Battle of Plattsburgh The Battle of Plattsburgh , also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain , ended the final invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812 . A British army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadron under Captain George Downie converged on the lakeside town of Plattsburgh , which was defended by American troops under Brigadier General Alexander Macomb and ships commanded by Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough . Downie ' s squadron attacked shortly after dawn on 11 September 1814 , but was defeated after a hard fight in which Downie was killed . Prévost then abandoned the attack by land against Macomb ' s defences and retreated to Canada , stating that even if Plattsburgh was captured , it could not be supplied without control of the lake . The battle took place shortly before the signing of the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war . The American victory denied the British negotiators at Ghent leverage to demand any territorial claims against the United States on the basis of " Uti possidetis " , i . e . retaining territory they held at the end of hostilities . Background . British plans . In 1814 , most of Britain ' s army was engaged in the Peninsular War . Then in April , Napoleon I abdicated the throne of France . This provided Britain the opportunity to send 16 , 000 veteran troops from the Peninsula and other garrisons to North America . Several experienced Major - Generals were also detached from the Duke of Wellington ' s army to command them . The Secretary of State for War and the Colonies , the Earl of Bathurst , sent instructions to Lieutenant - General Sir George Prévost , the Commander - in - Chief in Canada and Governor General of the Canadas , authorizing him to launch offensives into American territory , but cautioning him against advancing too far and thereby risking being cut off . Bathurst suggested that Prévost should give first priority to attacking Sackett ' s Harbor on Lake Ontario , where the American fleet on the lake was based , and seizing control of Lake Champlain as a secondary objective . Prévost lacked the means to transport the troops necessary for an attack on Sackett ' s Harbor and the supplies for them up the Saint Lawrence River . Furthermore , the American ships controlled Lake Ontario , making an attack impossible until the British launched the first - rate ship of the line HMS " St . Lawrence " on 15 October , too late in the year for major operations to be undertaken . Prévost therefore prepared to launch his major offensive to Lake Champlain , up the Richelieu River . ( Since the Richelieu , also known as the Rich , was the only waterway connecting Lake Champlain to the ocean , trade on the lake naturally went through Canada . ) Prévost ' s choice of route on reaching the lake was influenced by the attitude of the American state of Vermont , on the eastern side of the lake . The state had shown itself to be less than wholeheartedly behind the war and its inhabitants readily traded with the British , supplying them with all the cattle consumed by the British army , and even military stores such as masts and spars for the British warships on Lake Champlain . To spare Vermont from becoming a seat of war , Prévost therefore determined to advance down the western , New York State , side of the lake . The main American position on this side was at Plattsburgh . Prévost organized the troops which were to carry out the invasion into a division numbering 11 , 000 under Major General Sir Francis de Rottenburg , the Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada . The division consisted of : the 1st Brigade of veterans of the Peninsular War under Major General Frederick Philipse Robinson , composed of the 3 / 27th , 39th , 76th , and 88th Regiments of Foot ; the 2nd Brigade of troops already serving in Canada under Major General Thomas Brisbane and made up of the 2 / 8th , 13th , and 49th Regiments of Foot , the Regiment de Meuron , the Canadian Voltigeurs , and the Canadian Chasseurs ; and the 3rd Brigade of troops from the Peninsula and various garrisons under Major General Manley Power , consisting of the 3rd , 5th , 1 / 27th , and 58th Regiments of Foot ) . Each brigade was supported by a battery of five 6 - pounder guns and one 5 . 5 - inch howitzer of the Royal Artillery . A squadron of the 19th Light Dragoons was attached to the force . There was some tension within the force between the brigade and regimental commanders who were veterans of the Peninsular War or of earlier fighting in Upper Canada , and Prévost and his staff . Prévost had not endeared himself by complaining about the standards of dress of the troops from the Peninsular Army , where the Duke of Wellington had emphasized musketry and efficiency above turnout . Furthermore , neither Prévost , nor de Rottenburg , nor Prévost ' s Adjutant General ( Major General Edward Baynes ) had the extensive experience of battle gained by their brigade commanders , and had already gained a reputation for caution and hesitancy . Prévost ' s Quartermaster General , Major General Thomas Sydney Beckwith , was a veteran of the early part of the Peninsular campaign and of operations in Chesapeake Bay in 1813 , but even he was to be criticized , mainly for failures in intelligence . American defences . On the American side of the frontier , Major General George Izard was the commander of the Northern Army , deployed along the Northeast frontier . In late August , Secretary of War John Armstrong ordered Izard to take the majority of his force , about 4 , 000 troops , to reinforce Sackett ' s Harbor . Izard ' s force departed on 23 August , leaving Brigadier General Alexander Macomb in command at Plattsburgh with only 1 , 500 American regulars . Most of these troops were recruits , invalids or detachments of odds and ends . Macomb ordered General Benjamin Mooers to call out the New York militia and appealed to the governor of Vermont for militia volunteers . Up to 2 , 000 militia eventually reported to Plattsburgh . However , the militia units were mostly untrained , and hundreds of them were unfit for duty . Macomb put the militiamen to use digging trenches and building fortifications . Macomb ' s main position was a ridge on the south bank of the Saranac River . Its fortifications had been laid out by Major Joseph Gilbert Totten , Izard ' s senior Engineer officer , and consisted of three redoubt s and two blockhouse s , linked by other fieldworks . The position was reckoned to be well enough supplied and fortified to withstand a siege for three weeks , even if the American ships on the lake were defeated and Plattsburgh was cut off . After Izard ' s division departed , Macomb continued to improve his defences . He even created an invalid battery on Crab Island , where his hospital was sited , that was to be manned by sick or wounded soldiers who were at least fit to fire the cannon . The townspeople of Plattsburgh had so little faith in Macomb ' s efforts to repulse the invasion that by September nearly all 3 , 000 inhabitants had fled the city . Plattsburgh was left occupied only by the American army . Naval background . The British had gained naval superiority on Lake Champlain on 1 June 1813 , when two American sloop s pursued British gunboat s into the Richelieu River , and were forced to surrender when the wind dropped and they were trapped by British artillery on the banks of the river . They were taken into the British naval establishment at Ile aux Noix , under Commander Daniel Pring . Their crews , and those of several gunboats , were temporarily reinforced by seamen drafted from ships of war lying at Quebec under Commander Thomas Everard who , being senior to Pring , took temporary command . They embarked 946 troops under Lieutenant Colonel John Murray of the 100th Regiment of Foot , and raided several settlements on both the New York and Vermont shores of Lake Champlain during the summer and autumn of 1813 . The losses they inflicted and the restriction they imposed on the movement of men and supplies to Plattsburgh contributed to the defeat of Major General Wade Hampton ' s advance against Montreal , which finally ended with the Battle of the Chateauguay . Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough , commanding the American naval forces on the Lake , established a secure base at Otter Creek ( Vermont ) , and constructed several gunboats . He had to compete with Commodore Isaac Chauncey , commanding on Lake Ontario , for seamen , shipwrights and supplies , and was not able to begin constructing larger fighting vessels until his second - in - command went to Washington to argue his case to the Secretary of the Navy , William Jones . Naval architect Noah Brown was sent to Otter Creek to superintend construction . In April 1814 , the Americans launched the corvette USS " Saratoga " of 26 guns and the schooner USS " Ticonderoga " of 14 guns ( originally a part - completed steam vessel ) . Together with the existing sloop - rigged USS " Preble " of 7 guns , they gave the Americans naval superiority , and this allowed them to establish and supply a substantial base at Plattsburgh . Only a few days before the Battle of Plattsburgh , the Americans also completed the 20 - gun brig USS " Eagle " . The loss of their former supremacy on Lake Champlain prompted the British to construct the 36 - gun frigate at Ile aux Noix . Captain George Downie was appointed to command soon after the frigate was launched on 25 August , replacing Captain Peter Fisher , who in turn had superseded Pring . Like Macdonough , Downie had difficulty obtaining men and materials from the senior officer on Lake Ontario ( Commodore James Lucas Yeo ) and Macdonough had intercepted several spars which had been sold to Britain by unpatriotic Vermonters . ( By tradition , Midshipman Joel Abbot destroyed several of these in a daring commando - type raid . ) Downie could promise to complete " Confiance " only on 15 September , and even then the frigate ' s crew would not have been exercised . Prévost was anxious to begin his campaign as early as possible , to avoid the bad weather of late autumn and winter , and continually pressed Downie to prepare " Confiance " for battle more quickly . Invasion . On 31 August , Prévost began marching south . Macomb sent forward 450 regulars under Captain Sproul and Major John E . Wool , 110 riflemen under Major Daniel Appling , 700 New York militia under Major General Benjamin Mooers and two 6 - pounder guns under Captain Leonard to fight a delaying action . At Chazy , New York , they first made contact with the British . Slowly falling back , the Americans set up road blocks , burned bridges and mislabelled streets to slow down the British . The British nevertheless advanced steadily , not even deploying out of column of march or returning fire , except by flank guards . When Prévost reached Plattsburgh on 6 September , the American rearguards retired across the Saranac , tearing up the planks from the bridges . Prévost did not immediately attack . On 7 September , he ordered Major General Robinson to cross the Saranac , but to Robinson ' s annoyance , Prévost had no intelligence on the American defences or even the local geography . Some tentative attacks across the bridges were repulsed by Wool ' s regulars . Prévost abandoned his efforts to cross the river for the time being and instead began constructing batteries . The Americans responded by using cannonballs heated red - hot to set fire to sixteen buildings in Plattsburgh which the British were using as cover , forcing the British to withdraw farther away . On 9 September , a night raid across the Saranac River by 50 Americans led by Captain George McGlassin destroyed a British Congreve rocket battery only from Fort Brown , one of the three main American fortifications . While skirmishing and exchanges of artillery fire continued , the British located a ford ( Pike ' s Ford ) across the Saranac above Macomb ' s defences . Prévost planned that , once Downie ' s ships arrived , they would attack the American ships in Plattsburgh Bay . Simultaneously , Major General Brisbane would make a feint attack across the bridges over the Saranac while Major General Robinson ' s brigade would cross the ford to make the main attack against the American left flank , supported by Major General Power ' s brigade . Once the American ships had been defeated , Brisbane would make his feint attack into a real one . Naval battle . Prelude . Macdonough had sent some of his gunboats to harass Prévost ' s advance , but he knew that his fleet was outgunned , particularly in long guns . He therefore withdrew into Plattsburgh Bay , where the British would be forced to engage at close range , at which the American and British squadrons would be roughly even in numbers and weight of short - range carronade s . He used the time before Downie arrived to drill his sailors , and make preparations to fight at anchor . The ships were anchored in line from north to south in the order " Eagle " , " Saratoga " , " Ticonderoga " and " Preble " . They all had both bow and stern anchors , with " springs " attached to the anchor cables to allow the ships to be slewed through a wide arc . Macdonough also laid out extra kedge anchors from the quarters of his flagship " Saratoga " , which would allow him to spin the ship completely around . The ten American gunboats were anchored in the intervals between the larger vessels . Although the British sloops and gunboats under Commander Pring were already on the Lake and at anchor near Chazy , and had set up a battery on Isle La Motte , Vermont , it took two days to tow the frigate " Confiance " up the Sorel River from Ile aux Noix , against both wind and current . Downie finally joined the squadron on 9 September . Carpenters and riggers were still at work on the frigate , and the incomplete crew was augmented by a company of the 39th Foot . To Prévost ' s fury , Downie was unable to attack on 10 September because the wind was unfavourable . During the night the wind shifted to the north - east , making an attack feasible . The British squadron sailed in the early hours of 11 September , and announced their presence to Prévost ' s army by " scaling " the guns i . e . firing them without shot to clear scale or rust from the barrels . Shortly after dawn , Downie reconnoitred the American dispositions from a rowing boat , before ordering the British squadron to attack . Addressing his crew , he told them that the British Army would storm Plattsburgh as soon as the ships engaged , " and mind don ' t let us be behind " . Battle . At about 9 am , the British squadron rounded Cumberland Head close - hauled in line abreast , with the large ships to the north initially in the order " Chubb " , " Linnet " , " Confiance " and " Finch " , and the gunboats to the south . It was a fine autumn day , but the wind was light and variable , and Downie was unable to manoeuvre " Confiance " to the place he intended , across the head of Macdonough ' s line . As " Confiance " suffered increasing damage from the American ships , he was forced to drop anchor between 300 and 500 yards from Macdonough ' s flagship , the " Saratoga " . He then proceeded deliberately , securing everything before firing a broadside which killed or wounded one fifth of " Saratoga ' s " crew . Macdonough was stunned but quickly recovered ; and a few minutes later , Downie was killed . Elsewhere along the British line , the sloop " Chubb " was badly damaged and drifted into the American line , where her commander surrendered . The brig " Linnet " , commanded by Pring , reached the head of the American line and opened a raking fire against the " USS Eagle " . At the tail of the line , the sloop " Finch " failed to reach station and anchor , and although hardly hit at all , " Finch " drifted aground on Crab Island , and surrendered under fire from the 6 - pounder gun of the battery manned by the invalids from Macomb ' s hospital . Half the British gunboats were also hotly engaged at this end of the line . Their fire forced the weakest American vessel , the " Preble " to cut its anchors and drift out of the fight . The " Ticonderoga " was able to fight them off , although it was engaged too heavily to support Macdonough ' s flagship . The rest of the British gunboats apparently held back from action , and their commander later deserted . After about an hour , the USS " Eagle " had the springs to one of her anchor cables shot away , and was unable to bear to reply to HMS " Linnet ' s " raking fire . " Eagle ' s " commander cut the remaining anchor cable and allowed the brig to drift down towards the tail of the line , before anchoring again astern of the USS " Saratoga " and engaging HMS " Confiance " , but allowing " Linnet " to rake " Saratoga " . Both flagships had fought each other to a standstill . After Downie and several of the other officers had been killed or injured , " Confiance ' s " fire had become steadily less effective , but aboard USS " Saratoga " , almost all the starboard - side guns were dismounted or put out of action . Macdonough ordered the bow anchor cut , and hauled in the kedge anchors he had laid out earlier to spin " Saratoga " around . This allowed " Saratoga " to bring its undamaged port battery into action . " Confiance " was unable to return the fire . The frigate ' s surviving Lieutenant tried to haul in on the springs to his only anchor to make a similar manoeuvre , but succeeded only in presenting the vulnerable stern to the American fire . Helpless , " Confiance " could only surrender . Macdonough hauled in further on his kedge anchors to bring his broadside to bear on HMS " Linnet " . Pring sent a boat to " Confiance " , to find that Downie was dead and the " Confiance " had struck its colours . The " Linnet " also could only surrender , after being battered almost into sinking . The British gunboats withdrew , unmolested . The surviving British officers boarded " Saratoga " to offer their swords ( of surrender ) to Macdonough . When he saw the officers , Macdonough replied , " Gentlemen , return your swords to your scabbards , you are worthy of them " . Commander Pring and the other surviving British officers later testified that Macdonough showed every consideration to the British wounded and prisoners . Many of the British dead , not including the officers , were buried in an unmarked mass grave on nearby Crab Island , the site of the military hospital during the battle , where they remain today . The False Nile . Both commanders would have seen the parallels of Macdonough ' s anchorage on Lake Champlain to that of the French under Vice Admiral Francois - Paul Brueys , opposing British Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson , at the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay on 1 August 1798 . A study of Nelson ' s battles was part of the professional knowledge expected of naval commanders . But Macdonough did all that Brueys did not . He expected to take advantage of the prevailing winds on Lake Champlain that constrained Downie ' s axis of approach . " Because nearly every circumstance that worked to Nelson ' s advantage proved disadvantageous to Downie , the Battle of Lake Champlain is sometimes called the " False Nile " by the English . " The British naval historian William Laird Clowes regarded Macdonough ' s " False Nile " victory as " a most notable feat , one which , on the whole , surpassed that of any other captain of either navy in this war . " Land battle . Although Prévost ' s attack was supposed to coincide with the naval engagement , it was slow to get under way . Orders to move were not issued until 10 a . m , when the battle on the lake had been under way for over an hour . The American and British batteries settled down to a duel in which the Americans gained a slight advantage , while Brisbane ' s feint attack at the bridges was easily repulsed . When a messenger arrived and notified Prévost that Downie ' s ship had been defeated on the lake he realized that without the navy to supply and support his further advance , any military advantage gained by storming Plattsburgh would have been worthless . Prévost considered he therefore had no option but to retreat , and called off the assault . Bugle calls ordering the retreat sounded out along the British lines . Robinson ' s brigade had been misdirected by some British staff officers and missed the ford which was their objective . Once they had retraced their steps , Robinson ' s brigade , led by eight companies of light infantry soon drove the defenders back , and the British had crossed the ford and were preparing to advance , when the orders arrived from Prévost to call off the attack . The light company of the British 76th Regiment of Foot had been skirmishing in advance of the main body . When the bugle calls to retire were heard it was too late and they were surrounded and cut off by overwhelming numbers of American militia . Captain John Purchas , commanding the company , was killed in the act of waving a flag of truce ( his white waistcoat ) . Three officers and 31 other ranks of the 76th were made prisoner . The 76th also suffered one dead and three wounded . Major General Brisbane protested the order to retreat but complied . The British began their retreat to Canada after dark . Although the British soldiers were ordered to destroy ammunition and stores they could not easily remove , large quantities of these were left intact . There had been little or no desertion from the British army during the advance and the skirmishing along the Saranac , but during the retreat at least 234 soldiers deserted . The British casualties during the land engagement from 6 – 11 September were 37 killed , 150 wounded and 57 missing . Macomb reported 37 killed , 62 wounded and 20 missing but these losses were for the regular U . S . Army troops only . Historian William James remarked that the " general return of loss among the militia and volunteers , no where appears " . General Macomb wrote to his father that the American loss " in the land battle " was 115 killed and 130 wounded , a figure which suggests considerable casualties among the militia and volunteers . Results . Macdonough ' s victory had stopped the British offensive in its tracks . Also , Prévost had achieved what the U . S . government had been unable to do for the entire war up to that point : to bring the state of Vermont into the war . The British had used their victories at the Battle of Bladensburg and the Burning of Washington to counter any American demands during the peace negotiations up to this point . The Americans were able to use the repulse at Plattsburgh to demand exclusive rights to Lake Champlain and deny the British exclusive rights to the Great Lakes . The American victory at Plattsburgh and the British failure at the Siege of Baltimore , which came a few days later , denied the British any advantage they could use to make demands for territorial gains in the Treaty of Ghent . The failure at Plattsburgh , with other complaints about his conduct of active operations , resulted in Sir George Prévost being relieved of command in Canada . When he returned to Britain his version of events was accepted at first . As was customary after the loss of a ship or a defeat , Captain Pring and the surviving officers and men of the squadron faced a court martial , which was held aboard HMS " Gladiator " at Portsmouth , between 18 and 21 August 1815 . The court commended Pring and honorably acquitted all of those charged . The dispatches of Sir James Yeo were published about the same time , and emphatically placed the blame for the defeat on Prévost for forcing the British squadron into action prematurely . Prévost in turn demanded a court martial to clear his name , but died in 1816 before it could be held . Alexander Macomb was promoted to Major General and became commanding general of the United States Army in 1828 . Thomas Macdonough was promoted to Captain ( and given the honorary rank of Commodore for his command of multiple ships in the battle ) and is remembered as the " Hero of Lake Champlain " . To honor the American commanders , Congress struck four Congressional Gold Medals , a record number for the time . These were awarded to Captain Thomas Macdonough , Captain Robert Henley , and Lieutenant Stephen Cassin of the U . S . Navy , and to Alexander Macomb ( 20 October 1814 3 Stat . 245 – 247 ) . Macomb and his men were also formally given the thanks of Congress . Seven currently active regular battalions of the United States Army ( 4 - 1 FA , 1 - 2 Inf , 2 - 2 Inf , 1 - 5 Inf , 2 - 5 Inf , 1 - 6 Inf and 2 - 6 Inf ) perpetuate the lineages of American units that were present at the battle ( Brooks ' s Company , Corps of Artillery , and the 6th , 13th and 29th Infantry Regiments ) . Order of battle . Large vessels listed from north to south in order of sailing , or in which initially anchored Memorials . Three US naval ships have been named for this battle :