Invasion of Northern New York

When General Izard marched from Plattsburg for Sackett's Harbor in August, he left his troops that remained on the borders of Lake Champlain (nearly fifteen hundred in number) under the command of General Alexander Macomb. During the spring and summer, both parties had been busy in the preparation of war-vessels on that lake, and the command of the American squadron was held by Captain Thomas Macdonough. Many of Wellington's troops, as we have observed, had arrived in Canada. There were about fifteen thousand of them at Montreal at the close of August, and Sir George Prevost, governor of Canada and general-in-chief, proceeded to invade New York. A requisition had been made by Izard for militia and light dragoons; and Macomb found himself in command of about three thousand five hundred troops at the beginning of September. These he conducted to Plattsburg, in anticipation of the threatened invasion.

Prevost advanced at the head of about fourteen thousand troops, to a point eight miles from Plattsburg; and at the same time the British squadron, under Captain Pringle, moved out of the Sorel into Lake Champlain. Prevost announced his intention to seize and hold Northern New York as far down as Ticonderoga, and he called upon the inhabitants to cast off their allegiance and furnish him with supplies. Meanwhile Macomb bent all his energies in preparation for a defence of the menaced region. He had completed redoubts and block-houses at Plattsburg, to prevent the invaders crossing the Saranac River. General Benjamin Mooers, in command of the militia, had been very active at the same time; and when Prevost advanced, he was at the head of about five thousand men.

On the morning of the 6th of September, the British moved upon Plattsburg in two columns. One column had a severe skirmish near Beekman-town, with regulars and militia under Captain Wool. The latter were compelled to fall back to Plattsburg; and other detachments sent out by Macomb were forced back by an overwhelming number of the enemy. The Americans retired to the south side of the Saranac, tearing up the bridges behind them and using the timbers for breastworks. The British tried to force their way across the stream, when they were repulsed by a small company of volunteers in a stone mill near the site of the lower bridge, who poured sharp volley of musketry upon them. Prevost saw that his invasion was not to be a pleasant holiday affair, and he employed the time from the 7th until the 11th in bringing up his batteries and supply trains and constructing works to command those of the Americans on the south side of the Saranac. Meanwhile the British naval force, under Commodore Downie, had approached Cumberland Head. The flag-ship was the frigate Confiance, 38, which was assisted by one brig, two sloops, and twelve gun-boats. Macdonough's squadron lay in Plattsburg Bay. His flag-ship was the Saratoga, 26, which was assisted by one brig, two schooners, and ten gun-boats or galleys.

On the morning of the 11th, the British came round Cumberland Head with a fair wind, and at the same time the land forces of the enemy were moving for a combined attack upon the Americans on land and water. The battle was opened by the navy. Macdonough (then thirty-one years of age) had skillfully prepared his forces to meet the enemy. When his vessels were cleared for action, he knelt upon the deck of the Saratoga, near one of her heaviest guns, and with his chief officers around him, implored the aid of the Almighty. Very soon afterward the thunders of cannon boomed over the lake, and a sharp naval conflict was begun. At the outset, a shot from a British vessel demolished a hen-coop on board the Saratoga, when a young game-cock, which the sailors had brought from the shore, released from confinement and startled by the sound of the great guns, flew up on a gun-slide, and, flapping its wings, crowed lustily and defiantly. The incident was regarded by the sailors as ominous of victory, and thereby their courage was strengthened. In a rhyming Epistle of Brother Jonathan to Johnny Bull, written at the close of the war, is the following allusion to this event:

This naval battle lasted two hours and twenty minutes, and ended with victory for the Americans. The vessels were dreadfully shattered. "There was not a mast in either squadron," Macdonough wrote, "that could stand to make a sail on." "Our masts, yards and sails, were so shattered," wrote one of the officers of the Confiance, "that one looked like so many bundles of matches, and the other like so many bundles of rags." The sight of the conflict was sublime, and it was witnessed by hundreds of spectators on the headlands of the Vermont shore. The loss of the Americans was one hundred and ten; that of the British was over two hundred. Among the British slain was Commodore Downie, whose remains were buried at Plattsburg.