Fort Ticonderoga

On May 10, 1775, early in the Revolutionary War, a modest band of Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold caught the British defenders of Fort Ticonderoga off guard and took the post along with its undermanned garrison. Later, Colonel Henry Knox oversaw the movement of the fort's cannons and other weaponry to Boston as part of what became known as the noble train of artillery, equipment that would go on to strengthen Dorchester Heights and ultimately break the deadlock during the siege of Boston.

Taking Ticonderoga signaled that the Americans had shifted from defense to offense against the British. Once the fort fell, a smaller group pushed on to seize Fort Crown Point nearby on May 11. A week after that, Arnold led fifty men on a raid against Fort Saint-Jean, situated on the Richelieu River in southern Quebec, coming away with cannons, military supplies, and Lake Champlain's largest military vessel.

Though this campaign was limited in size, its consequences for strategy were considerable. It disrupted the flow of communication between the British Army's northern and southern forces, and it handed the young Continental Army a foothold from which to launch the invasion of Quebec later that year. The episode also brought together two outsized figures, Allen and Arnold, both eager to claim as much glory and recognition as they could for what had happened. Above all, under Henry Knox's direction, the artillery hauled from Ticonderoga across Massachusetts reached the high ground overlooking Boston Harbor, compelling the British to abandon the city altogether.

Colonial forces assemble

No sooner had Arnold received his orders than he set out, taking with him two captains, Eleazer Oswald and Jonathan Brown, whose task was to gather the men needed for the mission. By May 6 he had reached the line separating Massachusetts from the Grants, and there he found out that the Connecticut Committee was already recruiting, and that Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys had already set off toward the north. Pushing his horse so hard that the animal later died from the effort, he pressed on and came to Allen's base at Bennington the following day. There he learned that Allen himself had gone to Castleton, some 50 miles (80 km) further north, to wait for supplies and additional recruits. He was cautioned as well that Allen's men, though acting without any official backing, would almost certainly refuse to follow a different commander. Setting out again at first light, Arnold made it to Castleton just as a council of war was getting underway, and there he argued that his written orders from the Massachusetts Committee entitled him to lead the operation.

By this point, Allen's gathered force at Castleton numbered roughly 100 Green Mountain Boys, joined by about 40 men that James Easton and John Brown had raised near Pittsfield, along with 20 more volunteers from Connecticut. The men had chosen Allen as their colonel, with Easton and Seth Warner serving beneath him as lieutenants. By the time Arnold showed up, Samuel Herrick had already left for Skenesboro and Asa Douglas for Panton, each leading a party sent to round up boats. Meanwhile, Captain Noah Phelps, part of the group called the "Committee of War for the Expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point," had slipped into the fort disguised as a peddler looking for a shave. From this vantage point he noticed that the fort's walls were falling apart, and he heard from the commanding officer that the garrison's powder had gotten wet and that reinforcements were expected soon. Once he passed this information along to Allen, the two of them settled on striking at dawn.

Arnold's push to take charge met with strong resistance from many of the Green Mountain Boys, who declared they would rather go home than follow anyone but Ethan Allen. Eventually Arnold and Allen reached some sort of understanding, though no record survives to show exactly what it involved. Arnold himself later claimed that the arrangement gave him equal command over the expedition. While some historians accept this version of events, others argue that all he actually secured was permission to march alongside Allen.

Crown Point and the raid on Fort Saint-Jean

Fort Crown Point fell next, taken by a detachment Seth Warner had sailed up the lake, its garrison numbering just nine men. Conventional accounts place this victory on May 10, a date drawn from a letter Arnold sent the Massachusetts Committee of Safety on May 11 explaining that unfavorable winds had blocked an earlier push toward the fort. Warner himself told a different story: writing from "Head Quarters, Crown Point" on May 12, he stated that he had gained control of the post the previous day. The likeliest explanation is that the failed May 10 effort was renewed successfully on the following day, a sequence consistent with what Warner later set down in his own recollections. Meanwhile, a separate small party moved against Fort George on Lake George, defended by only two men, and took it without difficulty.

Meanwhile, reinforcements enlisted under Arnold's officers started trickling in, some arriving fresh from capturing Philip Skene's schooner Katherine and a handful of bateaux at Skenesboro. Arnold gave the schooner a new name, Liberty. From captives came word that the sole British warship on Lake Champlain was stationed at Fort Saint-Jean, up the Richelieu River beyond the lake's northern reach. Unsure whether news of Ticonderoga's fall had yet reached that outpost, Arnold resolved to strike quickly and seize the vessel. He armed Liberty with cannon and set out northward on May 14 with fifty men. Allen, unwilling to let Arnold claim sole credit for the exploit, pursued in bateaux with a company of his own, but lacking sails, his boats soon fell behind Arnold's swifter craft. By the seventeenth, Arnold's vessels had reached the lake's far end. Hoping for better information, he dispatched a scout to survey conditions near the fort. That evening the man returned with troubling news: the British already knew of the losses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and reinforcements seemed to be marching toward Saint-Jean. Arnold chose to move without delay.

Through the night, Arnold and thirty-five men rowed their bateaux to the fort's vicinity. A short scouting foray preceded their surprise attack, which caught the small garrison off guard. They claimed the fort's stores and captured HMS Royal George, a seventy-ton sloop-of-war. Learning from prisoners that companies were marching in from Chambly, Arnold's men hastily transferred the most valuable goods and artillery onto the George, which he then renamed Enterprise. Vessels too cumbersome to bring along were scuttled, and the expanded fleet turned back toward Lake Champlain. Moses Hazen, a retired British officer residing close to the fort, witnessed the entire episode. He rode first to Montreal to alert the regional commander, then pressed on to Quebec City, arriving on May 20 to inform General Carleton personally. In response, Major Charles Preston set out from Montreal with 140 men bound for Saint-Jean.

Some fifteen miles down the lake, Arnold's ships crossed paths with Allen's, still traveling north. Gunfire rang out in celebration, and Arnold shared his provisions with Allen's exhausted men, who had rowed a hundred miles in open boats without food. Confident he could take and hold Saint-Jean, Allen pressed onward while Arnold turned south. Allen reached the fort on May 19, only to be warned by a sympathetic Montreal merchant, who had galloped ahead of the approaching British troops, that danger was near. After drafting a message for the merchant to carry to Montreal's residents, Allen withdrew to Ticonderoga on May 21, departing Saint-Jean just as British soldiers arrived. In the scramble to escape, three of his men were left behind. One fell into British hands, while the remaining two eventually made their way south overland.

Aftermath

Once the liquor supplies dwindled, Ethan Allen's followers gradually departed from Ticonderoga, leaving Arnold to manage operations from his headquarters at Crown Point. He supervised the outfitting of the two large vessels and eventually took personal command of Enterprise, since qualified sailors were scarce. His troops set about repairing the barracks at Ticonderoga while salvaging weapons from the ruins of both forts and constructing carriages for the guns.

Colonel Benjamin Hinman arrived with roughly 1,000 Connecticut troops to garrison Ticonderoga, and New York simultaneously began organizing militia forces to protect Crown Point and Ticonderoga from any northern British assault. Hinman's June arrival sparked renewed conflict over who held authority. Nothing in the Massachusetts committee's correspondence with Arnold suggested he answered to Hinman, and Arnold rejected Hinman's attempt to command Crown Point, pointing out that Hinman's orders covered only Ticonderoga. Eventually the Massachusetts committee dispatched representatives to the fort. Their arrival on June 22 settled the matter, informing Arnold plainly that Hinman was to be his superior. After mulling it over for two days, Arnold dissolved his command, quit his post, and departed for home, having personally spent over £1,000 during his campaign to seize the fort.

Once Congress learned of these developments, it prepared a second letter addressed to the people of Quebec, dispatched northward in June through James Price, another Montreal merchant sympathetic to the cause. This correspondence, together with additional messages from the New York Congress and the efforts of outspoken supporters within the province, roused Quebec's population throughout the summer of 1775.

Word of Ticonderoga's fall reached England, prompting Lord Dartmouth to remark that it was "very unfortunate; very unfortunate indeed."

The capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, along with the raids against Fort Saint-Jean in particular, sent shockwaves through Quebec's population. On May 19, Colonel Dudley Templer, commanding the Montreal garrison, called for a militia to defend the city and asked local Indians to join the fight. Only about 50 men answered, primarily French-speaking seigneurs and minor nobility from the Montreal area, and these were dispatched to Saint-Jean; no Indian allies materialized. Templer additionally blocked merchants favorable to the American cause from shipping supplies southward in answer to Allen's appeal.

Hazen informed General Carleton of the situation on May 20, and Carleton promptly ordered garrisons at Montreal and Trois-Rivières to strengthen Saint-Jean's defenses. Additional troops stationed at Quebec were also redirected there. The bulk of the remaining Quebec forces scattered to various posts along the Saint Lawrence, extending as far as Oswegatchie, to guard against any invasion. Carleton then relocated to Montreal to direct the province's defense personally, entrusting Quebec city to Lieutenant Governor Hector Cramahé. Before departing, he persuaded Monsignor Jean-Olivier Briand, Bishop of Quebec, to issue an independent appeal for armed support, which circulated mainly through the Montreal and Trois-Rivières regions.

By July 1775, General Philip Schuyler was using the fort as a launching point for the Quebec invasion that began in late August. During the winter that followed, Henry Knox organized the movement of Ticonderoga's cannons to Boston. Positioned on Dorchester Heights above the besieged city and its harbor full of British vessels, these guns forced the British to withdraw their soldiers and Loyalist allies from Boston in March 1776.

Benedict Arnold once more commanded a naval force during the Battle of Valcour Island and contributed significantly to blocking Britain's 1776 effort to reclaim the fort. British forces did manage to retake it in July 1777 as part of the Saratoga campaign, though they abandoned the position by November following Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga.

Despite Fort Ticonderoga's limited military significance at the time, its seizure produced several notable consequences. With rebels controlling the region, land routes and supply connections linking British forces in Quebec to those in Boston and later New York were cut off, forcing a reorganization of British command structure. This commun