It Happened Here --The Battle of Valcour Island, 

Part 2,  A fierce and unequal contest

                                                                

The morning of October 11, 1776 saw Benedict Arnold's fleet in line awaiting the British fleet. This American fleet consisted of three Row Galleys equipped with lateen sails on two masts and long sweeps (oars) to propel them in the face of Lake Champlain's capricious winds. Each mounted a mix of ten 18, 9, and 6 pounders* Supporting them were eight "gondolas" or "gundalows" a type of coastal workboat with one square sail and one topsail and sweeps if the wind failed.  Each carried one forward-facing 18 pounder and two side-facing 6 or 12 pounders.

The Row Galley Congress under fire. Painting from a marker at Arnold's Bay

Three schooners, the Royal Savage with 6-6 pounders and 4-4 pounders and the Revenge and
Liberty each with 4-4 pounders and 4-2 pounders** rounded out Arnold's fleet.  The sloop Enterprise had been stripped of its guns to use as a hospital ship and courier to maintain contact with his base at Ticonderoga.

The Americans would face off against a British fleet comprised of the schooners Carleton and Maria, each with 14 and 12 guns, the three masted ship Inflexible with  eighteen 12 pounders, the Loyal Convert, a a large gondola with six or seven  9 pounders and a 24 pounder, the radeau Thunderer with 6 24's, 6 12's and 2 howitzers, and 20 or 22 gunboats.  These were essentially  longboats or whaleboats of the type carried on large sailing ships, modified to carry a single bow-mounted cannon.  These carried approximately seven 6 pounders, nine 12 pounders,  two  24 pounders and a couple howitzers.

 Using an 18th century measure for comparing the relative strength of individual ships or whole fleets, the "weight of metal," we find the British could theoretically fire over 1000 lbs. of cannon balls in a single volley, while the Americans could fire slightly more than 600 lbs. Additionally, most of the first day's battle occurred between British gunboats and American gondolas. While British gunboat crews could continuously train their single large pieces on the Americans, the American gondolas, with one front-facing and two-side facing guns could aim only one, or sometimes two of their guns at the enemy.***

In his protected position, Arnold feared the British might not see his little fleet and sail right by it, so he sent  the Royal Savage and his row galleys out as bait.  The British gave chase.  The galleys successfully made it back to the American line but the Royal Savage, a poor sailor, crewed by an inexperienced crew, grounded off the tip of Valcour Island. The British poured cannon fire into her, doing serious damage, and forcing the American crew to abandon her and escape across the shallows to Valcour Island.

The southern tip of Valcour Is., Valcour Bay in the foreground-Rte 9 Peru

The British gunboats closed with the American line and a fierce cannonading began, but for most of the day the British were unable to bring their larger ships within range, battling shifting headwinds that forced them to them to tack back and forth in the narrow confines of the mouth of the bay.  The radeau Thunderer and the schooner Maria were unable to join the fight.
By late afternoon, both fleets had taken a pounding but the British superiority was beginning to tell.
The heavier British ordinance was doing more damage and the more experienced Royal Navy gun crews and German artillerymen assigned to the British gunboats were probably making more of their shots count. (The Americans, in contrast, had had few live fire exercises due to shortages of gunpowder.)

In late afternoon the British schooner Carleton attempted to recover the grounded Royal Savage but was heavily damaged and driven off by American gunfire.  The British later set fire to the American schooner to prevent her from being retaken by the Americans.

As dusk and a low gunpowder laden fog was settling over the lake, the British ship Inflexible was finally able to beat her way up to the American line and with its eighteen 12 pounders do further
damage.  Mercifully, darkness and fog settled in early and firing ceased.

With 3/4 of his gunpowder expended, Arnold knew his fleet could not survive another day of such pounding, and so he settled on a bold plan.  In single file, along the western shore guided by  single hooded stern lanterns of the boat ahead,  Arnold's entire fleet slipped past the British fleet.  A dark night sky, the low fog, and the enemy's general temporary deafness caused by six hours of incessant cannonading aided the little fleet's escape. During the night the gondola Philadelphia, hulled below the waterline, sank,  as did the shattered gondola Spitfire.  The gondola New Jersey, flooded and awash was abandoned by her crew.

Split Rock Marker, Rte. 22, South of Essex

In the morning, the British were astonished to find the Americans gone.  After ascertaining they had not gone north up the narrow Valcour strait, they raced to overtake them before the Americans could reach American held Crown Point. The wind, however, had changed after dusk.  The Americans rowed all night in the face of a cruel headwind and in the morning were only some ten miles ahead of their pursuers. Then the wind caroming between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains created an unusual effect, that is nevertheless common on Lake Champlain. While a head wind from the south was still challenging the exhausted Americans at their sweeps, a few miles north, the wind was blowing from the northeast, allowing the British crews to quickly close the distance between the fleets.

At the landmark Split Rock the British caught up with the Americans. Lagging at the end of the line of fleeing boats, the battered row galley Washington surrendered after receiving a few broadsides, being unable to return fire, her commander fearing she would not be able to withstand the recoil of her own cannon. Next, the Congress was overtaken and a 2 ½ hour running battle ensued up the lake. Four of the escaping American gondolas were swept up in the fighting. Out gunned and shattered, the five American boats made a run for the shallows of Ferris Bay (later named Arnold’s Bay.) In the shallow water where the British ships could not follow, the Americans set fire to their ships with the American “Grand Union” flag flying from the mast of the Congress. With his men, some cannon and supplies he could salvage, Arnold set out for Ticonderoga overland.

             

DAR Monument in Spring high water

 
Arnold's Bay, Arnold's Bay Rd.Boat Launch, Panton, Vt.
 

                                                                                                                         





  Carleton sailed up the lake to discover  Crown Point had been burned by the Americans. Uncertain what to do next, the Quebec governor general hesitated at Crown Point while the weather rapidly turned colder and several inches of new snow fell on November 2^nd. Neither laying siege to Fort Ticonderoga through an Adirondack winter nor hunkering down in the burned-out ruins of Crown Point were appealing prospects.             Memories of Abercromby’s disastrous 1758 assault on Ticonderoga in the French and Indian War haunted Carleton. Later that day the British general turned his fleet northward to return to St. Jean and Quebec. Few if any of his officers expressed objections.

Only the row galley Trumbull, the schooners Revenge and the unarmed Enterprise, and one

gundalow, New York reached Ticonderoga. They too would be destroyed, to keep them from falling into enemy hands the following summer when an even larger British force would sweep down the lake.

From a tactical prospective, the Battle of Valcour was a decisive defeat for the Americans but from a strategic prospective it was an American success, accomplishing what Benedict Arnold hoped to do—slowing down Carleton, delaying the invasion until winter’s icy hand would veto it. The British would try again the next year, but in the meantime the Americans would have months to prepare; General Washington would have time to recover from a disastrous summer and fall; and the next invasion would result in the destruction/capture of an entire British Army.

Marker of the Week--a question from last time--What New York town/city gets its name from the Algonquin phrase--
"Uppuqui-sipis-ing" "Reed covered lodge by the watering place"?
 
*In the colonial era cannon were rated by the weight of the cannon balls they shot. Thus, a 12 pounder threw a 12 lb. cannonball. The guns of the two fleets varied from diminutive 2 pounders to ship smashing 24 pounders.
**There is considerable disagreement over exact numbers with different observers reporting different numbers and caliber of cannon and even the numbers of British gunboats engaged. 
***James L.Nelson, in Benedict Arnold's Navy, McGraw Hill, 2006 presents this analysis and is a major source of information for much of this post.