On September 1, 1814 the British Army came calling. Mrs. Hubbell of Chazy, New York, found herself the unwilling hostess for Major General Frederick Philipse Robinson, and his staff.
General Robinson was in the vanguard of an 11,000 man invasion force headed south from Chambly, Lower Canada towards Plattsburgh. As he sat down at the family dinner table he remarked how his father had been an American Loyalist at the time of the Revolution who had returned to England after the American victory at Yorktown. He also related how his father had told him Americans tended to be a smallish race of people. Mrs. Hubbell did not contradict him but smiled and directed a servant to have Phillip Hensinger serve the roast beef. In a moment, the doorway was filled with a 6ft. 7in. teenager of some 260 pounds, carrying the main course. The General laughed, telling his staff, "If the Yankees are all like him, the Lord deliver us." The next morning as the General and staff was leaving, Mrs Hubbell bid them a "Good-bye, for a very little while, but I know you will soon be back and hanging your heads as you come." The General scoffed, promising if that happened, every officer here would throw his purse on her doorstep as they passed.
From the perspective of the British, this American conflict had dragged on far too long, through three summers, and now it was time to put an end to it--now that Napoleon was defeated in Europe and Britain could devote much more of her resources for ending it on terms favorable to the British. Nearly 15,000 troops were shipped directly from the Peninsular War battlefields and other posts to the New World to humiliate the upstart Americans and show them that, unencumbered by a world war with Napoleon, the British military could operate when and where it wanted to, and the Americans could do little to stop them! Additionally, they hoped to carve off some choice hunks of American territory before they forced the Americans to sue for peace. Right before the Plattsburgh invasion British troops raided Washington DC, pushing the American militia aside and burning federal buildings including the White House. Their attempt to raid Baltimore, Maryland was repulsed but they succeeded in occupying much of coastal Maine. They would also attempt to occupy New Orleans. A successful drive down the Lake Champlain--Lake George corridor to Albany might even give them a claim to northern New England, in the peace talks. Operating with the knowledge that many New Englanders were opposed to the federal government and the war, and that many "north country" New Yorkers, Vermonters and Mainers had actively defied the U.S. Embargo, and for years had smuggled goods into Canada, the notion that at least part of New England could be made a new British colony seemed not so far fetched as it might first appear.*
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| Rte 30A, Johnstown |
The British had successfully created a diversion, misleading the American War Department into thinking the British build-up in Canada was aimed at an attack on Sackett's Harbor. General George Izard was ordered with 4500 of his fittest men to Sackett's Harbor. Because no roads connected Sackett's Harbor and Plattsburgh, and because the British had control of the Saint Lawrence River Izard's troops were forced to march south, and southwest to Johnstown, then northwest to Sackett's Harbor, a trip of about 285 miles (compared to a direct route today of 170 miles.)
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| Norway, Herkimer Co., N.Y. |
Left in Plattsburgh were a mere 1,500 regular soldiers, mostly pieces of some 9 regiments, plus the sick and some prisoners of war. General Benjamin Mooers, a farmer/politician who lived north of Plattsburgh called out his New York State Militia but of the 2,500 militiamen called, only 700 responded!
In Vermont, Governor Chittenden was opposed to sending his Vermont militia to fight out of state but General Sam Strong mobilized them anyway. Most of his militiamen responded
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| Rte 314, Cumberland Head |
and made their way across the lake with the help of the American squadron, and anything else that could float. (An unintended consequence of the British raid on the nation's capitol and the raids on the New England Coast may have been that for the first time Vermonters felt invested in "Mr. Madison's War.)
Mooers' seven hundred untrained militiamen were sent forward to delay the advancing British by skirmishing with them, ripping up
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Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh
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bridges, and felling trees. How much of this they accomplished remains in dispute, but when a unit of American mounted dragoons came up behind them, wearing their unit's red jackets and white breeches, the militia assumed they were British. They panicked and dissolved. Most did not stop running until they were back at Pike's Cantonment, far to the west on the American lines. Some would rejoin the battle but most would continue on to their homes.
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| Beekmantown Rd., by High School |
North of Beekmantown the British Army had split, with General Robinson's force following the Beekmantown road to the center of Plattsburgh, and General Brisbane's taking the road that followed along the shore.
Along a rise in the Beekmantown Road, "Culver Hill", the Americans made their first attempt to oppose the British. Major John Wool leading about 250 regular army infantrymen and 30 militiamen-volunteers fired on the British column killing the lead unit's colonel, and ensign and twelve soldiers before being driven back.
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| Rte. 22, Beekmantown Rd. |
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| Artist rendition of the skirmish at Culver Hill--from a sign at the skirmish site | |
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(note--the British Column appears to extend to the horizon!)
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| Halsey Court, Tom Miller Rd.,Boynton Ave. |
Sniping as they retreated, the Americans next stand was at Halsey's Corners where the Beekmantown Road ended at a "T" on the outskirts of Plattsburgh. There the Americans improvised a surprise for the British column. Along the top of the "T" was a farmer's field bounded by a stone wall**. The infantry had been joined by Captain Leonard's Light Artillery. Leonard's artillery at the corners consisted of two, small 3 pounders--cannon firing three pound balls. (Most field artillery of the era used 6 or 8 pounders) but Captain Leonard planned to use them for maximum effect. Partially obscured by the stone wall, the guns were further hidden by a closed rank of soldiers, standing in front. When the long column of British regulars, marching four abreast, were almost in musket range the American infantry scampered out of the way, allowing the cannon to do their bloody work. The little cannon each got off two or three shots before the Americans were driven back.
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| 162 Quarry Rd. (Am. Legion Post) |
Two additional stands were made before the Americans were forced back into their lines on the south side of the Saranac River, after tearing off the planking of the bridge over the Saranac.
While the British right wing was battling down Beekmantown road, the left wing was coming down the shore road (today's Rte 9) facing heavy fire as the Americans removed the planking off of the Dead Creek Bridge (later known as Scomotion Creek).
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| Rte 9, north Plattsburgh |
Once they had taken the bridgehead and crossed they came under a new threat--the American fleet.
American Naval Commodore Thomas Macdonough had four ships positioned in Plattsburgh's Cumberland Bay. These were armed with short cannon, known as carronnades that were unable to reach the shore. But he also had assembled twelve gunboats, mostly built before, and at an earlier stage in the war, to try to interdict smugglers running supplies to Canada. Seventy foot long whaleboats, they each had two long naval guns. Crowded at the narrow bows of the crafts they were difficult to load and reload and could be aimed only by moving the whole boat, but their fire stopped the entire left column, until the Royal Artillery brought up their own 6 pounders, forcing the Americans out of range.
As the day ended skirmishers on both sides had entered the city and had begun a house to house fight, as the vastly outnumbered American Army hunkered down in their forts and trenches, built up along the southern shore of the Saranac River, and awaited the onslaught that they knew was coming the next day. Between 200 and 250 casualties had occurred on the British side this first day. Around forty five Americans had been killed or wounded.
*Smuggling was a major industry on Lake Champlain. American beef fed the British Army and the British Lake Champlain squadron was built with American masts, American spars and American planks. The New England newspapers often railed against "Mr. Madison's War" and hinted at secession. Some members of Parliament speculated about a new English speaking colony, separate from French-speaking Lower Canada, possibly named "Columbia."
**Today it is a four way intersection in a development. Halsey Court is cut off of Beekmantown Rd. by the Northway.
Next Week-- It Happened Here--The Battle of Plattsburgh, Part 2, The Battle in the Bay
Addenda-- (A new more-or-less regular feature of this blog) After writing and researching this blog for a few years I have come to appreciate how much things change. Old NYSHMs disappear--sometimes, but not usually, replaced by more informative tablet-photographic signs. New NYSHMs are created by local organizations, and through the excellent work of the Pomeroy Foundation. More often I find signs I didn't know existed, or had previously been unable to find, or just hadn't gotten to photograph. Sometimes the subjects of the signs themselves disappear: historic houses burn or are torn down; graves are moved (see last week's Marker of the Week); etc. Only very rarely are the subjects of signs. once removed, re-created! But here is a rare example:
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| Rte. 30, Blenheim |
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The sign remains, but the bridge is gone.
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The Bridge Re-created
On August 28, 2011 Hurricane Irene became stalled over the counties around New York's capital district, dumping heavy rainfall on the area for days. Water rose high enough under the Blenheim Bridge to carry it off its dry-stone piers. In the months that followed, pieces of the bridge were found as far away as thirty miles downstream. A lively debate followed: Should money be allocated to rebuild an historic (but unused) bridge when so many families homes in the valley had suffered significant storm damage? Eventually money was allocated and a new bridge built--15 feet higher than the old one, on concrete abutments.
The Bridge Re-created
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