The Naval Battle of Valcour Island

With the English now controlling most of eastern Quebec, the English made their plans for assembling 30 ships to sail the Richelieu river to Lake Champlain, to attempt to bring that region of New York, including Fort Ticonderoga, back under English control. However, the Anishinabek were not about to allow the large English naval force to just sail into Lake Champlain without defending their land. From the Saint Lawrence river, the large English naval force which included 30 small ships and 2,420 sailors, eventually sailed into the Richelieu river then sailed down to Lake Champlain. I don�t know how many large canoes the Anishinabek had, but they were known to construct canoes large enough to carry 20 to 40 men and supplies. So assuming that they used 100 large canoes or even more, they may have numbered close to 2,000 soldiers.

One thing is certain about this naval battle, the English had many cannons they used against the numerous Indian canoes and that was why the English eventually won the Battle of Valcour Island. Though the English repeatedly used their cannons on the smaller canoes the many Anishinabe Soldiers were sailing in, it did not stop the brave Anishinabe Soldiers from attempting to gain access to the larger English ships in order to combat the English Soldiers on those ships. In the process, the brave Anishinabe Soldiers destroyed three small English gun boats and 11 regular English ships, but they were incapable of defeating the better armed English, who obviously used their cannons to win the battle. English casualties were 120, with most probably being killed. I don�t know what the Indian casualties were during the naval battle. One of the reasons why the brave Anishinabe Soldiers were able to destroy so many English vessels, was the larger number and smaller size of their canoes. They were able to approach many of those English vessels, then board them to attempt to destroy them.