British Raids on Vermont

The British raids on Vermont in the summer of 1813 revealed one of the war’s most uncomfortable truths for American nationalists: significant portions of the American population, particularly in New England, were more interested in trading with the enemy than in fighting him. Vermont communities along Lake Champlain not only failed to resist British raids — some actively cooperated with them.

Following the capture of USS Growler and USS Eagle in June 1813, which gave the British unchallenged control of Lake Champlain, Lieutenant Colonel John Murray conducted a series of raids along the Vermont and New York shores. His force of approximately 1,000 regulars, transported aboard the captured American sloops, struck at military stores, provisions, and public property.

The response — or lack of it — from Vermont was extraordinary. Governor Martin Chittenden, a Federalist who opposed the war, not only declined to call out the militia but actively ordered Vermont militia units already serving with the federal army to return home. His proclamation was widely interpreted as an invitation to desertion and was condemned by the Madison administration as bordering on disloyalty.

More remarkably, significant cross-border trade continued throughout the British operations. Vermont farmers drove cattle across the border to supply British forces in Canada. Smuggling of provisions, timber, and other goods through Lake Champlain was so extensive that it became a major source of supply for the British army. General George Izard, commanding American forces in the region, wrote in despair that “the road to St. Regis is covered with droves of cattle, and the river with rafts, destined for the enemy.”

Jon Latimer, in 1812: War with America, cites this cross-border trade as evidence of the war’s deeply divisive character. Donald Hickey, in The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, documents the extent of New England’s non-cooperation and notes that the trade with the enemy was so substantial that British forces in Canada were partially sustained by American provisions throughout the war.

The Vermont episode is rarely featured in American accounts of the war, for obvious reasons. It contradicts the narrative of unified national resistance and reveals that for many Americans — particularly in Federalist New England — the war was Mr. Madison’s folly, not their fight. The British understood this perfectly and exploited it, initially exempting New England from the blockade precisely to maintain these divisions.