Fort Ticonderoga Timeline: 1700's

The Seven Years' War

1755 At the beginning of the Seven Years' War (French & Indian War) the Champlain Valley became an area of contested ground between the two superpowers of the day, France and England. Due to its strategic location on Lake Champlain that protected the portage to Lake George, Governor-General Vaudreuil, the French Governor of Canada, ordered a fort to be constructed on the Ticonderoga peninsula. This was the southernmost fort of the French Empire in the New World. Vaudreuil was anticipating attacks on Fort St. Frederic and the French settlements at today's Crown Point, New York and Chimney Point, Vermont and hoped to stop the push northward by the British army as it sought more land. The Canadian engineer Michel Chartier De Lotbiniere oversaw fort construction and French and French Canadian soldiers and civilians built it. Construction began in the fall, and continued for two more summer campaigns. The Fort was named Fort Carillon. 

1757 French General Montcalm used the new Fort Carillon as the base from which he launched his attack on British Fort William Henry on Lake George. 

1758 In July, British General Abercromby led an army of 16,000 British and Colonial troops against a small French force of 3200 entrenched at Fort Carillon. On July 8 the forces were engaged on the heights just north of the Fort after Montcalm's forces had hastily thrown up earthwork fortifications. The Battle of Carillon lasted several hours during which time Abercromby lost over 1900 men, a third of whom were members of the 42nd Regiment of Foot, also known as the Highlanders, or the "Black Watch" Regiment. Despite being outnumbered 4 to 1, the French forces prevailed. In honor of this victory, the French erected a cross on the Battle site. A reproduction of the cross still stands at the "French Lines" across from the Black Watch Memorial Cairn erected by Fort Ticonderoga in 1993.

1759 Learning from their mistakes the previous year, the British again attacked Fort Carillon under the leadership of General Jeffrey Amherst. The war had not gone well for the French after their victory in July 1758. They suffered numerous losses elsewhere in the war and the small garrison at Fort Carillon was ill-equipped to fight the superior numbers of the British. After a four-day siege, the French abandoned the Fort after blowing up the powder magazine to prevent the British from gaining their ammunition and from using the fortress effectively in the future. Undaunted, Amherst repaired the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga. He also began construction of a British war fleet on Lake Champlain and a major new fortress at Crown Point. The British would continue to maintain a small detachment at Fort Ticonderoga even after the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. 

The American Revolution

1775 At the outbreak of the Revolution, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold independently realized that adjacent British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point made an easy target for the American rebels. Their goal was to capture the cannons at both forts to aid the new army. Under the cover of darkness on the early morning of May 10th, a small band of 83 Green Mountain Boys led by Allen and Arnold rowed across Lake Champlain. There they surprised the sleeping sentry and stormed the Fort capturing it from the small British garrison. The capture took place only three weeks after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Word of these skirmishes had not yet reached the British garrison who surrendered the Fort and later surrendered Fort Crown Point. That winter Colonel Henry Knox volunteered to lead the expedition that dragged cannons from both Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point on sledges over the snow to Boston, where General Washington's army was attempting to free Boston from British occupation. The cannon were placed on Dorchester Heights and on April 14 the British evacuated Boston harbor. 

1776 While commanding Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Benedict Arnold organized the construction of the first American navy to thwart a British invasion from Canada. The fleet was built at Skenesborough (today's Whitehall), and outfitted at Ticonderoga. At the same time the defenses at Ticonderoga were strengthened and expanded to include a fortification across the Lake at Mount Independence. To connect these two fortifications a floating bridge was built across Lake Champlain. In October, Arnold's fleet of ships engaged the British navy in the Battle of Valcour Island north of Ticonderoga. The superior British navy decimated Arnold's fleet, but withdrew to Canada due to the approach of winter. This delay was instrumental in allowing the American army to continue strengthening fortifications. 

1777 Over the winter of 1776/1777 the British under General John Burgoyne planned a three-pronged attack strategy which they believed would quickly end the colonial rebellion. Burgoyne led a large army of British and German troops south from Canada with the goal of taking Albany, and splitting off New England from the other states. Despite the frantic preparations by the Americans at Fort Ticonderoga, Burgoyne's forces were able to haul cannon to the top of nearby Mount Defiance, a task thought impossible by the Americans. Commander Arthur St. Clair took a course of action which proved to be right in hindsight, but which later led to his court martial. On the night of July 5, St. Clair's army evacuated both Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence under cover of darkness heading south for safety. The British pursued them and numerous military engagements ensued.

By September, fighting was focused around today's Stillwater and Saratoga area. As American forces began to gather for a full-scale battle, others moved north to attack Burgoyne's crucial supply line from Canada. General Lincoln sent Colonel John Brown to attack Fort Ticonderoga, while at the same time another force was to attempt to recapture Mount Independence. On September 18 Brown advanced against the British held Fort Ticonderoga, seized all the outworks and released over a hundred American prisoners, but the Fort itself was too strong to capture. This was the last military action to take place at Ticonderoga.

After the disastrous defeat of Burgoyne's army at the Battles of Saratoga in late September and October, British General Powell burned all the buildings on both sides of the lake, and on October 8th abandoned Fort Ticonderoga and withdrew to Canada. The Fort was never again garrisoned. British continued to control Lake Champlain with their naval fleet. In 1778 the Fort was raided for supplies by the Continental troops seeking more cannon for the defense of the Hudson Highlands in Albany. 

Tourism Comes to the Fort

1783 George Washington visits the Fort with New York's Governor 
Clinton. After the Revolution, the State of New York granted the Fort and its surrounding Garrison Grounds to Columbia and Union Colleges.

1791 Once the American Revolution ended, individuals began to visit the Fort ruins as tourists, making the Fort one of the earliest heritage tourism sites in America. In 1791 future presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison took a trip through the Lake George and Lake Champlain region. Their journals are fascinating descriptions of life in the now peaceful region.