On Friday, July 12, we visited Valcour Island. Today, it is an idyllic setting. At the start of the Revolutionary War, it may have been idyllic, except for the building tensions between the British and the American colonialists. In October 1776, late in the season before winter, General Guy Carleton had a 9,000 man army stationed at Fort Sainte-Jean, upstream from Fort Chambly and near the Canada - US border. Carlton had transported up the Richelieu small boats and had constructed larger boats in order to establish dominance over Lake Champlain and split New England from the rest of the colonies. Benedict Arnold was intent upon slowing Carlton's advance and even stop him if he could with his own, smaller American navy.
Recognizing that he was going to be outgunned, out-manned and out-shipped, Arnold had to rely on cunning. He used Valcour Island as a screen so he could lie in wait and then entice the British to engage in an unfavorable battle.
Here is a modern-day chart of Valcour.
As a scale, the distance covered between 30 and 60 on the vertical scale is 0.5 miles.
On October 11, 1776, Arnold's fleet was hiding between New York State on the left and Valcour Island on the right. They were generally located to the west and south of Bluff Point.
The wind apparently was blowing from north to south.
The British fleet sailed south, past Cumberland Head, at the top of this chart. They did not spot Arnold until they had passed Valcour. They had to reverse course by turning around and tacking back upwind into the limited space between Valcour and the mainland.
It made it difficult for Carleton to line his ships up to fire onto the line of the American ships.
Eventually, the British were able to bring their ships in line so they could effectively fire on the American fleet. The Americans lost more ships and more men than did the British. Arnold lost the battle.
However, Arnold did impede the advance of the British forces. His actions slowed the British advance and forced Carleton to delay his troop movement south until the next year. In this way, Arnold was successful.
During the latter part of 1777, the British lost the Battle of Bennington and of Saratoga, thus preventing the execution of their plans to divide the colonies as they had planned.
Valcour was an important part of the Americans' efforts in this regard.
Cheers,
Brio
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