 While the fort itself was never endangered by the British assault, Ticonderoga became a byword for impregnability. Even though the fort was effectively handed to the British by a retreating French army in 1759, future defenders of the fort and their superior officers, who may not have been familiar with the site's shortcomings, fell under the spell of this idea. In 1777, when General John Burgoyne advanced down Lake Champlain at the beginning of the Saratoga campaign, General George Washington, who had never seen the fort, thought highly of its defensive value. Anthony Wayne, who was at Fort Ticonderoga preparing its defenses before Burgoyne's arrival, wrote to Washington that the fort "can never be carried, without much loss of blood". Fort Ticonderoga was surrendered by the Americans without much of a fight in July 1777.
