Ticonderoga: Historic Portage

xi, 248 pp. Maps on endpapers, numerous black & white illustrations. "Fort Ticonderoga is a large eighteenth-century fort built at a narrows at the south end of Lake Champlain where a relatively short portage gives access to the north end of Lake George in the state of New York. The fort's location was strategically important during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, as it controlled commonly-used trade routes between the English-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. The name 'Ticonderoga' comes from an Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning 'it is at the junction of two waterways'. The French, who called it Fort Carillon, constructed the fort between 1755 and 1758, during the French and Indian War. The battle that gave the name 'Ticonderoga' its aura of invincibility took place in 1758, when an ill-considered attack by 16,000 British troops on a French defensive position outside the fort was repelled by 4,000 French troops. In 1759, the British returned, and drove a token French garrison from the fort merely by occupying high ground that threatened the fort. During the American Revolutionary War, in June 1777, British forces under General John Burgoyne again occupied high ground above the fort and threatened the Continental Army, whose forces had been holding it since its capture in May 1775 by the Green Mountain Boys and other state militia commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. The only direct attack on the fort took place during the British occupation of the fort in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an attempt to capture the fort from about 100 defenders. The fort was abandoned by the British following the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and ceased to be of any notable military value after 1781. It fell into ruins, was stripped of some of its usable stone, metal and woodwork, and became a stop on tourist routes of the area in the 19th century. Early in the 20th century, the fort was restored by its private owners, and is now operated by a private foundation as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center." -- Wikipedia