With Prevost’s written promise in his pocket Downie sailed for Plattsburg in the early morning of that fatal 11th of September.  Punctually to the minute he fired his preconcerted signal outside Cumberland Head, which separated the bay from the lake.  He next waited exactly the prescribed time, during which he reconnoitred Macdonough’s position from a boat.  Then the hour of battle came.  The hammering of the shipwrights stopped at last; and the ill-starred Confiance, that ship which never had a chance to ‘find herself,’ led the little squadron into Prevost’s death-trap in the bay.  Every soldier and sailor now realized that the storming of the works on land ought to have been the first move, and that Prevost’s idea of simultaneous action was faulty, because it meant two independent fights, with the chance of a naval disaster preceding the military success.  However, Prevost was the commander-in-chief; he had promised co-operation in his own way; and Downie was determined to show him that the Navy had stopped for ‘no other cause’ than the head-wind of the day before.

Did no other cause than mistaken judgment affect Prevost that fatal morning?  Did he intend to show Downie that a commander-in-chief could not suffer the ‘disappointment’ of ‘holding troops in readiness’ without marking his displeasure by some visible return in kind?  Or was he no worse than criminally weak?  His motives will never be known.  But his actions throw a sinister light upon them.  For when Downie sailed in to the attack Prevost did nothing whatever to help him.  Betrayed, traduced, and goaded to his ruin, Downie fought a losing battle with the utmost gallantry and skill.  The wind flawed and failed inside the bay, so that the Confiance could not reach her proper station.  Yet her first broadside struck down forty men aboard the Saratoga.  Then the Saratoga fired her carronades, at point-blank range, cut up the cables aboard the Confiance, and did great execution among the crew.  In fifteen minutes Downie fell.

The battle raged two full hours longer; while the odds against the British continued to increase.  Four of their little gunboats fought as well as gunboats could.  But the other seven simply ran away, like their commander afterwards when summoned for a court-martial that would assuredly have sentenced him to death.  Two of the larger vessels failed to come into action properly; one went ashore, the other drifted through the American line and then hauled down her colours.  Thus the battle was fought to its dire conclusion by the British Confiance and Linnet against the American Saratoga, Eagle, and Ticonderoga.  The gunboats had little to do with the result; though the odds of all those actually engaged were greatly in favour of Macdonough.  The fourth American vessel of larger size drifted out of action.