3 - The Fight for Independence

An Enterprise for the Continental Navy

The name Enterprise was a part of American naval history even before the birth of the nation. The Continental Navy was established by the Second Continental Congress in October 1775 to supply and support the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. On May 18, 1775, five months before that historic beginning, Colonel Benedict Arnold and other Continental Army officers mounted a surprise attack on the British garrison at St. John's, Canada, capturing a sloop and other smaller vessels. In a letter to the Committee of Safety of the Colony of New York, dated May 19, Arnold wrote:

My last was on the 14th instant by Mr. Romans via New Haven. I then acquainted you of the occasion of delay in not carrying your orders into execution. The afternoon of the same day being joined by Capts. Brown and Oswald with 50 men enlisted on the road they having taken possession of a small schooner at Skeenesborough, we immediately proceeded on our way to St. Johns and at 8 O'clock P.M. on the 17th instant arrived within 30 miles of St. Johns. The weather proving calm, we manned out two small batteau with 35 men and the next morning at 7 O'clock arrived at St. Johns, surprised and took a sergeant and his party of 12 men, the King's sloop of about 70 tons with 2 brass 6 pounders and 7 men without any loss on either side.... We took such stores on board as were valuable and the wind proving favorable in two hours after our arrival weighed anchor for this place with the sloop and 4 of the King's batteau having destroyed 5 others, so that there is not left a single batteau for the King's troops, Canadians or Indians to cross the Lake if they have any such intention.... We are masters of the Lake and of that I make no doubt as I am determined to arm the sloop and schooner immediately.7

The sloop was given 12 guns and the name Enterprise by Colonel Arnold, thus becoming the first American vessel to carry the name. She had previously served as the HMS George, supplying British posts in Canada.

The first American Enterprise was a sloop captured from the British by Benedict Arnold in 1775. She served with the Continental Navy's Lake Champlain squadron.

On May 29th, Colonel Ethan Allen received an abstract of the minutes of the Continental Congress, in which it was recommended that the Continental Army and Navy withdraw from the northern portion of Lake Champlain. Colonel Allen immediately wrote to the Continental Congress, pointing out that several thousand families loyal to the colonies were settled in the tract of land, known as the New Hampshire Grant, adjacent to the northern portion of Lake Champlain. He stated that "if we should give up the sovereignty of Lake Champlain we may as well give up the whole." He continued that:

As the Colonies are now in possession and actual command of the Lake having taken the armed sloop [Enterprise] from George the Third which was cruising in the Lake, and also seized a schooner [Liberty] belonging to Major Skeene at South-Bay and have armed and manned them both for the protection of our Country and the Constitution and Civil Privileges and Liberties thereof. By a Council of War held on board the sloop [Enterprise] the 27th instant it was agreed to advance to Point au Fore with the sloop and schooner and a number of armed boats well manned and there make a stand, and act on the defensive, and by all means command the Lake, and defend the frontiers....8

Congress apparently agreed with his observations, because in a later letter, Allen reported that the colonies held command of Lake Champlain.

In Control of Lake Champlain

One interesting side note involving the Enterprise is contained in the Journal of the House of Representatives, Colony of Massachusetts. The payroll for the 31-man crew of the Enterprise for the period May 3 to July 1, 1775 totalled 154 Pounds, 16 Shillings, and 8 Pence, of which Colonel Arnold had already paid 55 Pounds, 3 Shillings, and 5 Pence. A resolution was passed on August 23, 1775 for the payment of the remaining 99 Pounds, 13 Shillings, and 3 Pence. The payroll lists the crew of the Enterprise as being composed of Captain John Prout Sloan, Mate Timothy Alcost, Lt. James Watson, two sergeants, 11 sailors, and 15 marines. Since the sloop Enterprise was not captured until May 18, the payroll must have included land service from May 3 to May 8.9

Maintaining a captain for the Enterprise was, at least initially, a major problem. In a July 11, 1775 letter to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, Major General Philip Schuyler wrote that:

The unhappy controversy which has subsisted between the officers at Ticonderoga relative to the Command has, I am informed thrown every thing into vast confusion. Troops have been dismissed - others refuse to serve, if this or that man commands - the sloop [Enterprise] is without either Captain [John Sloan] or Pilot, both of which are dismissed, or come away. I shall hurry up there much sooner than the necessary preparations here would otherwise admit, that I may attempt to introduce some kind of order and discipline among them.10

In a followup letter of July 27, General Schuyler wrote to John Hancock that Captain Jeremiah Halsey was then in command of the Enterprise, and in yet another letter, dated August 2, General Schuyler notes that Captain James Smith had just taken command of the sloop.11

Regardless of the problems of maintaining a stable command, the Enterprise, along with the other ships captured by Colonel Arnold, formed the nucleus of the Lake Champlain squadron. On August 28, 1775, the Enterprise and the other ships carried over 1,000 of General Schuyler's troops for a campaign against St. John's, Montreal, and Quebec. After landing the troops ashore at St. John's, the Enterprise was kept inactive during the winter by ice on the rivers and lakes. After General Schuyler's death, General Richard Montgomery took command of the expedition and captured Montreal, while Colonel Arnold attacked Quebec.

In the spring of 1776, a strong British fleet entered the St. Lawrence River, forcing an evacuation of American forces from Canada. This evacuation was completed in June 1776, when the Enterprise and the other ships of the squadron withdrew to the Isle aux Nois in Lake Champlain. At Skenesboro and Ticonderoga, Arnold, now a general, built up a larger fleet and again entered battle with the British on October 11, 1776, near Plattsburg, New York. Both sides knew that if the British were able to break through and isolate New England, the union of colonies would probably collapse and American independence would be a lost cause.

The Battle of Valcour Island

Though outnumbered 52 to 15, the Enterprise and other ships in Arnold's fleet fought off the British from morning until nightfall. A 20th Century history of the United States Navy captured the spirit and action of the battle as follows:

On October 10...the British felt they were ready [to attack Arnold's Lake Champlain squadron]. One of them, a man named Joshua Pell, wrote about it in his diary. With a fair north wind blowing the royal vessels swiftly to their goal, "our little squadron sailed from Pointe au Fer toward the upper or great lake." Arnold saw them coming before they saw him, which gave him the chance to assemble his fleet on the lee of Valcour Island, between the island and the Lake's west shore. "About 12 o'clock on the 11th," Pell noted, "one of our armed boats espied their fleet at anchor in the Bay of Valcour. Our armed boats immediately rushed in amongst them and engaged them without waiting for orders." One of the British sloops, Carlson, joined in with the armed boats "and kept on continual firing till dark, during which time we destroyed a schooner called the Royal Savage, and greatly damaged another." At the same time the Americans were giving as good as they got.... By nightfall, [a German mercenary fighting with the British was contented by his] salt meat, toasted zwieback biscuits, and the knowledge that he was safely out of range of the remnants of Arnold's fleet, which was surrounded. But during the night, a fog built up. Under that cover and paddling with muffled oars, Arnold's boats stole through the British line. Dawn on October 12 revealed an empty bay. The chase was on again. Ranging around the lake, several British vessels went the wrong way; but unlike at sea, complete escape was impossible. Arnold's boats were hunted down; the battle recommenced; and on October 15 American generals knew the result...12

Only the Enterprise and 4 other vessels, of the original 15, survived. General Arnold withdrew these remnants of his squadron to Ticonderoga, where they became part of the defenses which kept the British from capturing the fort.

Although the battle, which became known as the Battle of Valcour Island, had been a tactical defeat for the American fleet, it is now recognized as the greatest strategic naval victory of the American Revolutionary War. The small fleet had so disrupted the British invasion into New York that, with the approach of winter, it was nearly a year before another attack could be mounted by the British. By that time, additional American troops had been recruited and trained. This led to the eventual American victory over General Burgoyne's troops at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, which in turn resulted in an alliance between the American colonies and France. The Enterprise and the other colonial vessels had saved the American fight for independence from almost certain failure.

During the summer of 1777, as General Burgoyne was beginning his advance towards Saratoga, the Enterprise, with two schooners and two galleys, was sent to aid in the evacuation of Ticonderoga. On July 7, 1777, the two schooners were captured by the British, and the Enterprise was run aground and burned by her crew to prevent her from also being captured.

Service on the Chesapeake

A second, smaller Enterprise also served during the American Revolution. This 8-gun schooner was commissioned by the colony of Maryland around June 1776 under command of Captain James Campbell. She was purchased by the Committee of Secret Correspondence of the Continental Congress on December 20, 1776 and, with Captain Campbell still in command, operated mainly in Chesapeake Bay. Among her assignments, the Enterprise convoyed American transport ships, carried out various reconnaissance missions against the British, and helped to prevent the British from getting supplies to their ships from the shores of Maryland and Virginia. The Enterprise was returned to the Maryland Council of Safety sometime in February 1777, just two months after she was purchased for the Continental Navy.

The small 8-gun schooner Enterprise served on the Chesapeake Bay from June 1776 to February 1777.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003