THE SILVER BULLET

The famous silver bullet, carried by a messenger to General Burgoyne from Sir Henry Clinton. The bullet was hollow and concealed a message. The messenger, on being captured by American Troops, swallowed the bullet. He was given an emetic and forced to disgorge it. Later he was hanged as a spy. The bullet was preserved in the Tallmadge family and presented to the Fort Ticonderoga Museum by Henry O. Tallmadge, Esq.

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The important contribution of the Pell family during a period approaching 150 years has been an appreciation of historical values and a sense of responsibility towards them. There has always been at least one member of the family who refused to allow any part of the property sold, who kept up the gardens and planted trees and who, above all, cherished and preserved the Fort.

In 1908, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Pell decided to rehabilitate the “Pavilion” and spend their summers in it so that Mr. Pell could undertake the restoration of the Fort. There were legal, financial, architectural, political and engineering problems, and just plain problems. There was a horse living in one of the rooms of the “Pavilion.” There was of course no plumbing, central heating or electricity in the house. The land belonged to 17 members of the family and the problem of locating them and arranging satisfactory terms of purchase was a long and complicated one. There were squatters living all along the shores of Lake Champlain, and these squatters had acquired squatters’ rights. Nevertheless, the house was painted and rehabilitated, plumbing was installed and Mr. and Mrs. Pell moved in.

While Mr. Pell made a complete study of fortifications before one stone was touched at the Fort, Mrs. Pell worked incessantly on plans for the “Pavilion” and the Jardin du Roi. From various members of the Pell family she painstakingly gathered together pieces of furniture originally from the “Pavilion,” and added to it her collection of furniture 100 from her family, Gibbs and Thompson. She purchased only the most minor items, old hooked rugs, curtains and draperies. She was always tremendously interested in the Fort and contributed generously not only valuable additions to its Museum collection, but a vast knowledge of the authenticity of relics and was a true partner in the restoration of Fort Ticonderoga.

Restoration Model of Fort Ticonderoga

Alfred C. Bossom of New York was selected to be the architect of the restoration of the Fort. The Tercentenary Celebration on Lake Champlain provided an occasion for getting the work under way.

At that time President Taft visited the Fort together with the Ambassadors of France and England, the Governor of the States of New York and Vermont and a most distinguished company. The preparations for this were started in 1908, and with such good results that by the time of the celebration the west barracks were ready for a preliminary inspection.

The natives in the surrounding country had to a very large extent appropriated for use in their own houses the stone walls that had fallen down but by careful excavation the precise plan of the original Fort has been entirely laid bare. To aid this, and to verify many points that were more or less uncertain, exceeding courtesy was extended by the British Museum. Photographs and reproductions of all the drawings there existing were forwarded and permission was given to search the records in both the English and French 101 War Departments. At Ottawa the archivist of the Canadian Government also provided all the information available and photographs of the drawings on file. Of course in America all of the various authorities have cooperated to the utmost of their ability, and with this it has been possible to carry on the work of restoration without any uncertainty.

Thomas Cole Painting of Fort, Early 1820’s

One of the best maps of the Military Reservation was made by a man named Jeffreys, who was sent out to make surveys of the forts in this country by the Prince of Wales, who afterward became George III. His work was conducted under considerable handicap and was not as accurate as it might have been, but this map contains a lot of very useful information that is not given on any other.

The engineer who laid out the Fort, de Lotbiniere, followed the plans and specifications of the great French engineer, Vauban. When the work of restoration was started Mr. Pell obtained from France the original manuscript of 102 Vauban’s “Traite des Fortifications.” The book is a fascinating leather bound folio containing many illuminated illustrations of bastions, demilunes, moats, and all paraphernalia of eighteenth century fortifications. This book is one of the most priceless possessions of the Fort library today.

The Fort itself is about 530 feet in diameter from point to point as seen on the various plans. The wall on the north is comparatively low, the fort on this side being approached by a glacis, but on the west could be approached from the level along a grassy slope which ran to the top of a wall at the Fort about 4 feet and 6 inches high, which formed a counterscarp. To the south, a wall guarded the entrance to Lake George and was of a very considerable height, and below this existed the French Village. The French Village of traders and settlers had been behind a stockaded wall, protected by the guns of the Fort. The houses were built on either side of a center walk, and consisted of small stone dwellings, sutler’s stores, warehouses and a blacksmith shop. On the east side a wall approached very close to the bastions and it was from about this point a wide covered way (which was never completed) extended through the rock to the Grenadiers’ Battery, an outlying fort located at the extreme end of the promontory.

The Place d’Armes in the center of the fort was surrounded on three sides by barracks and on the fourth or north side by a bomb-proof. The bomb proof was of arched masonry construction where the garrison kept stores that would be damaged by weather.

Of the barracks, the most important was that located towards the west, and it was here that Ethan Allen found Captain Delaplace at the time of the capture. The ground floor of this building was divided up into a mess room with a kitchen at one end and a scullery at the other. The oven in the scullery when excavated was found to be in perfect condition, the iron doors and dampers still being in their original position.

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Entrance To Place D’Armes

In the second story a number of rooms existed which could be approached by the exterior wooden staircase, and these are now used as a library and office. The outer sides of the various barracks were protected by the curtain walls and the walk behind these was generally at a level of about 8 feet above the Place d’Armes.

The drinking water for the barracks could be obtained in the usual way from a military well located about one hundred yards to the north of the fort, but under the northwest bastion and under the south barracks are two large stone cisterns about 18 feet deep to which all the rain that fell upon the roofs of the buildings was directed by means of underground drains. The one under the bastion was found to be in perfect condition with its pump and plunger as good as when last used.

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The accumulation of a century had to be excavated from between the walls of the various buildings. The courtyard of the fort was between six and seven feet below and in the west barracks, particularly under the bastions, the excavation necessary was over 16 feet to get down to the original surface. Everything that was found during the restoration period was kept for the museum, and the workmen in handling this showed particular interest, and all of the time this work of excavating continued most interesting finds were made, such as pottery, firearms, pieces of hardware and buttons. So many of the numbered buttons have been found that it is possible to trace by them the name of each of the regiments that was stationed at the Fort.

Some of these buttons belong to regiments of which no other account has been found of their residence here, such as the Twenty-first, and in this case it is inferred that they belonged to British prisoners of war who were brought down from St. Johns. One of the most interesting relics was a piece of a punch bowl of white china decorated in blue, and across the bottom of which is inscribed, “Success to General Amherst.” This in all probability must have been a presentation piece made either before the General left England or at some point on his way to take up his command at the Fort, and left behind when he departed. This has come down to us in as good condition as it was in the day it was made.

The roof of tile had fallen in, but sufficient remained so that more could be produced to fill out the deficiencies, though some hundreds of different specimens of clay had to be baked before one was found that was exactly the same form and color of those originally used.

The flooring of the first floor was also of very heavy, thick tile and the same condition was experienced with these. Enough bricks have been found to make it unnecessary to get any new ones, for apparently these were of so little 105 value to the natives that they were not purloined. In the rebuilding of the walls the stones were replaced in their identical positions, similar mortar was used, and heads and jambs of all openings had remained in approximately the positions from which they fell, so much so that with care these today occupy the same position that they had before the walls were torn down.

The Place D’Armes

The mode of procedure followed in making the excavations was to cut the trench on either side of any walls uncovered and by this means specimens of all the hardware, such as door handles, latches, window catches, bolts and bars were recovered. In many cases the hinges had portions of the old timber still attached and from this it was possible to determine the wood used and its thickness. In some cases the larger bar hinges had the wood so well preserved that 106 the different pieces that were joined together to form the doors were very readily discernible. The timber used was largely local chestnut and oak, which have since almost disappeared from the locality, but enough trees have been found to enable the restored work in all cases to be of the same material as that originally employed. The ceiling of the first floor was composed of rough hewn logs with a heavy double floor on top. The walls throughout the first and second stories were of rough plaster and in many cases the stones projected right through and showed on the face.

The fireplaces resembled the construction on the outside being of rough stones with cut stone jambs and heads.

The four bastions at the corners of the fort were used respectively for powder magazine, bakery and two for stores, and under these were unearthed a very considerable quantity of cannon balls, picks, shovels, china and glass, cutlery, bar shot and complete material such as a fortress of this kind would require. Upon excavating these the form of construction originally employed was quite apparent. The floor was built up from rock with a complete system of drains beneath to carry off any surface water, and the roof was carried upon heavy wooden beams and posts, crowned by flagstones forming the deck of the bastion itself. The drains beneath the floor had outlets leading to the moat or ditch, which in the usual way was dry, but when an attacking force was anticipated it was possible to dam the outlet from this and the moat could be flooded by the melting of the winter snows, as several months’ advance information in those days could readily be obtained before an attack was likely to take place.

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Fort Ticonderoga in 1959

SHOWING:

SECTION THROUGH A-B (ENLARGED)

GLACIS

COVERED WAY

DITCH

NORTH DEMI-LUNE

NW BASTION

NE BASTION

COVERED WAY

PARADE GROUND

BRIDGE

WEST DEMI-LUNE

WEST BARRACKS

RAMP

SOUTH BARRACKS

RAMP

RUINS OF EAST BARRACKS

ENTRANCE TO FORT

DUNGEON

SW BASTION SE BASTION

ENTRANCE ARCHWAY

SOUTH WALL

The job of repairing and restoring Fort Ticonderoga has consisted mostly of putting stones back in place. At least ninety per cent of the walls are built from the original stone, which had fallen or slipped into the moat. (The floor tiles were originally made on the place from a blue clay from the lake shores by French potters. The same clay was used in the restoration, and the same methods, and it is impossible to tell today which are the originals and which the copies.) Every bit of iron work used in the restoration was copied from an example found in the ruins. The great oak beams came from a half dozen jobs in the Adirondacks and were rough-hewn as were the originals. The carriages upon which the guns are mounted, if not original, are exact copies and the cannon themselves are all French, British and American of the period, presented by the American, British, Dutch, Haiten, San Dominican and Nicaraguan Governments, or presented by individuals (notably DeLancey Kountze) or purchased whenever they were found on the market. An immense amount of material has been found on the place itself—a cannon, thousands of 108 cannon balls, hand grenades, swivel balls and grape shot, barrels of bullets and barrels of flints, tomahawks, hatchets, axes, hoes, gun barrels, gun locks, bayonets, sword blades, keys, hinges, door locks and every kind of tool—everything that an army could use—dug up wherever a spade is put in the ground and only a couple of years ago one of the rarest finds we have ever made—the breast plate of a suit of half-armor, French, early 18th century.

First restorations actually were carried out a wall a season. The first wing completed (the officers’ mess and quarters) was filled with relics which Mr. Pell and other members of his family had been accumulating through the years. This was accomplished just in time to lock it for protection of its contents when he went off to World War I.

Before Mr. Pell had gone to France he had no idea of charging admission to see the ruins and relics. But during his absence so many visitors came asking for admittance that Mrs. Pell, who spent her summers there superintending the work while her husband was overseas, was forced to hire a full-time guide and charge sight-seers a small sum to pay his salary. The first balance left after his salary was paid was used for the purchase of some cannon of the Revolutionary period which Mr. Pell had located in the West Indies years before.

When restoration got under way after the war, Mr. Pell’s infectious enthusiasm for Fort Ticonderoga and his host of friends all over the world, brought forth assistance from many unexpected sources. Only a few of the cannon actually used at Ticonderoga could be located, since George Washington himself had ordered those there during the early days of the Revolution sent over the snow to the siege of Boston. But Mr. Pell wanted the demilunes rearmed with authentic guns of the period. Lord Charles Beresford and Lord Haldane, hearing of the effort to restore the fort where some of their ancestors had fought, became interested and persuaded the British government to send fourteen large 109 24-pounders, actually cast in England for use in America during the Revolution but never shipped because the war ended too soon. After that, as Mr. Pell expressed it, he was literally bombarded with cannon, from unexpected sources.

The Ethan Allen Door (Upper Left)

Colonel Robert Means Thompson, father of Mrs. Pell, found and purchased twelve French bronze guns and mortars of the type used by the fort’s first builders. Yale University deposited cannon donated by an old graduate, DeLancey Kountze, but never displayed for lack of space. H. Jermain Slocum, retired Charleston, South Carolina, financier and nephew of the late Russell Sage, at his own expense went cannon hunting through the West Indies and South America, buying and donating many, and persuading Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Nicaragua to send others to the fort. The Netherlands, as well as the United States Army, also helped him arm the ramparts until they took on their original warlike aspect.

Archer M. Huntington became interested, and through the years was a large contributor to Ticonderoga’s restoration fund.

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Scions of Philip Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton, Israel Putnam, Anthony Wayne and many other men in some way connected with Ticonderoga have deposited possessions of their ancestors within the fort. Collectors of Revolutionary rifles, swords, powder horns and snuff boxes have willed their entire collections, the result of many years’ searches, to be kept intact here. Even casual visitors have been so impressed that they have gone home and shipped family relics that the museum could never have acquired by purchase. Others have appointed themselves Ticonderoga scouts who voluntarily tipped Mr. Pell off when they located desirable objects.

One of the museum’s proud possessions is a blunderbuss used by Ethan Allen in taking the fort from the British, then given by him to Benedict Arnold, who in turn gave it to John Trumbull, the Revolutionary artist. It was purchased by the grandfather of Maj. Philip Rhinelander at a sale of Trumbull’s effects, and the Rhinelander family in turn presented it to the museum. Mr. Pell’s pet treasure was a hollow silver bullet taken from one of Sir Henry Clinton’s messengers to Burgoyne just before the latter surrendered at Saratoga. On capture, so papers accompanying the bullet show, the courier swallowed this container of secret dispatches and refused to take a “physick” until tough colonials threatened to “rip his bellie” open. The silver bullet was presented to the fort by Henry O. Tallmadge, a descendant of a Colonel Tallmadge, who was present when it was captured. Other bullets show marks of teeth made while being held in soldiers’ mouths during floggings or amputations.

At the present time the Fort is visited by some 200,000 people every summer. Schools in Vermont and parts of New York State send their children in busloads every year to see it. Many people come back regularly every season to revisit the Fort and re-enjoy the surrounding scenery. The beauty of the point on which the Fort stands overlooking Lake Champlain and of the surrounding meadows and woods is appreciated, consciously and unconsciously, by all of the 111 many visitors. It is a commonplace thing for people who have entered the Fort to return to pick up cameras in their parked autos in order to be able to take photographs in the beautiful surroundings.

Fort Ticonderoga is a living page of American history—the most faithfully restored Fort in America and houses the greatest collection of Revolutionary and Colonial objects.

Although the history of the Fort extends back over 200 years, its present condition, and the incomparable museum which it contains have resulted from the vision and work of one man, Stephen Pell. It is fortunate indeed that as a boy he found a beautiful little bronze flint box containing a flint. And it is fortunate that he grew to be the kind of man who was capable of turning a dream into a living fact.

Mrs. Stephen Pell, through her great vision and understanding encouraged Mr. Pell in his life work, and in addition gave generously in time and money for the restoration.

In 1931, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Pell established the Fort Ticonderoga Association, a non-profit membership corporation organized under the educational laws of the State of New York. The objectives of the Association are to preserve, maintain and develop the Fort and Museum and the surrounding grounds for the benefit of the public. Mr. Stephen Pell remained President of the Fort Ticonderoga Association until his death in 1950, and his son, John H. G. Pell, has carried forward this great work as President since that time.

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George Washington; in Uniform of American General with Nassau Hall, Princeton College in Background
By Charles Peale Polk, nephew of Charles Wilson Peale
Painting in Fort Ticonderoga Museum

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