Capturing the British Sloop at St. John’s
Over 100 miles north of Fort Ticonderoga, well within the borders of Canada, lay the British outpost of St. John’s. It guarded the northern end of Lake Champlain, much like Fort Ticonderoga guarded the southern end. After capturing Ticonderoga and Crown Point without even firing a shot, the American forces decided to push further north.
Although St. John’s was so far away, the Americans had a good reason to attack it: a 70-ton British warship was moored there, which could be used to help control the whole lake. So, on May 14, led by Colonel Benedict Arnold, about 50 men set out from Fort Ticonderoga for St. John’s in another small ship, which had been captured at Skenesborough, about 20 miles south of Ticonderoga, and which they named the Liberty (this one was a “schooner,” whereas the one at St. John’s was a “sloop;” the two types of vessels evidently differ in their sails, masts, etc., but I won’t try to explain the difference, since the only type of boat I’m really familiar with is a canoe).
Sailing before the wind, they got within 30 miles of St. John’s by the evening of May 17. But then the wind died down. Their plan depended on speed and surprise, so they loaded 35 men into two boats and started rowing. Captain Eleazer Oswald of Connecticut wrote:
After rowing hard all night, we arrived within half a mile of the place at sunrise, sent a man to bring us information, and in a small creek, infested with numberless swarms of gnats and muskitoes, waited with impatience for his return.
The man came back and reported that the British troops seemed unaware of their approach. They quickly left their hiding place and took the enemy by surprise, with no casualties on either side. They were fortunate to have arrived when there were only about 20 British soldiers and sailors, as Benedict Arnold wrote:
The Captain was gone to Montreal, &; hourly expected with a large Detachment [of reinforcements] for Ticonderoga…; add to this there was a Captain & 40 Men at Chamblee, 12 Miles distant from St Johns, who was expected there every Minute with his Party; so that it seemed to be a mere Interposition of Providence that we arrived in so fortunate an Hour.
If the Americans had arrived even a few hours later, they probably would have been forced to retreat. Even as it was, they couldn’t stay; they didn’t have enough men or supplies to hold their ground. With the prisoners and supplies they had captured, they boarded the sloop — and a strong wind began blowing from the north, just in time to carry them back southward.
That same day, on their way back, they met Ethan Allen, with about 100 men in boats, rowing north. Allen was determined to hold the fort at St. John’s against all odds, even though he didn’t have enough food for his men at the time. Arnold tried to persuade him to drop the idea; when that didn’t work, he gave Allen some food and went on south. There was already a not-so-friendly rivalry between Allen and Arnold, and since Arnold had beaten Allen to the punch in attacking St. John’s, maybe Allen was trying to one-up Arnold by keeping it. It didn’t work; the next morning Allen’s men were rudely awakened by the cannons and muskets of the British reinforcements, and being outnumbered almost two to one, they beat a hasty retreat.
It was several months before the Americans tried to attack St. John’s again — and the second time was much more difficult than the first. In the meanwhile, the captured sloop, renamed the Enterprise, helped the Americans to maintain control of the lake.
Sources
“Extract of a Letter from Ticonderoga, dated May 23, 1775.” Published in The New England Chronicle: or, the Essex Gazette, 1 June 1775. http://www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/4/sequence/828
“Colonel Benedict Arnold to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, Cambridge.” Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 1:366.
“A survey of Lake Champlain, including Lake George, Crown Point, and St. John.” 1776. https://www.loc.gov/item/gm72002093/