Battle of Valcour Island

The Battle of Valcour ("Battle of Valcour Island", also "Battle of Valcour Bay") was a naval battle fought on October 11, 1776, in the narrows between Valcour Island and the New York mainland in Lake Champlain between British and American naval forces.

It is generally considered the first naval battle of the United States Navy. Although the result of the battle was the destruction of most American ships, it delayed the British attempt to split the Thirteen Colonies in two within a year and ultimately led to the military defeat of the British in 1777 at the end of the Saratoga Campaign.

The strategic situation was that the British first had to attack the colonial fortifications of Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga in order to attack the colonists in the Hudson River valley. This forced them to transport their troops and supplies 150 kilometres away from the St. Lawrence River Valley. Because the condition of the roads varied between impassable and non-existent, supplies had to be transported by water across Lake Champlain. The few small ships on Lake Champlain were all in the hands of the colonists; even if they were only lightly armed, they made it impossible for the British to transport troops and goods. That's why both sides began building fleets. The British at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and the Americans at Skenesborough, now Whitehall, New York. The British had ample supplies, experienced workers, and prefabricated ships shipped in from England. They also dismantled a 180-ton warship and reassembled it in the lake. All told, the British fleet was about twice as large, with 30 ships, and had twice as much firepower as the Americans, who had 16 ships.

American commander Benedict Arnold came from a seafaring Connecticut family. He wisely decided to force the British to attack his outnumbered forces in a narrow passage with a rocky bottom, where the British fleet would have difficulty in bringing its superior firepower to bear and where the inferior seamanship skills of his unskilled sailors would not have an undue effect. Nevertheless, the battle was not going well for the Americans as the sun set. Arnold ordered his fleet to slip past (and through) the British fleet during the night and take cover under the fire of the coastal batteries of the American forts at the south end of the lake. The weather did not cooperate, however, and the Americans were caught short of their goal. Arnold drove his ships into the shallow waters of Buttonmold Bay, where the heavier British ships could not follow. Cannons, powder, and anything else usable were then removed from the ships, and Arnold's men retreated on foot to Crown Point.

Although the British had cleared the lake of American ships, snow was already falling when Arnold and his men left for Crown Point. British commander Guy Carleton had no choice but to postpone the attacks on Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga until next year.