Upstate New York is ALMOST as chock full of American history as coastal Virginia. The last stop of our mini-vacation to up-up state New York was Fort Ticonderoga. This is a place that rings some tiny bell in the back of your mind. You KNOW you've heard of it, and you know it was important for some reason lost in the mists of your memory.
This place calls itself "America's Fort", but it's really not. It was built by the French, renamed by the British, and captured by the Americans. This fort is all about the military strategy of the 18th century. In an era of few roads, whoever controlled the waterways controlled vast areas of land. Sitting at the southern end of Lake Champlain, this fort was fought over six times and changed hands three times. With the advent of the railroad, the gasoline combustion engine, and a reliable road network overland, Fort Ticonderoga fell into disuse, and was literally falling down when a privately funded non-profit group decided to restore it. Their restoration efforts started in the early part of the 20th century, and continues today.
For Americans, there is a fascinating story associated with Fort Ticonderoga and the American Revolution. Washington, the Continental Army Commander, had problems not only with an untrained army, but also with a lack of material to fight the war against the British. (That's why the victory at Saratoga was so important - it convinced the French to finance the war.)
It's 1775, and the war has just started. Two young, impetuous Patriots present a crazy plan to Washington. Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allan, with a small force of men and by using the element of surprise, propose to capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British. Washington agreed. To the astonishment of everyone, they succeeded on May 10, 1775! The British retreated back into Canada. As amazing as that feat, it's really not the story.
In early winter, 1775, Henry Knox, a 29 year old bookseller from New Hampshire went to Washington, whom he had met in the Bunker Hill/Breeds Hill battle in Boston, with an REALLY insane plan. Knox convinced Washington he could bring the artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to the hills overlooking Boston
and thus drive the British out of Boston. Again, with nothing to lose, Washington requisitioned $1000 dollars and sent Knox north to the fort.
Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on December 1st, and he promptly began directing the removal of the cannons from their carriages.
Knox lashed the cannon onto large sleds, planning to use oxen to pull the sleds when he couldn't use the rivers. He devised a route consisting of floating the cannon on rafts, sliding them over frozen rivers and creeks, and sledding them through snow on a route between Fort Ticonderoga and Boston. He called it his "Noble Train of Artillery", and it consisted of 59 cannon and other assorted artillery pieces together their carriages, cannonballs, black powder canisters, and all the other sundries necessary to the firing of 18th century artillery.
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| This gives you an idea how large the cannon are |
As always, the weather refused to cooperate! First, he couldn't get snow for his sleds to get started, then, several feet fall all at once. He barely rafted the cannon across Lake George (a small lake just north of Saratoga Springs) before it froze solid. The farther south he traveled, he discovered the large rivers such as the Hudson River weren't frozen solid enough to bear the weight of oxen and cannon. He tried to cross the Hudson River on January 5th with one cannon on a sled pulled by a team of oxen. The ice cracked, the oxen were cut loose so they wouldn't drown, and the trial cannon wound up at the bottom of the river. It was a shallow place, so the valuable cannon was fished out by Patriots from the tiny village of Albany.
Knox waited, testing the ice each day. In a few days, he was able to slide his precious cargo across the river on ice. Then, he went up and down hills and the Berkshire mountains dragging the artillery across Massachusetts. He covered 300 miles in the dead of winter with thousands of pounds of artillery. When the British awoke on March 7th to discover the hills around Boston ringed with American cannon, they had no choice but to evacuate the city. Not too bad for a bookseller!
Post revolution, the Knox's cannon dispersed over the Eastern seaboard and all the way down into the Caribbean. In the 1930's the Fort Ticonderoga restoration group went on a cannon search and returned the cannon to the Fort. Some of the cannon are British, some are French, and some are Spanish, but they represent some of the original cannon as well as others from the same period. They all date back to the 18th century.
Slowly, the Fort has been restored, and the foundation has scored a donation of a collection of period weapons including swords, powder horns, as well as muskets which is outstanding.
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| Collection of swords |
I thought the carved powder horns were the most interesting. These were not carved by ordinary soldiers sitting around the campfire. Instead, master carvers followed armies and sold the carved powder horns to soldiers as mementos of their service. Here's an example:
The restoration has been done by utilizing as much of the original material as possible. The fort was literally in ruins when the restoration started.
I thought the most fascinating aspect of the Fort were the people. I've been in other citadels and forts which have college kids dressed up parading around, but at Fort Ticonderoga re-enactment is taken a step farther. The re-enactors are full time employees of the foundation and each brings an 18th century skill to the table. Visitors as they take the self-guided tours meet these people as they perform their specialty skill. Here's one of the cobblers. They make the shoes of all the re-enactors using 18th century tools. The cobbler told me he trained with a master cobbler for three years using tools which are over 300 years old.
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| He's putting new soles on a pair of shoes |
The cobbler told me in the British army of 1750, a soldier was issued a pair of shoes and five pairs of soles. His shoes (and soles) were expected to last for three years.
When I asked him why he wasn't portraying the American army, he replied they switch each year. One year they are the French army of 1740; the next year the British army of 1750, and the following year, the American army of 1775. Next year they will be Americans. I noticed a wooden bowl and spoon on the bench behind him, and I found out there are cooks who make 18th century recipes for lunch for the staff and re-enactors. If you are eating outside the break room, you're expected to be eating the type of food someone of the period would have been eating. The cobbler had pea soup for lunch the day we visited. Vegetables for use by the cooks are grown (on a smaller scale) in the King's Garden which is adjacent to the fort.
Equally interesting were the tailors. They make all the uniforms and clothes for the re-enactors. The day we visited, they were working on miniature uniforms for children who visit to try on.
In contrast to the cobblers, the tools used by the tailors have really not changed much in 300 years.
There was also a cannon firing demonstration. It took a well-oiled team to fire a cannon successfully with more steps than I thought possible.
We have an American loyalist officer (green), a regular British Army officer (red), and a lowly British seaman in high water trousers. This small cannon has a range of 400 yards - that's four football fields. Cannon generally shot a six pound ball (think small bowling ball) or a three pound ball (think tennis ball) propelled by a canister of black powder which was ignited by flame applied to a flammable material jammed up next to the canister of powder. Muskets shot a ball the size of a marble on the same principle. Here are some examples of actual 'shot'.
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Yes, that's my foot & the shadow of my hands.
I couldn't quite get the big cannon balls on the back row |
I also enjoyed the mini-history lesson of the fort presented with maps, pictures, and sometimes life sized figures such as these
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This is a Mohawk warrior, a British ally in 1750
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Here's David Perry, a British citizen of the Colonies, fighting with the British against the French in the French and Indian Wars.
In twenty five years, David Perry, might be a Patriot/Rebel fighting against the British.
Our last tour were the King's Gardens. In the 18th century, the gardens were less about flowers and more about feeding the army occupying the fort. Reduced in scale these days, it still is representative, complete with heritage plants, of the types of vegetables which would have been grown in the late 1700's. Today, it's not only veggies, but also about flowers as well as having a quiet place to enjoy nature.
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| This gardener was out picking strawberries |
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| And there were beautiful flowers in the 21st century |
All in all, this was a great way to end our small trip. The Fort and its history was really interesting and well done. As always, there are pictures. Using the slideshow feature will give you picture captions. Click on the below link to see the pictures.
