Dispatches sets the words of the moment beside the photographs of 2026 — one account from each side, as each was written.
On October 11, 1776, Benedict Arnold hid his fleet in the narrow channel behind Valcour Island, so the British sailed past him and had to fight their way back against the wind. They fought until dark, and that night Arnold slipped through the British line in the fog. Two days later he burned the last of his ships in what is today called Arnold’s Bay, possibly the only place in the country that carries his name. After taking Crown Point late in the fighting season, the British turned back to Canada.
“The enemy acknowledge our bravery, and confess their loss of men equal to ours.”
— Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, October 23, 1776, printing intelligence laid before Congress two days earlier
“The Killed and Wounded in His Majesty’s Fleet, including the Artillery in the Gun Boats, do not amount to Forty; but from every Information I have yet got, the Loss of the Enemy must indeed be very considerable.”
— Captain Thomas Pringle, Royal Navy, aboard the Maria off Crown Point, October 15, 1776, printed in the London Gazette, November 19–23, 1776
Photographs: Plattsburg Bay, Plattsburgh, New York, October 11, 2026. Rev250 living history photography by Thomas Musante.
Sources
If you’d like to learn more about the reporting of the day, below are the two newspaper accounts of the battle — one printed in Philadelphia twelve days after it, one in London five weeks later — along with a modern account of what took place.
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