The Land Between the Waters: Part 2

The North American Gibraltar

For a time, this was one of the most important places in colonial North America. The 3-mile river La Chute (Falls River) was the northern portage linking he Saint Lawrence watershed with the Hudson River. The southern portage was at the head of Lake George, with a ten-mile carry to Glens Falls. This was the equivalent of a super-highway upon which people, goods and war-parties had traveled since time immemorial. The point of land in the center of the image was a no-man's land dividing the Haudenosaunee from the Abenaki. It was here that Samuel de Champlain, campaigning with Abenaki and Huron war-parties, introduced the People of the Longhouse to the wonders of firearms, to deadly effect. When conflict erupted between Britain and France, the French built a large Vaunabanesque stone star-fort at the site in 1755. Three years later, it was attacked by a large British army that was forced to withdraw with heavy losses. The battle of Fort Carillion was the largest land battle on the continent, prior to the American Civil War.

            In the following year, another British army captured the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga, a corruption of the indigenous word Cheonderoga, meaning “three waters.” Holding sway over vast new territories, won in large part by provincial militias and indigenous levies, Britain soon found itself mired in administrative problems. A series of unfortunate decisions by the Crown led to open violence at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Less than a month later, a ragtag force led by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen in 1775 captured the fort without firing a shot. Two years later, a British army recaptured it, en route to its defeat at Saratoga. Following the peace concluded in 1783 the post was abandoned. Falling into disrepair, the post was abandoned to the elements, and quarried for building materials. The picturesque ruin became an attraction for artists and travelers. Purchasing the site in 1820, the Pell family built a summer home below the fort, on the shore of Lake Champlain. A nonprofit foundation was established in the 1930s to stabilize the site, rebuild and interpret the fort, as a tourist attraction and educational resource.

In the distance on the right in the photograph below is the summit of Mount Defiance (formerly Sugarloaf Hill), just south of the modern village of Ticonderoga. On July 2, 1777 a detail of British pioneers and artillerists cleared a path up its slopes, hauling several cannons to this position, which today is accessible automobile. One marvels at how Burgoyne’s men had manhandled heavy guns up the wooded incline in less than a day. Placing their guns on higher ground forced the American garrison to abandon the fort.

As I was packing up to depart, high winds churned through the foliage, straining the tree-branches from which were ripped fistfuls of leaves. Thundering black clouds rolled up the lake, dragging thick grey rain-sheets in their wake. Peppering the summit of Mount Defiance with a few drops, the storm battered Vermont farm-fields a few miles to the east. A puff of white smoke appeared beside the citadel, followed by a sound like a cat passing wind; the distant report of a cannon.

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