New York State and the American Revolution--Part IV

According to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation,

“Nearly one third of all the battles fought during the American Revolution were fought in New York State. The capture of Fort Ticonderoga, the Battles of Oriskany, Newtown, and Saratoga are just a few of the major events that took place on New York soil.”http://nysparks.com/historic-preservation/heritage-trails/revolutionary-war/default.aspx

This is a four-part look at these important theaters in the war and New York’s vital role in our Nation’s Founding Struggle
By Kathleen L. Maher

Part IV The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

In some way, I have taken a backwards tour of these four battles: Newtown, Oriskany, Saratoga, and Ticonderoga. This last battle was actually the first chronologically. It was also the first major victory for the American army in the Revolution against the British.

In northeastern New York, along the western shore of Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga stood sentinel to the passage between Canada and the Hudson River Valley. This passage had proven invaluable for trade and transport. Fort Carillon fell to the British in the French and Indian War in 1759 and they renamed it Ticonderoga. Still under British control in 1775, the fort was held by a scant garrison of 50 men, but housed a tempting amount of artillery.

Ethan Allen and less than 100 of his Green Mountain Boys crossed Lake Champlain from Vermont early on the morning of May 10, 1775. Accompanied by Massachusetts militia leader Benedict Arnold, the patriot force came upon a fort of unprepared, slumbering British. In one bold move, the fort fell into patriot hands. The guns seized would soon aid the Americans facing British General Gage in Boston.

But this wouldn't be the last contest in the war over possession of the fort. General Burgoyne and Canadian governor Guy Carleton desired to move down from Canada in late 1776 to reclaim the fort and secure the waterway. But Carleton backed out as the year drew to a close, convinced it would be too difficult to supply an army there in the middle of winter. Without his support, Burgoyne had to abort the mission and wait. 

The next opportunity came in 1777, and Burgoyne was ready. In July he set out on a southbound flotilla toward Major General Arthur St.Clair, the American commander at the fort. St Clair abandoned the fort with hardly a fight. It wasn't until Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in November that Fort Ticonderoga would return to American Patriot hands.

Kathleen L. Maher won ACFW’s 2012 Genesis contest and is represented by Terry Burns of Hartline Literary. She debuts with Murray Pura’s Civil War collection with her novella, Bachelor Buttons.  

Irish immigrants in Manhattan struggle for livelihood and love set against the class warfare and political unrest of the Draft Riots of July 1863.

http://kathleenlmaher.blogspot.com