On October 11, 1776, cannon fire broke across the narrow waters between Valcour Island and the western shore of Lake Champlain. Benedict Arnold commanded an American fleet assembled from captured vessels and boats built that summer. Facing it was a British naval force prepared to clear the lake and open the way south.
Within three days, most of the American vessels would be gone. Some sank, some were captured, and others were deliberately burned. Yet the British victory did not produce the advance their preparations had made possible. The campaign ended with the Americans still holding Fort Ticonderoga and the British withdrawing to Canada.
Control of the Waterway
The struggle began with the failure of the American invasion of Canada. Arnold had led troops through the Maine wilderness toward Quebec in 1775 and was wounded during the unsuccessful assault on the city that December. By the summer of 1776, the Americans had retreated from Canada, leaving British commander Sir Guy Carleton in a position to move south.
Lake Champlain formed part of the corridor connecting Canada with the Hudson Valley. For an army transporting artillery, provisions, and men, control of the water was a major advantage. A successful British advance toward Albany threatened to help separate New England from the other states. Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of the lake, stood in the way.
Before Carleton could exploit that route, he needed to overcome the American vessels operating on the lake. A contest in shipbuilding became part of the contest for territory.
Building a Fleet
At Skenesborough, now Whitehall, New York, and at Ticonderoga, the Americans worked to expand their naval force. Materials were scarce, and skilled shipwrights and riggers had to be brought from the seaports. Arnold helped direct the effort and took command of the resulting squadron.
The fleet included schooners, row galleys, and flat-bottomed gunboats often called gondolas or gundalows. These were small fighting vessels assembled for an urgent inland campaign. The gunboat Philadelphia, for example, carried a 12-pounder cannon and two 9-pounders. Those designations described the weight of the solid shot the guns fired.
The British were preparing their own force at St. Johns, now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, north of the lake. Captain Thomas Pringle commanded the naval squadron under Carleton’s overall direction. Their preparations produced superior firepower, but they also consumed weeks. The American fleet was already affecting the campaign before the first broadside at Valcour.
Arnold Chooses His Ground
Arnold positioned his fleet between Valcour Island and the New York mainland, south of present-day Plattsburgh. The channel was roughly three-quarters of a mile wide and offered a way to reduce the advantages of a stronger opponent.
The island screened the American vessels from British ships approaching from the north. Once the British passed it, they would have to turn back against the northerly wind to engage. The narrow water also restricted how many vessels could attack together. Arnold’s crews could fight from an anchored line instead of attempting to outmaneuver the British on the open lake.
A Sketch of the New England Armed Vessels, in Valcure Bay … as seen in the morning of 11 October 1776
On October 11, the British approached and the fighting began. The schooner Royal Savage ran aground near the island and was lost. British gunboats and the schooner Carleton pressed the attack, while the wind complicated the approach of larger vessels. American fire damaged the Carleton badly enough that she had to be towed away.
The position imposed difficulties on the British, but it could not protect the Americans from sustained cannon fire. By evening, their fleet was badly battered, and the Philadelphia sank after the engagement.
Escape, Pursuit, and Burning Ships
Remaining at Valcour meant facing another attack with damaged vessels. During the night of October 11–12, Arnold’s surviving ships slipped past the British and headed south toward Crown Point. Darkness gave them an opportunity to escape, but damaged hulls and difficult sailing conditions slowed the retreat.
The British pursued. On October 13, the American galley Washington surrendered. Arnold continued aboard Congress, his flagship, as British vessels closed around him.
In an October 15 report to General Philip Schuyler, Arnold described the condition of his ship:
“The sails, rigging, and hull of the Congress were shattered and torn in pieces.”
He brought Congress ashore in a small creek on the eastern side of the lake, about ten miles from Crown Point. After saving small arms, he burned the galley and four gunboats to prevent their capture. The crews escaped through the woods and reached Crown Point that evening.
Only four of the fifteen American vessels escaped the campaign’s destruction or capture. The British now controlled Lake Champlain.
Why Carleton Stopped
Control of the lake left Carleton facing the American defenses at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. The Americans had used the intervening months to strengthen their positions. With the season advancing, the prospect of attacking those defenses and sustaining further operations became less attractive. Carleton ultimately withdrew to Canada for the winter.
The delay was the result of a campaign that included shipbuilding, defensive preparations, and fighting. Valcour’s significance depends on that broader sequence. Although the British had won the naval engagement, the months spent preparing for it had limited what they could accomplish afterward.
A new British invasion under General John Burgoyne followed in 1777 and ended in surrender at Saratoga that autumn. The American resistance on Lake Champlain in 1776 helped create time to prepare for that later campaign, though Saratoga’s outcome depended on many further decisions and battles.
A Vessel That Survived Beneath the Lake
The Philadelphia remained underwater until 1935, when Lorenzo Hagglund raised her from Lake Champlain. Cold water had preserved much of the wooden hull, along with guns and objects used by the crew. Recovered material included cooking utensils, tools, buttons, and buckles.
Now part of the Smithsonian’s collection, the gunboat provides a physical record of the improvised American fleet. Its surviving timbers and equipment bring the campaign down to the scale of the men who served aboard: loading guns, handling sails, and trying to keep damaged boats afloat.
Arnold’s later betrayal would overshadow his earlier service. At Valcour Island, however, he was commanding a desperate American defense. The wrecks and surviving accounts preserve a chapter in which a lost fleet still contributed to the struggle for independence.
