CHAPTER XVIII
Therewas to be one other battle on the lakes, that of Lake Champlain, which was to have momentous consequences quite equal to that of Lake Erie, and place the name of young Thomas MacDonough high on the list of benefactors of his country. MacDonough, on September 28, 1812, had been directed to proceed immediately and take command on the lake, the control having previously been under a young lieutenant, Sydney Smith. There was, however, little to command. The Americans had three armed sloops and a few small gunboats and galleys (the latter propelled only by oars). But this was larger than that of the British, until on June 3, 1813, two of the sloops, theGrowlerand theEagle, in pursuit of some of the British flotilla which had ventured into the American part of the lake, found themselves in the narrow reaches of the north end with a south wind against which it was impossible to work back. Here they were attacked both by gunboats and bytroops on both shores of the narrow waters, and had to surrender. Thenceforward, until May, 1814, the British by the addition of the captured American sloops were in control. Manned temporarily by seamen from the sloop-of-warWaspat Quebec, the British flotilla raided Plattsburgh on June 30, 1813, destroyed the public buildings there and at Swanton in Vermont, and threatened the destruction of the new vessels building by MacDonough. On April 11, 1814, he launched the shipSaratoga. By the end of May he was afloat with theSaratoga, of 26 guns, 8 of which were long 24-pounders, the remainder being 32 and 42 pounder carronades; the schoonerTiconderoga, the sloopPreble, and ten galleys. Once more the Americans were in control. The British, however, were urging forward with all haste, to assist in the coming invasion, a ship much more than theSaratoga’sequal. This was theConfiance, of 37 guns, 27 of which were long 24-pounders and the others carronades of 24 and 32 pounds. On August 25th she was launched. With her tonnage of over 1,200 against the 734 of theSaratogaand with her great superiority in long guns, she was an enemy to be reckoned with.
The European wars had now closed. Four brigades of Wellington’s army had been sent to Canada from Bordeaux. They came with orders to “give immediate protection to his Majesty’s possessions in America,” by the entire destruction of Sackett’s Harbor and of the naval establishments on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain.[39]
The governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, who also was in command of the army, now had, exclusive of officers, 29,437 men, nearly all of whom were regulars seasoned by years of service under Wellington. He decided to advance by the west side of the lake reporting that as “Vermont has shown a disinclination to the war, and, as it is sending in specie and provisions, I will confine offensive operations to the west side of Lake Champlain.”[40]
On August 31st Prevost moved south with an army variously estimated at from 11,000 to 14,000 men. The American army under General Alexander Macomb was less than 2,000, but by September 4th came in 700 militia from the neighborhood, and by the 11th “other militiafrom New York and volunteers from Vermont ... in encouraging contrast to their fellow-citizens who were making money by abetting the enemy.” The British entered Plattsburgh on the 6th. Macomb retreated across the Saranac, a small, fordable river on which the town stands, and entrenched. Had Prevost had the courage to attack Macomb with his large and seasoned army, Macdonough would have had either to withdraw up the lake or risk a battle in the open lake, where theConfiancewould have been more than a match for his whole squadron. He had anchored under Cumberland Head, somewhat over a mile from the west shore with theEagle,Saratoga,Ticonderoga, andPreblein a line from north to south in the order named. West of this line were his ten gunboats. His fourteen vessels totalled but 2,244 tons, with 86 guns and 882 men. The British commodore, Downie, had sixteen vessels, amounting in all to 2,402 tons, with 92 guns and 937 men, but his flagship, as mentioned, was nearly twice the size and force of theSaratoga.
But now came to the aid of the Americans the nervousness of the incapable British general who insisted upon immediate action by the British squadron in his support. TheConfiancehadonly been launched on August 25th; to make her ready for action in seventeen days was a task of Hercules, and that she was, in a way, made ready, reflects the highest credit upon the energy and ability of those in charge. Commodore Downie had joined only on September 2d; the crew had been hastily gathered from ships at Quebec, the last detachment coming aboard only the night but one before the battle. The men were thus largely unknown to the officers and to one another. The ship hauled into the stream on September 7th with the artificers still hard at work on the hundreds of fittings so necessary in the equipment of a man-of-war. They did not leave her until two hours before the beginning of battle. The situation of unpreparedness was very comparable to that of theChesapeakein like circumstances, except that Macdonough’s own ship had been launched but four months earlier.
Prevost, by the fact of his position as governor-general, was in a position to command obedience, and his peremptory insistence caused Downie to move earlier than he should, undoubtedly against the latter’s better judgment. He thus on the morning of September 11, 1814, stood up the narrow reaches of the northern part of the lake, with a fair wind from the northeast.He had every reason to expect a simultaneous attack by Prevost on the American troops, but none came. Having passed Cumberland Head, it was too late to await any action by Prevost.
Macdonough had so admirably chosen his position that the British in rounding Cumberland Head were forced to stand nearly northwest and almost head on to the American line. They were thus subjected to a raking fire (lengthwise of the ship). TheConfiance, being in the lead and having thus a concentration upon her of the American fire, suffered severely before anchoring within five hundred yards of the line. Within fifteen minutes her captain was dead. The day was finally won by “winding” theSaratoga(turning her end for end), for which excellent previous arrangements had been made. A new and, in great degree, uninjured broadside was thus brought into use, and shortly after, about 11, theConfiancehauled down her colors. The whole action lasted, by Macdonough’s report, two hours and twenty minutes.[41]
The immediate effect of the victory was Prevost’s retreat without delay into Canada. The general result was the end of the war, of which it was really the “decisive” battle. No longer could Castlereagh, the British foreign minister, hold Great Britain “entitled to claim the use of the lakes as a military barrier.”[42]
To Macdonough and Perry, the former under thirty-one, the latter but twenty-eight years old at the time of their victories, our country owes the preservation of its northern boundaries at the coming peace. It is a great debt.