Champlain furnished a line of
water communication, for men and supplies, from the very heart of the
resources of the country, centring about New York. This was not indeed
continuous; but it was consecutive, and well developed. Almost the
whole of it lay within United States territory; and when the boundary
line on Champlain was reached, Montreal was but forty miles distant.
Towards Kingston, also, there was a similar line, by way of the Mohawk
River and Lake Oneida to Oswego, whence a short voyage on Ontario
reached the American naval station at Sackett's Harbor, thirty miles
from Kingston. As had been pointed out six months before the war
began, by General Armstrong, who became the United States Secretary of
War in January, 1813, when the most favorable conditions for
initiative had already been lost, these two lines were identical as
far as Albany. "This should be the place of rendezvous; because,
besides other recommendations, it is here that all the roads leading
from the central portion of the United States to the Canadas
diverge--a circumstance which, while it keeps up your enemy's doubts
as to your real point of attack, cannot fail to keep his means of
defence in a state of division."[415] The perplexity of an army, thus
uncertain upon which extreme of a line one hundred and fifty miles
long a blow will fall, is most distressing; and trebly so when, as in
this case, the means of communication from end to end are both scanty
and slow. "The conquest of Lower Canada," Sir James Craig had written,
"must still be effected by way of Lake Champlain;" but while this was
true, and dictated to the officer charged with the defence the
necessity of keeping the greater part of his force in that quarter,
it would be impossible wholly to neglect the exposure of the upper
section. This requirement was reflected in the disposition of the
British forces when war began; two thirds being below Montreal,
chiefly at Quebec, the remainder dispersed through Upper Canada. To
add to these advantages of the United States, trivial as was the naval
force of either party on Champlain, the preponderance at this moment,
and throughout the first year, was in her hands. She was also better
situated to enlarge her squadrons on all the lakes, because nearer the
heart of her power.

Circumstances thus had determined that, in general plan, the seaboard
represented the defensive scene of campaign for the United States,
while the land frontier should