Stephen H. P. Pell — Fort Ticonderoga — The Building of the Fort

CHAPTER THREE The Building of the Fort

From 1609 to 1755 nothing of great interest happened at Ticonderoga. War parties, explorers and traders passed up and down the lake in a steady stream, but few left records. The English pushed north as far as the south end of Lake George and built Fort William Henry; the French, as far south as Crown Point and built Fort St. Frederic. All between was a wild country, claimed by both France and Great Britain.

In 1755 Michel Chartier, afterwards Marquis de Lotbiniere, under instruction from the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor-General of New France, came down from Crown Point to select a site for a new fort. His aide-memoire from de Vaudreuil is in the Fort Library. In October he started cutting the great trees and leveling the ground to build the stone fortress which he first called Fort Vaudreuil, but which was afterwards given the name of Carillon, “A Chime of Bells,” named from the sound of the falls where the water from Lake George runs into Lake Champlain. He employed the garrison from Crown Point and at one time as many as 2,000 men were at work and made extraordinary progress, considering that he was erecting a fort in the wilderness.

Robert Rogers, the famous ranger, several times during the building of the Fort reconnoitered and reported on the progress of the work. September 9, 1756, he says:

“I was within a mile of Ticonderoga fort where I endeavored to reconnoitre the enemy’s works and strength. They were engaged in raising the walls of the fort and erecting a large blockhouse near the southeast corner of the fort with ports in it for cannon. East from the blockhouse was a battery which I imagined commanded the lake.”

Part of the Original Instructions for de Lotbiniere to Start Construction of Fort Ticonderoga
(This manuscript is in the Fort Library)

He also reports the French to be building a sawmill at the lower end of the falls. On Christmas Eve, 1757, Rogers got close enough to kill about seventeen head of cattle and set fire to the wood piles of the garrison. To the horns of one of the cattle, he attached a note to the commander of the fort:

“I am obliged to you, sir, for the repose you have allowed me to take. I thank you for the fresh meat you have sent me. I will take care of my prisoners. I request you to present my compliments to the Marquis de Montcalm.

(Signed) “Rogers, Commander of the Independent Companies.”

In 1755, Baron de Dieskau had gone from Crown Point to attack Sir William Johnson at Lake George. Dieskau was wounded, and his defeated army fought their way back to Ticonderoga.

In March, 1758, Rogers’ famous battle on snowshoes was fought a few miles from Ticonderoga when the French under Captain Durentaye, commanding a party of Indians and Canadians, captured and destroyed most of his force.

The guns which De Lotbiniere mounted on the Fort were mostly from Crown Point and Montreal but some were brought from Fort William Henry in 1757 when Montcalm captured that fort from Lieut. Col. Munro. It was after Munro’s surrender that the famous massacre of Fort William Henry occurred. The British garrison was marching unarmed to Fort Edward when it was attacked by Montcalm’s Indians. The French officers did their best to protect the garrison but many were slain.

De Lotbiniere wrote to the Minister from Carillon on the 31st October, 1756:

Major Robert Rogers

“My Lord:—

“I was so much occupied last year at the departure of the last ships that it was not possible for me to render you an account of the St. Frederic campaign, which M. de Vaudreuil ordered me to begin immediately after M. de Dieskau’s affair. I left with orders to examine the Carillon Point ... where the waters of the Grande Baye and of Lake St. Sacrement meet. At this point is the head of the navigation of Lake Champlain. M. de Vaudreuil feared with reason that, the enemy gaining possession of it, it would be very difficult for us to dislodge him, and that being solidly established there, [and we] would be exposed to see him appear in the midst of our settlements at the moment we least expected, it being possible for him to make during winter all necessary preparations to operate in the spring.

“I found on my arrival at St. Frederic an intrenchment begun on wrong principles which I felt obliged to continue to be agreeable to the Commandant of the Army who feared the enemy might at any moment attack the Fort. At last, on the 12th October, on the order of M. le Marquis de Vaudreuil, these works ceased and we moved the camp from St. Frederic to Carillon to begin a Fort at the location which I should find to be most suitable for such purpose.

“I decided to establish it on the ridge of rock which runs from the point to the falls of Lake St. Sacrement. As the season did not permit of our hoping to accomplish much work before winter I was obliged to restrict my efforts more than I would have liked so as to at least place the garrison under cover until the spring.

“I contented myself with reserving sufficient ground in the front for a camp of 2,000 to 3,000 men, if need be, covered by the Fort, and although I was obliged to operate in the midst of a wood without being able to see while surveying more than thirty yards ahead of me, I think I was fortunate enough to have made the best use of the ground I was ordered to fortify. We were not prepared to build in stone, having neither the material assembled nor the workmen. We were therefore obliged to line the works in oak which fortunately was plentiful on the spot. I began the parapet of the whole work which I formed in a double row of timbers distant ten feet from one another and bound together by two cross-pieces dovetailed at their extremities, to retain the timbers. This had reached the height of seven feet by the 28th November, date of the departure of the army, which could not remain longer owing to the ice beginning to form.

Wounding of Baron Dieskau. From a Painting in the Museum

“I remained until February hoping to be able to use the garrison to advance the works; but finding that it was not possible to make the garrison work, I decided to return to Montreal after the barracks had been finished, to recuperate from the fatigues of the campaign and the unwholesome food I had taken.

“I left [Montreal] this year [1756] at the end of April and arrived at the Fort the first days of May, when I resumed work which dragged on for nearly a month not having the required workmen. During this campaign we raised all the Fort to the height of the cordon. The earth ramparts were made,—the platforms of the bastions completed, a cover built for each bastion bomb-proof, two stone barracks built, the ditches of the place dug to the rock everywhere, part of the rock even removed on two fronts, the ditches of the two demi-lunes also excavated to the rock, a store-house established outside the Fort as well as a hospital. The parapet was raised on the two fronts exposed to the enemy’s batteries if he undertook to besiege this place, the exterior part of the Fort supported by masonry resting on the solid rock. The next campaign will be devoted to overhauling the main body of the place and building the two demi-lunes proposed, as well as the redoubt at the extreme of the Carillon Point. We will also work at the covered way and the glacis. There will be two barracks to build in stone in the interior of the Fort. As there is but one bastion exposed to attack I think it would be well to protect it by a counter guard. This would constitute an additional obstruction which might discourage the enemy from any attack on that side and, should he do so, I would hope that the place, once completed, he would not succeed. I would be flattered, My Lord, if you gave me 26 your orders to work with more latitude and, if you approve the counter guard which would not be very expensive, I would beg of you to order it by the first ships coming from France in order to embrace at the same time the whole works. M. le Comte de la Galissoniere to whom I communicated the information which I have acquired on this district will not let you ignore how advantageous it is and of what consequence it is to France. I presume to flatter myself, My Lord, that you will consider me for the position occupied heretofore by M. de Lery. I think I have worked in a manner to deserve it.”

It was during the summer of 1757 that De Lotbiniere started to substitute stone for most of the timbers he had used on the outer walls of the Fort.

Abercromby’s Expedition Against Fort Ticonderoga Embarking at Head of Lake George
Courtesy Glens Falls Insurance Company