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Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough
Once A Victim Of British Impressment, U.S. Commander's Revenge Was Victory At Plattsburgh
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
In 1805 or 1806, Navy Lt. Thomas Macdonough became a victim of impressment -- the British practice of capturing American sailors and forcing them into service in the British navy. Macdonough was taken aboard a British ship and assigned sleeping quarters with a corporal of the guard. As soon as the British sailor fell asleep, Macdonough made his escape.
"If I live, I'll make England remember the day she impressed an American soldier!" he swore. Macdonough fulfilled that promise more than eight years later, but not before suffering another defeat at the hands of the enemy.
In part due to the British policy of impressment, the United States declared war on Great Britain in 1812. Macdonough offered his services to Secretary of the Navy Alexander Hamilton and was given command of a division of gunboats in disrepair. He readied these for war and began patrols of Lake Champlain in upstate New York.
On June 2, 1813, he ordered two sloops to sail to the mouth of the Richelieu River to prevent the British from entering Lake Champlain. Against his orders, the sloops sailed across the border and engaged in a four-hour battle with disastrous results. American sailors were taken prisoner and both ships impounded. The new Navy secretary, William Jones, gave Macdonough "unlimited authority" to obtain the men and materiel needed to regain "the ascendancy which we have lost."
Designated master commandant on July 24, Macdonough finally received authorization to construct a new battleship in January 1814. On Sept. 11, Macdonough's flagship Eagle was at Plattsburgh Bay with the rest of his fleet, ready to do battle. This time, within three hours, the British surrendered in face of the rapid and powerful fire from the American ships. The Battle of Plattsburgh was one of the most decisive and effective in American history.
Macdonough continued in naval service. In 1824, while on duty as commander of the Constitution in the Mediterranean, he learned that his wife Lucy Ann had died. Macdonough tried to return to the U.S., but he was deathly ill with tuberculosis. He died on Nov. 10, 1825, at age 41, some 600 miles from home. Though considered one of the great heroes of his native Delaware, he was buried in Connecticut with his wife and children.
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