Battle of Lake Pontchartrain 1779
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 10 September 1779 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1779 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Nearest landmass | At sea (nearest continent: North America) | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Gulf Coast campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Spain, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 30.1889, -90.1014 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain was a single-ship action on September 10, 1779, part of the Anglo-Spanish War. It was fought between the British sloop-of-war HMS West Florida and the Continental Navy schooner USS Morris in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, then in the British province of West Florida.
West Florida was patrolling on Lake Pontchartrain when it encountered Morris, which had set out from New Orleans with a Spanish and American crew headed by Continental Navy Captain William Pickles. The larger crew of Morris successfully boarded West Florida, inflicting a mortal wound on its captain, Lieutenant John Payne. The capture of West Florida all but eliminated the British naval presence on the lake, weakening already tenuous British control over the western reaches of West Florida.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Lake Pontchartrain (revision 1370447022), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Capture of New Orleans 1862 · 26 km
- Battle of New Orleans 1815 · 29 km
- Battle of Ponchatoula 1863 · 43 km
- Battle of Lake Borgne 1814 · 64 km
- Battle of LaFourche Crossing 1863 · 79 km
- First Battle of Donaldsonville 1862 · 86 km
Other battles of the Gulf Coast campaign
All 4 battles of the Gulf Coast campaign →
Browse more: battles at sea · North America · Early modern battles