During the War of 1812, the island was utilized as a military field hospital for convalescent soldiers as well as both British and American casualties of the Battle of Plattsburgh.

On the morning of September 11, 1814, the tiny island served as the southern end of Commodore Thomas Macdonough's battle line.

To assist in this, a battery of two six-pounder (2.7 kg) cannon were also placed by the Americans on the northern tip of Crab island and were manned by a crew of convalescents from the field hospital.

[4] Following the naval battle, as the nearest point of land to it, the Crab Island hospital absorbed the dead and wounded of both fleets.

Following years of effort by numerous Plattsburgh citizens, money for a proper memorial on the island was appropriated by Congress in the early 1900s.

This was followed in 1908 by the construction of a 50-foot (15 m) granite obelisk, known as the Crab Island Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which included commemorative bronze plaques on each face.

A series of inter-connecting gravel paths were cleared allowing access for visitors and a wharf was built to accommodate boats.

[7] Jakubowski hoped to operate the island as a recreational venture, and planned to offer boat tours, picnic and barbecue facilities, and camping.

[2] In August 2003, a dedicated group of volunteers restored and re-erected the island's unique iron flagpole, which had fallen in a windstorm in 1996.