The strategic importance of Lake Champlain during the early colonial years when the French and British and later the Americans and British were wrestling for control of this region is well documented. Controlling the flow of supplies and men along the lake was critical, and the French chose a point of land where the lake…
March 17th is of course St. Patrick’s Day, and Boston celebrates this day as well as anyone with the parade in South Boston and taverns overflowing with Irish and Irish-for-the-day revelers. But Boston has another reason to celebrate the day that is unique to the city. On March 17, 1776 Boston’s long siege ended as…
During the early days of the Revolutionary War, there were two epic marches of heroic proportion. Henry Knox’s Noble train of artillery in November and December 1775 was one. Benedict Arnold’s march through the wilderness of Maine for the invasion of Quebec in September to November 1775 was the other, and the one that seems…
When Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys helped Benedict Arnold seize Fort Ticonderoga, they apparently wanted to celebrate the occasion. In 1775 these two men, who couldn’t be more different, led the attack on the lightly defended fort, winning it without a fight. British soldiers stations there hadn’t heard about Lexington and Concord yet,…
There’s an almost unbroken stretch of navigable water from New York City up the Hudson to Lake George to Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence Seaway, which in turn leads back to the Atlantic Ocean or deep into the interior of North America to the Great Lakes. The “almost” part is a couple of stretches…