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Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's Explorations on the lake
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Return of the killed and wounded

The Battle of Plattsburg
September 11, 1814

By James P. Millard

Grave marker-Riverside Cemetery, Plattsburgh, NY
Photo by the author

The men listed below, those who perished in battle, do not have a marker such as you see here, photographed in Plattsburgh, New York's Riverside Cemetery. Their graves remain to this day unmarked, somewhere on lonely Crab Island in Cumberland Bay. They, together with their antagonists from the British fleet, lie together in a mass grave, the only monument to their existence, a marble obelisk on the western shore of the island.

The oval plaque you see at left reads:
"At the Battle of Plattsburgh, Sept. 11, 1814,
HE FOUGHT FOR HIS COUNTRY IN THE WAR OF 1812"

Click HERE to listen to Tom Ventiquattro and Dan Wills' wonderful recording of Dear Lucy- a love song about the Battle of Plattsburgh. As Tom writes- "Let us imagine that Commodore Macdonough wrote a love letter to his wife...immediately after the Battle of Plattsburgh... with the shock of cannon fire still ringing in his ears..." The song is reproduced courtesy of and Copyright © 2005 Newbraugh Brothers Music .* Learn more about the artist here.

Note: the music file is in Windows Media Format (.wma) and slightly over 600k in size. Users with slower connections may have to wait for a portion of the song to download before they hear anything.
(Users of browsers other than Internet Explorer may not be able to play the song).

Return of killed and wounded on board the United States squadron on Lake Champlain, in the engagement with the British fleet, on the 11th of September, 1814.*¹

Ship SARATOGA

Killed

Killed

Wounded

Killed

Wounded

*Author note: To me this is an especially important page. To some it may appear to be simply a list of long-deceased warriors. The vast majority of the men listed as killed in action on this list (all except the officers) were buried in long trenches- unmarked graves- together with their adversaries from the British fleet on Crab Island. The location of this military cemetery has long since been forgotten. There is an obelisk on the western shore of Crab Island to commemorate the importance of the island during the battle, but there is nothing to mark the hallowed ground where these men were laid to rest. If I am able to locate a list of the British combatants who are buried here, America's Historic Lakes will list their names. [jpm]
 

In spite of the terrible tragedies of September 11, 2001, a group of local citizens, Dan Carpenter, Roger Harwood, Steve Nye, Frank Pabst, Dan Rock, Bill Rowe, and John Tomkins, were able to transport a group of veterans to Crab Island for a memorial service. This service was to honor the 149 American and British soldiers who died in the Battle of Plattsburgh on September 11, 1814, and are buried on Crab Island. This is the first time this service has been held on Crab Island in many decades.