How the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Ended the Siege of Boston

In ‘This Week in History,’ the Continental Congress convenes for the second time while numerous patriots seize two important fortifications

Fort Ticonderoga in 2024. Col. Henry Knox aimed to collect the artillery left at Fort Ticonderoga to end the siege in Boston. Courtesy of Lynn Topel

A grand dinner was coordinated for Aug. 14, 1769, in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Stamp Act Riots. The dinner, held under a massive tent near the “Liberty-Tree-Tavern” (Robinson’s Tavern), hosted 300 Sons of Liberty. The cause of liberty, as well as the sound of music and cannon shots, filled the air.

The Sons of Liberty made 45 toasts that early evening (this after 14 toasts earlier in the day), celebrating “All true Patriots throughout the World” and cheering the “Speedy Removal of all Task Masters.” In spite of so many toasts, John Adams, a member of the Sons of Liberty and an attendee of the dinner, recalled that he “did not see one Person intoxicated, or near it.” The Sons of Liberty had no need for alcoholic intoxication. They were already intoxicated with the spirit of revolution.

A Host of Tea Parties

Angry American colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians while they destroyed hundreds of pounds of British tea, in an event known as the Boston Tea Party. Public Domain

Four years later in December 1773 and seven months after the British Parliament passed another act that infuriated the American colonists, the Sons of Liberty eyed a different beverage: tea. The first of the five tea parties during that December took place in Charleston, South Carolina. The most famous, though, was the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16. The last Tea Party took place a year later on Dec. 22, 1774, in Greenwich, New Jersey.

During the course of the 17 Tea Parties, British Parliament and American colonists continued to butt heads. In retaliation of the Tea Parties, specifically the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts) on March 31, 1774.

The Intolerable Acts included the Boston Port Act, which established a blockade of the Boston Harbor; the Massachusetts Government Act, which allowed the king to appoint the Massachusetts Council; the Administration of Justice Act, which removed the colonists’ freedom of trial by a jury of one’s peers; and the Quartering Act, empowering military officials to demand better accommodations at the expense of colonists. Additionally, the Quebec Act was passed, which extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio River, allowed the free exercise of Catholicism, and permitted French civil law.

The First Continental Congress

The legislative acts only inflamed the revolutionary fervor. In response, a congress was convened. Twelve of the 13 colonies (sans Georgia) sent 56 delegates to Philadelphia. Among the delegates from Massachusetts was John Adams, along with his firebrand cousin, Samuel Adams.

The First Continental Congress began on Sept. 5, 1774, with delegates discussing and debating how to resolve the issues of taxation without representation, standing armies, the stranglehold on Boston, and the Canada problem. By Oct. 20, the delegates established its Articles of Association, which created a “non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement” against British goods (if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed by Dec. 1) in order to “obtain redress of these grievances, which threaten destruction to the lives liberty, and property of his majesty’s subjects, in North-America,” an agreement the delegates believed would “prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure.” It would indeed prove otherwise.

The First Continental Congress, 1848, by Henry Samuel Sadd. Public Domain

On the final day of the congress, the delegates issued a petition to King George III that addressed their grievances, while being certain not to assign blame to the Crown. The delegates did suggest the source of the deteriorating relationship “between your royal person and your faithful subjects” was due to “designing and dangerous men” (that is, the British prime minister and the cabinet officials). When Benjamin Franklin, who was the colonial representative in London, presented the petition, it was rejected by both Parliament and the King.

Shortly after the delegates met in Philadelphia and well before Franklin presented the petition, King George III believed the crisis with the American colonies had already reached a point of no return. He wrote to Lord North, the British prime minister, “The dye [die] is now cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph.”

Many in the colonies felt the same way, including the colonial governor of Massachusetts, Gen. Thomas Gage. He noted, “From present appearances there is no prospect of putting the late [Coercive] acts in force but by first making a conquest of the New England provinces.”

On Oct. 7, 1774, in defiance of Gage, 90 elected representatives, forming the new Massachusetts Provincial Congress, gathered in Salem “to consult and determine on such measures as they shall judge will tend to promote the true interest of his majesty, and the peace, welfare, and prosperity of the province.” On Oct. 26, the same day the First Continental Congress ended its session, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress reorganized its militia into the soon-to-be heralded minutemen.

The members of the First Continental Congress agreed to reassemble the following year, but by that time, war would have already broken out between the colonists and Great Britain, and the minutemen of Massachusetts would play the most significant role.

Minutemen, Ethan Allen, and Benedict Arnold

During the late night and early morning hours of April 18 and 19, 1775, three members of the Sons of Liberty would make one of the most significant contributions to the revolutionary cause. Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott rode through the night alarming local villages and towns the British were coming. The “Midnight Rides” of these three patriots enabled the militias around Boston to take up arms. On April 19 at 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., respectively, the opening battles of the Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord.

When about 400 Minutemen faced approximately 220 British soldiers at the North Bridge in Concord, a return volley by the militia, which left three British soldiers dead and nine wounded, became known as the “shot heard round the world.” The British began a long and bloody retreat back to Boston where they endured constant and heavy fire from local militia members. The British finally arrived in Boston, protected by the guns of the Royal Navy, but 73 had been killed and many more wounded. Thus began the 11-month Siege of Boston, where thousands of militia surrounded the city.

Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the start of the siege, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, from what is now Vermont, were commissioned by New England colonial leaders to capture Fort Ticonderoga. The fort held a strategic position between Albany and Montreal on Lake Champlain. With a garrison of only 50 British soldiers, it seemed ripe for the taking. Allen, along with his brothers Levi and Ira, and cousins Ebenezer Allen, Seth Warner, and Remember Baker, began their march to Fort Ticonderoga.

At about this same time, Col. Benedict Arnold, a member of the Sons of Liberty, presented his idea to take Fort Ticonderoga to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress’s Committee of Safety. The committee commissioned Arnold to lead the capture of the strategic fort.

Taking the Ticonderoga and Crown Point

When Allen and Arnold finally met, the latter claimed his official orders gave him the right to lead the expedition. The Green Mountain Boys, however, were adamant they would follow orders from no one but Allen. Arnold and Allen compromised on a dual command with Arnold leading his Massachusetts and Connecticut militia members and Allen leading his men. The combined force accounted for approximately 250 soldiers—more than enough to take the fort. But on the morning of the attack, a lack of boats enabled them to only take a fraction.

It was during this week in history, during the early morning hours of May 10, 1775, and with only two scow boats capable of carrying about 40 men each, that Allen and Arnold piled 83 men on the boats and sailed across Lake Champlain. Arriving about half a mile from the fort, the attacking force captured Fort Ticonderoga with only a single shot being fired by a British sentry, which missed high.

An 1875 engraving depicting the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen on May 10, 1775. Public Domain

When British Lt. Jocelyn Feltham demanded to know by whose authority were they conducting this attack, Allen is said to have leveled his sword at Feltham’s throat and stated, “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.”

Two days later on May 12, Warner, Allen’s cousin, led the Green Mountain Boys who were not involved in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on an attack to capture the nearby Crown Point fortification. The capture of these two locations was immensely important, not so much because of their strategic locations, but because of the large cache of artillery. The militia surrounding Boston were in great need of gunpowder and artillery, and the actions of the Allen and Arnold-led force would prove absolutely necessary.

Washington and the Knox Expedition

On the same day as the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, the delegates from the colonies reassembled in Philadelphia to begin the Second Continental Congress. A month later, on June 14, Congress established the Continental Army (three days before the costly British victory at Bunker Hill). John Adams nominated George Washington to lead the force. Washington took command on July 3 after arriving in Cambridge.

As the months wore on in Boston, Washington was addressed by the young, newly commissioned colonel, Henry Knox, who had been a witness to the Boston Massacre and, as a member of the Sons of Liberty, was on guard duty during the Boston Tea Party. Knox suggested using the captured artillery from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point against the British Army and Navy. Washington agreed and ordered Knox to lead the expedition.

In 1776, Col. Henry Knox, Washington's chief of artillery brought guns and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Engraving by Van Ingen. MPI/Getty Images

Knox and his men left Cambridge on Nov. 16 and arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on Dec. 5, gathered the 58 pieces of artillery, weighing at least 120,000 pounds, and covered 300 miles across the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains back to Boston.

A number of guns were placed along the siege line at Roxbury, Cobble Hill, and Lechmere Point. A council of war was held on Feb. 16 with Washington calling for an attack on Boston. The council of officers rejected the idea, but the idea of “drawing out the enemy” to a particular spot, as had been done at Bunker Hill was accepted. The spot would be at a familiar location: Dorchester Heights.

The Guns of Dorchester

Washington decided to utilize nighttime bombardments from the guns at Roxbury, Cobble Hill, and Lechmere Point, while soldiers, under the guidance of engineer Col. Richard Gridley, built up breastworks to eventually place upon Dorchester Heights. Three thousand soldiers worked to fortify the Heights, while thousands more prepared for an amphibious assault once the British made their move. Once completed, the prebuilt fortifications were scheduled to be maneuvered to the Heights on the night of March 4 and completed by early morning March 5—the anniversary of the Boston Massacre.

The objective was completed with the use of more than 1,200 soldiers and volunteers, as well as 360 oxcarts. On the morning of March 5, a vast assortment of mortars and cannons loomed over the Boston Harbor pointing at the British Army and Navy. The commander of the British Army, Gen. William Howe, peered up at the guns and earthworks at Dorchester Heights and exclaimed, “My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.”

There would be no attack by the British on Dorchester Heights. The British evacuated Boston on March 17, thus ending the siege and claiming a momentous victory for the new Continental Army.

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