24-pounders, the remainder being 32 and 42 pounder carronades; the schooner _Ticonderoga_, the sloop _Preble_, and ten galleys. Once more the Americans were in control. The British, however, were urging forward with all haste, to assist in the coming invasion, a ship much more than the _Saratoga’s_ equal. This was the _Confiance_, of 37 guns, 27 of which were long 24-pounders and the others carronades of 24 and 32 pounds. On August 25th she was launched. With her tonnage of over 1,200 against the 734 of the _Saratoga_ and with her great superiority in long guns, she was an enemy to be reckoned with. The European wars had now closed. Four brigades of Wellington’s army had been sent to Canada from Bordeaux. They came with orders to “give immediate protection to his Majesty’s possessions in America,” by the entire destruction of Sackett’s Harbor and of the naval establishments on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain.[39] The governor-general of Canada, Sir George Prevost, who also was in command of the army, now had, exclusive of officers, 29,437 men, nearly all of whom were regulars seasoned by years of service under Wellington. He decided to advance by the west side of the lake reporting that as “Vermont has shown a disinclination to the war, and, as it is sending in specie and provisions, I will confine offensive operations to the west side of Lake Champlain.”[40] On August 31st Prevost moved south with an army variously estimated at from 11,000 to 14,000 men. The American army under General Alexander Macomb was less than 2,000, but by September 4th came in 700 militia from the neighborhood, and by the 11th “other militia from New York and volunteers from Vermont ... in encouraging contrast to their fellow-citizens who were making money by abetting the enemy.” The British entered Plattsburgh on the 6th. Macomb retreated across the Saranac, a small, fordable river on which the town stands, and entrenched. Had Prevost had the courage to attack Macomb with his large and seasoned army, Macdonough would have had either to withdraw up the lake or risk a battle in the open lake, where the _Confiance_ would have been more than a match for his whole squadron. He had anchored under Cumberland Head, somewhat over a mile from the west shore with the _Eagle_, _Saratoga_, _Ticonderoga_, and _Preble_ in a line from north to south in the order named. West of this line were his ten gunboats. His fourteen vessels totalled but 2,244 tons, with 86 guns and 882 men. The British commodore, Downie, had sixteen vessels, amounting in all to 2,402 tons, with 92 guns and 937 men, but his flagship, as mentioned, was nearly twice the size and force of the _Saratoga_.