Combat· American Revolutionary War
Capture of HMS Enterprize, St. Johns
On May 18, 1775, a small American force under Benedict Arnold surprised the British post at St.
Johns on the Richelieu River and captured the sloop George III. Arnold had left on the 16th with 30 men in a bateau, followed by the schooner Liberty. When the schooner lay becalmed some 30 miles south of St. Johns on the 17th, Arnold put 35 men into small boats and rowed all night. The Americans took the fort and the sloop with little trouble. Arnold burned five of the nine captured boats and sailed south, returning to Ticonderoga on May 20. The George III was renamed the Enterprise. Seven men of Captain Herrick's company were drafted or volunteered to serve as Marines in the Enterprise, which carried 4 officers, 10 sailors, and 17 Marines. Because there were no roads around Lake Champlain, the force controlling the lake could control the passage of troops. McClellan's history says the Americans who served as Marines on the Liberty "may be classed amongst our earliest Marines."
Record no. 124