It Happened Here -- Carding and Fulling

(and Linen Mills, too)

It has been asserted that every self sufficient "rural town" in New York had at least one of these by 1800, or certainly by 1850.  But today if you asked New Yorkers--even rural New Yorkers what carding and fulling mills were, probably not one in twenty could tell you.

          Near the end of the Berne-Altamont Rd., Berne

 Mills were an early part of the American colonial experience. Mills took over some of the most tedious and laborious work in colonial times. Usually within two to ten years of a town's settlement water-or-wind-powered grist mills were grinding a community's grain and many communities soon built sawmills, as well, to turn rough squared timber into uniform planks for everything from house siding, roofing and flooring, to furniture, to ship hull planking, bulkheads and decks.

  3 years before Catskill was bought from the Indians
                         Catskill had its first mill

           Main St. Catskill, at the Hans Vosen Kill (creek)

Rte. 9W, N. of Saugerties, "the Sawmills

Undershot wheel in the wheelhouse of an old mill
(probably 19th Century) at the Sawyer kill

Rte 375 at Tannery Brook, Woodstock

 Before cotton became widely available in the colonial North, wool and linen were staple fabrics. Most farms in colonial New York had a few sheep and a ready supply of wool but there were several laborious steps to turning raw wool into wool fabric.  The first of these was carding--combing bunches of wool into a wide belt of wool with the fibres (hair) roughly aligned and much of the dirt, manure, thorns and twigs combed from it.  To do this, pairs of flat paddles with rows of sharp teeth were employed to hold and tease out the wool.  Carding mills were developed to do the same with rotating drums studded with teeth, and rollers, rotating at slightly different speeds to tease the wool into relatively clean wool strips.

For many years spinning and weaving remained hand (and foot-driven) processes.  With Englishman James Hargeaves 1767 spinning "Jenny"cotton fibers could be machine spun. Improved upon by Thomas High and Richard Arkwright spinning became a mill process. But the British government considered these innovations as something of a state secret forbidding the export of any textile machine or plans for one. Finally, in 1789 Englishman Samuel Slater, apprenticed on the Arkwright machine, memorized the plans of the machine and secretly sailed to America.  Partnering with an American merchant in Pawtucket, Rhode Island he built the first cotton spinning factory.*  Again, in England, Rev. Edmund Cartwright built the first power loom.  In 1811, American Francis Cabot Lowell, after visiting England, designed the first American power loom.  By the late 1830's modifications of these machines made woolen spinning and weaving widespread.

Woven wool cloth was both greasy and stiff. (The natural lanolin in sheep's skin made it so.) To make it usable, the cloth had to be soaked in a detergent and worked/ beaten.  Urine made a cheap, if unaesthetic, detergent and soaking in it was followed by a scrubbing in very hot, soapy water.  Before mechanized fulling mills, in the British Isles, wool cloth was "waulked" by parties of women. An early woodcut shows a party of Scots peasant women seated side by side with legs out stretched pounding woolen cloth with their heels, singing a "waulking song" to maintain a rhythmic tempo.  "Waulking" helped compact the fibres making the cloth soft but stronger and water resistant. Fuller's earth, a fine grained absorbent clay with detergent properties began replacing urine early in America and fulling mill wheels used heavy wooden hammers or pestles to thump the cloth. Oliver Evans** in 1795 developed mill machinery that mechanically advanced the cloth as well. 

The washed cloth was stretched over "tenter" frames on sunny hillsides and held in place on "tenterhooks" to dry and shrink evenly. 

 A last process involved raising the nap on the wool by brushing it with teasel seed pods. Teasel pods*** are covered with fine hooked barbs used to raise individual hairs from the yarn, tangling them together and making the fabric both stronger and "fuzzy".  At fulling mills teasels were attached to rotating drums and used to brush the wool cloth.

Rte 4 Schuylerville at Fish Creek

Linen, like wool is an ancient fabric and like wool required extensive preparation, beyond spinning and weaving. Linen is made from fibers in the flax plant. (Biologically, they are part of the Phloem, long capillary-like fibers that bring water and nutrients from the plant's roots.) These fibers, however, are bonded to both the plant's core and outer bark and must be broken down by "retting" (literally rotting) by laying the harvested flax on the field, subjecting it to heavy dews or rain, or submerging it in bundles in a pond or stream for several weeks. Once retted, the flax was dried out and the brittle core and epidermis broken up on a hand operated flax break.  The pieces were then beaten/combed out with a wooden flax knife. "Scrutchening"was an extremely tedious process that might yield 15 lbs. a day! Finally, the flax was combed/heckled by running it through a card of "heckels", sharp-toothed nails, that removed the smallest woody pieces and and bits of fibers, and separated and polished the long fibers before they were spun. It is easy to imagine how the machinery developed for carding and fulling could be adapted for flax preparation, even before machines took over spinning and weaving.




*A few years later, in 1793,  Eli Whitney invented the hand cranked "cotton gin" which mechanized the slow process of separating the tightly held cotton fibers from their seeds, making cotton raising profitable (and increasing the use of slaves, in the South.)

**see "It Happened Here--Welcome to a Tech Valley, 1830's Style"  3/24/14

***Teasel was introduced to the America in 1733 for fulling. Descendants of these plants can often be found growing on well drained sunny hillsides. 

References.  

 "Berne Carding and Fulling Mills".  www.albanyhilltowns.com/wikiBerne /index.php?title=Berne_Carding_and_Fulling_Mills 

"How Linen is Made --Deck Towel". www.decktowel.com/pages/how-linen-is-made-from-flax-to-fabric 
                           
Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Craftsmen and the Beginnings of American Industry. Cleveland, 1965.

             

Rte. 376, Augusta

Addenda--  Quite unexpectedly I came across this marker, southwest of Rome and Fort Stanwix.  The Treaty of 1768 gave George Croghan and his mentor, Sir William Johnson opportunity to complete several land deals and take possession of Iroquois land promised to Sir William. see my post of 2/5/14
"King of the (Indian) Traders"

It Happened Here -- The Battle of Plattsburgh

Part 3, The Battle across the Saranac, and the Conclusion

As the Americans tore off the planking on the bridges across the Saranac River and retired into their own lines, the British occupied the town on the north side of the river.
Farms on the outskirts of town became supply dumps and stables for the British army's horses and mules. Basements and some of the first floors of houses just beyond the battle lines became makeshift hospitals while other houses became quarters for officers.

On Latour Ave., N. of Plattsburgh, off Rte. 9

Oak and Court Sts., Plattsburgh

                                                                                                                                                                          Near where the Saranac empties into the bay, the Royal Artillery constructed batteries to bombard the American forts and keep American ships from getting too close to the British lines. Just north of the batteries, the Delord house became the Royal Artillery headquarters.

Kent-Delord House, Cornelia and Cumberland Av. P'burgh

 Major General DeRottenburg, commander of the left division of the army established his HQ in a house overlooking the town and the Saranac River.  At the highest part of the ridge closest to the Saranac battle lines and Cumberland Bay, Sir George Prevost commandeered the Edward Allen farm for his headquarters. Sir George was the governor of Lower Canada.  A francophone and a staunch supporter of the French Canadians, he ignored the vicious criticism of the British press and was instrumental in keeping the Canadian French loyal to the British Empire throughout the Napoleonic years.  With limited resources, he had successfully countered two years of American attacks, relying heavily on Canadian militia, light cavalry and home guards (voltigeurs, chasseurs and fencibles.) Prevost had promoted the plan for an invasion down the Champlain Valley, and now he was leading it.
 

Rt. 3 and the Northway

The Saranac is a stony wandering river that twists and turns generally in a north eastern direction until it flows into Plattsburgh's Cumberland bay.  Though not deep, its current is fast, making wading across it extremely difficult.  In many places, the south bank is higher than the north bank.

The Saranac from the Bridge St. Bridge

 (like along much of the river, this section was heavily wooded with overhanging trees)

Rte. 9, S.Plattsburgh

The river and the bay form a wide peninsula and across this peninsula the Americans built three forts. Fort Brown, on the bank of the Saranac had cannon that could range up the river or across into the town. Fort Moreau, on the center of the peninsula, was the largest, and Fort Scott had cannon that could defend the American lines from naval assault. Two blockhouses, one near the eastern point of the peninsula, another ahead of fort Moreau, at the center of the peninsula and a fortified stone mill at the upper bridge completed the defensive strong-points. Along much of the line were trenches, and bastions that enabled defenders to fire down the trenches if the lines were breached.

All that remains of Fort Scott are slight mounds, once the parapet, interrupted by embrasures that protected cannon positioned here.

N. end of Ft.Brown Dr. at the former Plattsburgh AF Base

The remains of Fort Moreau were leveled to make way for a parade ground for the military base located there, around the end of the 19th century. Many artifacts, and the skeletal remains of one of its defenders were found.

Firing across the lines became widespread and frequent, while the British army waited five days for the British fleet to arrive. At first they fired from windows and roof tops in the occupied town until the American army commander Alexander Macomb ordered furnace-heated cannon balls to be fired into the buildings, burning down those structures within range, that hid snipers.

Rte 9, at Salmon River, South Plattsburgh

While American militia units suffered from numerous, even widespread desertions, the army was bolstered by many volunteers, citizens with no military affiliation who showed up to lend a hand.  Many came from Vermont and large numbers of these were organized and equipped by William Gilliland Jr.* at his farm on the Salmon river landing, south of Plattsburgh.  "Exempt" units were formed by Revolutionary war veterans and "seniors",officially exempt from militia duty due to their age.  A most unusual group of volunteers came from Plattsburgh, itself.

Plaque commemorating Martin Aiken, Rt. 22, Willsboro

Martin Aiken, was a 21 year old law student who ran the Plattsburgh Academy, a secondary school for boys whose ages were 10 to 17.  With their classes interrupted, the boys, numbering less than twenty decided to form a company and volunteer.  Aiken was prevailed upon to become their captain and 20 year old Azariah Flagg, became their lieutenant. Armed with old family muskets and squirrel guns, the boys, many of whom had hunted for their family's dinner table, followed the militia into battle. They stationed themselves around Mr Halsey's house at Halsey's Corners and when forced back, retreated through the woods in time to help remove the planking from the Dead Creek Bridge, and skirmish with the approaching British. When the Americans were pushed back to their trenches, the boys hiked to Pike's Cantonment at the far western end of the line where volunteers were collecting and being armed to try to get better muskets for themselves. In the the next couple days, they seemed to be everywhere, skirmishing and scouting.**  Three of their number were nearly killed when, returning from a scout, they detoured to recover a box of whiskey and spirits they knew was hidden in a barn. The boys were unscathed as they crossed in a hail of bullets and covering fire.  On the morning of the 11th, as the naval battle raged on the bay Aiken's Volunteers were at the old stone mill near the mouth of the Saranac defending the bridge  as General Brisbane's wing was driven back repeatedly in its attempt to cross it.

Plaque on the Bridge St. Bridge, near the original wooden bridge, Plattsburgh

Martin Aiken survived the battle, became a lawyer and practiced law for many years in the village of Essex, becoming the district attorney for Essex County.

Azariah Flagg was the young editor of the Plattsburgh Republican, a newspaper that would survive to today, becoming the Plattsburgh-Press Republican. 

Rte 22, Willsboro





The stout defense that Sir George observed coming from the American lines convinced him he should attempt to find a crossing point to get around the western end of the American's line and attack them from the south or southwest. On the morning of the 11th he launched attacks and artillery bombardments up and down the line, to hide his main objective, a flanking attack. During the attack British rockets were used, and to everyone's surprise, some of these unguided missiles slammed into the U.S. blockhouse guarding the lower bridge, setting it afire and killing the soldiers inside.

Under the cover of the morning's actions a column of 7000 men was assembled in two divisions commanded by Generals Powers and Robinson. Marching on the north side of the ridge, to avoid being seen, they passed behind General Prevost's HQ before turning south and plunging into the deep tangled woods that covered acres north and south of the Saranac.  Lost in a maze of cart tracks and logging paths they wandered for an hour before realizing they were lost and needed to back-track. Eventually they found the river and the ford leading to Pike's Cantonment, a camp of wooden huts built to house the Army in the first year of the war. At the ford they encountered stiff resistance from a mixed group of 400 militia, volunteerss, and regulars, but were able to force their way through.

Beyond it, perhaps at the Cantonment's parade grounds,Vermont's General Sam Strong had drawn up his mixed assortment of some 2,500 men. Looking at their ragged appearance, he realized they could never stand up to the orderly massed ranks of British regulars in an open battle, and ordered them to withdraw and fight a delaying battle from behind rocks and trees.  The day before, General Macomb had ordered the Americans to hide the road from the Cantonment to the village by felling trees and dragging brush over it. General Powers' division raced ahead, convinced that the retreating Americans would lead them via the shortest route to the American lines.  Following behind, General Robertson realized General Powers men were heading south, away from, not toward the American lines.  Turning left, he prepared to follow the Saranac to the backside of the American lines. He would claim, afterward, he had gotten to a point where he could actually see the Americans in their works.
                                                                            -----
On the bay, both fleets lay shattered; its crews decimated and exhausted. A glimmer of hope may have arisen on the British side when they saw the Americans of the Saratoga cease  firing and abandon their cannon.  But hope turned to horror when they realized the Americans were cutting some anchor lines and winding others ("spring lines") around the ship, up to the capstan. ***  Slowly the Saratoga began to pivot in place until a whole new row of undamaged guns was pointed at the Confiance. The Ticonderoga similarly repeated the procedure.  Frantically, the Confiance  tried to turn on her spring cables but with her bow smashed, and several anchors shot away she was unable. A couple broadside from the American's fresh guns decided the issue. Confiance surrendered. Linnet surrendered. The British gunboats scuttled away.  By 11:00 the bay was silent.

Lake Shore Rd., Chazy Landing

                                                                                                          -----
From his hilltop headquarters, George Prevost could hear and see  (at least from the sounds of gunfire and the direction of gunpowder smoke) much of what was going on.  And much of what he observed deeply alarmed him.  Sir George was undoubtedly well aware of what had transpired in the last war with the Americans. Although it was only September he undoubtedly knew that the clock was ticking. He undoubtedly knew how his predecessor in the last war, Governor Sir Guy Carleton had destroyed the enemy Arnold's fleet but had to flee to escape the grasp of winter that came on in the first week of November in 1776. More than most British commanders, this governor of Lower Canada knew how completely and finally winter could shut down military operations.  All summer long he had been urging his naval counterparts to complete their preparations, but to no avail, until Fall was now upon them.

He knew from the last war how dependent the Army was on the Navy--the lifeline it provided in this vast wilderness.  He knew in the last war how a whole army (Cornwalis') had been forced to surrender when its lifeline failed it.  Undoubtedly, Prevost was promptly told when the British ships had "struck their colors" and surrendered, but perhaps he could even see when the firing ceased, and the smoke drifted away the de-masted shattered state of the fleet he depended on.

And finally he could see from the rising musket smoke and hear from the increasing tempo of musket and rifle fire, (now that the bay was silent) how his flanking force in the thick woods was being drawn away and enveloped by American troops that seemed to materialize out of the woods, its self.
Disturbing images of the battles at Saratoga must have flashed through his mind.  In its wars with the Americans, Britain had lost two armies.  Sir George was determined not to lose a third!  The Commander issued a general order for withdrawal.

 The withdrawal proceeded rapidly although the British artillery bombardment continued until 3pm.  (This was to suppress any American attack and--better to use the heavy cannon ammunition up, than have to drag it all the way back to Canada!) Arrangements were made with the Americans to care for the British wounded. Much of the Army's supplies were destroyed. If a wagon broke down, its contents were destroyed****.

Planned for the Centenary, the monument was completed in 1926

The 135 ft obelisk is surmounted by a bronze eagle

From her home in Chazy, Mrs.Hubbell watched with a grim sense of satisfaction as the long columns of red coated infantrymen marched past.  Then suddenly she saw a group of mounted officers she recognized.  As before, they commandeered her house for the night and Mrs Hubbell reminded them of their pledge.  Before they left, they surrendered their purses.




*see my post of 9/8/15 doe an article on Wiliam Gilliland, Sr., a North Country pioneer, "In Sir William's Footsteps"

**General Macomb encountered them frequently on regular inspections of the works during the battle. In his after-action  report he was lavish in his praise for the boys and gave them each a rifle, but was forced to collect them when his quartermaster reminded him he could not give away government property. The U.S. Congress eventually made amends for the recall in 1826 by giving new Hall Model 1824 breech loading rifles to each of the boys--now grown men. Each carried a silver personalized plaque citing their company's contribution. Several of these rifles still exist.

***Capstans were barrel-like winches located on ship's main decks used to pull in or let out anchors, and through block and tackle, sometimes raise or lower heavy sails.  Half a dozen or more sailors would operate them by walking around them  pushing on bars inserted in the capstans to turn them.

****And a final folk story in this battle that has so many stories--In their haste to leave the British left behind many things. Samuel Lowell's home on Boynton Avenue was occupied by General Brisbane and his staff.  Mrs. Lowell "put aside" a keg of British gold, then recovered it after the British hurriedly left.  While this story may be apocryphal, the Lowells did build a fine new house soon after the battle!

A good deal of confusion and contradictions exist about the Battle of Plattsburgh, from its British objective, to the route of the invasion force, to the location and particulars of the battle, itself,  to  the final flanking maneuver of the British in the woods over the upper Saranac. In these articles I have been unable present all the alternatives or to do any of them justice. A reading of these three books, which I heavily relied on will give the interested reader a much better understanding

Everest, Allan S.  The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley. Syracuse 1981
Fitz-Enz, Col. David G.  The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, The War of 1812's Most Decisive Battle. New York 2001
Herkalo, Keith A.  The Battles at Plattsburgh, September 11, 1814.  Charleston, SC 2012

It Happened Here -- The Battle of Plattsburgh

Part 2, The Battle in the Bay

The basin below the Falls, Canal St. Vergennes, off Vt.22A

An early warehouse on the Otter Creek Basin

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 "bones" of the Ticonderoga, Skenesborough Museum, Skensborough Dr., Whitehall, NY
 

 

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.

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 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."

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.)