It has finally come, the conclusion of touring for our summer 2010 New York City excursion.  Today, we learned about a couple of the major turning points that led to victory in the American Revolution.  We got up early, leaving the Sheraton Hotel in Syracuse at 7:00 AM sharp, for what would eventually become a 15+hour trip visiting Fort Ticonderoga on beautiful Lake Champlain and Saratoga Battlefield, where the tide of the entire revolution ultimately turned and united us with a new French ally.

The history of Fort Ticonderoga is quite complicated as the fort has amazingly been attacked six times and changed hands three times, being held at one time by France, Britain, and the United States.  Its strategic location has earned it the moniker the “Key to the Continent” as it sits on Lake Champlain, a lake some 150 miles long, between the United States and Canada.  The fortress was originally built by the French and known as Fort Carillion in what at the time was New France.  Here the French though outnumbered by almost 5:1 would ultimately prevail and defeat the British holding the fort from 1758 until the 1759 when the British reclaimed it.

Fort Ticonderoga

So how does this fit into the scope of American History?  At the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the American Revolution was just on the horizon.  Early on, the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen were able to expel the British from the fort gaining desperately needed artillery including huge cannons.  This was of great importance in that during the pre- and early Revolutionary time frame, one major Continental weakness was the lack of supplies that a well trained, or in this case ragtag army needed to fight affectively.  Henry Knox, George Washington’s future Secretary of War, later led a mission to secure the cannons, for the Continental Army, as spoils of war.  The fort was later captured by the British in 1777 and later retaken again by the Americans after the Battles of Saratoga in September and October of that year.  When teaching about this, careful detail will have to be given to the chronology of the history of this fort, as grown adults on the trip seemed to even have a hard time keeping track of the order of events.  Having said that, the fort’s chronology is not my primary concern.  I will be more interested to see that my students understand the fort’s strategic value and importance not only to the American Revolution but also the Colonial era that preceded it.

A cannon overlooking the Green Mountains.

After leaving Fort Ticonderoga, we next journeyed to Saratoga, where the tide of the war truly turned.  It was here that leaders like General Horatio Gates, Benedict Arnold, and Rifleman Daniel Morgan disrupted the British goal of taking and uniting the Hudson River Valley from Canada to New York City.  Arnold, after feuding with Gates, of course later attempted to give up West Point to military hands, becoming probably the most notorious traitor in American History.  Oddly, at Saratoga there is a monument (without his name) to him acknowledging his hard work fighting for American independence before his treasonable act.  Our guide Jim was very frustrated by this and compared Arnold to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who once served as a soldier in Iraq.  His argument was that though McVeigh once fought for his country, his later actions tainted his original image as an American hero.  While acknowledging that Arnold did help fight for our independence, I must admit that for me it was hard to accept a monument glorifying such a traitorous man.

Jim Hughto, the day’s guide was interesting and did have a passion for his subject.  He really went above and beyond as he dressed the part as a French Correur du bois.

Jim, our guide, dressed as a French correur du bois.