Crab Island is a roughly 40-acre
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
island situated just outside
Plattsburgh BayPlattsburgh Bay was the site of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a naval and land engagement on September 11, 1814. During the battle, U.S. land and naval forces repulsed the last foreign invasion attempt on the northern states during the War of 1812. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in...
in upstate New York's
Lake ChamplainLake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada – United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
. During the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
, the island was utilized as a military
field hospitalA field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
for convalescent soldiers as well as both British and American casualties of the
Battle of PlattsburghThe Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final invasion of the northern states during the War of 1812...
. The island is the site of a
mass graveA mass grave is a grave containing multiple, usually unidentified human corpses. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave...
, believed to contain the remains of roughly 150 of those casualties. The island is infamous locally for its
poison ivyToxicodendron radicans is a plant in the family with 3 leaves Anacardiaceae. The name is sometimes spelled "Poison-ivy" in an attempt to indicate that the plant is not a true Ivy...
, which grows there heavily.
Crab Island is a roughly 40-acre
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
island situated just outside
Plattsburgh BayPlattsburgh Bay was the site of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a naval and land engagement on September 11, 1814. During the battle, U.S. land and naval forces repulsed the last foreign invasion attempt on the northern states during the War of 1812. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in...
in upstate New York's
Lake ChamplainLake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada – United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
. During the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
, the island was utilized as a military
field hospitalA field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
for convalescent soldiers as well as both British and American casualties of the
Battle of PlattsburghThe Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final invasion of the northern states during the War of 1812...
. The island is the site of a
mass graveA mass grave is a grave containing multiple, usually unidentified human corpses. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave...
, believed to contain the remains of roughly 150 of those casualties. The island is infamous locally for its
poison ivyToxicodendron radicans is a plant in the family with 3 leaves Anacardiaceae. The name is sometimes spelled "Poison-ivy" in an attempt to indicate that the plant is not a true Ivy...
, which grows there heavily. Its name is believed to have been derived from the large amounts of "crabs," ancient fossilized shells,
trilobiteTrilobites are a well-known fossil group of extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites first appear in the fossil record during the Early Cambrian period and flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before beginning a drawn-out decline to extinction when, during the...
s, etc., which can be readily found along the island's limestone shoreline.
The Naval Battle
Crab Island played an important role during the September 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh, New York. On the morning of September 11th 1814, the tiny island served as the southern end of
CommodoreCommodore is a military rank used in many navies for officers whose position exceeds that of a navy captain, but is less than that of a rear admiral...
Thomas MacdonoughThomas MacDonough was an early-19th-century American naval officer. He a leading member of "Preble's Boys", a small group of naval officers who served during the First Barbary War. His most notable achievement occurred during the War of 1812...
's battle line. Macdonough had moored his ships end to end between it and Cumberland Head to the north, forming a line across the entrance to Plattsburgh Bay. Macdonough strategised that this arrangement of his warships would either force the British to engage his anchored
squadronA squadron is a small unit or formation of cavalry, armour, aircraft , or warships.-Army and Marines:A cavalry squadron , typically consists of four troops.-United States:...
immediately after rounding Cumberland Head, which would give him the advantage, or force them to sail farther south around Crab Island at his rear. In this case, the British ships would then come within range of the guns of the
American fortificationsThe "Old Stone Barracks" is the last remaining structure of a proposed quadrangle of early U.S. Army barracks built at Plattsburgh, New York in 1838. Of the four main buildings initially planned for the Plattsburgh post, only two were ever constructed, an officer's barracks and an enlisted...
ashore. To assist in this, a battery of two 6 lb.
cannonA cannon is any tubular piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
were also emplaced by the Americans on the northern tip of Crab island and were manned by a crew of convalescents from the field hospital. During the nearly two and a half hour action, an 11-gun British
sloopA sloop is a sailboat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter. A sloop's fore-triangle is smaller than a cutter's, and unlike a cutter, a sloop usually bends only one headsail, though this distinction is not definitive; some sloops such as the...
, the H.M.S. Finch, commanded by Lieutenant William Hicks, ran hard aground on a
reefIn nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
just to the north-east of the island and became engaged in a fierce cannon duel with the Crab Island battery. Lieutenant Hicks would later recall that his crew "had the pleasure of killing or wounding every man at the guns on shore and silence them."
The Hospital
The military hospital on Crab Island was first established around September 6th 1814, just prior to the Battle of Plattsburgh. The hospital consisted mainly of rows of "tents" quickly constructed of boards and canvas and several hastily built log structures. Convalescent or invalid soldiers who were unable to fight were initially evacuated to the island before the commencement of hostilities to prevent them from becoming caught up or overrun by the fighting ashore. Many of these were later transported in
bateauA bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes...
s from Crab Island to a larger hospital at
Burlington, VermontBurlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. With a population of 38,889 at the 2000 census, the city is the core of one of the nation's smaller metropolitan areas, and is also the smallest U.S. city to be the largest city in its state...
, 25 miles across the lake. The Island's hospital was placed under the direction of a U.S. Army
surgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be medical doctors,...
, Doctor James Mann. At the time, the number of invalids on the general hospital reports alone numbered 720 men. Following the naval battle, as the nearest point of land to it, the Crab Island hospital absorbed the dead and wounded of both fleets. The dead, including those that died on the island and those which washed ashore, numbering some 150 total, were buried shoulder to shoulder in three long trenches to the south of the hospital. The bodies of officers killed in the battle, including one initially buried on Crab Island, all received military burials in Plattsburgh's Riverside Cemetery, while the enlisted men were left in the mass graves out on the island. The actual site of the graves on Crab Island was never marked.
Aftermath
Following years of effort by numerous Plattsburgh citizens, money for a proper memorial on the Island was appropriated by
CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
in the early 1900s. In 1903, a 100 foot iron flagstaff, designed to be reminiscent of a ship's mast, was erected and in 1908, a 50 foot granite
obeliskAn obelisk is a tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top...
, known as the Crab Island Soldiers and Sailors Monument and mounting a commemorative
bronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other elements such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon. It was particularly significant in antiquity, giving its name to the Bronze Age...
plaque on each face, was constructed. A series of inter-connecting gravel paths were cleared allowing access for visitors and a
wharfA wharf is a landing place or pier where ships may tie up and load or unload.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings. They often serve as interim storage areas with warehouses, since the typical objective is to unload and reload vessels as quickly as possible...
was built to accommodate boats. A full time caretaker was hired to live in a small cottage on the island and in 1909, by act of Congress, the island was officially re-named Macdonough National Military Park. This however, was not to last. By 1930, the island had been mostly abandoned. The one and only caretaker had left in 1915 and the caretaker's cottage had burned in 1929. The island remained mostly devoid of activity until the 1950s, when
United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
personnel stationed at nearby
Plattsburgh Air Force BasePlattsburgh Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base covering 3,447 acres in the extreme northeast corner of New York, 20 miles south of the Canadian Border...
began a project of clearing portions of the island for a base recreational area. This initiative also proved short lived. In 1967, the Government auctioned the island off, graves, monument, and all, a National Military Cemetery, as surplus property. Crab Island changed private hands several times throughout the proceeding decades and was only saved from development by the efforts of a vigilant few who succeeded in changing the islands zoning regulations. In 1988, New York State finally recognized the historic significance of the Island and took it via
eminent domainEminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition or expropriation is the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but...
. Since that time, much progress has been made in returning the Island to its former glory. The long overgrown 1908 trail system has since been cleared and the unique iron flagpole, which crashed to earth in a windstorm in 1996, was restored and re-erected by a dedicated group of volunteers in August, 2003. A bronze plaque placed at the foot of it now memorializes the names of the American dead which were laid to rest on the island. Crab Island is purported to be one of the only places in the World where warring British and American soldiers were both buried indiscriminately in the same graves. The actual site of their graves has still never been established.