Lake Champlain is a natural body of water in New York and Vermont, along with a portion in the province of Quebec, Canada. About 100 miles of the boundary between New York and Vermont is represented by the lake. It receives water from Lake George and a variety of streams, and flows naturally north into Quebec by the Richelieu River. It is connected by Canals with the Hudson River.
Discovered by Samuel Champlain in 1609, the lake was a natural conduit for military forces headed both north and south. During the French and Indian Wars, the French and Canadian forces first gained a victory at Fort Ticonderoga in 1758, but were defeated by the British the following year.
During the American Revolution, the lake was used by continental forces under Benedict Arnold, who won a major victory at Valcour Island in 1776. It was taken by the British in 1777 and remained under British control for the remainder of the conflict.
The last military activity on the lake was during the War of 1812, when Commodore Thomas Macdonough`s total destruction of the British fleet in Plattsburgh Bay in 1814 was the decisive battle of the second war with England.