PLATTSBURG  , a

city, port of entry and the county-seat of Clinton county, New York, U.S.A., situated on the west shore of Lake Champlain, at the mouth of the Saranac river, r68 m . (by rail) N.N.E. of Albany . Pop . (189o), 7010; (1900), 8434, of whom Io53 were foreign-born; (1910, census), 11,138 . It is served by the Delaware & Hudson railway, and has steamer connexions with lake ports . Its situation in the region of lakes and mountains and its delightful climate have made it a summer resort . Among its institutions are the Samuel F . Vilas Home (for aged and infirm women); the Home for the Friendless of Northern New York (1874), for the care of homeless children; the Plattsburg State Normal and Training School, the D'Youville Academy for girls (founded in 186o, chartered in 1871), under the direction of the Grey Nuns; the College St Pierre (Roman Catholic, 1903), and the Champlain Valley Hospital . The barracks, about a mile away, is an important military post . Cliff Haven, 2 M. south, is the seat of the Catholic summer school . Plattsburg has a fine harbour and is the port of entry of the Champlain customs district; in 1909 its exports were valued at $15,169,502 and its imports at $8,167,527 . Among the city's manufactures are lumber, wood pulp, paper, shirts, sewing-machines and automobiles .

The

total value of the factory products in 1905 was $1,056,702 . Plattsburg was incorporated as a village in 1795, and derived its name from Zephaniah Platt (1740-1807), who had led a colony of settlers to this place from Long Island; it became a city in 1902 . About Valcour Island (5 m. south-east of Plattsburg), on the 11th of October 1776, a British fleet under Captain Thomas Pringle and an American flotilla under Benedict Arnold engaged in the first conflict between American and British fleets, the British being victorious . On the outbreak of the War of 1812 the village became the headquarters of the American army on the northern frontier . On the 11th of September 1814, in Plattsburg (or Cumberland) Bay, Captain George Downie, commanding a British flotilla, was defeated by an American flotilla commanded by Commodore Thomas Macdonough, losing his life in the engagement (see CHAMPLAIN, LAKE) .