HISTORY

September 6-11,1814
Battle of Plattsburgh

Plattsburg is unique as battles go, there are few direct comparisons. Basically the British unleased an invasion of the US . . . the biggest since the revolution . . . outnumbering the defenders by 5 to 1. The British lost a naval engagement that closed their line of supply and they simply turned around and went home. They could very easily have inflicted a crushing defeat on American ground forces, but they chose not to do so.

Preparations

Very soon after the advance of the Americans to Chazy and Champlain, Sir George Prevost arrived at the Isle aux Noix above Lake Champlain, where he had concentrated about 15,000 troops, and took command in person. This was the first time the Governor of Canada took to the field himself. Yet the War Department chose this time to order Gen. Izard to march a larger portion of the Northern Army westward to reinforce the Army of Niagara. It was an open invitation to invasion; and American officers expecting a battle were astonished by the order. The disappointed Izard wrote: "I will make the movement you direct, if possible; but I shall do it with the apprehension of risking the force under my command, and with the certainty that everything in this vicinity but the lately erected works at Plattsburg and Cumberland Head will, in less than three days after my departure, be in the possession of the enemy. He is in force superior to mine in my front; he daily threatens an attack on my position at Champlain; we are all in hourly expectation of a serious conflict. . . . Let me not be supposed to hesitate about executing any project which the government I have the honor to serve think proper to direct. My little army will do its duty."

Izard requested Maj. Gen. Mooers, the commander of the militia in that district, to assemble one regiment of infantry and one troop of light dragoons at the village of Chazy. Brig. Gen. Alexander Macomb was left in command, with his headquarters at Plattsburg.

Macomb had, at the close of August, about 3,500 troops under his control, but they were in a poor condition, a full 1,400 were on the sick list. The rest were composed of convalescents and new recruits. The stage was set for a defeat bigger than Bladensburg . . . and one much more costly for the US.

Delaying Tactics

On the evening of the 4th of September Mooers had 700 men advancing a few miles north of Plattsburg on the Beekmantown Road. He was instructed to skirmish with the enemy, break up the bridges, and obstruct the roads with felled trees. Basically he was instructed to buy time. It's unclear if the militia completed or even attempted these tasks.

On the morning of the 6th the British army, 14,000 veteran troops, marched towards Plattsburg in two columns. Maj. John E. Wool moved from Plattsburg with 250 regular infantry and 30 volunteers, with orders to delay the enemy . . . more evidence that Mooers militia was not completing its task.

There the first collision occurred. The enemy came marching on rapidly, anticipating no resistance, when they were suddenly stopped by a heavy volley of musketry from Wool's troops. Mooers' militia broke and fled toward Plattsburg, but the regulars stood their ground. The only advantage the American had was that the undergrowth limited British movement to the Beekmantown road, meaning that a small unit like Wool's could not be outflanked . . . it was perfect ground for a delaying action by a small force. But it could never be more than a delaying action; Wool saw that at once and acted accordingly. The enemy advanced in overwhelming numbers, but Wool moved slowly back, disputing the ground inch by inch in desperate skirmishing. On a nearby hill, a short distance below Beekmantown, he made a stand. Some of the militia had been rallied, and were in position behind the stone wall that bounded the road. The British advance groups were driven back and their leader, Lt. Col. Willington was killed.

The fighting was heavy, but very short. The British simply used their numbers to attempt to force Wool off the hill. At the same time Wool discovered a formidable movement to turn his flank and gain his rear, when he again fell back. There he was joined at about 8AM by two pieces of artillery. When the British next tried to force their way through, the guns took a heavy toll. In the end, shear weight of numbers forced the Americans back across the Saranac River.

The Battle

The British were checked at the village by the destruction of the local bridge. They took position in some storehouses near the Saranac River within range of the American fortifications. American forces responded to the British snipers in these buildings with some heated solid cannon shot, and burned down the buildings. British light troops endeavored during the day to cross the Saranac, but were each time repulsed by the guards at the bridge and a small company known as Aiken's Volunteers of Plattsburg . . . the only militia not routed on the Beekmantown road.

Prevost ordered his troops to encamp upon an elevated ridge about a mile back from the river, and on the high ground north of Plattsburg. Prevost employed the time until the 11th bringing up supplies, and in erecting several works that might command the river, the bay, and the American forts and block-houses. The Americans in the meantime strengthen the works. They removed their sick and wounded to Crab Island, two miles distant, in the lake, and there erected a two 6-pound gun battery, and manned it with convalescents.

Mostly the British waited for their naval force to defeat the American lake squadron of Commodore Macdonough anchored in Plattsburg Bay. The Americans took advantage of this. On the night of September 9th Capt. M'Glassin asked Gen. Macomb for permission to lead fifty men on a night attack on the British. Macomb consented, and M'Glassin led his men, with their flints removed, across the Saranac to the foot of the hill on which the battery was rising. There he divided his men into two groups. Yelling at the top of their lungs, the Americans attacked. The British, believing overwhelming numbers were surrounding them, fled. The work was taken, the guns were spiked, and M'Glassin returned without the loss of a single man.

The naval battle went very badly for the British, but the land force, under Maj. Gen. Robinson, forced their way across the river to the west of Plattsburg and pushed the American covering force of militia out of the way with few losses. The British were now in a position to roll up the entire American line, and there was little that could be done to stop them.

Sir George Prevost, after hearing of the fleet surrender to the Americans, resolved to fall back toward the Canadian border, and halt until he should ascertain the use the Americans intended to make of their naval mastery of Lake Champlain.

Result

The result of the battle of Plattsburg was a huge embarrassment to the British. The Canadian newspapers now started to sound like the American press after Washington was burned and blamed Sir George Prevost, who was soon recalled to England. It was estimated that he left behind him in his flight munitions and stores worth almost 100,000 pounds sterling. Taken together with the defeat at North Point, it caused the British to simply seek an end to the war.