CHAPTER EIGHT Montgomery, Knox, Valcour Island
A number of important things happened at Ticonderoga during the American occupation between Allen’s capture, May 10th, 1775, and St. Clair’s evacuation before Burgoyne, July 6, 1777.
An expedition for the invasion of Canada was planned. By the middle of July, 1775, General Schuyler arrived at Ticonderoga and found but little progress had been made to advance the expedition, few bateaux, no boards, little material and few workmen able to build boats. He repaired the French sawmill, sawed boards, requisitioned carpenters, nails, provisions and teams and forwarded matters with so much dispatch that by the beginning of August regiments which were to form the army began to move toward Ticonderoga. The Continental troops began to arrive by the middle of August, and on the 13th General Richard Montgomery arrived and reviewed the troops. On the 28th the army advanced and after a few skirmishes on the way reached St. Johns on the 6th of September. The army consisted of about 1000 men under command of General Philip Schuyler, almost wholly Connecticut troops excepting about 250 of the first battalion of New Yorkers, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Ritzma. On the 13th of September General Schuyler was forced to return to Ticonderoga on account of illness, leaving General Richard Montgomery in command. The fort at St. Johns held out until November 2nd, when the garrison surrendered to the American invaders. Among the officers who surrendered and who were sent down to Ticonderoga, a prisoner with the rest was Lieutenant John Andre, afterwards executed as a spy.
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Major General Richard Montgomery
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On Monday morning, November 13th, a detachment from the Continental Army took possession of Montreal. Unfortunately, the time of many of the Connecticut troops had expired and most of them decided to go home. The General offered as a bounty for those who would enlist for only five months, a watch great coat, coat, jacket and breeches, stockings and shoes, shirt, caps, mittens, socks and an English Crown. About 200 volunteered to stay.
General Montgomery shortly afterwards joined Benedict Arnold who was besieging Quebec, and lost his life in the unsuccessful attack on that place. The remnants of two armies reached Ticonderoga in the spring of 1776 in a terrible condition.
It was while serving under General Montgomery that Ethan Allen, advancing toward Montreal to ascertain whether the Canadians were with or against the Americans, was captured, sent to England as a prisoner and not returned and released until May, 1778. He took no further part in the Revolution, though Congress granted him the rank and pay of a colonel.
On the 16th of November General Washington sent the following instruction to Henry Knox, then a Colonel of Artillery:
“You are immediately to examine into the state of the artillery of this army, and take an account of the cannon, mortars, shells, lead and ammunition that are wanting. When you have done that you are to proceed in the most expeditious manner to New York, there to apply to the President of the Provincial Congress and learn of him whether Colonel Reed did anything or left any orders respecting these things, and get him to procure such of them as can possibly be had there. The president, if he can, will have them immediately sent hither; if he cannot, you must put them in a proper channel to be transported to this camp with despatch before you leave New York. After you have procured as many of these necessaries as you can there, you must go to Major-General Schuyler and get the remainder from Ticonderoga, Crown Point, or St. John; if it should be necessary, from Quebec, if in our hands. The want of them is so great that no trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them. I have wrote to General Schuyler, he will give every necessary assistance, that they may be had and forwarded to this place with the utmost despatch. I have given you a warrant to the Paymaster General of the Continental Army for a thousand dollars, to defray the expense attending your journey and procuring these articles, an account of which you are to keep and render upon your return.
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General Knox
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“Given under my hand at headquarters at Cambridge, this 16th day of November, Annoque Domini 1775.
G. Washington.
“(Endeavor to procure what flints you can)”
The Continental Army, approximately 16,000 men, was besieging Boston, but without heavy artillery it would be impossible to force the British out. Apparently Colonel Knox had submitted a plan to Washington for the removal of the guns from Ticonderoga.
On the 5th of December Knox reached Ticonderoga and by the 6th was busy removing heavy guns from the Fort to a gondola, a type of flat-bottomed boat used on the lake. By the 9th they had all been transported to the carrying-place and were loaded on the scows to take them to the head of Lake George. With the greatest difficulty he transported them over-land, having had made forty-two strong sleds and hired eighty-one yoke of oxen. Not until January 4th did the first brass 24 pounder reach Albany, and on the 24th of the same month with his “noble train of artillery,” he arrived at the camp in Cambridge. It was a great undertaking considering the roads and bridges of the period.
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General Knox Moving Cannon From Fort Ticonderoga To Cambridge
(Courtesy Joseph Dixon Crucible Co.)
Fort Ticonderoga’s Immortal Guns go to General George Washington ... winter of 1776 ... over hundreds of miles of roadless, trackless, snowclad mountains and valleys, through thick forests, over ice-covered lakes and rivers ... on sledges hauled by oxen ... in charge of General Knox and his artillery men in their red-trimmed regimentals, who deliver the guns at Dorchester Heights. There, roaring down at the enemy, they drive him out of Boston Town.
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The guns removed from Ticonderoga by Knox consisted of:
MORTARS and COHORNS
Dim of bore.
Ft. & ins. of length.
Weight
Total w’ht.
Brass
2
Cohorns
5
- 7/10
1-4
150
300
4
do.
4½
1-1
100
400
1
Mortar
8½
2-0
300
300
1
do.
7½
2-0
300
300
8
Iron
1
do.
6½
1-10
600
600
1
do.
10
3-6
1800
1800
1
do.
10¼
3-6
1800
1800
3
do.
13
3 (average)
2300
6900
6
HOWITZERS
Iron
1
8
3-4
15.2.15
15.2.15
1
8¼
3-4
15.2.15
15.2.15
2
(16)
CANNON
Brass
8
3
pounders
3
- 1/20
3-6
350
2,800
3
6
do.
3
- 7/10
4-6
600
1,800
1
18
do.
5½
8-3
2000
2,000
1
24
do.
5
-11/12
5-6
16.3.18
1,800
Iron
6
6
do.
3
- 7/10
9-7
2500
15,000
4
9
do.
4
- 4/10
8-4
2500
10,000
10
12
do.
4¾
9
2800
28,000
7
18
do.
5½
9
4000
28,000
dble fortif.
3
18
do.
5½
11
5000
15,000
To. can., 43
Total Weight, 119,900
Mortars, 16
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From Contemporary Water Colors. Showing Rig of Fleet at Valcour Island. (Original in the Museum)
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In the spring of 1776, Benedict Arnold returned to Ticonderoga from the unsuccessful siege of Quebec. His spies soon told him that the British under Sir Guy Carleton intended to invade from the North. Arnold, one of the best soldiers this country ever has produced, realized that a fleet on Lake Champlain should be the first line of defense. With super-human efforts he collected shipwrights and carpenters at Ticonderoga and Skenesborough, erected ways, and, in spite of the lack of men and money, by the end of August the fleet was ready. It consisted of:
| Guns | Men | Capt. | |
| Schooner ROYAL SAVAGE | 12 | 50 | Wynkoop |
| (Arnold Flagship) | |||
| Schooner REVENGE | 10 | 80 | Seamen |
| Sloop LIBERTY | 10 | 35 | Plummer |
| Sloop ENTERPRIZE | 12 | 50 | Dickson |
| Galley WASHINGTON | 3 | 45 | Warner |
| (Gen. Waterbury on board) | |||
| Galley TRUMBULL | 3 | 45 | Colonel Wigglesworth |
| Galley CONGRESS | 3 | 45 | Capt. Arnold |
| Galley CUTTER LEE | 6 | 50 | Davis |
| Gondola BOSTON | 3 | 45 | Sumner |
| ” PROVIDENCE | 3 | 45 | Simmons |
| ” NEW HAVEN | 3 | 45 | Mansfield |
| ” SPITFIRE | 3 | 45 | Ulmer or Ustens |
| ” PHILADELPHIA | 3 | 45 | Rice |
| ” JERSEY | 3 | 45 | Grimes |
| ” CONNECTICUT | 3 | 45 | Grant |
| ” NEW YORK | 3 | 45 | Lee |
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The Attack and Defeat of the American Fleet under Benedict Arnold, by King’s Fleet Commanded by Captain John Pringle, upon Lake Champlain, the 11th of October, 1776.
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The British, in the meantime, had also been building a fleet. Several ships in the St. Lawrence had been taken apart, carried around the rapids, and rebuilt at St. Johns.
The two fleets met near Valcour Island on October 11th. After a two day fight the American Fleet was almost entirely destroyed, but Arnold had accomplished his object, he had held back the invaders for a whole year, as by the time Sir Guy Carleton reached and took Crown Point it was too late for his army to advance.
The British fleet in the battle consisted of:
Ship INFLEXIBLE
16 Guns
Lt. Schank
Schooner MARIA
14 Guns
Lt. Starke
(Pringle’s Flagship)
Schooner CARLETON
12 Guns
Lt. Dacres
Radeau THUNDERER
14 Guns
Lt. Scott
Gondola LOYAL CONVERT
7 Guns
Lt. Longcroft
Twenty Gun or Artillery Boats with one gun each.
Four Long Boats—one field piece or howitzer each.
But three of the American Fleet escaped, the “Revenge,” “Trumbull” and “Enterprise.”
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General Schuyler
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Major-General Arthur St. Clair
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Major-General Horatio Gates
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Ticonderoga and Its Dependencies, August 1776
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The Massacre of Jane McCrea
(From a painting in the Museum.)
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