Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga , formerly Fort Carillon , is a large 18th - century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York in the United States . It was constructed by Canadien Michel Chartier de Lotbinière , Marquis de Lotbinière between 1754 and 1757 during the Seven Years ' War , often referred to as the French and Indian War in the US . It was of strategic importance during the 18th - century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France , and again played a role during the American Revolutionary War . The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids - infested La Chute River in the between Lake Champlain and Lake George and was strategically placed in conflicts over trade routes between the British - controlled Hudson River Valley and the French - controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley . The terrain amplified the importance of the site . Both lakes were long and narrow , oriented north – south , as were the many ridge lines of the Appalachian Mountains extending as far south as Georgia , creating the near - impassable mountainous terrains to the east and west of the Great Appalachian Valley that the site commanded . The name " Ticonderoga " comes from the Iroquois word " tekontaró : ken " , meaning " it is at the junction of two waterways " . During the 1758 Battle of Carillon , 4 , 000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16 , 000 British troops near the fort . 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 , the fort again saw action in May 1775 when the Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured it in a surprise attack . Cannons captured were transported to Boston where their deployment forced the British to abandon the city in March 1776 . The Americans held it until June 1777 , when British forces under General John Burgoyne again occupied high ground above the fort and threatened the Continental Army troops , leading them to withdraw from the fort and its surrounding defenses . The only direct attack on the fort took place in September 1777 , when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the fort from about 100 British defenders . The British abandoned the fort following the failure of the Saratoga campaign , and it ceased to be of military value after 1781 . It fell into ruin , leading people to strip it of some of its usable stone , metal , and woodwork . It became a stop on tourist routes of the area in the 19th century . Its private owners restored the fort early in the 20th century . A foundation now operates the fort as a tourist attraction , museum , and research center . Geography and early history . Lake Champlain , which forms part of the border between New York and Vermont , and the Hudson River together formed an important travel route that was used by Indians before the arrival of European colonists . The route was relatively free of obstacles to navigation , with only a few portage s . One strategically important place on the route lies at a narrows near the southern end of Lake Champlain , where Ticonderoga Creek , known in Colonial times as the La Chute River , enters the lake , carrying water from Lake George . Although the site provides commanding views of the southern extent of Lake Champlain , Mount Defiance , at , and two other hills ( Mount Hope and Mount Independence ) overlook the area . Indians had occupied the area for centuries before French explorer Samuel de Champlain first arrived there in 1609 . Champlain recounted that the Algonquins , with whom he was traveling , battled a group of Iroquois nearby . In 1642 , French missionary Isaac Jogues was the first white man to traverse the portage at Ticonderoga while escaping a battle between the Iroquois and members of the Huron tribe . The French , who had colonized the Saint Lawrence River valley to the north , and the English , who had taken over the Dutch settlements that became the Province of New York to the south , began contesting the area as early as 1691 , when Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the Ticonderoga point on the western shore of the lake . These colonial conflicts reached their height in the French and Indian War , which began in 1754 . Construction . In 1755 , following the Battle of Lake George , the Marquis de Vaudreuil , the governor of the French Province of Canada , sent his cousin Michel Chartier de Lotbinière to design and construct a fortification at this militarily important site , which the French called Fort Carillon . The name " Carillon " has variously been attributed to the name of a former French officer , Philippe de Carrion du Fresnoy , who established a trading post at the site in the late 17th century , or ( more commonly ) to the sounds made by the La Chute River , which were said to resemble the chiming bells of a carillon . Construction on the star - shaped fort , which Lotbinière based on designs of the renowned French military engineer Vauban , began in October 1755 and then proceeded slowly during the warmer - weather months of 1756 and 1757 , using troops stationed at nearby Fort St . Frédéric and from Canada . The work in 1755 consisted primarily of beginning construction on the main walls and on the Lotbinière redoubt , an outwork to the west of the site that provided additional coverage of the La Chute River . The next year saw the building of the four main bastion s and a sawmill on the La Chute . Work slowed in 1757 , when many of the troops prepared for and participated in the attack on Fort William Henry . The barracks and demi - lune s were not completed until spring 1758 . Walls and bastions . The French built the fort to control the south end of Lake Champlain and prevent the British from gaining military access to the lake . Consequently , its most important defenses , the Reine and Germaine bastions , were directed to the northeast and northwest , away from the lake , with two demi - lunes further extending the works on the land side . The Joannes and Languedoc bastions overlooked the lake to the south , providing cover for the landing area outside the fort . The walls were seven feet ( 2 . 1 meters ) high and fourteen feet ( 4 . 3 meters ) thick , and the whole works was surrounded by a glacis and a dry moat five feet ( 1 . 5 meters ) deep and wide . When the walls were first erected in 1756 , they were made of squared wooden timbers , with earth filling the gap . The French then began to dress the walls with stone from a quarry about one mile ( 1 . 6 km ) away , although this work was never fully completed . When the main defenses became ready for use , the fort was armed with cannon s hauled from Montreal and Fort St . Frédéric . Inside and outside . The fort contained three barracks and four storehouses . One bastion held a bakery capable of producing 60 loaves of bread a day . A powder magazine was hacked out of the bedrock beneath the Joannes bastion . All the construction within the fort was of stone . A wooden palisade protected an area outside the fort between the southern wall and the lake shore . This area contained the main landing for the fort and additional storage facilities and other works necessary for maintenance of the fort . When it became apparent in 1756 that the fort was too far to the west of the lake , the French constructed an additional redoubt to the east to enable cannon to cover the lake ' s narrows . Analysis . By 1758 , the fort was largely complete ; the only ongoing work thereafter consisted of dressing the walls with stone . Still , General Montcalm and two of his military engineer s surveyed the works in 1758 and found something to criticize in almost every aspect of the fort ' s construction ; the buildings were too tall and thus easier for attackers ' cannon fire to hit , the powder magazine leaked , and the masonry was of poor quality . The critics apparently failed to notice the fort ' s significant strategic weakness : several nearby hills commanded the fort . Lotbinière , who may have won the job of building the fort only because he was related to Governor Vaudreuil , had lost a bid to become Canada ' s chief engineer to Nicolas Sarrebource de Pontleroy , one of the two surveying engineers , in 1756 , all of which may explain the highly negative report . Lotbinière ' s career suffered for years afterwards . William Nester , in his exhaustive analysis of the Battle of Carillon , notes additional problems with the fort ' s construction . The fort was small for a Vauban - style fort , about wide , with a barracks capable of holding only 400 soldiers . Storage space inside the fort was similarly limited , requiring the storage of provisions outside the fort ' s walls in exposed places . Its cistern was small , and the water quality was supposedly poor . Military history . French and Indian War . In August 1757 , the French captured Fort William Henry in an action launched from Fort Carillon . This , and a string of other French victories in 1757 , prompted the British to organize a large - scale attack on the fort as part of a multi - campaign strategy against French Canada . In June 1758 , British General James Abercromby began amassing a large force at Fort William Henry in preparation for the military campaign directed up the Champlain Valley . These forces landed at the north end of Lake George , only four miles from the fort , on July 6 . The French general Louis - Joseph de Montcalm , who had only arrived at Carillon in late June , engaged his troops in a flurry of work to improve the fort ' s outer defenses . They built , over two days , entrenchments around a rise between the fort and Mount Hope , about three - quarters of a mile ( one kilometer ) northwest of the fort , and then constructed an abatis ( felled trees with sharpened branches pointing out ) below these entrenchments . Abercromby ' s failure to advance directly to the fort on July 7 made much of this defensive work possible . Abercromby ' s second - in - command , Brigadier General George Howe , had been killed when his column encountered a French reconnaissance troop . Abercromby " felt [ Howe ' s death ] most heavily " and may have been unwilling to act immediately . On July 8 , 1758 , Abercromby ordered a frontal attack against the hastily assembled French works . Abercromby tried to move rapidly against the few French defenders , opting to forgo field cannon and relying instead on the numerical superiority of his 16 , 000 troops . In the Battle of Carillon , the British were soundly defeated by the 4 , 000 French defenders . The battle took place far enough away from the fort that its guns were rarely used . The battle gave the fort a reputation for impregnability , which had an impact on future military operations in the area , notably during the American Revolutionary War . Following the French victory , Montcalm , anticipating further British attacks , ordered additional work on the defenses , including the construction of the Germain and Pontleroy redoubt s ( named for the engineers under whose direction they were constructed ) to the northeast of the fort . However , the British did not attack again in 1758 , so the French withdrew all but a small garrison of men for the winter in November . The fort was captured the following year by the British under General Jeffrey Amherst in the 1759 Battle of Ticonderoga . In this confrontation 11 , 000 British troops , using emplaced artillery , drove off a token garrison of 400 Frenchmen . The French , in withdrawing , used explosives to destroy what they could of the fort and spiked or dumped cannons that they did not take with them . Although the British worked in 1759 and 1760 to repair and improve the fort , the fort saw no more significant action in the war . After the war , the British garrison ed it with a small numbers of troops and allowed it to fall into disrepair . Colonel Frederick Haldimand , in command of the fort in 1773 , wrote that it was in " ruinous condition " . Early Revolutionary War . In 1775 , Fort Ticonderoga , in disrepair , was still manned by a token force . Fort Ticonderoga was still extremely useful to the British as a supply and communication link between Canada and New York . On May 10 , 1775 , less than one month after the American Revolutionary War was ignited with the battles of Lexington and Concord , the British garrison of 48 soldiers was surprised by a small force of Green Mountain Boys , along with militia volunteers from Massachusetts and Connecticut , led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold . Allen claims to have said , " Come out you old Rat ! " to the fort ' s commander , Captain William Delaplace . He also later said that he demanded that the British commander surrender the fort " In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress ! " ; however , his surrender demand was made to Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham and not the fort ' s commander , who did later appear and surrender his sword . With the capture of the fort , the Patriot forces obtained a large supply of cannons and other armaments , much of which Henry Knox transported to Boston during the winter of 1775 – 1776 . Ticonderoga ' s cannons were instrumental in ending the Siege of Boston when they were used to fortify Dorchester Heights . With Dorchester Heights secured the British were forced to evacuate Boston in March of 1776 . The capture of Fort Ticonderoga made communication between the British Canadian and American commands much more difficult . Benedict Arnold remained in control of the fort until 1 , 000 Connecticut troops under the command of Benjamin Hinman arrived in June 1775 . Because of a series of political maneuvers and miscommunications , Arnold was never notified that Hinman was to take command . After a delegation from Massachusetts ( which had issued Arnold ' s commission ) arrived to clarify the matter , Arnold resigned his commission and departed , leaving the fort in Hinman ' s hands . Beginning in July 1775 , Ticonderoga was used as a staging area for the invasion of Quebec to begin in September . Under the leadership of generals Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery , men and materiel for the invasion accumulated there through July and August . On August 28 , after receiving word that British forces at Fort Saint - Jean , not far from the New York – Quebec border , were nearing completion of boats to launch onto Lake Champlain , Montgomery launched the invasion , leading 1 , 200 troops down the lake . Ticonderoga continued to serve as a staging base for the action in Quebec until the battle and siege at Quebec City that resulted in Montgomery ' s death . In May 1776 , British troops began to arrive at Quebec City , where they broke the Continental Army ' s siege . The British chased the American forces back to Ticonderoga in June , and , after several months of shipbuilding , moved down Lake Champlain under Guy Carleton in October . The British destroyed a small fleet of American gunboat s in the Battle of Valcour Island in mid - October , but snow was already falling , so the British retreated to winter quarters in Quebec . About 1 , 700 troops from the Continental Army , under the command of Colonel Anthony Wayne , wintered at Ticonderoga . The British offensive resumed the next year in the Saratoga campaign under General John Burgoyne . Saratoga campaign . During the summer of 1776 , the Americans , under the direction of General Schuyler , and later under General Horatio Gates , added substantial defensive works to the area . Mount Independence , which is almost completely surrounded by water , was fortified with trenches near the water , a horseshoe battery part way up the side , a citadel at the summit , and redoubts armed with cannons surrounding the summit area . These defenses were linked to Ticonderoga with a pontoon bridge that was protected by land batteries on both sides . The works on Mount Hope , the heights above the site of Montcalm ' s victory , were improved to include a star - shaped fort . Mount Defiance remained unfortified . In March 1777 , American generals were strategizing about possible British military movements and considered an attempt on the Hudson River corridor a likely possibility . General Schuyler , heading the forces stationed at Ticonderoga , requested 10 , 000 troops to guard Ticonderoga and 2 , 000 to guard the Mohawk River valley against British invasion from the north . George Washington , who had never been to Ticonderoga ( his only visit was to be in 1783 ) , believed that an overland attack from the north was unlikely , because of the alleged impregnability of Ticonderoga . This , combined with continuing incursions up the Hudson River valley by British forces occupying New York City , led Washington to believe that any attack on the Albany area would be from the south , which , as it was part of the supply line to Ticonderoga , would necessitate a withdrawal from the fort . As a result , no significant actions were taken to further fortify Ticonderoga or significantly increase its garrison . The garrison , about 2 , 000 men under General Arthur St . Clair , was too small to man all the defenses . General Gates , who oversaw the northern defenses , was aware that Mount Defiance threatened the fort . John Trumbull had pointed this out as early as 1776 , when a shot fired from the fort was able to reach Defiance ' s summit , and several officers inspecting the hill noted that there were approaches to its summit where gun carriage s could be pulled up the sides . As the garrison was too small to properly defend all the existing works in area , Mount Defiance was left undefended . Anthony Wayne left Ticonderoga in April 1777 to join Washington ' s army ; he reported to Washington that " all was well " , and that the fort " can never be carried , without much loss of blood " . General Burgoyne led 7 , 800 British and Hessian forces south from Quebec in June 1777 . After occupying nearby Fort Crown Point without opposition on June 30 , he prepared to besiege Ticonderoga . Burgoyne realized the tactical advantage of the high ground , and had his troops haul cannons to the top of Mount Defiance . Faced with bombardment from the heights ( even before any shots had been fired from those cannons ) , General St . Clair ordered Ticonderoga abandoned on July 5 , 1777 . Burgoyne ' s troops moved in the next day , with advance guards pursuing the retreating Americans . Washington , on hearing of Burgoyne ' s advance and the retreat from Ticonderoga , stated that the event was " not apprehended , nor within the compass of my reasoning " . News of the abandonment of the " Impregnable Bastion " without a fight , caused " the greatest surprise and alarm " throughout the colonies . After public outcry over his actions , General St . Clair was court - martial ed in 1778 . He was cleared on all charges . One last attack . Following the British capture of Ticonderoga , it and the surrounding defenses were garrisoned by 700 British and Hessian troops under the command of Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell . Most of these forces were on Mount Independence , with only 100 each at Fort Ticonderoga and a blockhouse they were constructing on top of Mount Defiance . George Washington sent General Benjamin Lincoln into Vermont to " divide and distract the enemy " . Aware that the British were housing American prisoners in the area , Lincoln decided to test the British defenses . On September 13 , he sent 500 men to Skenesboro , which they found the British had abandoned , and 500 each against the defenses on either side of the lake at Ticonderoga . Colonel John Brown led the troops on the west side , with instructions to release prisoners if possible , and attack the fort if it seemed feasible . Early on September 18 , Brown ' s troops surprised a British contingent holding some prisoners near the Lake George landing , while a detachment of his troops sneaked up Mount Defiance , and captured most of the sleeping construction crew . Brown and his men then moved down the portage trail toward the fort , surprising more troops and releasing prisoners along the way . The fort ' s occupants were unaware of the action until Brown ' s men and British troops occupying the old French lines skirmished . At this point Brown ' s men dragged two captured six - pound guns up to the lines , and began firing on the fort . The men who had captured Mount Defiance began firing a twelve - pounder from that site . The column that was to attack Mount Independence was delayed , and its numerous defenders were alerted to the action at the fort below before the attack on their position began . Their musket fire , as well as grapeshot fired from ships anchored nearby , intimidated the Americans sufficiently that they never launched an assault on the defensive positions on Mount Independence . A stalemate persisted , with regular exchanges of cannon fire , until September 21 , when 100 Hessians , returning from the Mohawk Valley to support Burgoyne , arrived on the scene to provide reinforcement to the besieged fort . Brown eventually sent a truce party to the fort to open negotiations ; the party was fired on , and three of its five members were killed . Brown , realizing that the weaponry they had was insufficient to take the fort , decided to withdraw . Destroying many bateaux and seizing a ship on Lake George , he set off to annoy British positions on that lake . His action resulted in the freeing of 118 Americans and the capture of 293 British troops , while suffering fewer than ten casualties . Abandonment . Following Burgoyne ' s defeat at Saratoga , the fort at Ticonderoga became increasingly irrelevant . The British abandoned it and nearby Fort Crown Point in November 1777 , destroying both as best they could prior to their withdrawal . The fort was occasionally reoccupied by British raiding parties in the following years , but it no longer held a prominent strategic role in the war . It was finally abandoned by the British for good in 1781 , following the surrender at Yorktown . Area residents began stripping the fort of usable building materials , even melting some of the cannons down for their metal in the years following the war . Tourist attraction . In 1785 , the fort ' s lands became the property of the state of New York . The state donated the property to Columbia and Union colleges in 1803 , which sold it to William Ferris Pell in 1820 . Pell first used the property as a summer retreat , but the completion of railroads and canals connecting the area to New York City brought tourists to the area , so he converted his summer house , known as The Pavilion , into a hotel to serve the tourist trade . In 1848 , the Hudson River School artist Russell Smith painted " Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga " , depicting the condition of the fort . The Pell family , a politically important clan with influence throughout American history ( from William C . C . Claiborne , the first Governor of Louisiana , to a Senator from Rhode Island , Claiborne Pell ) , restored the fort in 1909 and formally opened it to the public . The ceremonies , which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by European explorers , were attended by President William Howard Taft . Stephen Hyatt Pell , who spearheaded the restoration effort , founded the Fort Ticonderoga Association in 1931 , which is now responsible for the fort . Funding for the restoration also came from Robert M . Thompson , father of Steven ' s wife Sarah Gibbs Thompson . Between 1900 and 1950 , the historically important lands around the fort , including Mount Defiance , Mount Independence , and much of Mount Hope , were also acquired by the foundation . The fort was rearmed with fourteen 24 - pound cannons provided by the British government . These cannons had been cast in England for use during the Revolution , but the war ended before they were shipped over . The fort is now a tourist attraction , early American military museum , and research center . The fort opens around May 10 , the anniversary of the 1775 capture , every year , closing in late October . It has been on a watchlist of National Historic Landmarks since 1998 , because of the poor condition of some of the walls and the 19th - century pavilion constructed by William Ferris Pell . The pavilion is , as of early 2009 , undergoing restoration . In 2008 , the powder magazine destroyed by the French in 1759 was reconstructed by Tonetti Associates Architects , based in part on the original 1755 plans . Also in 2008 , the withdrawal of a major backer ' s financial support forced the museum , facing significant budget deficits , to consider selling one of its major art works , Thomas Cole ' s " Gelyna , View near Ticonderoga " . However , fundraising activities succeeded in making this unnecessary . The not - for - profit Living History Education Foundation has teacher programs at Fort Ticonderoga that run in the summer and last approximately one week . The program trains teachers in how to teach Living History techniques , and to understand and interpret the importance of Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution . The Pell ' s estate is located north of the fort . In 1921 , Sarah Pell undertook reconstruction of the gardens , known now as King ' s gardens , and hired for this work Marian Cruger Coffin , one of the most famous American landscape architects . In 1995 , the gardens were restored and later opened for public . Memorials . The name Ticonderoga has been given to five different U . S . Navy vessels and entire classes of cruisers and aircraft carriers . The fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 . Included in the landmarked area are the fort itself , as well as Mount Independence and Mount Defiance . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 . The Ticonderoga pencil , manufactured by the Dixon Ticonderoga Corporation , is named for the fort .