Excerpt
The Almighty has been pleased to grant us a signal victory on lake Champlain, in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war of the enemy.Historical wording and forms retained where stated.
Plattsburgh: The Invasion That Turned Back
Documentary edition · packet 14
Report of victory on Lake Champlain
Macdonough's opening assigns victory to Providence, a conventional form that can obscure the deliberate anchoring, springs, kedges, and gunnery behind the result.
11 September 1814Naval dispatchRead the chapter →
Modernized reading
Macdonough reported a decisive American naval victory and attributed it to divine favor.Plain-language reading; not a substitute for quotation.
Editorial method: The complete body sentence is reproduced from the 1823 printed witness; capitalization is reduced.
Annotations
- signal victoryA conspicuous or decisive success, not a reference to flag signaling.
- AlmightyProvidential language was conventional in official victory reports and public thanksgiving.
Witness and provenance
- Creator
- Thomas Macdonough
- Witness used
- Macdonough's dispatch as printed in John Brannan's 1823 compilation, page 410.
- Repository or edition
- Internet Archive
- Collection
- John Brannan, Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States
- Identifier
- Thomas Macdonough to William Jones, 11 September 1814, p. 410
- Transmission
- Sent from USS Saratoga after the British squadron surrendered; Brannan printed the dispatch in 1823. The linked scan is the cited witness.
- Rights
- Public-domain naval correspondence and printed edition.