One-hundred years ago a monument was erected in Plattsburgh to honor the commander of the Sept. 11, 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh. A memorial ceremony was held Thursday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Macdonough Monument.
As we remember the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in 2001, many people do not know that there was an attempted invasion on the same day nearly 200 years earlier -- during the War of 1812. The British, hoping to wrest control of key waterways between Canada and New York City, mounted a land and naval battle in northern New York. A fledgling United States Navy won the Battle of Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain on Sept. 11, 1814.
In 1926, a 135-foot-tall monument was unveiled honoring the commander of the naval battle in Plattsburgh Bay: Commodore Thomas Macdonough.
Plattsburgh Mayor Wendell Hughes kicked off the monument’s memorial ceremony.
“Today we celebrate a very special milestone for Plattsburgh, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Macdonough’s memorial monument. Dedicated in 1926, this monument honors Commodore Thomas Macdonough and the American victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh. For 100 years it has stood as a reminder of the courage, service, sacrifice that has shaped our community and our nation.”
Allan Jay is a descendant of Commodore Macdonough and believes he would be embarrassed about the monument and the attention given to his victory on Lake Champlain. When Jay sees the monument, he thinks about the significance of the battle his ancestor won.
“The importance of this battle, it really turned the tide. And if you are aware of the British war papers that came out years afterwards, this was the main thrust of the British. You know, down in Washington D.C., New Orleans, those battles and Buffalo were decoys. This was their main thrust and their main thrust was thwarted because of a naval maneuver that he performed in the bay. That’s what’s significant.”
A number of navy officers and veterans that served on the USS Macdonough attended the ceremony. Retired U.S. Navy Reserve Commander Jack Behlendorf remembered a plaque on the ship.
“For those of us who served aboard her, Thomas Macdonough was not simply a figure in a history book. He was part of our ship. His name was on our stern and on the quarter-deck bulkhead there was a brass plaque bearing his words from the Battle of Lake Champlain: ‘The Almighty has been pleased to grant us this signal victory.’ Every sailor who walked past that plaque was reminded that we were carrying more than a name. We were carrying a legacy. A legacy of preparation, of ingenuity, of courage, of being calm under pressure, of leadership and of humility.”
Theodore Roosevelt called the 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh “the greatest naval battle of the war” and Winston Churchill considered it “the most decisive battle of the war.” Yet many people do not know the history. Behlendorf thinks that’s due to Macdonough himself.
“He was a very deeply religious person and he had a very strong moral code of humility. And I think that as the years and centuries have progressed because he didn’t personally champion the things that he did that were great in the time they didn’t necessarily carry forward. I think that that’s an element of what went on. And I think that’s more of a testament to Macdonough."
The ceremony marking 100 years of the Macdonough Monument included the placement of wreaths honoring the military and veterans.
