Arnold’s Bay Project: Material Culture and Connections from a Colonial Battlefield in Lake Champlain

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Exploring the Maritime Archaeology of the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain Valley: Ongoing Research", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A little-known battlefield from the American War of Independence lies in Arnold’s Bay in Panton, Vermont. In October of the 1776 campaign season, British troops made their way south from Fort St. Jean in a last attempt for the year to defeat the American fleet on Lake Champlain. The warring fleets met at Valcour Bay on October 11th and the overall skirmish ended at Arnold’s Bay on October 13th. This paper explores the battlefield site on land and in-water, where General Benedict Arnold burned five vessels to prevent their capture and escaped with his remaining soldiers by land to Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga. This ongoing archaeological investigation conducted by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum was funded by the American Battlefield Protection Program. The Museum worked in collaboration with Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Abenaki leaders, and partnered with the Advanced Metal Detecting for the Archaeologist (AMDA) group.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Exploring the Maritime Archaeology of the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain Valley: Ongoing Research

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow