Day 6 - Fort Ticonderoga

It is interesting how small important forts really are. Fort Ticonderoga, originally called Fort Carillon by the French, who built here first to keep the British out of today's Canada) was never intended to house more than 400 troops. At times upwards of 12,000 were stationed here - so they were outside the fort. The British eventually captured it during the French and Indian War and the Green Mountain Boys captured it for the Colonies just 3 weeks after Lexington and Concord. The British captured it back in their attempt to drive down from Montreal to NYC and cut the colonies in half but the Continental Army eventually got it back. By then it was in ruins as the British blew it up whan the last abandoned it. It stayed in disrepair until the owners of the land here began to restore it. It is located on a peninsula at the southern tip of Lake Champlain.

Mortars look like large kettles. These fired 13 inch projectiles. Cannons could fire a smaller shell for over a mile. These would fire for a shorter distance but were larger and could fire over obstacles. These were used by the French in the French and Indian War.

This picture was taken from the north wall looking south into the parade grounds. The buildings in the back are the buildings that housed the enlisted soldiers. They slept 3 to a bed in bunk beds. The French gave you two sets of clothes. You would wear on set for a week and change to the other. Officers were housed in a building to the left of the picture. The powder magazine that the British blew up to destroy the fort before the Americans took it over was located between the two buildings in this picture.

Guides were dressed in period costumes. This officer took us on a tour of the fort. The guides are very knowledgeable and amusing.

This guide was dressed in enlisted soldier clothes as American troups would have dressed. He gave several demonstrations. One was on diseases and talked about how to avoid dying from smallpox. You watched your friends die but waited for one who appeared to be recovering. While he still had active sores on his skin, you would break them open with a knife and get the puss on your knife. Then you would stab you are lightly several time to pass the weak germs into your body. The suggestion was if ill avoid the doctors as they were worse than the illness in those days. Long rifles - during the revolutionary war they estimate for every 300 bullets fired one person would be killed. The bayonets were far more deadly. By comparison they estimate in WWI it was 13,000 shots to kill one person, WWII it took 26,000 rounds to kill a person and in VietNam it took something like 300,000 shots per kill. I know that sounds crazy but that is what the guide quoted. BTW - it took him just over 14 seconds to load and fire this rifle. All in all this was a great place to visit.