It Happened Here -- The Battle of Valcour Island

Part 1, The Generals' Fleets

Rte. 9, S.Plattsburgh

From a distance, Valcour island looks much as it did in 1776. Heavily forested, it lies a few hundred yards off the western shore of Lake Champlain.  Even its lighthouse, built in the 19th century appears to be succumbing to the growing forest.  It was here in the little bay at the southern end of this island that Benedict Arnold chose to make his stand against the invading British.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1776 the British and the Americans were in a frantic competition to build fleets. Both sides faced formidable challenges.  General Guy Carleton ordered a gunboat and two schooners the Maria and the Carleton stripped down and dragged overland past the rapids-chocked central section of the Richlieu River that drains Lake Champlain* while a 180 ton, three masted ship, the Inflexible, was taken apart, carted around the rapids and reassembled at St. Jean above the rapids.  At least 12 gunboats were shipped from England in pieces and also assembled at St. Jeans, as were some 30 longboats which would carry the army and their provisions. Finally, a large barge-like scow, a "radeau," was built at the Richlieu River shipyard to carry the heaviest guns to reduce the stone fort Ticonderoga, occupied by the Americans. Their greatest advantage was that the fleet that had come to the relief of Quebec could supply the British expedition with all the naval stores it needed; all the largest and best cannon it could support; and ship carpenters and sailors drawn from the world's greatest and most professional navy.

The Americans, in contrast, started from almost nothing, other than a few carriage-less cannon left at Ticonderoga**. Overnight, Skenesborough (Whitehall) at the head of Lake Champlain became a bustling port and shipbuilding center that Tory Phillip Skene might have dreamed of. 

Main Street, Whitehall

Hermanus Schuyler, son of General Phillip Schuyler, head of the Northern Department oversaw the construction of shipways, sheds and workshops necessary for the creation of a shipbuilding port. Along Adirondack rivers, running down to the lake, axemen and sawyers cut timbers and planks for vessels.  General Schuyler and others begged and cajoled Continental officials for cordage, gunpowder, ship fittings and all manner of things necessary for military vessels. (The massive British occupation of New York harbor frustrated American efforts to build frigates at Poughkeepsie, giving Schuyler an argument for reallocating desperately needed ship stores to his command.)

On Rte 9 south Prospect Ave. exit ramp, Poughkeepsie

 Site of H.Schuyler House
 built in Stillwater on Rte. 32

Rte 22, Essex

    

          



But the biggest obstacle was the recruitment of experienced seamen and ship carpenters. The war had created a privateering bonanza for rebel seamen, and few experienced sailors were willing to exchange the money to be made in preying off British coastal commerce for the dangers, privations, and uncertainty of service on the lakes of upper New York.  Farmers, tradesmen and those with a passing familiarity with watercraft would have to serve as "Arnold's navy". The General was able to recruit about 200 ship carpenters from Connecticut and New Jersey only by offering them wages higher than all other naval personnel, except those of Continental Navy commander Esek Hopkins.

Lake Shore Rd. Chazy Landing

Beyond knowledge of the approximate number of enemy boats Benedict Arnold had little detailed knowledge of the strength of forces arrayed against him.  But he knew he could expect to be outsailed, outgunned and outfought by the Royal Navy's professionals.  After exploring the lower reaches of the lake and examining several possible anchorages, the Connecticut general and sometimes sea captain found for his little fleet the maritime equivalent of a foxhole!
Valcour Bay at the southern end of Valcour Island was shallow and narrow. With his boats arrayed across it there was no way he could be outflanked, and little chance enemy boats could break through his line. With prevailing winds coming from the north, his enemy would have to sail past his position, up the main part of the lake, then tack back and forth to get to the Americans--a naval equivalent of holding the high ground. Finally, he hoped the shallows would keep the enemy's larger, more heavily armed ships out of range of the smaller American fleet.

It was a bold desperate  plan, but bold desperate plans would become the hallmark of Benedict Arnold--from a predawn amphibious attack on Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen,--to a march through the howling midwinter Maine wilderness,--to the attack on the city fortress of Quebec in a snowstorm,--to a desperate flanking assault on the Breymann Redoubt at Saratoga,--to, after his disillusionment, a plan to hand over West Point to the British.

*A bit of geography--Lake Champlain empties into the Richlieu River, which empties into the St.Lawrence; so the southern end of the lake is "above" the northern end; to go "up lake" is to go south; "down lake" is north. 
**In 1775 Henry Knox had stripped the fort of its best cannon, making an epic journey to Cambridge Massachusetts to force the British evacuation of Boston. (see NYSHMs: It Happened Here 4/21/13.)


Next time, Part 2 --A Fierce but Unequal Contest.


Marker of the Week-- A couple of years ago  the 8/2/15  issue of "NYSHMs:  It Happened Here" featured Newport, New York's Linus Yale, lock inventor and octagonal house builder.  Discussed in this edition was Orson Squire Fowler the builder/promoter of concrete octagonal houses. Recently in Redhook, NY a beautiful example of one of Fowler houses was recognized  by a Pomeroy Foundation's Roadside Marker. Here it is.

It Happened Here-- In Sir William's Footsteps

Part 2 Will Gilliland

William Gilliland, (he preferred to be called Will) was a well educated, charming young man living in Ireland. When his father died,  his family was thrown into difficult, if not dire financial straits.  But it was an affair with a young lady of the Irish nobility that caused him to leave Ireland when her family objected and pressured him, (or worse) to desist.  Will escaped into the British army and served for four years in the 35th Regiment of Foot during the French and Indian War.  The Regiment was garrisoned at Fort William Henry and it was there he undoubtedly learned of Sir William Johnson.

Sir William, an Irishman, of modest means, like himself  had made a fortune in the wilderness, establishing himself on a vast manor surrounded by his tenant farmers, mills and cottage industries.

Discharged in 1758 in Philadelphia, Will found work in a New York mercantile firm, and soon charmed his way into the life of Elizabeth Phagen, an orphan and the ward of one of his senior business associates. He married the 'beautiful and accomplished' Miss Phagen who fortuitously came with an estate of 1,500 Pounds.

 With the end of the French and Indian War came the promise of soldiers land bounties* and the nullification of French land titles on land below the 45th parallel (the present NY/Canada border).  Sometime after his marriage, Gilliland moved his business interests to Albany which had become something of a hot bed for land speculation. By April 1763 he was advertising in the Irish newspapers for farmers to come to America to be his tenants and in September that year he met with Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall.  Johnson recommended he purchase land along the west shore of Lake Champlain, above Crown Point.  He must have been impressed by the young man for he remained his friend and in 1770  secured for him an appointment as a Civil Magistrate for northern Albany County, which then included the Champlain Valley (!).

Rte. 22, Willsboro

 In 1764 Gilliland applied for and received a land bounty of 2000 acres for himself and soon was assisting other veterans in applying for their land bounties, which he, by pre-agreement, would buy from them. Eventually he would own 50,000 acres. In May 1765, leaving his family in New York, he left with a party of fourteen--a clergyman, carpenters, millwrights, weavers, servants, some of their wives and a slave to build a community on the Bouquet River.  With him he took livestock, and eighty barrels of supplies and building materials. Along the way, in Albany and towns farther north he recruited additional tenants. Known as Milltown at first, Gilliland would later name it Willsborough Falls (after himself) and later it would be shortened to Willsboro.

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

Also that year, Gilliland negotiated purchase of the land bounty of Lt. John Friswell who had surveyed his 2000 acre claim around the mouth of the Salmon River, where it empties into Lake Champlain, and the adjacent Stuart patent, a 2000 acre parcel in what would become the Town of Peru. On the Salmon River property he would founded the town of Janesboro, named after his daughter. Another purchase was made on Cumberland head, a promontory north of what would become the city of Plattsburgh. He named it Charlottesboro after another of his daughters. Additional settlements were laid out--Elizabeth, named for his wife and daughter--a town that became Essex; and Bessboro, later Westport, named for his third daughter.

The following year, the first significant threat to Will Gilliland's growing empire occurred. Count Charles DeFredenburgh, a German nobleman with ties to the British royal household received a grant of 30,000 acres around the Saranac river, where he built a house and a mill.  Fearful that DeFredenburgh's claims would override his own, Gilliland gathered a party of workmen, armed them to the teeth and marched north.  In three days they constructed a house, his "Possession House", in the heretofore unoccupied Janesboro and headed to the Saranac where they presented their claims to DeFredenburgh and warned him against trespassing. At the beginning of the Revolution, DeFredenburgh, a Loyalist, retreated with his family to the safety of Montreal.  During the war he returned to find his house and mill in ashes. Shortly after, Defredenburgh disappeared, never to be seen again. It is thought he may have been murdered for the silver plate and valuables he was thought to have hidden before fleeing to Montreal.

FIRST BUILDING
ERECTED IN THIS SETTLEMENT
STOOD HERE IN 1767.
IT WAS THE HOME OF
COUNT CHARLES DE FREDENBURGH
Location: AT INTERSECTION OF BRIDGE AND CHARLOTTE STS.
 PLATTSBURGH

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

 

 The war years saw a disastrous decline in Will Gilliland's fortunes.  Hungry rebel forces ransacked his properties for food and clothing and any saleable items and escaping Loyalists, heading north burned houses and mills.  When General Burgoyne's invading army camped on the Bouquet river in the spring of 1777, Willsborough was abandoned.

 Gilliland was an early supporter of the rebellion, active in its early planning stages and claimed to have proposed the attack on Ticonderoga to Allen and Arnold. He also claimed to have suggested a compromise to both men when feuding broke out between them. Present at the attack of Ticonderoga, he was one of the many left behind when sufficient numbers of boats could not be found to carry the American army across to attack the fort. 

But Gilliland was also a friend and confident of Philip Skene, a developer like himself who plotted for the creation of a new colony encompassing both shores of Lake Champlain and lands from the border, to Connecticut on the eve of the Revolution.  Skene became known as an infamous Tory, and Gilliland's association with him undoubtedly hurt him.

 A signer of the 1775 Declaration of Principals, written at Crown Point, Gilliland was one of several signers condemned by the Governor of Canada, and had a $500 reward posted for his capture.

Later the Sheriff of Tryon County with a small group of Tories and Indians would attempt to kidnap him, only to be captured by Gilliland and imprisoned at Crown Point, themselves.

In the summer of 1776, Benedict Arnold improvised a small fleet to try to oppose a British invasion led by Governor Carleton. One of the ships landed in Willsboro and commandeered food and supplies. Gilliland angrily fired off a letter to Arnold and his superiors, denouncing his actions and impugning his character. Arnold fired back accusing Gilliland of being unpatriotic and a Tory sympathizer.  The charges would dog him throughout the war. Condemned by the British and distrusted by the Americans, several times Gilliland would be taken into custody and held for months at a time while his business interests languished and his properties lay wrecked and abandoned.

Will Gilliand survived the war but slid into increasing debt.  When a Massachusetts law firm brought him to court for non-payment of a debt he felt was unjustified, he refused to pay and was hauled off to debtors prison for nearly six years from 1786 to 1791. In 1789, in a curious bit of defiance, he had a portrait painted of himself, while in prison by the well known portrait artist Ralph Earl (also, a former inmate). He gazes out from his portrait, a cultured man, smiling slightly with a trace of wistfullness, a trace of deviousness, a trace of resolve, his hand pointing to a document as if to say "It is what is." 

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

By the time he was released some form of dementia had begun to set in. Some of his properties were saved by "gifting" them to his children.  He went to live with one of his daughters in Willsboro, but insisted in taking long walks to examine "his" properties, which in reality, were no longer his. In 1796, on one of his long walks he became disoriented, lost in a snowstorm, and died.

In 1798 residents of Pleasant Valley, Essex County renamed their town Elizabethtown in honor of Gilliland's wife and daughter.

Rte 22, South of Willsboro

 COON MOUNTAIN
NEAR THE NORTHERN BASE OF THIS
MOUNTAIN, WILLIAM GILLILAND,
EARLY PIONEER OF CHAMPLAIN
VALLEY, MET HIS TRAGIC
DEATH IN 1796
Location: ON NYS 22 ABOUT 1 MILE NORTH OF WADHAMS

(NYSHM missing)

















*Land bounties were a way for the Crown to help pay monies owed soldiers and encourage trained soldiers to settle the frontier, organize into militia and protect the colonies from the threat of Indian attack.


 Marker of the Week -- "Mother Lake"

Washington St., next to Riverfront Center, Amsterdam

Her first day on the job Lenora Barry earned $0.11, and that week $0.65, at Pioneer Hosiery an Amsterdam factory where she was paid piece-rate, and often worked twelve hour days. She had been forced to go to work to support her children after her husband, William Barry had died, probably from lead poisoning he had contracted on the job as a painter.  In 1882  she took a manufacturing job because state law forbade her from returning to teaching, as a married woman. Two years later Lenora joined the Knights of Labor. She rose steadily in its ranks becoming a "master workman" representing one thousand workers, then was elected as the "General Investigator" for the Knights of Labor, taking charge of the Working Women's division. She became the first paid woman investigator and organizer; she was on the road continuously, speaking, investigating and writing reports about labor conditions. A direct result of her efforts was the country's first factory inspection law passed in Philadelphia in 1889.  She retired from professional labor organizational activities when she married Obediah Lake, a newspaper publisher in 1890 but "Mother Lake" continued to speak out and give lectures until 1928, at age 78.  Happy Labor Day.

It Happened Here -- What if... 

One of the prerogatives of being a history buff,  as opposed to being a professional historian is you are permitted to (or at least can get away with) occasionally wonder aloud "What if...?"  I have probably allowed myself  more than my fair share of "what if" scenarios.  For example -- What if the guard stationed at Lincoln's box at the Ford Theater had stayed at his post, and chased John Wilkes Booth away, and Lincoln had been allowed to put his stamp on Reconstruction?  What if Aaron Burr had missed, or better yet not allowed himself to become involved in a duel with Alexander Hamilton, and the former resident of Albany, and Vice President, instead of becoming a national pariah, had turned his political fortunes around?  What if Benedict Arnold, instead of breaking bad, and trying to sell out General Washington, and the Continentals, had stayed the course and remained loyal to the war's end when Congress with all its dithering and inaction caused the officers of the Continental Army while in cantonment at New Windsor to nearly stage a military coup? Would the reckless, aggressive and charismatic Arnold, with the others, have been too much for Washington to restrain?

And of course, there is war itself.  War removes suddenly and finally the talents of many men who might have shaped history, leaving us to wonder, "What if...?"  In my pantheon of  "What if" warriors, one who would certainly be near the top is Major General Richard Montgomery.  

Richard Montgomery was born a younger son of Anglo-Irish Gentry in Swords, Ireland. He attended Trinity College for two years at the beginning of the Seven Years War but his father and brother urged him to enter a career in the military, purchasing an ensign's commission for him in the 17th Regiment of Foot. The 17th was deployed to Halifax and participated in the siege of Louisbourg.  Montgomery distinguished himself and was promoted to Lieutenant. In 1759 his regiment was engaged in the Lake George campaign.
Montgomery participated in the investiture and fall of Montreal in 1760 and from there his regiment was shipped to the Caribbean where it helped capture Martinique and Havana.  In Havana he was recognized for his bravery in the storming of Moro Castle and he was promoted to the rank of Captain.

 After the French and Indian War he was dispatched to Ft. Stanwix as part of forces to counter Pontiac's "Rebellion". On the way up the Hudson his ship became grounded near Clermont, the manor house of the southern branch of the Livingston family and while waiting for high tide to re-float the ship, Montgomery went ashore where he met Janet Livingston.  Having served at at Fort Stanwix, Montgomery was assigned to Detroit.  Before the Pontiac "rebellion" he had asked to be allowed to return to England to recuperate from illnesses he had contracted in the Caribbean, that continued to dog him. In 1765 he was granted leave.

In London, with his considerable foreign experience Montgomery became friends with several of Britain's leading liberal/radical members of parliament, Issac Barre, Edmund Burke, and Charles James Fox and he absorbed many of their critiques of British Imperial policy.  His friendship with these radical Whigs also tended to discredit him in the eyes of his conservative military superiors, so when he applied for promotion to the rank of Major, in 1771, he was passed over for someone less qualified. Angered by the snub, in 1772 Montgomery sold his captain's commission and declaring he would devote his life to husbandry, he left for America.

In America he bought a 67 acre farm at Kings Bridge, north of Manhattan and renewed his acquaintance with Janet Livingston who was living in New York.  In 1773 they were married.  Janet's grandfather Judge Henry Beekman gave them a small house in Rhinebeck to live in while they planned a larger house, to be named "Grasmere".

The Montgomery's house located on the Post Rd., was moved to Livingston St., Rhinebeck

Grasmere was begun by Montgomery and finished after his death. Still privately owned, on Mill Rd., Rhinebeck, it is not visible from the road.







Montgomery built a grist mill on the small but fast moving Landsman's Kill

By Bridge, NYS 9, Rhinebeck

 As Britain and her American Colonies became increasingly at loggerheads over the issues of taxation and paying for the defense of the colonies for the French and Indian War, reluctantly both the Livingstons and Montgomery came to believe America needed to fight for its rights and eventually for its independence. Richard was elected to serve as Dutchess County's representative in the New York Provincial Congress then in the summer of 1775 was one of eight offered a rank of Brigadier General in the new Continental Army.  (Only three had any professional military experience.)  With a sense of foreboding, he accepted.

The new Rhinebeck farmer hoped he would serve with Washington in his army outside of Boston but soon learned he was slated for an expedition to take Canada, under General Phillip Schuyler.  Schuyler became ill and Montgomery found himself in command.  On the Richielu River Montgomery probed, then laid siege to Fort St. John.  As the siege dragged on, Montgomery led an assault on the smaller Fort Chambly, ten miles north of Fort St, John.  Perhaps to inspire and give confidence to his amateur troops Montgomery personally led many of the maneuvers himself, demonstrating acts of personal bravery and frequently exposing himself to enemy fire. Standing on a breastwork in front of his siege guns facing Fort St. John he was blown off the embankment by an incoming cannonball but escaped unscathed. After nearly two months Fort St. John finally fell and his force moved on to Montreal. Montreal was evacuated by the British and on December  he linked up with an assault force led by Benedict Arnold. Arnold had made an arduous wilderness journey up the Kennebec River, then down the Chaudiere River to Quebec.

On the night of December 30 in the midst of a covering snowstorm the Americans attacked Quebec. Arnold entered the walled and barricaded city from the north. General Montgomery* attacked the lower town along the river. As usual, Montgomery was in the most exposed position, at the head of the assault troops that sawed through two stockades thrown up to block entrance to the lower city. As he and two of his officers scrambled through the narrow opening a field piece mounted in a fortified house opened fire. A charge of grape shot ripped through the opening. The officers were down and Richard Montgomery was dead.

On the north side of town Arnold's attack was also faltering.  Disabled by a broken ankle, Arnold was having trouble keeping up while his men in the streets, struggling with snow-dampened gunpowder, were pinned down by defenders firing from houses on all sides.  Within a few hours it was over.  Most of the Americans inside the city were killed or rounded up and captured. And the surviving leaderless Americans outside the city began a retreat that would not end until they were well back in New York.

After the battle the British discovered Montgomery's body and gave it a decent burial while he was acclaimed for his bravery in both America and Britain. His memory was held up as the ideal of valor, patriotism and self-sacrifice. Both Schuyler and Washington were described as being "distraught" by his death. Congress ordered a monument from France to be erected in St. Paul's Chapel in New York. Poems and plays were written about him and his death was immortalized in a famous painting by John Trumbull.  Thomas Paine imagined a dialogue in which Montgomery's ghost appeared before Congress to urge them that the time for independence had come. Janet Montgomery wore mourning dress for the rest of her long life, refusing the attentions of General Horatio Gates who proposed to her in 1783, and building a new house, at age 60 that she named Chateau de Montgomery, later called Montgomery Place.

Chateau de Montgomery, Dutchess Co Rte 103
(Portico and wings were added about 1847)

MONTGOMERY PLACE

Home of Janet Livingston

Widow of General Richard

Montgomery Killed in

Quebec 1775 and of Hon.

Edw. Livingston, 1764-1836

                       -NYSHM now missing


   In 1818 the State of New York arranged for Montgomery's remains to be brought from Quebec to be buried at his memorial at St. Paul's. As the ships carrying his remains made their way down the Champlain/Hudson corridor, crowds gathered to watch, salutes were fired and bands played.  From the balcony of Chateau de Montgomery, overlooking the Hudson, Janet Montgomery asked her family for time alone while a band on board the steam boat Richmond, carrying the General's body played in her honor. When they returned they found she had been overcome with emotion and had fainted.

Rear balcony with the Hudson in the Distance

 I have little doubt, in speculating on the "What if" question, that if General Montgomery had not been killed, if he had captured Quebec, he might have become one of Washington's top generals, with Nataniel Greene,  Anthony Wayne and John Sullivan.  Perhaps  he might have even supplanted Greene as Washington's favorite general and military confidante. But what roles might have Montgomery played in the new republic? Would he have become one of the "first sons" of the "founding fathers"-- men of a slightly younger generation who shaped the new government? -- men of Hamilton's, Madison's, Monroe's and Jay's generation?  It is quite possible he might have retired from public life, like Greene and Sullivan or continued in pubic service only as military officers, like Wayne or Arthur St. Claire. Or he might have focused his talents on state politics, like Generals George Clinton,  and Stephen Van Rensselaer II.

In truth, we don't know, or can ever know, but it is still fun to speculate, "What if...?"

*Montgomery had been promoted to the rank of Major General, but hadn't received the news of his promotion.