September 11, 1814 · Lake Champlain Theater
September 11, 1814
The most strategically significant American victory of the war came on Lake Champlain, where Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough's squadron defeated the British fleet in a brilliantly managed battle. Macdonough had prepared for the fight by rigging his flagship Saratoga so it could be winched around to bring fresh guns to bear — a tactic that proved decisive. When the British flagship Confiance was disabled, the entire British squadron struck its colors. Without naval support, Governor-General Prevost's 10,000-man invasion force — the largest British army to enter the United States during the war — retreated to Canada.
Commanders