On this day 250 years ago at the Old Provost prison in New York City, Col. Samuel Selden died in British captivity. Selden commanded one of the six regiments of Connecticut militia levies, and he with most of his regiment had been captured at Kip’s Bay on September 15.

The Old Provost was then the city’s new jail and stood on Broadway, just past St. Paul’s Church. The American prisoners considered this facility to be a “hideous place. Selden was buried in the Brick Church yard on Nassau Street in an unmarked grave, but a memorial to him was placed in the Selden cemetery in his hometown of Hadlyme, Connecticut.

https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/colonel-samuel-selden/; Fitch Diary at p. 57, accessed at https://archive.org/details/votesproceedings1776newj/page/34/mode/2up; https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2231%20August%201776%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=2&sr=ss (note 10); https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/colonel-samuel-selden/

On this day 250 years ago in New York, the British defeated the Americans at the naval Battle of Valcour Island. The American fleet commanded by Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold, lost two of its 15 boats and had at least 60 (according to Arnold’s report) or more than 100 (according to modern histories) men killed, wounded or captured, before it slipped away past the British fleet in the dark of night after the battle. In contrast the British lost only one of their 33 gunboats and reported only 40 casualties and would end up destroying most of the American boats as the British fleet chased the American boats up Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga in the days after the battle. Yet historians credit the Battle of Valcour Island as one of the reasons America won the War. Why?

First, the British waited until they could complete their biggest ship the Invincible before attacking in order to make sure they would outgun Arnold’s fleet. As a result, they got such a late start on the campaign that after they destroyed the American fleet, the British decided it was too late to attack Fort Ticonderoga with winter oncoming. So they put off Burgoyne’s campaign on land until the next year when it would end disastrously for the British at Saratoga.

Additionally, the British routinely undercounted their losses in official reports so although most historians take at face value the British count of 40 casualties, it may have been higher. Contemporary British accounts reported that the American gunboats fired on the British ” boats with great success” and that “the Enemy Fleet attaced ours with Great Fury.” In addition to sinking one of the British gunboats, the Americans badly damaged several of the British ships especially the schooner Carleton. Had the British beaten Arnold unscathed, it is likely that they may have gone on to attack Fort Ticonderoga before the onset of winter. Arnold’s defense at Valcour Island thus laid the ground for the American victory at Saratoga one year later.

Although at least 60 soldiers of the Continental Army gave their lives at Valcour Island in this critical battle that helped win the Revolution, I have been able to identify the names of three men who were killed: Lt. Thomas Rogers and Pvts. Samuel Anderson and James Timberlake. I hope that the Memorial Service held today in Plattsburgh, New York will memorialize the names of other soldiers who gave their lives at Valcour Island to secure American Liberty. They need to be remembered by us all.

Sources: Nelson, James L., Benedict Arnold’s Navy, The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the Revolution, Camden, Maine: McGraw-Hill (2006) at 290-308; https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/valcour-island; https://westfordmuseum.org/lt-thomas-rogers-1750-1776/

Today, October 11, 2026, the Clinton County Historical Association held a reenactment of the battle, and a Memorial Service for the men who gave their lives in the battle. Also today my wife and I attended a lecture at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., on “Valor at Valcour: Revolutionary War Wrecks in Lake Champlain and a Vision for Exhibiting US Navy’s Underwater Archaeology.”

https://www.facebook.com/events/823980830014757; https://www.clintoncountyhistorical.org/america250; https://www.adkcoastcultural.org/battle-of-valcour-island-250th-anniversary.html; https://www.navymemorial.org/new-events/2026/10/11/250th-anniversary-of-battle-of-valcour-island