Combat· American Revolutionary War
Battle of Valcour Island
On October 11, 1776, an American fleet under Benedict Arnold fought a British fleet off Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, New York.
The Marines in Arnold's vessels were soldiers drafted from the brigades of the Northern Army. The two lines traded broadsides for more than five hours. The galley Washington lost almost all her officers except Brigadier General David Waterbury and Heathcote Muirson, his lieutenant of Marines. Close to midnight the fleet slipped past the British and sailed for Ticonderoga. The British caught up on the morning of October 13, and the Washington struck her colors. Arnold ran the Congress and four gunboats ashore and burned them, and the Marines were directed to climb the bank and form a line to defend the vessels and flags. In three days the Americans lost 11 of 15 ships, and of 700 men little more than half returned. The British soon withdrew northward, and regiments raised in the time gained defeated General John Burgoyne's army at Saratoga in 1777.
Record no. 73