Combat· American Revolutionary War
Battle of Valcour Island
On Lake Champlain near Valcour Island, Benedict Arnold's hastily built American flotilla confronted a far stronger British fleet under Captain Thomas Pringle.
Soldiers serving as Marines crewed Arnold's gondolas and gunboats, delivering musket fire and standing ready as boarders through a punishing daylong engagement. The Americans were outgunned and their little fleet was wrecked or run aground, but Arnold's stubborn defense, and his daring nighttime escape through the British line, cost the enemy the campaigning season. That delay kept the British from driving down the Hudson in 1776 and set the stage for their decisive defeat at Saratoga the following year. Though a tactical loss, Valcour Island is regarded as one of the most strategically consequential naval actions of the Revolution, and an early instance of American Marines fighting afloat on the inland lakes.
Podcast episodes on American Revolutionary War
Record no. 73