

The following year, Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's British campaign met defeat at the hands of Continental troops, Arnold himself fighting fiercely among them, during the Battles of Saratoga. Burgoyne's eventual surrender opened the door for France to join the conflict on the American side. Meanwhile, the commanders of Maria, Inflexible, and Loyal Convert put their objections in writing, faulting Captain Pringle both for allowing Arnold to slip away by failing to seal off the channel properly and for lacking boldness in his handling of the engagement. This criticism seems to have done no harm to anyone's career, Pringle included; he, along with John Schank of Inflexible, later reached the rank of admiral, as did midshipman Pellew and Lieutenant Dacres. For his triumph at Valcour Island, King George III honored Carleton with the Order of the Bath. Exactly a year after the fall of Quebec, on December 31, 1776, the British marked their victory with a religious service, followed by an elaborate ball hosted by Carleton.

Arnold's later troubles stemmed in part from the papers lost when Royal Savage went down. Congress, for several reasons, launched an investigation into how he had conducted the Quebec campaign, scrutinizing closely the money he claimed as compensation. This inquiry unfolded in late 1779, while Arnold, recovering from grievous wounds suffered at Saratoga, held military command over Philadelphia. Congress concluded that he owed funds back, since he lacked receipts to prove the personal expenditures he claimed. Though Arnold had already been quietly discussing a switch of loyalty with the British since May of that year, this finding pushed him further toward giving up his post in Philadelphia. He then sought command of West Point, hoping to arrange its surrender to British forces. The scheme unraveled in September 1780, forcing him to escape to British-held New York City.