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Lake Champlain : Key to Liberty
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 22, 2020
In updating my own book, “George Washington’s Liberty Key,” I read Ralph Hill’s excellent book as I was intrigued by its subtitle, “Key to Liberty.”
Actually, “Key to Liberty” is also the second half of Part IV of the book, dealing with the Daybreak of the [American] Revolution. While the book covers Lake Champlain from the ice age to our current age, in Part IV the author makes the case that, as in the French and Indian War, Ft. Ticonderoga, located at the southern end of Lake Champlain, was the most important stronghold in the American heartland. Its capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold (allowing for its cannons to be used to chase the British out of Boston), and Arnold’s subsequent naval exploits on Lake Champlain played a major part in delaying the British strategic plan to sever New England from the other colonies.
Recall that one definition of “key” is “a means of gaining control.” Thus, in Hill’s view, Lake Champlain was the key to America’s gaining its liberty. What follows are some explanatory extracts from the book:
Page vi: “Lake Champlain was the “key to liberty” that shaped the destinies of the men and empires that used it. … Where the white-hulled yachts now slip quietly, armies struggling for control of the continent or political liberty once moved before the wind or rowed awkward bateaus [shallow sail boats pointed at both ends].”
Page 126: “The critical influence of the lake upon the outcome of the war has been stressed by a number of historians through the years, not the leaest of them Admiral Mahan, the naval historian, who wrote:
“That the Americans were strong enough to impose the capitulation of Saratoga was due to the invaluable year of delay, secured to them in 1776 by their little navy on Lake Champlain, created by the indomitable energy and … courage of the traitor, Benedict Arnold. That the war spread from America to Europe, from the English Channel to the Baltic, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, from the West Indies to the Mississippi, and ultimately involved the waters of the French peninsula of Hindustan, is traceable through Saratoga to the rude flotilla which, in 1776, anticipated the enemy in the possession of Lake Champlain.
“The little America navy … was wiped out, but never had any force, big or small, lived to better purpose or died more gloriously; for it had saved the lake for that year. Whatever deductions may be made for the blunders and for circumstances of every character, which made the British compaign of 1776 abortive and disastrous, and so led directly to the American alliance with France in 1778, the delay, with all that involved, was obtained by the lake campaign of 1776….
“Further tracing the accession of Spain in 1779 to the intervention of France, Mahan demonstrates that the “war with these two powers led to the maritime occurrences, the interferences with neutral trade, that gave rise to the Armed Neutrality; the concurrence of Holland in which brought war between that country and Great Britain in 1780…”
“It is indisputable that events set in motion on the lake bore the heaviest of responsibilities for the outcome of the Revolution. The gateway to the country had become no les than the key to liberty.”
Overall, as a fellow author, I think you’ll find this book well written and very interesting.
Actually, “Key to Liberty” is also the second half of Part IV of the book, dealing with the Daybreak of the [American] Revolution. While the book covers Lake Champlain from the ice age to our current age, in Part IV the author makes the case that, as in the French and Indian War, Ft. Ticonderoga, located at the southern end of Lake Champlain, was the most important stronghold in the American heartland. Its capture by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold (allowing for its cannons to be used to chase the British out of Boston), and Arnold’s subsequent naval exploits on Lake Champlain played a major part in delaying the British strategic plan to sever New England from the other colonies.
Recall that one definition of “key” is “a means of gaining control.” Thus, in Hill’s view, Lake Champlain was the key to America’s gaining its liberty. What follows are some explanatory extracts from the book:
Page vi: “Lake Champlain was the “key to liberty” that shaped the destinies of the men and empires that used it. … Where the white-hulled yachts now slip quietly, armies struggling for control of the continent or political liberty once moved before the wind or rowed awkward bateaus [shallow sail boats pointed at both ends].”
Page 126: “The critical influence of the lake upon the outcome of the war has been stressed by a number of historians through the years, not the leaest of them Admiral Mahan, the naval historian, who wrote:
“That the Americans were strong enough to impose the capitulation of Saratoga was due to the invaluable year of delay, secured to them in 1776 by their little navy on Lake Champlain, created by the indomitable energy and … courage of the traitor, Benedict Arnold. That the war spread from America to Europe, from the English Channel to the Baltic, from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, from the West Indies to the Mississippi, and ultimately involved the waters of the French peninsula of Hindustan, is traceable through Saratoga to the rude flotilla which, in 1776, anticipated the enemy in the possession of Lake Champlain.
“The little America navy … was wiped out, but never had any force, big or small, lived to better purpose or died more gloriously; for it had saved the lake for that year. Whatever deductions may be made for the blunders and for circumstances of every character, which made the British compaign of 1776 abortive and disastrous, and so led directly to the American alliance with France in 1778, the delay, with all that involved, was obtained by the lake campaign of 1776….
“Further tracing the accession of Spain in 1779 to the intervention of France, Mahan demonstrates that the “war with these two powers led to the maritime occurrences, the interferences with neutral trade, that gave rise to the Armed Neutrality; the concurrence of Holland in which brought war between that country and Great Britain in 1780…”
“It is indisputable that events set in motion on the lake bore the heaviest of responsibilities for the outcome of the Revolution. The gateway to the country had become no les than the key to liberty.”
Overall, as a fellow author, I think you’ll find this book well written and very interesting.
March 8, 2021
Nice summary of the action near and on Lake Champlain during French & Indian War, Revolutionary War, etc.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews