I was at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History the other day and viewed the gunboat Philadelphia, which was sunk during the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain during the American Revolution. (An American flotilla lead by Benedict Arnold was defeated by a superior British fleet. However, the Americans managed to forstall a British invasion from the north which could have driven a wedge between New York and New England).
Anyways, it struck me as unusual that a naval engagment had occured on a relatively small lake and it got me wondering whether there are other examples from history of naval battles on small(er) lakes or even rivers. This isn’t something that I can google easily, so I’m asking here.
Commodore MacDonough is relatively famous in the Plattsburgh area as the man who defended northeastern New York and hence the rest of the country from British invasion via Quebec.
Two other U.S. naval battles are highly improbable:
The case where a U.S. gunboat on the upper reaches of the Rio Parana was attacked by a charge of the Paraguayan cavalry, and
The tidal wave that stranded a U.S. frigate inland in the Chilean desert, where it was attacked and stripped by the indigenous Indians.
The Battle of Put-in-Bay in the west end of Lake Erie in (I think) 1814 which decided the fate of the Northwest and the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. Commadore Perry’s post-battle dispatch-we have met the enemy and he is ours-was modified by Walt Kelly into a Pogo classic-we have met the enemy and he is us.
Lake Chaplain is over 120 miles long (although its widest point is only about 12 miles). In the days when the only route from Canada to New York was a series of narrow, muddy tracks through steep hills covered in dense forest, it was worth the effort for one army or another to take the time to build (or portage in) bateaux, canoes, and other craft to transport their gear up or down that valley.
During the War of 1812, there were more battles on Lake Champlain and there were several naval encounters on the Detroit River and the St. Clair river. The latter have tended to be forgotten under the shadow of Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, but they were important enough at the time.
Does the British fleet severing the Grand Canal of China in 1842 count? (It was blockaded by an ocean fleet sailing up the deep Yangtze River and I have never heard of any serious resistance mounted by the Chinese, but it was a direct contributor to the Treaty of Nanjing and the opening of Chinese ports to Western traders.)
Cortez, in the final battle for Mexico city - Tenochtitlan, built IIRC about 13 brigantines which fought the the native canoes… i am tryong to remember the name of the lake and Texcoco comes to mind but I am not certain. Anyway, the lake has been drained and no longer exists.
The Belgian gunboat was promptly sunk by the Germans.
Later, two British Riverine Warfare vessels the Mimi and the Toutou were hauled by traction engine across 500 miles of jungle from the railhead, launched, & despite having the loonyest captain in the history of the Royal Navy, sunk the German vessel.
I cite a book The Great War In Africa by Byron Farwell.