John M. Gamble, USMC-- Part 3: His Brother Peter Also in War of 1812 Where He Lost His Life

It should be mentioned that John M. Gamble had a brother by the name of Peter Gamble who was an officer in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812.

Peter Gamble was born on 5 November 1793 in Bordentown, New Jersey.  He was appointed midshipman on 16 January 1809, and served on Thomas Macdonough's flagship USS Saratoga at the Battle of Lake Champlain.

There, he was killed in action while sighting his gun on 11 September 1814.

Macdonough his deplored the loss and commended his bravery in action.

A destroyer was named for both Peter and John M. Gamble, the USS Gamble DD123/DM-15).  This ship was at Pearl Harbor when the attack came.

--Brock-Perry

Book on Thomas Macdonough Is Delaware's Book of the Week

From Delaware News. "DE Heritage Commission Book of the Week:  Captain Thomas Macdonough" by Virginia Mason Burdick.

The son of an American Revolution veteran, Thomas Macdonough would serve with distinction in the War of 1812.    After the climatic Battle of Lake Champlain, Macdonough would go down in history as one of Delaware's  greatest military heroes.

In her biography, Virginia Burdick discusses the life and times of the good captain and tells the story of a lesser-known hero of America's Second War of Independence.

You can view or download a PDF version of the book at this site.

He also had the USS Montgomery at his famous battle which I have written about before.

--Brock-Perry

USS Gamble (DD-123) (DM-15): Named for Two Brothers

The ship was named after two brothers.  One, Peter, was in the U.S. Navy, and the other, John M. Gamble was in the USMC.  Both fought in the War of 1812 with one being killed.  This ship was at Pearl Harbor when the British attacked along with another destroyer named the Perry, after Oliver Hazard Perry.

From Wikipedia.

Peter Gamble was born  on 5 November 1793 in Bordentown , New Jersey.  He was appointed  midshipman on 16 January 1809 and served on Thomas Macdonough's flagship USS Saratoga at the Battle of Lake Champlain.

He was killed  in action while sighting  his gin on  11 September 1814.

Macdonough deplored Peter's loss and commended his gallantry in action.

John M. Gamble was the brother of Peter Gamble and achieved the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel  in the United States Marine Corps.

--Brock-Perry

The War of 1812 USS Montgomery on Lake Champlain

From Wikipedia.

I wasn't able to find out too much about this ship.

This ship was also named after Richard Montgomery who was an American general in the American Revolution who gave his life for the cause.  (So was the USS Montgomery from that war.)

It was either a sloop or schooner and carried nine 9-pounder long guns and two 18-pounder carronades.

Built in 1813 by Thomas Macdonough and purchased on  6 August 1813 for duty on Lake Champlain in New York.

Its role was to prevent plundering expeditions by the enemy and it also helped convoy Wade Hampton's  troops for their attack on Canada.

She continued her service on the lake until deactivated and sold in 1815.

I am unable to find out any more information on this ship.

--Brock-Perry

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

Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 4: Battle at Fort Cassin and the HMS Confiance

The British learned from spies the position of Macdonough's shipyard.  Alarmed by the extent of the American shipbuilding effort,  they sent a small fleet in May 1814 to land a detachment of  more than 150 soldiers.  British vessels intended to blockade the river to prevent Macdonough's fleet from living, while soldiers would   march to the falls to burn the American fleet.

But, Macdonough anticipated the British move and had an earthwork named Fort Cassin constructed at the mouth of Otter Creek. For an hour and a half, the fort traded cannon shots with the British ships. American marksmen positioned themselves on the shore to ward off any attempted troop landing.  The British withdrew.

Unwilling to be outgunned, the British set to work on a large warship at their shipyard at Ile Aux Noix on the Richilieu.  The ship was named HMS Confiance and was designed to carry 37 guns and remains the largest warship ever in service on Lake Champlain.

--Brock-Perry

Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 3:

In a mere 40 days, for example, they built a 143-foot-long, 26-gun frigate named the USS Saratoga, to serve as Macdonough's flagship.

To give Noah Brown and his men a head start on a second vessel, Macdonough purchased  the completed hull of a merchant steamship under construction in the yard.  Macdonough decided to convert it into a sailing vessel.  It was a safer  course of action as  steam power was notoriously  unreliable and never used in battle at the time.

Macdonough had Brown use the steamer's hull as part of a 120-foot sailing  schooner which was armed with 17 guns and christened the USS Ticonderoga.

The shipwrights also built  six 70-ton row galleys, each measuring about 75 feet in length.  These each were armed with two large cannons.

The galleys were named the Viper, Nettle, Allen, Borer, Burrow and Centipede (the latter perhaps because of its appearance when using the oars).

Once work was completed, Brown and his workers returned to New York.

Shipwrights in Vergennes Were Key to Battle of Lake Champlain-- Part 2: On to Noah Brown and Otter Creek

The two American sloops lost to the British on July 3, 1813, were the USS Growler and USS Eagle, each with 11 guns.

Subtracting those two sloops from the American side and adding them to the British essentially gave them control of Lake Champlain.

The U.S. Navy authorized Thomas Macdonough to spend the money needed to bolster  his Lake Champlain fleet.  When winter came in 1813, he moved his ships six miles up Otter Creek from its delta on Lake Champlain, where they would be safer from naval attack from the British.

There, below the falls of Vergennes, Macdonough took over and expanded an existing commercial shipyard.  The location was ideal.  It was near forests that could provide plenty of lumber, and furnaces and forges that produced iron.

The Navy hired shipbuilder Noah Brown of New York City to supervise the shipyard.  The work accomplished in just a few months by Brown and the more than 100 workers he brought with him is staggering.

--Brock-Perry

Shipwrights in Vergennes Key to Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814-- Part 1

From the September 12, 2021, Vermont Digger  "Then Again:  Shipwrights in Vergennes were key to critical 1814 battle" by Mark Bushnell.

September 11, 1814, was the day Americans won a critical engagement in the War of 1812 called the Battle of Lake Champlain.  The British lost that battle and the war turned out to be essentially a draw, but it might have been a different conclusion had they won at the fight.

And, this victory was in large part because of the prodigious work  of an accomplished naval shipyard  on the banks of Otter Creek.  This place built the vessels that helped repel the British invasion on Lake Champlain. 

As it had in the American Revolution, Lake Champlain played a vital role in the military strategy of the conflict.  American commanders knew that the British would likely use the lake as an invasion path. 

Twenty-eight-year-old Thomas Macdonough was given a really small fleet of ships to stop the British.  Under his command  were six sloops and two 40-ton row galleys.  This small fleet was further diminished  in July 1813, when two of the sloops ventured too far up the Richelieu River at the north end of the lake and were seized by British forces, who repaired the damage they did to them and began using them against the Americans.

--Brock-Perry

The Career of Thomas Macdonough-- Part 3: A Complete American Victory

Thomas Macdonough immediately took advantage of the situation  and using brilliant seamanship and ingenuity, Macdonough maneuvered his ship to fire a broadside into the Confiance causing that ship to surrender.

With the Confiance out of action, the British fleet lost its strongest ship, the remaining enemy ships were pounded by the Americans and it became a total victory for Macdonough's fleet.

The result was a total victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh (also called Battle of Lake Champlain)  The British withdrew to Canada and the British got serious about negotiating a peace.

--Brock-Macdonough

The Career of Thomas Macdonough-- Part 2: A Big Break for the Americans

The British came with both Army soldiers under the command of George Prevost and a Naval fleet under the command of George Downie.  Downie was a very experienced sea man who had attained much success fighting against France during the Napoleonic Wars.  He was he commander of the HMS Confiance.

Defending Plattsburgh was a much smaller American force of some 2,000 men under the command of General Alexander Macomb and, of course Macdonough's which was also outgunned.  Things looked bleak for the Americans.

Macdonough's fleet met head on with British fleet on September 11, 1814.  In a moment that changed the course of the battle, a cannonball fired by Macdonough's flagship, the USS Saratoga, smashed into a British cannon on the Confiance causing it to land on Downie, killing him instantly.

--Brock-Macdonough

The Career of Thomas Macdonough-- Part 1

From Classic NY History  "Macdonough Monument:  History of Plattsburgh's Famous Monument" by Brian Kachijian.

Thomas Macdonough began his naval career in 1800.  He was born on New Year's Eve 1783 and was an orphan by the age of twelve.  His father served in the American Revolution.

He began naval service at the age of sixteen and served in the Barbary War against Algiers, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli.  After that, he became captain of a merchant ship named the  Gullivar that transported goods between New York, England and India.

Upon the declaration of war between the U.S. and England, he returned to New York and was on his way to greatness.  He was placed in charge of naval forces on Lake Champlain at Plattsburgh, N.Y., where he oversaw the construction of American warships.

--Brock-Macdonough

What Teddy Roosevelt Had to Say About Macdonough

From Wikipedia.  Thomas Macdonough.

Theodore Roosevelt 1882

"Macdonough in this battle won a higher fame  than any other commander of the war, British or American.  he had a decidedly superior force to contend against, the officers and men of the two sides being about on par  in every respect; and it was solely owing to his foresight and resource that we won this battle.

He forced the British to engage at a disadvantage by his excellent choice of position; and he prepared beforehand for every possible contingency.

His personal prowess had already been shown at the cost  of the rovers of Tripoli, and in this action he helped fight the guns as ably as the best sailor.  His skill, seamanship, quick eye, readiness of resource, and indomitable pluck, are beyond all praise.

Down to the time of the Civil War he is the greatest figure in our naval history.

High Words of Praise Indeed.  --Brock-Perry

Maybe I should sign off with Brock-Macdonough instead of Brock-Perry?

Some More On the Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh-- Part 3: Great-Great Granddaughter to Speak

Thomas Macdonugh's great-granddaughter and Isabelle Verkaart Parlin's mother, Isabelle Agnes Macdonough, who was 11 at the time, unveiled the monument at its dedication in August 1926.  Her daughter will speak at this anniversary.

The monument is 135 feet high and topped by an eagle with a 22 foot wingspan.  It serves as a constant reminder of the great victory that was there and the lives lost.

The Macdonough Monument stands in the park directly across from the Plattsburgh City Hall.  The monument overlooks the Saranac River which glows into Cumberland Bay which is connected to Lake Champlain.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on the Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh-- Part 2

However, World War I disrupted plans for the monument.  A federal act was passed to prohibit the spending of federal funds for the construction of monuments indefinitely passed.  Additionally the cost of construction increased dramatically.

All this delayed Plattsburgh's memorial until  1921, when citizens became very urgent that the matter of erecting the memorial became very urgent."

An Act of the Legislature of 1921 abolished the former commission and established a new one in favor of having more locals serve and more frequent meetings.  The state appropriated more funds for the project, and after some revisions of the original plans forced by budget limits, the commission selected a man named John Young Jr. to construct the memorial.

--Brock-Perry

Some More on the Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh-- Part 1

From the September 10, 2014, Press-Republican (NY)  "Ceremony to honor Macdonough Monument" by Cara Chapman.

The great-great granddaugher of Thomas Macdonough will speak at a ceremony marking the 88th anniversary of the monument that honors him in Plattsburgh, New York.

Isabelle Verkaart Parlin will be among family members at the event scheduled for 1 pm Friday.  There will be a large number of direct descendants as well as many descendants of his brother.  There is hope that the families of those people involved in the monument's construction will also be there.

It was erected in 1926 and dedicated August 18 if that year.

Plans for the monument began as early as 1913 in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the battle in 1914.  This was the work of the Plattsburgh Centenary Commission which hoped that "by itself, or in cooperation with  the government of the United States, to provide for, erect, and establish a suitable memorial to  Thomas Macdonough in the city of Plattsburgh, N.Y."

In 1914, the state of New York and U.S. Congress appropriated funds to do just that.  The commission used these funds to acquire the land and selected architect John Russell Pope to design it.  Pope also had designed buildings such as the Roosevelt memorials, the Plattsburgh City Hall and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C..

--Brock-Perry

Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh, NY-- Part 2: Unveiled By His Great Granddaughter

The Plattsburgh Sentinel had this to say about the proceedings:  "Macdonough Monument Is Unveiled Before Thousands.  Hero of the Battle of Lake Champlain is Given Fitting Memorial in Honor of Glorious Deed in Defense of Plattsburgh and the Young Nation." 

The Plattsburgh Centenary Commission printed a booklet to mark the occasion.  A Macdonough descendant expressed gratitude.

Thanks to an allotment appropriated by New York state during the centennial celebration and matched by the federal government, the dream of a monument honoring the Battle of Plattsburgh, first proposed in 1886, was realized.

The young girl unveiling the monument on August 18, 1926, was 11-year-old Isabelle Agnes Macdonough, great-granddaughter of Commodore Thomas Macdonough, hero of the September 11, 1814, naval battle.  Of interest, Isabelle returned on September 9, 2001, to cut a ceremonial ribbon  at the door with Mayor Dan Stewart to mark the 75th anniversary of the monument.

Newspaper articles leading up to the big day of the monument's unveiling, August 18, 1926, emphasized that there was no admission fee for it, but come early as the commission could not guarantee seating for everyone.

And, I'd Never Heard of This Monument Before.  Well, before I started this blog, I had never heard of Thomas MacDonough or the Battle of Plattsburgh (I only knew of the Battle  of Lake Champlain.)--Brock-Perry

Macdonough Monument in Plattsburgh, N.Y.-- Part 1

From HMdb  "THOMAS MACDONOUGH MEMORIAL MONUMENT"

Commemorates the American naval victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814 and was designed by John Pope.  It commands the park which is opposite of the Plattsburgh City Hall, which was also designed by John Pope.

Inscribed at the base are Macdonough's four primary vessels:  Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Eagle and Preble.

The monument is 14 feet square at its base.  The bronze eagle at the top has a twenty-foot wingspan.  Pope also designed the National Archives and Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C..  He used Indiana  limestone for the Macdonough Monument and City Hall.  Pope's firm, established in New York City in 1900, consistently produced  dignified architecture of classical inspiration.

The formal dedication of the monument took place on August 18, 1926, "an ideal summer day."  Secretary of State Frank Kellogg spoke to the vast throng.  It was reported that an estimated 7,000 people attended the ceremony in front of City Hall.

--Brock-Perry

The Battle of Plattsburgh/Lake Champlain 2020 Commemoration-- Part 2

Macdonough's limited naval experience was  irrelevant  given unanticipated winds that impacted the otherwise overpowering British Navy's ability to  to maneuver on the lake, with intentions of heading south through the state of New York toward New York City.

During the action, the British naval commander was killed and the British general  ordered his forces to retreat to Canada.  Thus, British attempts to secure Lake Champlain was thwarted and this eventually led to the Treaty of Ghent and the end of the war.

--Brock-Perry

The Battle of Plattsburgh/Lake Champlain Commemoration-- Part 1

From the June 3, 2020, Plattsburgh (NY) Sun  'Monumental' drone footage by Alina Walentowicz.

Alternative planning continues for the Battle of Plattsburgh (BOP)  commemorations which will be virtual this year in September.  Local history enthusiast Tom Donahue has gotten drone footage of the Macdonough monument across from city hall in downtown Plattsburgh.

It is sometimes called the Battle of lake Champlain (which is what I've always called it, but then I'm kind of a Navy guy myself, so).

Commodore Thomas Macdonough was around 30 years of age at the time of the battle and had been promoted to the rank of master commandant  the year before.  He commanded a small American fleet of 14 ships which were mostly constructed in Vergennes, Vermont.

The monument honoring him is 135-feet and made of Indiana limestone.  At the battle, he was serving under General Alexander Macomb.

Total number of Americans at the battle were 4,000.  The British numbered 14,000 and the battle took place on both land and water.

--Brock-Perry