A strategic stronghold, an early American victory, and the artillery that helped shape the course of the Revolution.
On the morning of May 10, 1775, before the day had fully broken over Lake Champlain, a small Patriot force crossed the water toward Fort Ticonderoga. Led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, the men moved quickly and quietly, hoping to surprise the British garrison stationed within the fort.
They succeeded.
The capture of Fort Ticonderoga was swift, with few shots fired and no deaths reported in the attack. Yet its impact was lasting. In the early months of the Revolutionary War, the Patriots gained not only a strategic northern stronghold, but also valuable artillery that would later be transported to Boston and used to help force the British evacuation of the city in 1776. The American Battlefield Trust describes the capture as the first offensive victory for American forces in the Revolutionary War.
A Fort Between Two Waters
Fort Ticonderoga is located in present-day Ticonderoga, New York, near the meeting point of Lake Champlain and Lake George. Its position made it one of the most important military sites in North America during the 18th century. Whoever controlled Ticonderoga held influence over a critical route between Canada and the American colonies, including the corridor between Albany and Montreal.
Long before the American Revolution, the fort had already stood at the center of imperial conflict. First constructed by the French in 1755 as Fort Carillon, it became a key site during the French and Indian War. In 1758, French forces defended the area against a major British attack at the Battle of Carillon, one of the largest battles of that war and, according to the American Battlefield Trust, the bloodiest battle fought in North America until the Civil War. The British captured the fort the following year, in 1759.
By 1775, Fort Ticonderoga was no longer the heavily contested French stronghold it had once been. The British garrison was small, and the fort had fallen into disrepair. But its location still mattered. So did the weapons stored there.
The Morning of May 10, 1775
In the spring of 1775, the fighting at Lexington and Concord had already signaled that the conflict between Britain and the colonies had entered a new and dangerous stage. In the north, both Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold recognized the value of Fort Ticonderoga.
Allen arrived with the Green Mountain Boys, a militia group rooted in the disputed lands that would later become Vermont. Arnold held a commission from Massachusetts and intended to lead the expedition himself. The question of command was complicated but the goal was shared: take the fort before the British could reinforce or remove its supplies.
Late on May 9, the Patriot force gathered on the eastern side of Lake Champlain. The boats they needed arrived late and could not carry everyone at once, so Allen and Arnold crossed with a smaller group. As dawn approached, they chose not to wait. The element of surprise mattered more than numbers.
The men entered Fort Ticonderoga in the early hours of May 10. The British garrison, under Captain William Delaplace, was caught off guard. With little opposition, the fort surrendered.
The victory was modest in scale but its significance considerable. At a moment when the Patriot cause was still new and uncertain, Fort Ticonderoga offered a tangible early success.
The Capture That Armed a Cause
The greatest prize at Fort Ticonderoga was not the fort itself, but the artillery it held.
Months after the capture, George Washington sent Henry Knox to retrieve the heavy guns from Ticonderoga and bring them to Boston. Knox’s journey became known as the “noble train of artillery,” a difficult winter operation that moved cannons, mortars, and other heavy weapons across frozen waterways, snow-covered roads, and rugged terrain.
By early 1776, those guns reached the American lines outside Boston. When Washington’s forces placed the artillery on Dorchester Heights, the British position in the city became difficult to hold. In March 1776, British troops evacuated Boston.
In this way, the capture of Fort Ticonderoga reached far beyond one morning on Lake Champlain. The fort’s artillery helped shape one of the earliest major turning points of the Revolutionary War.
A Longer Story Than One Day
Fort Ticonderoga’s Revolutionary story did not end in 1775. The site remained important during the northern campaigns of the war. In 1777, British forces under General John Burgoyne advanced south from Canada during the Saratoga Campaign. When they occupied nearby high ground at Mount Defiance, the American garrison at Fort Ticonderoga withdrew without a direct fight. After Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga later that year, the fort’s military role diminished as the war shifted elsewhere.
Still, the landscape remained layered with memory: French and British imperial rivalry, American ambition, strategic calculation, and the uncertainty of a revolution still unfolding.
That is part of what makes Fort Ticonderoga so compelling today.
Stories Made to Be Steeped
Many historic sites preserve their stories through exhibits, artifacts, architecture, and the landscapes that surround them. For museum stores, those stories can continue through the pieces visitors choose to take home.
Oliver Pluff & Co. creates custom-labeled teas and coffees for historic sites and museums across the country, with each design tailored to the history of its location. At the Fort Ticonderoga Museum Store, Oliver Pluff teas feature custom designs inspired by the fort’s history, from its Revolutionary role to the regiments and landscapes tied to its grounds. Each label becomes a small extension of the site itself, carrying the story beyond the museum walls.
A Place That Helped Shape the Revolution
On May 10, 1775, the capture of Fort Ticonderoga gave the Patriot cause an early victory, a strategic foothold, and the artillery that would help change the course of the war around Boston.
More than 250 years later, the fort remains a place where the landscape itself tells the story. Between Lake Champlain and Lake George, between the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, Fort Ticonderoga continues to preserve the layered history of a site where geography, strategy, and revolution converged.
