Success hung upon the cooperation and junction of two armies moving separately, the one under Wilkinson descending the St.Lawrence, the other under Wade Hampton setting out from Plattsburg on Lake Champlain.

The fact that these two officers had hated each other for years made a difficult problem no easier.

Hampton possessed uncommon ability and courage, but he was proud and sensitive, as might have been expected in a South Carolina gentleman, and he loathed Wilkinson with all his heart.

That he should yield the seniority to one whom he considered a blackguard was to him intolerable, and he accepted the command on Lake Champlain with the understanding that he would take no orders from Wilkinson until the two armies were combined.
The expedition from Sackett's Harbor was ready to advance by way of the St.Lawrence in October, 1813, and comprised seven thousand effective troops.

Even then the commanding general and the Secretary of War had begun to regard the adventure as dubious and were accusing each other of dodging the responsibility.