It Happened Here -- The Battle of Plattsburgh
Part 2, The Battle in the Bay
Most of the year the basin below the falls at Vergennes Vermont is as placid as a mill pond. At its head is the falls that powered the mills at the beginning of the industrial revolution. At its foot is Otter creek, a winding gentle stream that flows into Lake Champlain. But in the summer of 1814, in a scene reminiscent of what occurred at Whitehall almost forty years before, Americans were racing to build a fleet to counter the British on Lake Champlain. In October 1812, Thomas Macdonough, though only a lieutenant was placed in charge of naval defenses on Lake Champlain*. Though young, he had had extensive experience in small boat warfare in the Tripolian War as well as the "quasi-war" with France of 1798-1801. Aboard the frigate Constellation he was thoroughly tutored in naval-sailing tactics. Macdonough's command was nearly eliminated in 1813 when Lt. Sidney Smith, Macdonough's subordinate, against orders, attacked the British on the Richelieu River and suffered the capture of both his sloops**. Hearing that the British were building up their fleet, already enhanced by the captured American vessels, Congress authorized Macdonough to rebuild his fleet at the Otter Creek anchorage. Otter Creek had several advantages. Timber was plentiful and nearby. Iron was obtainable from Monkton, Vt. and the falls could provide motive power for sawmills, forges and furnaces. Otter Creek was also defensible. In May 1814 the British squadron attempted to sail up Otter Creek but was driven off by a few of the ships' guns, set up by the Army in a battery, "Fort Cassin," at the mouth of Otter creek.
In February1814 Adam and Noah Brown, master shipwrights had been hired by the Navy department By early spring two hundred ship carpenters and workers were busy at the Otter Creek anchorage. A new "Eagle," a 20 gun brig was built, along with 6 row galley-gunboats. The Ticonderoga, an early steamboat, plagued with constant mechanical problems was purchased locally and converted into a 14 gun sail-powered sloop. And, most remarkably, a 26 gun sloop of war, Saratoga was built, from the keel up, in forty days.
The British, for their part, had been busy building the Linnet a 20 gun brig and the Confiance, a frigate, the largest vessel ever constructed to sail the lake. Fully one third larger than the Saratoga, the Confiance carried 37 guns. Most of these guns were new 7 1/2 ft. long, Concreve guns with a range twice as far as the shorter carronades, the main gun of the American squadron.
While the British Army was advancing on Plattsburgh, the British naval forces were still struggling to get ready. Up until recently the Confiance was not ready. On the first of a few short "shake down" cruises, where newly composed crews practiced and learned to work together, and problems and deficiencies were supposed to be discovered and corrected, the Confiance's magazine was still unfinished and the frigate left its anchorage with much of her ship's powder and munitions in tow in a string of small boats behind her while ship-carpenters frantically finished up the magazine, at the same time dealing with a multiplicity of leaks which inevitably plagued a new ship. The ship carpenters would be on board, working until the day before the battle. The crew, itself was a problem, drawn from perhaps a dozen different ships, with a large number of landsmen on board--drafts from the regiments of the regular army. It would take time for them to be worked into a well functioning team, skilled in the intricacies of sailing and the complex choreography of loading, firing and reloading the big guns. And time they did not have. The new Concreve guns, themselves, would have problems, beginning with the immediate discovery that their flint-lock firing mechanisms did not fit the guns, and they would have to be fired from a spark from gun captains' flintlock pistols. It would not be until after the battle that a crucial aiming problem would be recognized***. Finally, there was the Captain of the Confiance, himself. Weeks before the departure date, Captain Daniel Pring was transferred to the Linnet and command of the Confiance given to George Downie. Downie was an experienced captain, but one who had never sailed on Lake Champlain and had not experienced its shifting and fickle winds, nor had he acquired the wealth of concrete knowledge of Lake Champlain's shoals and sand bars that experienced lake pilots acquired.
Captain Macdonough, by agreement with General Macomb, commander of the army, positioned his four ships, the Preble, the Ticonderoga, the Saratoga and the Eagle, in a line, from south to north, with gunboats in between across Plattsburgh's Cumberland bay where he could protect the American forts and American lines from naval bombardment.
Captain Downie made his attack, from the south, with the little Finch leading the attack, followed by Downie's Confiance, followed by the Linnet, then followed by the Chub. Staying out of range of Macdonough's short guns, Downie's intention was to bombard Macdonough's fleet with all of his port side guns, turn, once past them, and turn south, allowing his starboard side guns to do their work and repeat the maneuver until Macdonough's fleet was a shattered line of derelicts.
Downie's first broadside was devastating. The Saratoga shuttered under the Confiance's onslaught, but the crew of the Saratoga took encouragement from an incident that has become part of the folklore of the battle. According to one version, a fighting gamecock, a pet (?), was being kept in a wooden cage on deck. A cannonball from the first broadside smashed the cage but the rooster, instead of cowering, or running away, flew up to the low rigging and crowed lustily at the enemy.****
After the first attack, however, the wind died and the eddying current, which flowed north in the main part of the lake, swirled south in the bay bringing the British flotilla into the range of the American guns. Hastily the British dropped their anchors and prepared to slug it out. The first American broadside did serious damage to the Confiance, ripping up her bow, parting the anchor cable to the main anchor. Smaller kedge anchors were rowed out in the ship's boats and dropped to prevent the Confiance from drifting out of position.
Soon after the battle began, Macdonough was knocked unconscious by falling rigging. After a few minutes he recovered and returned to the cannon he was commanding only to be knocked across the deck by the severed head of a young midshipman working a gun next to his, decapitated by another cannonball. The incident may have saved his life, however, because moments later another cannonball screamed down the deck taking out a whole group of American sailors. Conditions were just as bad on the British ships. On the Confiance, Captain Downie was killed when a cannon he was sighting was struck by a shot from the Americans. The 2500 lb. barrel jumped off of its carriage, landing full on his chest. From on shore, individual shots could not be distinguished. Instead, a continuous deafening roar arose from the lake. The carnage caused by cannon fire and huge splinters blasted by incoming shot was unremitting. Sailors slipped and slid in the blood on decks, which ran from the scuppers (deck drains) like rainwater from a summer storm.
The larger ships weren't the only ones suffering massive damage. The Eagle fired a 10 gun broadside at the Chub which tore up her gun deck rendered her unsailable. She drifted between the Saratoga and the Confiance. With only six of he 41 crewmen left unscathed on deck she was captured near shore.
The Finch attempted to attack the Ticonderoga after the initial melee but with three large holes beneath her waterline, and a badly damaged main boom she drifted and grounded on Crab Island. The British gunboats accompanying the Finch, attempted to approach the Ticonderoga but were driven back by a storm of grape shot. The Linnet was in no better shape, its rigging shattered, and nearly dis-masted, its chance of escape seemed remote.
After nearly two hours of intense combat, the large ships were still going at it but the pace of battle was slowing as fewer guns facing the enemy were working. Cannon fire had disabled most but many had been rendered inoperable by their own battle-shocked, exhausted and inexperienced crews. Some guns had been overloaded with multiple cannonballs, and could not be fired. Others were found to have wadding placed before the powder charges so they would not fire and others had been damaged when not sponge out properly and their gunpowder charges exploded prematurely.
For an instant members of the British crews may have thought they had prevailed when on board the Saratoga firing abruptly stopped and they could see the Saratoga's crews abandoning their guns.
Next Week-- It Happened Here-- The Battle of Plattsburgh, Part 3--
The Battle Across the Saranac, and the Conclusion
Addenda--Last week I mentioned I would be featuring signs I had missed, or hadn't photographed for earlier articles. Here is one I wished I had for the 8/26/13 article, "Pioneers and Potash."
*In May 1813 he would be promoted to "Master Commandant".
**The British incorporated them into their own inland navy and with perhaps a touch of dry British humor renamed them. Now part of the dominant world navy that included many 60 to 100+ gun men-of-war, the 11 gun "Eagle" became the Finch, a small songbird; the 10 gun "Growler," the slang name for a hard fighting black bass game-fish, became the Chub, a small bait fish.
*** Some artillery experts have asserted that because the Congreve guns had extra weight in the breech, making them unbalanced they tended to to rock when fired. This jolt would tend to loosen the gun's quoin ( a wedge to lower or elevate the barrel) so that at each firing the gun would shoot higher. Since both fleets were anchored and stationary, in the heat of battle the British crews may have not checked their aim so that successive firing would cause the British shot to go higher, heavily damaging the American's rigging but doing less damage to the American hulls and crews!
****Another version has it that several cages of live poultry were on deck, as provisions for the crew. When the ship was cleared for action, the cages were thrown overboard, after the poultry was freed, and as in the first version, a surviving rooster made his heroic show of bravado. (A skeptic might question how a caged rooster, or a flock of loose chickens would be allowed on a crowded gun deck, cleared for action.)
 |
| The basin below the Falls, Canal St. Vergennes, off Vt.22A |
 |
| An early warehouse on the Otter Creek Basin |
In February1814 Adam and Noah Brown, master shipwrights had been hired by the Navy department By early spring two hundred ship carpenters and workers were busy at the Otter Creek anchorage. A new "Eagle," a 20 gun brig was built, along with 6 row galley-gunboats. The Ticonderoga, an early steamboat, plagued with constant mechanical problems was purchased locally and converted into a 14 gun sail-powered sloop. And, most remarkably, a 26 gun sloop of war, Saratoga was built, from the keel up, in forty days.
 |
The "bones" of the Ticonderoga, Skenesborough Museum, Skensborough Dr., Whitehall, NY |
 |
| Brt. Naval Cannon, Sackets Harbor |
 | |||||||||
| A Carronade, Sackets Harbor |
While the British Army was advancing on Plattsburgh, the British naval forces were still struggling to get ready. Up until recently the Confiance was not ready. On the first of a few short "shake down" cruises, where newly composed crews practiced and learned to work together, and problems and deficiencies were supposed to be discovered and corrected, the Confiance's magazine was still unfinished and the frigate left its anchorage with much of her ship's powder and munitions in tow in a string of small boats behind her while ship-carpenters frantically finished up the magazine, at the same time dealing with a multiplicity of leaks which inevitably plagued a new ship. The ship carpenters would be on board, working until the day before the battle. The crew, itself was a problem, drawn from perhaps a dozen different ships, with a large number of landsmen on board--drafts from the regiments of the regular army. It would take time for them to be worked into a well functioning team, skilled in the intricacies of sailing and the complex choreography of loading, firing and reloading the big guns. And time they did not have. The new Concreve guns, themselves, would have problems, beginning with the immediate discovery that their flint-lock firing mechanisms did not fit the guns, and they would have to be fired from a spark from gun captains' flintlock pistols. It would not be until after the battle that a crucial aiming problem would be recognized***. Finally, there was the Captain of the Confiance, himself. Weeks before the departure date, Captain Daniel Pring was transferred to the Linnet and command of the Confiance given to George Downie. Downie was an experienced captain, but one who had never sailed on Lake Champlain and had not experienced its shifting and fickle winds, nor had he acquired the wealth of concrete knowledge of Lake Champlain's shoals and sand bars that experienced lake pilots acquired.
Captain Macdonough, by agreement with General Macomb, commander of the army, positioned his four ships, the Preble, the Ticonderoga, the Saratoga and the Eagle, in a line, from south to north, with gunboats in between across Plattsburgh's Cumberland bay where he could protect the American forts and American lines from naval bombardment.
Captain Downie made his attack, from the south, with the little Finch leading the attack, followed by Downie's Confiance, followed by the Linnet, then followed by the Chub. Staying out of range of Macdonough's short guns, Downie's intention was to bombard Macdonough's fleet with all of his port side guns, turn, once past them, and turn south, allowing his starboard side guns to do their work and repeat the maneuver until Macdonough's fleet was a shattered line of derelicts.
Downie's first broadside was devastating. The Saratoga shuttered under the Confiance's onslaught, but the crew of the Saratoga took encouragement from an incident that has become part of the folklore of the battle. According to one version, a fighting gamecock, a pet (?), was being kept in a wooden cage on deck. A cannonball from the first broadside smashed the cage but the rooster, instead of cowering, or running away, flew up to the low rigging and crowed lustily at the enemy.****
After the first attack, however, the wind died and the eddying current, which flowed north in the main part of the lake, swirled south in the bay bringing the British flotilla into the range of the American guns. Hastily the British dropped their anchors and prepared to slug it out. The first American broadside did serious damage to the Confiance, ripping up her bow, parting the anchor cable to the main anchor. Smaller kedge anchors were rowed out in the ship's boats and dropped to prevent the Confiance from drifting out of position.
Soon after the battle began, Macdonough was knocked unconscious by falling rigging. After a few minutes he recovered and returned to the cannon he was commanding only to be knocked across the deck by the severed head of a young midshipman working a gun next to his, decapitated by another cannonball. The incident may have saved his life, however, because moments later another cannonball screamed down the deck taking out a whole group of American sailors. Conditions were just as bad on the British ships. On the Confiance, Captain Downie was killed when a cannon he was sighting was struck by a shot from the Americans. The 2500 lb. barrel jumped off of its carriage, landing full on his chest. From on shore, individual shots could not be distinguished. Instead, a continuous deafening roar arose from the lake. The carnage caused by cannon fire and huge splinters blasted by incoming shot was unremitting. Sailors slipped and slid in the blood on decks, which ran from the scuppers (deck drains) like rainwater from a summer storm.
 |
| from a tablet sign off Hamilton St. Plattsburgh, overlooking Am. Lines |
 |
| Anchor from the Confiance in City Hall |
The Finch attempted to attack the Ticonderoga after the initial melee but with three large holes beneath her waterline, and a badly damaged main boom she drifted and grounded on Crab Island. The British gunboats accompanying the Finch, attempted to approach the Ticonderoga but were driven back by a storm of grape shot. The Linnet was in no better shape, its rigging shattered, and nearly dis-masted, its chance of escape seemed remote.
After nearly two hours of intense combat, the large ships were still going at it but the pace of battle was slowing as fewer guns facing the enemy were working. Cannon fire had disabled most but many had been rendered inoperable by their own battle-shocked, exhausted and inexperienced crews. Some guns had been overloaded with multiple cannonballs, and could not be fired. Others were found to have wadding placed before the powder charges so they would not fire and others had been damaged when not sponge out properly and their gunpowder charges exploded prematurely.
For an instant members of the British crews may have thought they had prevailed when on board the Saratoga firing abruptly stopped and they could see the Saratoga's crews abandoning their guns.
Next Week-- It Happened Here-- The Battle of Plattsburgh, Part 3--
The Battle Across the Saranac, and the Conclusion
Addenda--Last week I mentioned I would be featuring signs I had missed, or hadn't photographed for earlier articles. Here is one I wished I had for the 8/26/13 article, "Pioneers and Potash."
 |
| Located in plain sight is this one on Rte 5, between N. Illion and E.Schuyler |
*In May 1813 he would be promoted to "Master Commandant".
**The British incorporated them into their own inland navy and with perhaps a touch of dry British humor renamed them. Now part of the dominant world navy that included many 60 to 100+ gun men-of-war, the 11 gun "Eagle" became the Finch, a small songbird; the 10 gun "Growler," the slang name for a hard fighting black bass game-fish, became the Chub, a small bait fish.
*** Some artillery experts have asserted that because the Congreve guns had extra weight in the breech, making them unbalanced they tended to to rock when fired. This jolt would tend to loosen the gun's quoin ( a wedge to lower or elevate the barrel) so that at each firing the gun would shoot higher. Since both fleets were anchored and stationary, in the heat of battle the British crews may have not checked their aim so that successive firing would cause the British shot to go higher, heavily damaging the American's rigging but doing less damage to the American hulls and crews!
****Another version has it that several cages of live poultry were on deck, as provisions for the crew. When the ship was cleared for action, the cages were thrown overboard, after the poultry was freed, and as in the first version, a surviving rooster made his heroic show of bravado. (A skeptic might question how a caged rooster, or a flock of loose chickens would be allowed on a crowded gun deck, cleared for action.)
No comments:
Post a Comment