Fort Ticonderoga, courtesy of Wikimedia.
Fort Ticonderoga is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at the narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York. The fort was strategically important during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France and again played an important role during the American Revolution. “Ticonderoga” comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning “it is at the junction of two waterways.”
Samuel de Champlain by Theophile Hamel, 1870.
Native Americans had occupied the area for centuries before French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1609. He recounted that the Algonquin Indians, with whom he traveled, battled a group of nearby Iroquois. In 1642, French missionary Isaac Jogues was the first white man to traverse the portage at Ticonderoga while escaping a battle between the Iroquois and members of the Huron tribe.
Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border between New York and Vermont, and the Hudson River together formed a vital travel route that was used by Native Americans long before the arrival of European colonists. The route was relatively free of obstacles to navigation, with only a few portages.
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 western shore of the lake.
A new fort was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Marquis Michel Chartier de Lotbiniere between October 1755 and 1757 during the French and Indian War. Initially called Fort Vaudreuil, it was later renamed Fort Carillon. The work in 1755 consisted primarily of beginning construction on the main walls and the Lotbiniere redoubt to the west of the site, providing additional coverage of the La Chute River. Four main bastions were built the following year, and a sawmill was built on the La Chute River.
Fort Ticonderoga, New York Map, 1758.
The walls were made of squared wooden timbers, with the earth filling the gap. The French then began to dress the walls with stone from a quarry about one mile away; however, this work was never fully completed. When the primary defenses became ready, the fort was armed with cannons from Montreal and Fort St. Frédéric. The fort also contained three barracks and four storehouses. One bastion held a bakery capable of producing 60 loaves of bread daily. A powder magazine was hacked out of the bedrock beneath the Joannes bastion. All the construction within the fort was of stone.
A wooden palisade protected an area outside the fort between the southern wall and the lake shore. This area contained the main landing for the fort, additional storage facilities, and other works necessary for fort maintenance. When it became apparent in 1756 that the fort was too far west of the lake, the French constructed an additional redoubt to the east to enable cannon to cover the lake’s narrows.
Strategically located at the junction of Lake Champlain and Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga was the key to Canada and the Hudson Valley in the 18th century. Thus, it was strategically placed to compete over trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley.
Lake Champlain, New York-Vermont.
Work slowed in 1757 when many troops prepared for and participated in the attack on Fort William Henry, New York.
On July 8, 1758, an army of 15,000 British regular and colonial troops attacked the fort and was repulsed with heavy loss by the 4,000 French defenders under General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. The French blew up part of the fort before they withdrew.
On July 27, 1759, General Jeffrey Amherst captured the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga. This loss by the French and British pressure elsewhere on the frontier between New France and the American Colonies was a severe blow to French plans. The capture of Ticonderoga gave the British undisputed possession of the strategically important Hudson River Valley. Amherst made repairs according to the original design.
In the years between France’s defeat in North America and the outbreak of the Revolution, a small garrison manned the site.
Patriot raid of Fort Ticonderoga, 1775.
Soon after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, with 83 “Green Mountain Boys” of Vermont, surprised and defeated the few British defenders on May 10, 1775. Effectively blocking British access to the Hudson River, the post became a base for the projected advance on Canada.
During their retreat from the failed invasion of Quebec in December 1775, the Continental Army sought refuge behind its walls. Additionally, Henry Knox retrieved cannons and other artillery from the fort, bringing these resources back to the Continental Army’s headquarters in Massachusetts. General George Washington famously used these cannons to compel the British to evacuate, ending the Siege of Boston, Massachusetts, in March 1776.
Ticonderoga changed hands again when it fell to General John Burgoyne’s British Army in June 1777, but upon Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga, it again passed into American possession. Although reoccupied occasionally by scouting parties and raiding detachments, a military force never again garrisoned the post.
Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, New York.
In 1816, William F. Pell, a merchant of New York, leased the grounds and bought them four years later. In 1908, Stephen Pell began restoration. By the following year, the west barracks had been opened to the public, and the work continued. At this time, only the east barracks had not been rebuilt, and the task of reconstruction was a significant undertaking. Over the years, settlers carted the stones away for use as building materials. The upper part of the walls and most of the stone barracks disappeared, and the earth behind the walls washed over the remnants of the original walls.
The fort’s remains were uncovered in the restoration that began in 1908. The present work was erected on the original foundations and utilized parts of walls that had survived.
The Pell family estate is located north of the fort. In 1921, Sarah Pell reconstructed the gardens. She hired Marian Cruger Coffin, one of the period’s most famous American landscape architects.
Pelham House Garden at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, by Francis Benjamin Johnston, 1927.
Stephen Hyatt Pell, who spearheaded the restoration effort, founded the Fort Ticonderoga Association in 1931, which is now responsible for the fort. Funding for the restoration also came from Robert M. Thompson, father of Stephen Pell’s wife, Sarah Gibbs Thompson.
The Department of Interior designated Fort Monroe a National Historic Landmark, and the foundation now operates the fort as a tourist attraction, early American military museum, and research center.
The gardens were restored in 1995 and later opened to the public, known as the King’s Garden.
In 2008, the powder magazine, destroyed by the French in 1759, was reconstructed by Tonetti Associates Architects based partly on the original 1755 plans.
Barracks at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, courtesy Wikimedia.
The fort is four-sided, with bastions extending from its four corners. Outlooks on the north and west and an outer wall on the south cover the approaches. The reconstructed west and south barracks, the ruins of the still-to-be-restored east barracks, and the long rampart joining the northwest and northeast bastions face the central parade ground. The west barracks houses the administrative office, a library, and, in the basement, the armory, featuring the most essential part of the Fort Ticonderoga gun collection. In the south barracks are displayed many artifacts excavated in the course of the restoration; furnished quarters of the officer of the day; exhibits of furniture, household goods, and other items used by early settlers in the region; Indian relics; and a model of the fort as it existed in 1758. Below the walls are the remains of a French village that probably served the fort.
The fort conducts other seminars, symposia, and workshops throughout the year, including the annual War College of the Seven Years’ War in May and the Seminar on the American Revolution in September.
The fort opens annually around May 10, the anniversary of the 1775 capture, and closes in late October.
More Information:
Fort Ticonderoga
102 Fort Ti Road
Ticonderoga, NY 12883
518-585-2821
Cannon at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, courtesy Wikimedia.
Also See:
Forts & Presidios Across America
Soldiers & Officers in American History
Sources:
National Park Service – Colonials & Patriots
National Park Service – Fort Ticonderoga
Wikipedia