From the Final Frontier to the First Frontier: Fort Ticonderoga

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Stephanie Larsen
4–6 minutes

Now we’re switching, in the blink of an eye, from “Space, the Final Frontier” to one of America’s first frontiers: Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1755, France controlled a huge swath of the North American continent, from the Hudson Bay south to New Orleans. They saw a need for a fort along the Hudson River between Lake George and Lake Champlain, and east of the Appalachian Mountains, so they built Fort Carillon there between 1755 and 1757. It was a simple wooden affair, but they had staked their claim.

But the British controlled nearby Ft. William Henry, and they were mad at the French for the massacre of British colonists there in 1757, so they went on the offensive in 1758. They lost. Humiliatingly. This battle would be the bloodiest ever suffered on American soil until the Civil War battle at Antietam over a century later.

Nevertheless, the tides turn in 1759. The British try again under a different commander. The French are forced to retreat, but blow up Ft. Carillon before they leave. The British rename what’s left of the place Ft. Ticonderoga, derived from a Mohawk word meaning “the place between two waters”. Ft Ticonderoga would be rebuilt in stone.

The British hold Ft. Ticonderoga until 1775. That year, on April 19, “the shot heard around the world” was fired in Lexington, Massachusetts. The Revolutionary War had begun. Unfortunately for the British at Ticonderoga, news traveled slowly in those days. Ft. Ticonderoga was only lightly defended by a mere 48 soldiers plus about two dozen women and children. On the night of May 10, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and approximately 150 Green Mountain Boys from Vermont easily captured Ft. Ticonderoga: America’s first battle win of the Revolutionary War.

The reason why the Continental forces wanted Ft. Ticonderoga wasn’t the fort so much as its contents and its commanding position along Lake Champlain. George Washington desperately needed artillery to hold off the British in Boston. Benedict Arnold set off for Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an inventory of Ft. Ticonderoga’s artillery.

In November 1755 (yeah, things worked slowly in the 18th century), 25-year-old Henry Knox, who was Washington’s chief of artillery, embarked on a mission to haul 60 tons of cannons, howitzers, and mortars some 300 miles in the dead of winter from Ticonderoga to Boston. They used horse-drawn sledges and boats along barely-there roads and semi-frozen rivers and then over the icy Berkshire Mountains. The “noble train of artillery” took 60 days to reach Boston.

But Knox’s arduous effort was worth it. In March 1776, the Continental Army emplaced that artillery on Dorchester Heights, seemingly overnight. With the threat of bombardment imminent, the British determined that their position was untenable and withdrew on March 17th, endiing the 11-month Siege of Boston. It became Washington’s earliest victory for the Continental Army.

Entry to Ft Ticonderoga as it looks today. The fort was in ruins for over a century, but reconstruction attempts began in 1909 to honor its importance to American history.
This is a representation of the original wooden walls of Ft. Carillon. The height of the wall was a mere five feet or so, although it was about a foot and a half thick of sturdy oak. It doesn’t look like much, but it helped the French hold off a much larger British force in 1758.
It was at this spot on May 10, 1775, where a lone British sentry protected the three dozen souls inside the fort. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold came upon the sentry in the middle of the night, with Ethan Allen wounding the sentry’s arm with his sword. That would be the only blood shed during the battle; both leaders were intent on a bloodless capture of the fort.
A diorama of Ethan Allen climbing the stairs to demand surrender of the fort from the British commander (who had been sound asleep).
The parade ground of Ft. Ticonderoga as it looks today. There is another building to the right of this photo, the one shown in the diorama in the previous picture.
Costumed re-enactors walk throughout the fort. This year (2025), the fort is re-enacting the year 1775 in honor of its 250th anniversary.
Inside the buildings, you’ll fiind customed reenactors sewing clothes (all those worn at the fort are hand-sewn here, just as they would have been in the 18th century — including shoes) and cooking meals that might have been eaten during the 1770s.
Cannon overlooking Lake Champlain. These, plus howitzers and mortars, were Henry Knox’s goal.
In case you’ve never seen an 18th century mortar before, they looked like this. They held larger-caliber balls than cannons did, but their balls were filled with gunpowder, unlike the solid metal cannonballs. Mortars were aimed higher than cannons.
The long and arduous trail from Ft. Ticonderoga to Boston, some 300 miles long.
“The Noble Train of Artillery” was painted by Tom Lovell iin 1946, showing Knox leading the procession through the snowy Berkshire Mountains. Although popular depictions like this showed Knox hauling the cannons with oxen, he actually used horses. Negotiations for the use of oxen broke down, so Knox hired horses instead.
Re-enactors performing for the public.

France controlled a huge portion of the North American continent. It’s a wonder we didn’t end up speaking French! The British controlled the eastern seaboard and the Spanish controlled the southwest. If you look carefully, you’ll see Ft. Carillon shown in northern New York.

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