The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812’s Most Decisive Battle. By David G. Fitz-Enz. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001. 254 Pages. $28.95. While fortune may indeed favor the bold, the good luck which fell to Sir George Prevost, Governor General of Canada, was nothing less than stunning! Given thousands of veteran British troops with which to take the war to the Americans, Prevost planned a major operation to destroy enemy naval power on Lake Champlain. Meanwhile, in Washington, Secretary of War John Armstrong, aware of the huge influx of British troops arriving in British North America, nevertheless ordered a major movement of forces away from the initial British target of Plattsburgh. Under protest, Major General George Izard led most of the American troops on Lake Champlain on a march of more than four hundred miles to rescue Jacob Brown’s Left Division then beleaguered in Fort Erie in Upper Canada. Despite his overwhelming advantages in numbers and quality of troops and strength of his naval squadron, Prevost was stopped cold at Plattsburgh. It is this dramatic battle that is the subject of Fitz-Enz’s popular history. The Final Invasion is a lively recounting of this somewhat obscure but decisive 1814 battle. Prevost had waged a successful defensive war for two years but now he personally led a major invasion force of more than 10,000 soldiers. Accompanying this formidable land force was Captain George Downie whose vessels carried more guns with longer range than those of Captain Thomas McDonough’s American squadron. American land forces, under the redoubtable Alexander Macomb, consisted of about 1,500 regulars, mostly recruits or convalescents, the bits and scraps of the regular regiments which marched west with Izard. Perhaps as many as 1,500 Vermont volunteers and unsteady New York militia eventually appeared to augment Macomb’s regulars. Fitz-Enz provides a stirring narrative of the two-hour slugfest that was the battle of Plattsburgh Bay. Downie managed to bring his flagship, Confiance, opposite that of McDonough, the Saratoga. Downie was killed early in the battle that McDonough won by a stratagem. After both vessels had exhausted guns and crews on the sides facing one another, McDonough managed to rotate Saratoga 180 degrees to present Confiance with a fresh broadside. Confiance struck her colors as did those other Royal Navy vessels unable to escape. Learning of the disaster to his naval squadron, Prevost called off the land attack that was on the verge of assaulting the American fortifications. Prevost judged that he could not risk his army further without a supporting naval force and he ordered the disgruntled army to return to Montreal. There is much to commend The Final Invasion, but I must caution the reader. The coverage of the war prior to September 1814 is peppered with misleading assertions, overgeneralizations, and several errors of fact. These shortfalls may elude the general reader, but someone who has studied this conflict will wince repeatedly. Also, Fitz-Enz tends to describe rather than analyze. The reader is left without a satisfying answer as to exactly why Downie’s squadron could not convert its firepower advantage into tactical victory. Furthermore, while Plattsburgh was certainly decisive to the campaign, how was it the most decisive battle of the war? Finally, it must be stated that Fitz-Enz lets Prevost off the hook rather too easily. Regardless of the result of the naval battle, it was within Prevost’s immediate ability to all but destroy the American stores, shipyards, and repair facilities at Plattsburgh, an act which would influence the balance of forces should the war continue into 1815. The author does not address this course of action open to Prevost. The lack of good maps is disappointing. A stirring read, The Final Invasion falls short of a comprehensive, scholarly campaign analysis. Dr. Barbuto is associate professor of history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author of Niagara 1814: America Invades Canada. (University Press of Kansas, 2000) Back to Table of Contents -- War of 1812 #4 Back to War of 1812 List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by Rich Barbuto. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com