Fort Ticonderoga

“ Filled with self importance at being intrusted with tickets and money for such a long trip alone, the boys finally arrived at Fort Ticonderoga. It is not hard to imagine how the Fort at once captured their interest. Little boys of eight and ten have vivid imaginations and with a doting grandmother who told delightfully the old tales of capture and recapture, these imaginations soon ran riot. They were in turn Montcalm, Allen, Arnold, Burgoyne (always a successful officer) . They ran up the hills and over the walls, demanding the surrender, or holding the fort. ”

“ The beauty of the point on which the Fort stands overlooking Lake Champlain and of the surrounding meadows and woods is appreciated, consciously and unconsciously, by all of the 111 many visitors. It is a commonplace thing for people who have entered the Fort to return to pick up cameras in their parked autos in order to be able to take photographs in the beautiful surroundings.
Fort Ticonderoga is a living page of American history—the most faithfully restored Fort in America and houses the greatest collection of Revolutionary and Colonial objects. ”

“ Carew asked many questions about the fort.
“There is more travel over the trails than ever before,” she told the little girl, “and we hardly know who are our friends. The English are sending their spies everywhere. Be very cautious, Faithie, and say nothing to any stranger that you have ever been near Fort Ticonderoga. This part of the country will not be safe until American soldiers take the place of the English in the fort.” ”

“ Three expeditions were planned in 1758; one against Louisburg; another against Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and a third against Fort du Quèsne.
General Abercromby, the commander-in-chief, took charge of the expedition against Ticonderoga, with a force of 15,390 men, of whom 6337 were regulars (including Lord John Murray’s Highlanders) , and 9024 provincials, besides a train of artillery.
Fort Ticonderoga stands on a tongue of land between Lake Champlain and Lake George, and is surrounded on three sides by water; part of the fourth side is protected by a morass ”

“ March came, “stirring the fire” vigorously from the day of its arrival. The ice in the lake broke up rapidly, the snow melted, and by the middle of the month Faith began to expect her father. Nathan Beaman, in his clumsy boat, had crossed from Shoreham a number of times. He often teasingly reminded Faith of her plan to ask Ethan Allen to come and take possession of Fort Ticonderoga.
[Pg 174] “You’d better hurry. The British will be sending men down from Canada by early summer, and then ’twill be of no use for the Green Mountain Boys to try to capture the fort,” he said. ”

“ All day, they lay close in the depth of the forest, sleeping, lounging, smoking tobacco of their own raising, and beguiling the hours, no doubt, with the shallow banter and obscene jesting with which knots of Indians are wont to amuse their leisure. At twilight they embarked again, paddling their cautious way till the eastern sky began to redden. Their goal was the rocky promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was long afterward built. ”

“ From 1759 to 1775 it was peaceful and tranquil at Ticonderoga. There are but few records, though the British maintained a garrison at the Fort and also one at Crown Point. The Fort was used as a storehouse for military supplies, and presumably the garrison did its best to entertain itself in what was then a wilderness. Major Gavin Cochrane commanded for four years, and in 1765 Major Thomas James went down from Ticonderoga to New York to aid in enforcing the Stamp Act. ”

“ However, I landed eighty-three men near the garrison, and sent their boats back for the rear guard, commanded by Col. Seth Warner, but the day began to dawn, and I found myself under a necessity to attack the fort, before the 'Ticonderoga Fort' is thus described in the American Encyclopedia:—Ticonderoga; a post-town of Essex county, New York, on the west side of the south end of Lake Champlain, and at the north end of lake George; twelve miles south of Crown Point, ninety-five north of Albany; population in 1820, 1493. ”

“ Lawrence and New York was considered more important from a military point of view than Fort Ticonderoga. This was so placed as to protect the portage from Lake Champlain to Lake George, and to command the passage to the southern extremity of the former lake. The fort was built by the French in 1755, and called by them Fort Carillon. It was improved by Montcalm in the following year, and in 1758 withstood the attack of an English army of fifteen thousand men, the largest body of Europeans which had yet been assembled under arms in America. ”

“ Fort Carillon, the name of which the English changed to Fort Ticonderoga, stood upon a high rocky promontory, the termination of a mountain range, the extremity, then called Sugar Loaf Hill, but since named Mount Defiance, rising eight hundred and fifty feet above Lake Champlain. It is a lofty peninsula, nearly a square mile in surface, almost surrounded by 290 water, with a swamp on the western side. When Amherst advanced, the French garrison was meagre, for Wolfe was threatening Quebec, and Montcalm had gone with reinforcements to repel him ”

“ Thousands of loads of stone were carted away for foundations. Some men had repaired the French lime kiln and were burning the walls of the Fort for lime. Mr. Pell had to buy up the numerous squatters’ rights but he eventually succeeded in stopping the destruction. He fenced in various earthworks and redoubts to prevent them being plowed under and did his best to preserve what was left. He was a man of vision. Had it not been for William Ferris Pell and those who came after him not a stone in Fort Ticonderoga would be in place today. Every one would have been carted away or destroyed. ”

“ The earth ramparts were made,—the platforms of the bastions completed, a cover built for each bastion bomb-proof, two stone barracks built, the ditches of the place dug to the rock everywhere, part of the rock even removed on two fronts, the ditches of the two demi-lunes also excavated to the rock, a store-house established outside the Fort as well as a hospital. The parapet was raised on the two fronts exposed to the enemy’s batteries if he undertook to besiege this place, the exterior part of the Fort supported by masonry resting on the solid rock. ”

“ It shall not be counted against you as deserters, for the names of those who are unwilling to serve cheerfully will be stricken quietly from the rolls, without any mention whatever, dishonorable or otherwise. Colonel Arnold presents himself with due authority from the province of Massachusetts to take command of any troops not exceeding four hundred which may be raised for the purpose of attacking Fort Ticonderoga. ”

“ Everywhere the colonists, fiery with indignation, were seizing their arms and preparing to fight for their rights. The tocsin had rung. It was time for all patriots to be up and alert.
On the divide between Lakes George and Champlain stood a famous fort, time-honored old Ticonderoga, which had played so prominent a part in the French and Indian War. It was feebly garrisoned by English troops, and was well supplied with munitions of war. These munitions were, just then, of more importance than men to the patriot cause. ”

“ Fort George is completely commanded by the neighboring heights, and of Gage’s hill it is within fair musket-shot. On this hill, however, the English kept a fort, the remains of the redoubt being still visible. It is remarkable that every old fort from the Canada line to Albany is commanded by highlands in its vicinity. When they were built, there was but little apprehension of artillery. Even the strong and important fort of Ticonderoga was effectually commanded by mount Defiance, a circumstance which proved disastrous to the American arms. ”

“ I found on my arrival at St. Frederic an intrenchment begun on wrong principles which I felt obliged to continue to be agreeable to the Commandant of the Army who feared the enemy might at any moment attack the Fort. At last, on the 12th October, on the order of M. le Marquis de Vaudreuil, these works ceased and we moved the camp from St. Frederic to Carillon to begin a Fort at the location which I should find to be most suitable for such purpose.
“I decided to establish it on the ridge of rock which runs from the point to the falls of Lake St. Sacrement. ”

“ Reprinted for the Fort Ticonderoga Museum
1966
2
“The little bronze flint and tinder box illustrated, was found in 1888 by the present Museum Director, then a small boy. His brother dislodged a stone while they were climbing around the fort. Under the stone was this box with flint and tinder in it. Bronze and of French design, it must have belonged to some important officer, probably Montcalm de Levis, Bougainville or Bourlamacque. The busts represent Cupid and Psyche; the faces are extraordinarily beautiful and expressive. The box measures 21⁄4 by 11⁄4 inches. ”

“ The army consisted of about 1000 men under command of General Philip Schuyler, almost wholly Connecticut troops excepting about 250 of the first battalion of New Yorkers, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Ritzma. On the 13th of September General Schuyler was forced to return to Ticonderoga on account of illness, leaving General Richard Montgomery in command. The fort at St. Johns held out until November 2nd, when the garrison surrendered to the American invaders. ”

“ The West India Regiment, 1st Batt., formerly Malcolm’s Black Rangers; 2nd Batt., formerly The St. Vincent’s Black Rangers.
The Royal Marines, Royal Marine Artillery, Royal Marine Light Infantry.
Q TICONDEROGA
Ticonderoga, familiar as the name of the historic fortress at Lake George, was written by Sir William Johnson, in 1756, Tionderogue and Ticonderoro, and in grant of lands in 1760, “near the fort at Ticonderoga.” Gov. Colden wrote Ticontarogen, and an Iroquoian sachem is credited with Decariaderoga. Interpretations are almost as numerous as orthographies. ”

“ The leader of the Americans listened attentively, slapping his thigh now and again with evident satisfaction as he heard the report of this faithful patriot who, as Allen had previously said, dared enter the lion’s jaws. He had gone to Ticonderoga as a trader, had spent parts of two days in the fort, learning much that encouraged Allen in this desperate game he was playing. Although expecting additions to the garrison, Captain De la Place had not yet received the reinforcements. The buttresses of the fort, too, were in a sad state of repair. ”

“ Burgoyne Takes the Fort and Brown Fails to Retake It
The winter of 1776-1777 was a terrible one. The sufferings among the troops at Ticonderoga exceeded anything at Valley Forge. Men were frozen to death in their tents, smallpox broke out in the spring and altogether it was almost unbearable. ”

“ Not many weeks after the unsuccessful attack upon Ticonderoga—to which allusion will presently be made—it appeared as though the savages were about to accomplish their purpose, for they surprised him, together with a small body of his men, on the left bank of the Hudson, with the river between them and the fort. The party of Indians was too strong to be successfully resisted, it was impossible to cross the river without being shot, while below lay a quarter-mile stretch of rapids through which a boat had never been sent without disaster. ”

“ Even casual visitors have been so impressed that they have gone home and shipped family relics that the museum could never have acquired by purchase. Others have appointed themselves Ticonderoga scouts who voluntarily tipped Mr. Pell off when they located desirable objects.
One of the museum’s proud possessions is a blunderbuss used by Ethan Allen in taking the fort from the British, then given by him to Benedict Arnold, who in turn gave it to John Trumbull, the Revolutionary artist. ”

“ With Colonel Arnold by his side the indomitable Allen climbed the slope and approached the covered way which led into the fort. Not a word was spoken. The sullen tramp of the column was all that broke the stillness of the dawn. The sentinel placed here to guard the entrance–a matter of military rule rather than of precaution–leaned half asleep upon his musket. Had he been alert the approach of the troops must have been discovered ere they were visible. But Providence willed that he, together with all the garrison, should be totally unsuspicious of the planned attack of the provincials. ”

“ In the meantime the siege of Ticonderoga was prosecuted with vigour by the troops under Lieut.-General Amherst, and on the 25th of July the garrison blew up the fort, and sailed to Crown Point, another fort on Lake Champlain, which place the French also abandoned, and retired down the lake to Isle aux Noix; Crown Point was occupied by the British on the 4th of August following. ”

“ FORT EDWARD, 1759
Ticonderoga is the one place on the American continent where Great Britain and France, Canada and the United States can all unite on one common ground. The Yankees and British can meet here and clasp hands over the time when they once fought together and there is not even a sectional feeling which detracts from the unanimity. The North, South, East and West of the United States all join with equal fervor. ”

“ The remnants of two armies reached Ticonderoga in the spring of 1776 in a terrible condition.
It was while serving under General Montgomery that Ethan Allen, advancing toward Montreal to ascertain whether the Canadians were with or against the Americans, was captured, sent to England as a prisoner and not returned and released until May, 1778. He took no further part in the Revolution, though Congress granted him the rank and pay of a colonel. ”

“ Captain Baker cried sufficiently loud for all his men to hear. “It is more than likely the garrison at Crown Point will hold out when the Green Mountain Boys demand its surrender, believing reinforcements are, or speedily will be, on the way. Now, instead of stopping at Ticonderoga, our 241 plan is to push directly on to the fort, and when it is known that we have captured the messengers I reckon the fortification will be surrendered with but little parley.” ”