The Battle of
Plattsburgh
Chronology
(Based on material from The Military Career of Alexander Macomb
and Alexander Macomb at Plattsburgh, by Alan S. Everest, 1989, pp. 50-72)
Prepared by the Kent-Delord House Museum
17 Cumberland Ave., Plattsburgh, NY 12901
During the spring and summer of 1814, military activities increased on Lake
Champlain. On the American side, Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough and a work crew
were building a naval fleet on Otter Creek in Vergennes, Vermont. An army of
5000 American soldiers gathered in Plattsburgh under the command of General
George Izard. Starting in May, the Americans began building fortifications on
Cumberland Head and on the peninsula between Lake Champlain and the Saranac
River south of Plattsburgh. These fortifications consisted of two blockhouses
and three forts: Fort Scott on the lake shore, Fort Moreau (the principal fort)
in the center, and Fort Brown on the river. The following is a day-by-day chronology of the actions leading to the Battle of
Plattsburgh: THE FIGHTING BEGINS: September 12: By 2 a.m.,
the entire British army was in full retreat to Canada.
The British meanwhile began gathering a large army at Chambly, Quebec, just
north of the border. This buildup, under the command of General Sir George
Prevost, was made possible by the British victory over Napoleon in the Spanish
peninsula. Wellington’s veterans were shipped directly to Canada. By August
1814, approximately 16,000 had been landed. The British also began building
ships in the Richelieu River.
The American cause very nearly suffered a disastrous blow at the end of August,
when the War Department in Washington ordered General Izard and the major part
of his army to Sacketts Harbor on Lake Ontario to meet what officials in
Washington felt would be the main British attack. Brigadier General Alexander
Macomb took command of the troops remaining in Plattsburgh.
At the time of all this activity, Plattsburgh was a community with 78 houses, a
court house, four taverns, 13 stores, and 11 shops and offices, including two
newspapers. Its industry consisted of a tannery, two saw mills, a grist mill and
a fulling mill which produced woolen fabric. Militarily, Plattsburgh was the
gateway to the Champlain Valley, and it contained large quantities of military
supplies.
General Macomb developed a strategy to make the best use of his limited
resources. He converged his whole command into a tight defense force around the
village. To accomplish this, he abandoned the defenses on Cumberland Head and
concentrated efforts on the three forts and two blockhouses south of the
village. They had been placed to form an impregnable barrier across the narrow
peninsula between the lake and the river. After manning the forts and
blockhouses, Macomb divided up the remainder of the small army into two groups
of 100 and 300 men. Their mission was to spy on the British and to harass the
British advance by obstructing roads, destroying bridges and abatising the
woods. (Abatis were barriers of felled trees.)
August 30: British advance units crossed the border to Champlain, NY. Macomb
urged Major General Benjamin Mooers to call out the militia. Initially Clinton
and Essex Counties were ordered to report, with orders later extended to Warren,
Washington and Saratoga Counties. Macomb also appealed to Vermont for militia.
September 1: The British army began massing at Champlain. In subsequent days,
the British
commandeered local teams and wagons and loaded them with heavy
baggage and supplies for the march to Plattsburgh.
September 2: The civilian exodus from Plattsburgh began. Many residents,
including Henry Delord, went to the Union, the Quaker settlement in Peru.
Betsey
Delord and their infant daughter Frances Henrietta had left Plattsburgh earlier
to stay with relatives in Albany and Waterford.
September 3: General Prevost and more than 11,000 men gathered in Champlain.
Orders went out to all American forces to delay the British advance as much as
possible in order to provide time for completing fortifications in Plattsburgh.
September 4: Leaving a reserve and the heavy artillery in Champlain, General Prevost and an army of 8200 marched to Chazy. A group of 110 riflemen stationed
in the Chazy area under Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Appling fell back, destroying
bridges and abatising the route of march. They joined a group of 200 infantrymen
under Captain John Sproull and created a fortified position at Dead Creek in the
vicinity of what is now Plattsburgh municipal beach.
September 5: The right wing of the British army marched on a route through West Chazy to an encampment about two miles north of Beekmantown Corners. The left
wing took the State Road (today’s Route 9 North). The American forces on the
Beekmantown Road were increased to 700 militia (from Clinton and Essex Counties)
and 250 regulars under Major John Wool.
The next engagement took place at Culver Hill, where Major Wool and some of the
militia took a stand in short but severe fighting. At Culver Hill, Lieutenant
Colonel James Wellington (no relation of the famous Duke) was killed in the
fighting.
Major Wool’s regulars and militia retreated to Halsey’s Corners, contesting the
advance. There another stand was made by a force of 250 men behind a stone wall
south of Boynton Road. About 8 a.m., as the British column advanced, the
Americans fired their cannon and rifles, inflicting heavy damage on the head of
the column. A second and third volley brought the British on the double with
bayonets, causing the Americans to retreat hastily with their artillery. They
headed to town on the main road, closely followed by the British. When the
British army finally crossed Dead Creek, it was heavily pounded by American
gunboats as it followed the beach road.
September 6: (State Road (Route 9 North)) The advance of the British left column
along the State Road was slower than that of the right column, owing to the
swampy ground, the forests, delaying tactics of the American forces and the
removal of the Dead Creek bridge. Because of the rapid advance of the right
column, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Appling’s American forces withdrew from their
position at the Dead Creek bridge. They arrived in Plattsburgh just ahead of the
British, who emerged from the woods at what is now the intersection of
Cumberland and Boynton Avenues. From this position, Appling’s forces fired on
the British flanks. They then joined Major Wool’s forces and drew back through
Plattsburgh.
As the American forces retreated, they crossed the Saranac River and formed
their artillery into a battery to cover the retreat of the infantry. After all
troops had crossed the river, General Macomb ordered the planks removed from the
bridge (at today’s Bridge St. crossing) and formed into a breastwork to defend
the crossing. The lower bridge was defended from the stone gristmill near its
southern approach.
The British occupied houses near the lower bridge and fired on the Americans who
were building fortifications. The Americans responded with hot shot, which set
the houses on fire and forced the sharpshooters to retreat. As the British
relocated in other buildings, the Americans continued firing hot shot. This
process resulted in the destruction of about 15 buildings, including homes,
stores, the courthouse and the jail.
The British light artillery and baggage arrived at nightfall. The army camped on
high ground west of the village, in an area that included the grounds now
occupied by the CVPH Medical Center. The officers moved into the homes of
Plattsburgh’s prominent citizens. Prevost made his headquarters in Edward
Allen’s home on the hill west of the village (at the juncture of Broad and
Cornelia Streets).
The losses on this day were the heaviest of the siege – about 45 Americans and
between 200 and 300 British were killed or wounded.
September 7: The British artillery companies began building four large batteries
and three small batteries within range of the American forts. Shipbuilding crews
continued to work on finishing the Confiance, the flagship of the British naval
fleet on Lake Champlain. British soldiers built scaling ladders from horse racks
they had gathered around the countryside.
The Americans continued working on their fortifications. Volunteers began
crossing the lake from Vermont, reaching a total of 2500 by the day of the
battle. They joined 700 New York militia who arrived to help defend Plattsburgh.
Lieutenant Macdonough began perfecting his battle strategy, choosing a site in
Cumberland Bay that would allow the Americans to anchor where they could use
their short-range cannons to best advantage.
September 8: British gun crews had their first practice on the Confiance.
General Macomb began visiting the various groups of volunteers and militia
arriving in Plattsburgh and issuing his battle strategy: the forces were to form
in small separate bands rather than large groups; they were to constantly harass
the enemy and allow him no rest; they were to pick up stragglers to get
information about the enemy plans; and they were never to oppose a regular
attack, but retreat as the enemy advanced and advance as he retreated; and
especially they were to prevent crossings at the upper fords of the river.
September 9: Americans and British continued building fortifications. Captain
George McGlassin left his sick bed and led a group of 50 Americans on a daring
middle-of-the-night raid on a rocket battery that the British were building at
the bend of the Saranac River just 500 yards from Fort Brown. The noisy charge
frightened off the work crew of 300 British soldiers, and the Americans spiked
the British rockets and retired without the loss of a man.
September 10: As battle preparations continued on both sides, General Macomb’s
spies informed him of the impending attack.
September 11: At dawn, the British fleet set sail from its anchorage off Chazy
and arrived at Cumberland Head by 7:30 a.m. The fleet commander, Captain George
Downie, and his officers expected General Prevost to launch his land attack at
the first sight of the British ships. By capturing the American forts, the
British planned to force the American fleet in between the British army and
navy. A dying wind made it impossible for the British ships to get into the
position they had intended. As they approached the Americans, about 8:00 a.m.,
they received heavy fire without being able to reply. At this point the British
and American artillery began firing at each other as well. After approximately
two hours of a pitched naval battle, the American forces emerged victorious.
On land, British troops, rather than attacking the American forts frontally,
made their assaults at the two bridges, where they were repulsed by a determined
American stand. More than half the British force forded the river a mile and a
half above the upper bridge, at Pike’s Cantonment. The American militia was
unable to hold back this massive assault. Instead, they withdrew and attacked
the British with snipers on all sides.
At this point, in the late morning, the British army commander learned of the
victory of the American naval fleet (the Confiance had surrendered at 11 a.m.),
and General Prevost gave an order to retreat. Although the artillery bombardments
continued, the British forces began heading north.
The totally unexpected American victory had
thwarted British attempts for controlling
Lake Champlain and annexing portions of the northeastern United States. This
victory led to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, by the United
States and Great Britain, which ended the War of 1812 on Christmas Eve, 1814.