Seizure of Fort Ticonderoga

10 May 1775

Continental victory

In May 1775, a small force of American troops called the Green Mountain Boys commanded by Col. Ethan Allen, along with Col. Benedict Arnold of Connecticut, captured Fort Ticonderoga, strategically located where Lake George flows into Lake Champlain in New York. The fifty-man British garrison surrendered with all the fort’s artillery. 

The capture of Fort Ticonderoga, a massive stone-built stronghold, gave American forces a valuable artillery park early in the war. These sixty guns were later moved to Boston for use in the American siege lines of the British garrison in the city, which was forced to evacuate in March 1776. Although situated in a sparsely settled wilderness about 95 miles north of Albany, the fort commanded the important water route from the Saint Lawrence River in Canada to New York City. French forces constructed the fort in the 1750s, and it was crucial to the armies of France to hold it as part of Canada’s defenses. British and American forces suffered a major defeat there in July 1759 during the French and Indian War. During the Revolutionary War, British troops captured the fort and forced its American garrison to flee during the 1777 Saratoga Campaign.

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