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Fort Ticonderoga
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Fort Ticonderoga is a large eighteenth-century fort built at a narrows at the south end of Lake Champlain where a short traverse gives access to the north end of Lake George in the state of New York. The fort's location was strategically important during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, as it controlled commonly used trade routes between the English-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley.
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Fort Ticonderoga is a large eighteenth-century fort built at a narrows at the south end of Lake Champlain where a short traverse gives access to the north end of Lake George in the state of New York. The fort's location was strategically important during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, as it controlled commonly used trade routes between the English-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. The name "Ticonderoga" comes from an Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways". "Ticonderoga" was given an aura of invincibility when an attack on a French defensive position near the fort by 16,000 British troops was repelled by 4,000 French troops in the 1758 Battle of Carillon.
The fort was constructed during the French and Indian War, between 1755 and 1758, by the French, who named it Fort Carillon. The fort itself was never directly attacked by a substantial military force; the only large-scale battle that took place near it was the Battle of Carillon. In 1759, the British returned, and drove the outmanned French from the fort merely by occupying high ground that threatened the fort. This tactic was used by the British again during the American Revolutionary War, when, in June 1777, British forces under General John Burgoyne again occupied high ground above the fort, threatening the Continental Army, whose forces had been holding it since it had been captured in May 1775 by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold leading a force of Green Mountain Boys and militia from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The only direct attack on the fort took place while the British occupied the fort, in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an attempt to capture the fort from about 100 defenders.
While the British succeeded in driving the Americans from Ticonderoga, they later suffered defeat at Saratoga. The fort was abandoned by the British following the Saratoga campaign, and ceased to be of any notable military value after 1781. It fell into ruins, was stripped of some of its usable stone, metal and woodwork, and, during the 19th century, became a stop on tourist routes of the area. Early in the 20th century, the fort was restored by its private owners, and is now operated by a private foundation as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center.
Geography and early history
Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border between modern New York and Vermont, and the Hudson River, together formed an important travel route that was used by Natives before the arrival of European colonists. The route was relatively free of obstacles, with relatively few blocks to navigation. One strategically important place on the route lies at a narrows at the southern end of Lake Champlain, where Ticonderoga Creek, known in Colonial times as the La Chute River, enters the lake, carrying water from Lake George. While the site provides commanding views of the southern extent of Lake Champlain, Mount Defiance, a and two other hills (Mount Hope and Mount Independence) overlook the area.
Natives had used the area for years when the French explorer Samuel Champlain first arrived in the area in 1609. Champlain recounts that, near this place, the Algonquins he was traveling with battled a group of Iroquois. French missionary Isaac Jogues was the first white man to actually traverse the portage at Ticonderoga in 1642, while attempting to escape a battle between the Iroquois and members of the Huron tribe.
The French, who had colonized the Saint Lawrence River valley to the north, and the English, who had taken over the Dutch settlements that became the Province of New York to the south, began contesting the area as early as 1691, when Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the Ticonderoga point, on the west shore of the lake. These colonial conflicts reached their height in the French and Indian War, beginning in 1754.
Construction
In 1755, following the Battle of Lake George, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the governor of the French Province of Canada, sent Michel Chartier de Lotbinière to design and construct a fortification at this militarily important site, which the French called Fort Carillon. The name "Carillon" has variously been attributed to a former French officer Philippe de Carrion du Fresnoy, who established a trading post at the site in the late 17th century, or the sounds made by the La Chute River, which were said to resemble the chiming bells of a carillon. Construction on the star-shaped fort, which Lotbinière based on the designs of Vauban, began in October 1755, and then proceeded slowly during the warmer-weather months of 1756 and 1757, using troops stationed at nearby Fort St. Frédéric and from Canada.
The work in 1755 consisted primarily of beginning construction on the main walls, and the Lotbinière redoubt, an outworks to the west of the site that provided additional cover of the La Chute River. In 1756, the four main bastions were built, as was a sawmill on the La Chute. Work slowed in 1757, when many of the troops were employed preparing for, or participating in, the attack on Fort William Henry, and the barracks and demi-lunes were not completed until spring 1758.
Walls and bastions
The fort's primary goals were to control the south end of Lake Champlain, and to prevent the British from getting military access to the lake. Consequently, its primary defenses, the Reine and Germaine bastions, were directed to the northeast and northwest, away from the lake, with demi-lunes further extending the works on the land side. The Joannes and Languedoc bastions overlooked the lake to the south, providing cover for the landing area outside the fort. The walls were seven feet high and fourteen feet thick, and the whole works was surrounded by a glacis and a dry moat five feet (1.5 meters) deep and wide. When the walls were first erected in 1756, they were made of squared wooden timbers, with earth filling the gap. The French then began to dress the walls with stone from a quarry about one mile (1.6 km) away; this task was never finished. As each of the main defenses became ready for use, the fort was armed with cannons hauled from Montreal and Fort St. Frédéric.
Inside and outside
Inside the fort there were three barracks and four storehouses. One bastion held a bakery, capable of producing 60 loaves of bread per day. A powder magazine was hacked out the bedrock beneath the Joannes bastion. All of the construction within the fort was of stone.
Outside the fort, between the southern wall and the lakeshore, was an area protected by a wooden palisade. In addition to the main landing area for the fort, it contained additional storage facilities and other works necessary for maintenance of the fort. When it was realized in 1756 that the fort had been sited too far to the west of the lake, an additional redoubt was constructed to the east to provide cannon coverage over the narrows of the lake.
Analysis
When the fort was largely completed in 1758 (the only ongoing work was dressing the walls with stone), General Montcalm and two of his engineers surveyed the works, and found something to criticize in just about every aspect of the fort's construction. Buildings were built too high (and thus easier to bomb); the powder magazine leaked; the masonry was of poor quality. They apparently failed to notice the significant strategic weakness of its position — that there were several significant hills whose heights commanded the fort. Lotbinière, who may have been awarded the job of building the fort only because he was related to Vaudreuil, had lost a bid to become Canada's chief engineer to one of those engineers in 1756, all of which may explain the highly negative report; his career suffered for years afterwards.
William Nester, in his exhaustive analysis of the Battle of Carillon, notes additional problems with the fort's construction. The fort was small (about 500 feet wide) for a Vauban-style fort, with a barracks capable of holding only 400 soldiers. Storage space inside the fort was similarly limited, requiring the storage of provisions outside the fort's walls in exposed places. Its cistern was also small, and the water quality was supposedly poor.
Military history
French and Indian War
In August 1757, the French captured Fort William Henry in an action launched from Fort Carillon. This, and a string of other French victories in 1757, prompted the British to organize a truly large-scale attack on Fort Carillon, as part of a multi-campaign strategy against French Canada.
In June 1758, the British General James Abercromby began amassing a large force at Fort William Henry in preparation for the military campaign directed up the Champlain Valley. These forces landed at the north end of Lake George, only four miles from the fort, on July 6. The French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who had only arrived at Carillon in late June, engaged his troops in a flurry of work to improve the fort's outer defenses. They built, over two days, entrenchments around a rise between the fort and Mount Hope, about three-quarters of a mile (one kilometer) northwest of the fort, and then constructed an abatis (felled trees with sharpened branches pointing out) below these entrenchments. Abercromby's failure to advance directly to the fort on July 7 made much of this defensive work possible. (Abercromby's second-in-command, Brigadier General George Howe, had been killed when he and an advance contingent encountered some French troops retreating from an advance outpost. Abercromby "felt [Howe's death] most heavily" and may have been unwilling to act immediately.)
On July 8, 1758, Abercromby ordered a frontal attack against these hastily assembled works. Abercromby tried to move rapidly against the few French defenders, opting to forgo field cannon, relying instead on the numerical superiority of his 16,000 troops. In the Battle of Carillon, the British were soundly defeated by the 4,000 French defenders. The battle took place far enough away from the fort that its guns were rarely used. Although none of the fort's future defenders again repulsed an attack, this victory gave the fort a reputation of impregnability. This reputation had some impact on future military operations in the area, notably during the American Revolutionary War.
Following the French victory, Montcalm, anticipating further British attacks that year, ordered additional work on the defenses, which included the construction of the Germain and Pontleroy redoubts (named for the engineers under whose direction they were constructed) to the northeast of the fort. The British army did not attack again in 1758, and in November, the French withdrew all but a small garrison of men for the winter.
The fort was captured the following year by the British, under General Jeffrey Amherst, in the Battle of Ticonderoga, when 11,000 British troops drove off a token force of 400 Frenchmen. The French, in withdrawing from the fort in July 1759, used explosives to destroy what they could of the fort, and spiked or dumped cannons that they did not take with them. While the British worked in 1759 and 1760 to repair and improve the fort, the fort saw no more action in the war. After the war, the British garrisoned it with a small numbers of troops, and allowed it to fall into disrepair. Colonel Frederick Haldimand, in command of the fort in 1773, wrote that it was in "ruinous condition."
Early Revolutionary War
In 1775, Fort Ticonderoga was still manned by a token force, and in disrepair. On May 10, 1775, less than one month after the American Revolutionary War was ignited with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the British garrison of 48 soldiers was surprised by a small force of Green Mountain Boys, along with militia volunteers from Massachusetts and Connecticut, led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. Allen claims to have said "Come out you old Rat!" to the fort's commander, Captain William Delaplace. He also later claimed that he demanded that the British commander surrender the fort "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"; however, his surrender demand was made to Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham and not the fort's commander, who did later appear and surrender his sword. With the capture of the fort, the Patriot forces obtained a large supply of cannons and other armaments, much of which was hauled by Henry Knox during the winter of 1775–1776, to Boston to support the Siege of Boston. Arnold remained in control of the fort until 1,000 Connecticut troops under the command of Benjamin Hinman arrived in June. Due to a series of political maneuvers and miscommunications, Arnold was never notified that Hinman would have command. After a delegation from Massachusetts (which had issued his commission) arrived to clarify the matter, Arnold resigned his commission and departed, leaving the fort in Hinman's hands.
Beginning in July 1775, Ticonderoga was used as a staging area for the invasion of Quebec that began in September. Under the leadership of Generals Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery, men and materials for the invasion accumulated there through July and August. On August 28, after receiving word that British forces at Fort Saint-Jean, not far from the New York–Quebec border, were nearing completion of boats to launch onto Lake Champlain, Montgomery launched the invasion, leading 1,200 troops down the lake. Ticonderoga then continued to serve as a staging base for the action in Quebec, which culminated in a battle and siege at Quebec City, resulting in Montgomery's death.
In May 1776, British troops began to arrive at Quebec City, where they broke the Continental Army's siege. The British chased the American forces back to Ticonderoga in June, and, after several months of shipbuilding, moved down Lake Champlain under Guy Carleton in October. The British destroyed a small fleet of American gunboats in the Battle of Valcour Island in mid-October, but snow was already falling, so the British retreated to winter quarters in Quebec, and about 1700 troops from the Continental Army, under the command of Colonel Anthony Wayne, wintered at Ticonderoga. The British offensive resumed the next year in the Saratoga campaign under General John Burgoyne.
Saratoga Campaign
During the summer of 1776, the Americans had added substantial defensive works to the area. Mount Independence, which is almost completely surrounded by water, was fortified, with trenches near the water, a horseshoe battery part way up the side, a citadel at the summit, and redoubts armed with cannon surrounding the summit area. These defenses were linked to Ticonderoga with a pontoon bridge that was protected by land batteries on both sides. The works on Mount Hope, the heights above the site of Montcalm's victory, were improved to include a star-shaped fort. Mount Defiance remained unfortified.
In March 1777, American generals were strategizing about possible British military movements, and considered an attempt on the Hudson River corridor a likely possibility. General Schuyler, heading the forces stationed at Ticonderoga, requested 10,000 troops to guard Ticonderoga and 2,000 to guard the Mohawk River valley against British invasion from the North. George Washington, who had never been to Ticonderoga (his only visit would be in 1783), believed that an overland attack from the north was unlikely, due to the alleged impregnability of Ticonderoga. This thinking, combined with continuing incursions up the Hudson River valley by British forces occupying New York City, led Washington to believe that any attack on the Albany area would be from the south, which, as it was part of the supply line to Ticonderoga, would necessitate a withdrawal from the fort. As a result, no significant actions were taken to fortify Ticonderoga or significantly increase its garrison. The garrison, about 2,000 men under General Arthur St. Clair, was too small to man all of the defenses.
General Horatio Gates, who oversaw the northern defenses, was aware that Mount Defiance presented a problem for anyone defending the fort. John Trumbull had pointed out the problem as early as 1776, when a shot fired from the fort was able to reach Defiance's summit, and several officers inspecting the hill noted that there were approaches to its summit where gun carriages could be pulled up. Gates did not have the manpower to properly defend all of the existing works in area; Mount Defiance was left undefended. Anthony Wayne left Ticonderoga in April 1777 to join Washington's army; he reported to Washington that "all was well", and that the fort "can never be carried, without much loss of blood".
General Burgoyne led 7,800 British and Hessian forces south from Quebec in June 1777. After occupying nearby Fort Crown Point without opposition on 30 June, they prepared to besiege Ticonderoga. Burgoyne realized the tactical advantage of the high ground, and had his troops haul cannons to the top of Mount Defiance. Faced with bombardment from the heights (even before any shots had been fired from those cannons), General St. Clair ordered Ticonderoga abandoned on July 5, 1777. Burgoyne's troops moved in the next day, with advance guards pursuing the retreating Americans.
Washington, on hearing of Burgoyne's advance and the retreat from Ticonderoga, stated that the event was "not apprehended, nor within the compass of my reasoning". News of the abandonment of the "Impregnable Bastion" without a fight, caused "the greatest surprise and alarm" throughout the colonies. After public outcry over his actions, General St. Clair was court-martialed in 1778. He was cleared on all charges.
One last attack
Following the British capture of Ticonderoga, it and the surrounding defenses were garrisoned by about 700 British and Hessian troops under the command of British Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell. Most of these forces were on Mount Independence, with only about 100 each at Fort Ticonderoga and a blockhouse the British were constructing on top of Mount Defiance. American General Benjamin Lincoln was sent by Washington into the New Hampshire Grants to "divide and distract the enemy". Aware that Fort Ticonderoga housed American prisoners, he decided to test the British defenses. On September 13, he sent 500 men to Skenesboro, which the British had abandoned, and 500 each against the defenses on either side of the lake at Ticonderoga. Colonel John Brown led the troops on the west side, with instructions to release the prisoners if possible, and attack the fort if it seemed feasible.
Early on September 18, Brown's troops surprised the British contingent holding prisoners near the Lake George landing, while a detachment of his troops snuck up Mount Defiance, and captured most of the sleeping construction crew. Brown and his men the moved down the portage trail toward the fort, surprising more troops and releasing more prisoners along the way. The fort's occupants were unaware of the action until Brown's men and British troops occupying the old French lines skirmished. At this point Brown's men dragged two six-pound guns captured earlier up to those lines, and began firing on the fort. The men who had captured Mount Defiance also began firing a twelve-pounder from that site.
The column that was to attack Mount Independence was delayed, and its more numerous defenders were alerted to the action down below before the attack began. Their musket fire, as well as grapeshot fired from ships anchored nearby, intimidated them sufficiently that the works there were never attacked.
This stalemate persisted, with regular exchanges of cannonfire, until September 21, when 100 Hessians, returning from the Mohawk Valley to support Burgoyne, arrived on the scene to provide some reinforcement to the besieged. Brown eventually sent a truce party to the fort to open negotiations; the party was fired on, and three of its five members were killed.
Brown, realizing that the weaponry they had was insufficient to take the fort, decided to withdraw. Destroying many bateaux, siezing a ship on Lake George, he set off to annoy British positions on that lake. His action resulted in the freeing of 118 Americans and the taking of 293 British, with fewer than ten casualties.
Abandonment
Following Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga, the fort at Ticonderoga became increasingly irrelevant. The British abandoned it and nearby Fort Crown Point in November 1777, destroying the fort as best they could prior to their withdrawal. The fort was occasionally reoccupied by British raiding parties. However, it no longer held a prominent strategic role in the war, and was finally abandoned by the British for good in 1781, following the fall of Yorktown. Area residents began stripping the fort of usable building materials, and even melted some of the cannons down for their metal, in the years following the war.
Tourist attraction
In 1785 the fort's lands became the property of the state of New York. The state donated the property to Columbia and Union Colleges in 1803, who sold it to William Ferris Pell in 1820. Pell first used the property as a summer retreat, but the completion of railroads and canals connecting the area to New York City brought tourists to the area, so he converted his summer house, known as The Pavilion, into a hotel to serve the tourist trade. In 1848, the Hudson River School artist Russell Smith painted Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, depicting the condition of the fort.
The Pell family, a politically important family with influence throughout American history (from William C. C. Claiborne, the first Governor of Louisiana, to the late United States Senator from Rhode Island, Claiborne Pell), restored the fort in 1909 and formally opened it to the public in ceremonies attended by President William Howard Taft, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by European explorers. Stephen Pell, who spearheaded the restoration effort, founded the Fort Ticonderoga Association in 1931, which is now responsible for the fort. Between 1900 and 1950, the historically important lands around the fort, including Mount Defiance, Mount Independence, and much of Mount Hope, were also acquired by the foundation. The fort was also rearmed with fourteen 24-pound cannon, provided by the British government. These cannon had been cast in England for use during the Revolution, but the war ended before they were shipped over.
The fort is now a tourist attraction, early American military museum, and research center. The fort opens on May 10 every year, closing in late October. It has been on a watchlist of National Historic Landmarks since 1998, due to the poor condition of some of the walls and the 19th-century pavilion constructed by William Ferris Pell. The pavilion is, as of early 2009, undergoing restoration. In 2008, the powder magazine destroyed by the French in 1759 was recreated, based in part on the original 1755 plans. Also in 2008, the withdrawal of a major backer's financial support forced the museum, facing significant budget deficits, to consider selling one of its major art works, Thomas Cole's Gelyna, View near Ticonderoga. However, fundraising activities succeeded in making this unnecessary.
Memorials
The name Ticonderoga has been given to five different U.S. Navy vessels and two classes of warship. The fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. Included in the landmarked area are the fort itself, as well as Mount Independence and Mount Defiance. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
See also
External links
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