Benedict Arnold, leaving early the next day,…
May 1775 CE
The force that Allen has assembled in Castleton includes about a hundred Green Mountain Boys, about forty men raised by James Easton and John Brown at Pittsfield, and an additional twenty men from Connecticut.
Allen is elected colonel, with Easton and Seth Warner as his lieutenants.
When General Arnold arrives on the scene, Samuel Herrick has already been sent to Skenesboro and Asa Douglas to Panton with detachments to secure boats.
Captain Noah Phelps, a member of the "Committee of War for the Expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point", had reconnoitered the fort disguised as a peddler seeking a shave.
He had seen that the fort walls, are dilapidated, learned from the garrison commander that the soldiers' gunpowder is wet, and that they expect reinforcements at any time.
He reports his intelligence to Allen, following which they plan a dawn raid.
Many of the Green Mountain Boys objected to Arnold's wish to command, insisting that they will go home rather than serve under anyone other than Ethan Allen.
Arnold and Allen work out an agreement, but no documented evidence exists concerning the deal.
According to Arnold, he had been given joint command of the operation.
Some historians have supported Arnold's contention, while others suggest he had merely been given the right to march next to Allen.
People
Groups
Connecticut (English Crown Colony)
View →
New York, Province of (English Colony)
View →
New Hampshire, English royal Province of
View →
Massachusetts, Province of (English Crown Colony)
View →
New Jersey (English Colony)
View →
Britain, Kingdom of Great
View →
Quebec (British Province)
View →
Green Mountain Boys
View →