Fort Ticonderoga Captured by Green Mountain Boys

# The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, 1775

In the weeks following the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the American colonies found themselves in open conflict with Great Britain, yet the Continental forces faced a critical shortage of artillery and military supplies. Fort Ticonderoga, a strategically vital stone fortress situated on the western shore of Lake Champlain in northeastern New York, held a substantial store of cannons, mortars, and other munitions that the fledgling rebellion desperately needed. Originally built by the French as Fort Carillon during the French and Indian War, Ticonderoga had changed hands multiple times before falling under British control. By the spring of 1775, however, the fort's garrison had dwindled to a small and complacent detachment of roughly fifty soldiers under the command of Captain William Delaplace, who had little reason to expect an attack from the colonial population. This combination of strategic value and weak defense made the fort an irresistible target for bold colonial leaders eager to strike an early blow against British authority.

Ethan Allen, a charismatic and fiercely independent frontiersman, commanded the Green Mountain Boys, a militia originally organized in the territory that would eventually become Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys had formed in the early 1770s primarily to resist land claims made by New York over the region known as the New Hampshire Grants, and their members were experienced woodsmen accustomed to operating outside the boundaries of formal authority. When word spread that Ticonderoga was vulnerable, Allen quickly began organizing an expedition to seize the fort. At nearly the same time, Benedict Arnold — then a captain in the Connecticut militia who had received a commission from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to undertake the very same mission — arrived to claim command of the operation. Arnold was ambitious, well-educated in military matters, and held legitimate authorization, but the Green Mountain Boys refused to serve under anyone other than Allen. The two men reached an uneasy compromise, agreeing to enter the fort side by side, though the precise nature of their shared authority remained a source of tension throughout the operation.

In the predawn hours of May 10, 1775, Allen, Arnold, and a force of approximately eighty Green Mountain Boys and Connecticut volunteers crossed Lake Champlain and approached the fort's south entrance. The element of surprise was total. A single sentry attempted to fire his musket, which misfired, and the Americans rushed through the open wicket gate into the fort's interior. Allen reportedly demanded the surrender of the garrison "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," though the precise wording of his declaration has been debated by historians ever since. Captain Delaplace, roused from sleep, quickly recognized the hopelessness of his situation and surrendered the fort without a shot being fired. The entire operation was accomplished with no casualties on either side, a remarkable outcome that spoke both to the audacity of the attackers and the unpreparedness of the defenders.

The consequences of the capture proved far more significant than the small skirmish itself might suggest. The fort yielded approximately sixty usable cannons along with quantities of powder, shot, and other supplies. The following winter, Colonel Henry Knox undertook an extraordinary logistical feat, transporting those heavy guns nearly three hundred miles overland through snow and ice from Ticonderoga to the siege lines around Boston. When General George Washington placed the cannons on Dorchester Heights in March 1776, the British position in Boston became untenable, and General William Howe evacuated the city — a pivotal early victory for the American cause made possible by the weapons seized at Ticonderoga.

The capture also established the Green Mountain Boys as a credible military force and elevated Ethan Allen to the status of folk hero across the colonies. It demonstrated that determined colonial fighters could seize the initiative against British forces rather than merely reacting defensively. As one of the first major American offensive actions of the Revolutionary War, the taking of Fort Ticonderoga provided both tangible military resources and an invaluable boost to colonial morale at a moment when the outcome of the rebellion remained deeply uncertain.