ÎLe Aux Noix, Canada

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ÎLe Aux Noix, Canada

ÎLE AUX NOIX, CANADA. A low, flat, brush-covered island dotted with insect-infested swamps, it was located in a bend of the Richelieu (Sorel) River between the outlet of Lake Champlain and St. Johns. The island was about a mile long and four hundred yards wide. A solitary farm occupied a slight elevation in the middle. The French organized defenses on this unwholesome spot in 1759 after they had been forced by Amherst's advance to abandon their works at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. During the Revolution the island was an intermediate objective of American and British forces in their advances and retreats along the Lake Champlain route. Some eight thousand Americans who camped on the island in June 1776 as survivors of the Canada invasion retreated into New York. Thousands of them fell victim to smallpox, malaria, and dysentery. It subsequently was garrisoned by the British.

SEE ALSO Canada Invasion.