Action at the Southern End
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY
11 SEPTEMBER 1814
ACTION AT THE SOUTHERN END
As MacDonough had correctly anticipated, HMS FINCH, 11, could not sail close enough to the wind to approach the southern American line. In falling to leeward however, she engaged both PREBLE and TICONDEROGA. But when five British gunboats followed in her wake, PREBLE inexplicably cut her cables and abandoned the American line! Royal Navy LT William Hicks then turned FINCH’s guns in force upon TICONDEROGA and a furious cannonade ensued. Both ships battered away until time allowed the practiced American gunners to take their toll. FINCH’s rigging was shredded, her hull was holed and three feet of water collected in her bilges. She drifted toward the shoal and bumped aground. Hicks jettisoned four cannon to lighten his ship, all the while taking more fire, but could not budge his sloop. She was captured by American gunboats.
Now the gunboats accompanying FINCH, most mounting either two 18-pounders or one 32-pounder carronade, fell upon TICONDEROGA. Cowardice, it seems, was not limited to PREBLE’s skipper. Royal Navy LT Mark Raynham led the gunboats toward TICONDEROGA making a signal to board. But minutes later he hauled down his signal and turned away from the action. Though unhurt, he ordered himself rowed to a hospital tender and jumped aboard, leaving the crewmen of his gunboat to their own fates. He later went AWOL rather than face court martial.
Meanwhile, LT James Bell in the British gunboat MURRAY rallied those remaining around TICONDEROGA, sensing correctly that if the American could be driven off, the flank could be turned. The gunboats stormed and circled; each in turn slid close aboard, only to be beaten off with heavy musket and cannon fire. LT Stephen Cassin on TICONDEROGA proved a firebrand in his own right. Pacing up and down the quarterdeck amid a hail of musket balls and grapeshot, he barked commands to his gunners. American men fell all around and those standing barely had time to reload and depress their barrels before the next gunboat approached. On Bell’s next attempt to board an American shot took off his leg above the knee, and he was rowed to the medical tender. The American row-galleys joined the fight, and minutes later the approach of another British gunboat sent American Midshipman Thomas Conover in the row-galley BORER driving forward to engage. His bravado diverted British attention momentarily but brought fire upon BORER that killed three men and wrecked his boat. The pause allowed Cassin to loose such a hail of grape and musket that French-Canadian militia manning the British boats deserted their posts. Through the smoke and the roar Cassin held TICONDEROGA! With Raynham and Bell out of action, the remaining British gunboats gave up and stood off.
TICONDEROGA’s remarkable stand might well have turned the battle, had not another American captain at the northern end of the line faltered…
Continued tomorrow…
Dunne, W.M.P. “The Battle of Lake Champlain.” IN: Sweetman, Jack. Great American Naval Battles. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 85-106.
Fitz-Enz, David G. and John R. Elting, et al. The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. Lanham, MD: Cooper Square Press, 2001.
Site visit. Plattsburgh and Plattsburgh Bay, New York, 26 August 2004.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Two 20th century destroyers remember Stephen Cassin above, CASSIN (DD-48), and the WWII-era Mahan-class DD-372.
