Vergennes Shipwrights Played Role in Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 7: A Complete and Total American Victory

During the battle, the massive broadsides of both fleets could be heard as far away as Highgate, on the Canadian-Vermont border.  Macdonough's superior tactics won the day.

He anchored his ships in a way that allowed him to swing his vessels quickly to fire a second  broadside at the British  line of ships.  This means that the Americans would fire a broadside and then the ship would swing around so that the guns on the other side of the ship could then fire a broadside and rake the British ships.

So, for every one broadside the British fired, the Americans would get in two.

The tactic worked to a devastating effect.  In a battle that lasted barely two hours, Macdonough captured the entire British fleet except its swift gunboats, which were able to flee.

The American victory proved to be a turning point in the war.  Having lost the support of the British fleet, the British Army had its supply line threatened and commenced a retreat back to Canada.

The war in North America officially ended  in December 14, 1814, with the Treaty of Ghent, although news of the treaty did not reach America until  weeks afterwards.

Naval historian and future British prime minister Winston Churchill later called the Battle of Plattsburgh, sometimes called the Battle of Lake Champlain, "the most decisive engagement of the war."

If not for the work of the shipwrights at Vergennes, the outcome of this decisive  engagement might have turned out differently.

--Brock-Perry