A Glimpse at History

It was clear that MacDonough’s victory had stopped the British offensive in its attacks and that Prevost had accomplished what the U.S. Government had not been able to accomplish so far during the war and that was bring Vermont into the war. MacDonough is remembered as the “Hero of Lake Champlain” and was promoted to Commodore and Macomb was later promoted to Major General and then Commanding General of the U.S. Army in 1828.

Also, because of this win, the U.S. was able to demand exclusive rights to Lake Champlain and deny British exclusive rights to the Great lakes. Coupled with the victory at Plattsburgh and the British failure at the Seige of Baltimore, which came a few days later, further denied the British territorial gains in the Treaty of Ghent.

To quote Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill as to what they believed the deciding moment of the War of 1812 was…

Theodore Roosevelt stated the Battle of Lake Champlain was the”greatest naval battle of the war”; and Winston Churchill said it was a “decisive battle of the war.”

I think it could be concluded that two greatest minds of the 20th century, both with the ability to decide what their countries (Britian and U.S.) did militarily, concure that the Battle of Lake Champlain was probably the most important and decisive battles of the War of 1812. 

Filed under: War of 1812 by Savannah Meade