Combat· American Revolutionary War
Capture of HMS Enterprize, St. Johns
Days after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold pushed north up Lake Champlain to raid the British post at St.
Johns on the Richelieu River. Lacking experienced sailors, Arnold drafted soldiers to serve as Marines aboard his vessels; the schooner Liberty carried seventeen such Marines alongside its sailors. The expedition surprised the lightly held garrison, took the post, and captured the British sloop George III, which the Americans renamed Enterprise. The British offered no resistance, and the raid was completed without American casualties. The prize was valuable: control of Champlain meant control of the only practical route between the colonies and Canada. The captured warship strengthened the small American naval force on the lake and helped set the conditions for the campaigns that would follow in the northern theater. These soldier-Marines predate the Continental Marines' formal establishment.
Podcast episodes on American Revolutionary War
Record no. 124