Fort Ticonderoga Essex New York United States

The native warriors that assembled at Montreal had been sent south to Fort Carillon, where they had joined the French regiments of Béarn and Royal Roussillon under François-Charles de Bourlamaque, and those of La Sarre, Guyenne, Languedoc, and la Reine under François de Gaston, Chevalier de Lévis.

Combined with the troupes de la marine, militia companies, and the arriving natives, the force accumulated at Carillon amounts to eight thousand men.
 
While at Carillon, the French leadership has difficulty controlling the behavior of its native allies.

Although they had stopped one group from forcing a British prisoner to run the gantlet, a group of Ottawas were not stopped when it was observed that they were ritually cannibalizing another prisoner.

French authorities are also frustrated in their ability to limit the natives' taking of more than their allotted share of rations.

Montcalm's aide, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, observed that attempts to curb this activity would have resulted in the loss of some of these forces.

In another prelude of things to come, a large number of prisoners had been taken on July 23 in the Battle of Sabbath Day Point, some of whom had also been ritually cannibalized before Montcalm managed to convince the natives instead to send the captives to Montreal to be sold as slaves.

The French, who had started construction on Fort Carillon in 1755, had used it as a launching point for the successful siege of Fort William Henry in 1757.

Despite that and other successes in North America in 1757, the situation does not look good for them in 1758.

As early as March, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, the commanding general responsible of the French forces in North America, and the Marquis de Vaudreuil, New France's governor, are aware that the British are planning to send large numbers of troops against them, and that they will have relatively little support from King Louis XV of France.

The lack of support from France is in large part due to an unwillingness of the French military to risk the movement of significant military forces across the Atlantic Ocean, which is dominated by Britain's Royal Navy.

This situation is further exacerbated by Canada's poor harvest in 1757, which results in food shortages as the winter progressed.

Montcalm and Vaudreuil, who do not get along with each other, differ on how to deal with the British threat.

They have fewer than five thousand regular troops, an estimated six thousand militia men, and a limited number of native allies, to bring against British forces reported to number fifty thousand.

Vaudreuil, who has limited combat experience, wants to divide the French forces, with about five thousand each at Carillon and Louisbourg, and send a picked force of about thirty-five hundred men against the British in the Mohawk River on the northwestern frontiers of the Province of New York.

Montcalm believes this to be folly, as the plan will enable the British to easily divert some of their forces to fend off the French attack.

Vaudreuil prevails, and in June 1758 Montcalm leaves Quebec for Carillon.

The French had begun to lay out entrenchments on the rise northwest of the fort, about three-quarters of a mile miles (one point twenty-one kilometers) away, that commands the land routes to the fort.

On the following morning, July 7, they construct a lengthy series of abatis (felled trees with sharpened branches pointed outward) below these entrenchments.

By the end of this day, they have also constructed a wooden breastwork above the trenches.

These hastily erected defenses, while proof against small arms fire, will be ineffective if the British use cannons against them.

Clerk goes out once again to the base of Rattlesnake Hill to observe the French defenses; his report indicates that he still feels the French lines can be taken by assault.
 
The battle begins on the morning of July 8 with Rogers' Rangers and light infantry from Colonel Thomas Gage's 80th Regiment of Light-Armed Foot pushing the few remaining French scouts behind the entrenchments.

They are followed by provincials from New York and Massachusetts, then three columns of regulars, who makes their way through the provincial formations to begin the attack.

The 27th and 60th make up the right column, under the command of the 27th's Lt. Col. William Haviland, the 44th and 55th under Lt. Col. John Donaldson make the center, and the 42nd and 46th under the 42nd's Lt. Col. Francis Grant form  the left column.

Each column is preceded by the regimental light infantry companies.

Held in reserve are provincial regiments from Connecticut and New Jersey.

Montcalm had organized the French forces into three brigades and a reserve.

He commands the Royal Roussillon and Berry battalions in the center of the entrenchments, while Lévis commands the Béarn, Guyenne, and la Reine battalions on the right, and Bourlamaque leads the La Sarre and Languedoc battalions on the left.

Each battalion is given roughly one hundred yards (ninety-one meters) of the entrenchment to defend.

Redoubts with cannon protect the flanks of the entrenchments, although the one on the right has not been completed.

The low ground between the left flank and the La Chute River is guarded by militia and marines, who have also constructed abatis to help protect their position.

Reserve forces are either in the fort itself, or on the grounds between the fort and the entrenchments on Mount Hope.

Portions of each battalion are also held in reserve, to assist in areas where they might be needed.

While Abercrombie had expected the battle to begin at 1 pm, by 12:30 elements of the New York regiments on the left begins engaging the French defenders.

The sounds of battle lead Haviland to believe that the French line might have been penetrated, so he orders his men forward, even though not all of the regulars were in place, and Abercrombie had not given an order to advance.

The result, rather than an orderly, coordinated advance on the French position, is a piecemeal entry of the regulars into the battle.

As companies of the regulars come forward, they arrange themselves into lines as instructed, and then begin to advance.

The right column, with a shorter distance to travel, attacks first, followed by the center,  then the left.

The 42nd had initially been held in reserve, but after insisting on being allowed to participate, they join the action.

The French position is such that they are able to lay down withering fire on the British forces as they advance, and the abatis (a word that shares derivation with abattoir, or slaughterhouse) rapidly become a killing field.

By about 2 pm, it is clear that the first wave of attack had failed.

Montcalm is active on the battlefield, having removed his coat, and is moving among his men, giving encouragement and making sure all of their needs were being met.

Abercrombie, who will be reported by early historians like Francis Parkman and Thomas Mante to be at the sawmill (and thus well away from the action), will be reported by his aide, James Abercrombie, to be near the rear of the lines by the La Chute River during much of the battle, and to have approached the front of the French lines at one point early in the battle.

It is uncertain why, after the first wave of attack failed, Abercrombie persisted in ordering further attacks. Writing in his own defense, he will later claim that he was relying on Clerk's assessment that the works could be easily taken; this is clearly refuted by the failure of the first charge.

Around 2 pm, the British barges carrying artillery float down the La Chute River, and, contrary to plan, come down a channel between an island in the La Chute and the shore.

This brings them within range of the French left and some of the fort's guns.

Fire from cannons on the fort's southwest bastion's sink two of the barges, spurring the remaining vessels to retreat.

Abercrombie orders his reserves, the Connecticut and New Jersey provincials, into the battle around 2 PM, but by 2:30 it is clear their attack had also failed.

Abercrombie now tries to recall the troops, but a significant number, notably the 42nd and 46th regiments on the British left, persist in the attack.

Around 5 pm the 42nd makes a desperate advance that actually succeeds in reaching the base of the French wall; those that actually manage to scale the breastwork are bayoneted.

The slaughter went on until nightfall, with a great many men retreating behind a breastwork that had been erected at the back of the battlefield.

Abercrombie, finally realizing the scope of the disaster, orders the troops to muster and march down to the landing on Lake George.

The retreat in the dark woods becomes somewhat panicked and disorganized, as rumors of French attacks swirl among the troops.

By dawn the next morning, the army is rowing back up Lake George, reaching its base at the southern end around sunset.

The humiliating nature of the retreat is immediately apparent to some of its participants.

Montcalm, wary of a British counterattack, and concerned about the fatigue of his troops after a long day of battle, has barrels of beer and wine brought forward to the lines.

The troops will spend the night alternating between sleeping and working on the defenses in anticipation of a renewed attack.

The fact that natives allied to the British have witnessed the debacle first hand will complicate future relations with them.

News of the defeat will circulate widely in their communities, which will have a significant effect on the ability of British agents to recruit natives to their side for future operations.

The battle is the bloodiest of the war, with over three thousand casualties suffered.

French casualties are normally considered to be comparatively light: one hundred and four killed and two hundred and seventy-three wounded in the main battle.

Combined with the effective elimination of Trépezet's force on July 6, there are about five hundred and fifty casualties, about thirteen percent of the French force, a percentage similar to the losses of the British (who Chartrand calculates as having lost eleven and a half to fifteen percent).

General Abercrombie will report five hundred and forty-seven killed, thirteen hundred and fifty-six wounded, and seventy-seven missing.

Lévis in one report will claim that the French recovered eight hundred British bodies, implying that Abercrombie may have under-reported the actual death toll.

Chartrand estimates the number of British killed (or died of their wounds) at about one thousand for the main battle, with about fifteen hundred wounded.

The skirmish on July 6 cost the British about one hundred killed and wounded, and the loss of General Howe.
 
The 42nd Regiment, known as the Black Watch, has paid dearly with the loss of many lives and many severely wounded.

More than three hundred men (including eight officers) have been killed, and a similar number are wounded, representing a significant fraction of the total casualties suffered by the British.

King George III, later in July 1758, will designate the 42nd a "Royal" regiment, due to its gallantry in earlier battles, and issue letters of service for adding a second battalion "as a testimony of his Majesty's satisfaction and approbation of the extraordinary courage, loyalty, and exemplary conduct of the Highland regiment."

However, the king will not learn of the regiment's loss of almost half its strength in this battle until August.

Fort Ticonderoga's location does not appear to be as strategically important in 1775 as it had been in the French and Indian War, when the French famously defended it against a much larger British force in the 1758 Battle of Carillon, and when the British captured it in 1759.

After the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which the French ceded their North American territories to the British, the fort was no longer on the frontier of two great empires, guarding the principal waterway between them.

The French had blown up the fort's powder magazine when they abandoned the fort, and it had fallen further into disrepair since then.

In 1775 it is garrisoned by only a small detachment of the 26th Regiment of Foot, consisting of two officers and forty-six men, with many of them "invalids" (soldiers with limited duties because of disability or illness).

Twenty-five women and children live here as well.

Because of its former significance, Fort Ticonderoga still has a high reputation as the "gateway to the continent" or the "Gibraltar of America", but in 1775 it is, according to historian Christopher Ward, "more like a backwoods village than a fort."

Even before shooting started in the American Revolutionary War, American Patriots had been concerned about Fort Ticonderoga.

The fort is a valuable asset for several reasons.

Within its walls is a collection of heavy artillery including cannons, howitzers, and mortars, armaments that the Americans have in short supply.

The fort is situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, a strategically important route between the Thirteen Colonies and the British-controlled northern provinces.

British forces placed here will expose the colonial forces in Boston to attack from the rear.

After the war began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the British General Thomas Gage realizes the fort will require fortification, and several colonists have the idea of capturing the fort.

Gage, writing from the besieged city of Boston following Lexington and Concord, instructs Quebec's governor, General Guy Carleton, to rehabilitate and refortify the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

Carleton will not receive this letter until May 19, well after the fort has been captured.

Benedict Arnold had frequently traveled through the area around the fort, and is familiar with its condition, manning, and armaments.

En route to Boston following news of the events of April 19, he mentions the fort and its condition to members of Silas Deane's militia.

The Connecticut Committee of Correspondence acts on this information; money is "borrowed" from the provincial coffers and recruiters are sent into northwestern Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire Grants (now Vermont) to raise volunteers for an attack on the fort.

John Brown, an American spy from Pittsfield, Massachusetts who had carried correspondence between revolutionary committees in the Boston area and Patriot supporters in Montreal, is well aware of the fort and its strategic value.

Ethan Allen and other Patriots in the disputed New Hampshire Grants territory also recognize the fort's value, as it has played a role in the dispute over that area between New York and New Hampshire.

Whether either took or instigated action prior to the Connecticut Colony's recruitment efforts is unclear.

The men had assembled at Hand's Cove (in what is now Shoreham, Vermont) by 11:30 pm on May 9, and are ready to cross the lake to Ticonderoga.

However, boats do not arrive until 1:30 am, and they are inadequate to carry the whole force.

Eighty-three of the Green Mountain Boys make the first crossing with Arnold and Allen, and Douglas goes back for the rest.

As dawn approaches, Allen and Arnold become fearful of losing the element of surprise, so they decide to attack with the men at hand.

The only sentry on duty at the south gate flees his post after his musket misfires, and the Americans rush into the fort.

The Patriots now rouse the small number of sleeping troops at gunpoint, and begin confiscating their weapons.

Allen, Arnold, and a few other men charge up the stairs toward the officers' quarters.

Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, assistant to Captain William Delaplace, is awakened by the noise, and calla to wake the captain.

Stalling for time, Feltham demandato know by what authority the fort wis being entered. Allen, who will later claim that he said it to Captain Delaplace, replied, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"

Delaplace finally emerges from his chambers (fully clothed, not with "his breeches in his hand", as Allen will later say) and surrenders his sword.

Nobody is killed in the assault.

The only injury is to one American, Gideon Warren, who had been slightly injured by a sentry with a bayonet.

Eventually, as many as four hundred men arrive at the fort, which they plunder for liquor and other provisions.

Arnold, whose authority is not recognized by the Green Mountain Boys, is unable to stop the plunder.

Frustrated, he retires to the captain's quarters to await forces that he had recruited, reporting to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that Allen and his men are "governing by whim and caprice" at the fort, and that the plan to strip the fort and send armaments to Boston is in peril.

When Delaplace protests the seizure of his private liquor stores, Allen issues him a receipt for the stores, which he will later submit to Connecticut for payment.

Arnold's disputes with Allen and his unruly men are severe enough that there are times when some of Allen's men draw weapons.

Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, leading the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, capture Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1776.

Allen sends the prisoners to Connecticut's Governor Jonathan Trumbull on May 12, with a note saying "I make you a present of a Major, a Captain, and two Lieutenants of the regular Establishment of George the Third."

Arnold busies himself over the next few days with cataloging the military equipment at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, a task made difficult by the fact that walls have collapsed on some of the armaments.

Ethan Allen and his men eventually drift away from Ticonderoga, especially once the alcohol begins to run out, and Arnold largely controls affairs from a base at Crown Point.

He oversees the fitting of the two large ships, eventually taking command of Enterprise because of a lack of knowledgeable seamen.

His men begin rebuilding Ticonderoga's barracks, and work to extract armaments from the rubble of the two forts and build gun carriages for them.

Connecticut sends about a thousand men under Colonel Benjamin Hinman to hold Ticonderoga, and New York also begins to raise militia to defend Crown Point and Ticonderoga against a possible British attack from the north.

Following the capture of Ticonderoga, Arnold and Allen note that it is necessary to hold Ticonderoga as a defense against attempts by the British to militarily divide the colonies, and also note that Quebec is poorly defended.

They each separately propose expeditions against Quebec, suggesting that a force as small as twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men will be sufficient to drive the British military from the province.

Congress had at first ordered the forts to be abandoned, prompting New York and Connecticut to provide troops and material for purposes that were essentially defensive in nature.

Public outcries from across New England and New York had challenged the Congress to change its position.

When it becomes clear that Guy Carleton, the governor of Quebec, is fortifying Fort St. Johns, and is also attempting to involve the Iroquois in upstate New York in the conflict, Congress decides that a more active position was needed.

On June 27, 1775, Congress authorizes General Philip Schuyler to investigate, and, if it seems appropriate, begin an invasion.

Arnold, passed over for its command, goes to Boston and persuades General George Washington to send a supporting force to Quebec City under his command.