1926 granite obelisk in front of City Hall commemorating the 1814 naval victory on Lake Champlain
A 41-metre granite obelisk in front of Plattsburgh's City Hall, erected in 1926 to commemorate the 1814 American naval victory on Lake Champlain. The base carries the names of officers and men who fought under Commodore Macdonough; the inscriptions are worth reading. The monument is the centrepiece of City Hall Park, which is also the site of the small Battle of Plattsburgh Memorial gardens and the September Battle Commemoration weekend each year.
Combine with a visit to the Battle of Plattsburgh Museum a few blocks south and the Kent-Delord House Museum, which has the relevant 1814-era material on display.
A story
The Battle of Plattsburgh on 11 September 1814 ended a 14,000-strong British invasion of the United States. American naval commander Thomas Macdonough was outnumbered and outgunned, but he had anchored his fleet across Plattsburgh Bay with cleverly placed stern-anchor lines. When the British flagship was crippled, Macdonough rotated his own flagship using these lines to bring his fresh starboard guns to bear — winning the engagement decisively. The British army on land, watching their fleet sink, retreated to Canada the same night.