IV – TICONDEROGA

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WHEN the atmosphere is thick with vapor and electricity, an imperceptible current of the upper air may rouse its latent forces to life in many quarters at once. Vapor condenses into clouds; clouds burst into rain; and each of half a dozen valleys has its particular storm, thundering and lightening down between the hills and adding a torrent of its own to the general flood. In most cases, great popular movements have been illustrations of this process, and our American Revolution followed the rule.

‘I cannot call them rebels at present; but, by the blessing of God on my Armies and Fleets, they will deserve that appellation very soon,’ — this was the language which Regulus put into the mouth of George III. ; and in truth he had appeared to speak it. The happj’- time was now come; and, in February, 1775, the Address to the Throne declared, almost with unction, that a state of actual rebellion existed in Massachusetts. Even had Gage, the British commander there, been a statesman, he would have found it hard to stop the shadow on the dial then; but he proved lacking enough in wisdom. ‘You know it was said,’ wrote Franklin to Priestley, ‘that he carried the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other ; and it seems he chose to give them a taste of the sword first.’ At Lexington the red cup was offered the patriots and with a steady hand accepted; and from that crimson-spotted Green the tocsin sent its terrible news abroad. At Portsmouth, ‘To arms, to arms! was breathed forth with sympathetick groans,’ reported Alexander Scammell. ‘O my dear New England!’ cr\QA Jo haniies- in-Eremo at Salem ; ‘O my dear New England, hear thou the alarm of war ! The call of heaven is to arms ! to arms! The sword of Britain is drawn against us !’ But no exhortation was needed. The barest facts rang like a clarion, and flew like the wind. (1 – Regulus : 4 Force, II., 316. Address: 4 Force, I., 1542. 1547. Franklin, Works (Sparks), VIII., p. 153. Scammell ; 4 Force, II., 501. Johannes ib., 369.)

One particular account of the conflict recorded its flight. New Haven received it on Monday morning, April the twenty-fourth at half-past nine; Stamford at ten o’clock that evening; Greenwich at three o’clock the next morning, and New York at two in the afternoon. ‘A true copy’ attested Jonathan Hampton early that evening, as he transcribed the letter at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. At midnight the New Brunswick Committee signed the receipt, and long before daybreak the men of Princeton were doing the like. At uoon the message reached Philadelphia, and ‘at the same time’ set cut again. ‘Chester, 4 o’clock, Wednesday, p.m., received & forwarded,’ noted the Committee. Baltimore, April 27, 1775, received, 10 o’clock p.m., John Boyd, Clerk.’ At ten the next morning, the express left Annapolis; and, as the clocks were on the stroke of six, his tired steed, spattered with Potomac mud, clinked over the cobblestones of Alexandria. Fredericksburg and King “William led on to Williamsburg. Not a ‘moment’ was lost there, and the letter sped away to Newbern in North Carolina. May the eighth, at four in the afternoon, Cornelius Harnett despatched the news to Richard Quince of Brunswick, adding, ‘For God’s sake send the man on without the least delay, and write to Mr. Marion to forward it by night and by day!’ ‘ For the good of our Country and the welfare of our lives and liberties, and fortunes!’ cried Marion at the boundary. At half-past six in the evening, May tenth, the express entered Georgetown, and on the instant Paul Trapier set his message hurrying along to Charleston. (2 – Force, II., 365)

Wherever the courier’s mount had struck hoof all these days and nights, the call to arms rang out, and soldiers leaped into ranks behind him. Seizing musket and powder-horn, many of them hastened to Cambridge; and almost before the ragged echoes of Lexington ceased pealing, the ‘Audacious Briton ‘ found himself imprisoned in Boston. Yet the patriots were not satisfied. Muskets could injure him little, and even the warmest enthusiasm could not be cast into ordnance. What should be done for cannon?

Far from all this, quite beyond the western horizon, walled in with mountains and buried in the forest, a beautiful sheet of water, adorned with lovely bays and bold headlands, was reflecting sun and stars in a silence hardly broken save by the bird, the catamount, and the storm .

The scene had not always been so tranquil. It was here that Samuel de Champlain had passed up in his canoe with a party of Indians to fight the Iroquois. It was here that Dieskau, with a greater fleet and more of the savages, had swept on to set his ambush for the Provincials. It was here that Montcalm had poised himself an instant for his dash at Fort William Henry.

In 1755, a fort known as Carillon appeared on a high, bold promontory near the southern end of the lake ; and, against the green-black of the mountains, waved the snowy flag of France. At the outworks of this fort, not long after, a small man with sparkling eyes might have been seen darting here and there amidst soldiers in white, commanding and inspiring them. It was Montcalm once more ; and, though British regulars and Colonial militia charged and charged again with desperate valor, the lilies were still blooming on the broad white banner at the end of the fight. A great cross rose then on the point. ‘What is the leader ; what the soldier ; what the fortress? Behold the sign! Behold the victor! Here God, here God Himself is triumphant!’ wrote Montcalm in Latin for the inscription. And France held the pass. (3 - Partman, Montcalm, passim. Inscription : ib,, II,, p. 112.)

But the tide changed. Near midnight, July the twenty-third, 1759, an immense glare suddenly lighted up the headland, the waters, and the sky; and a tremendous roar shook the hills. The French troops had gone, leaving a slow match in the powder; one bastion had blown up; and the barracks had taken fire. For a time the white flag waved on amid the conflagration, as it had waved in the smoke of battle. But soon it fell; the standard of Great Britain superseded Montcalm’s trophy; and Carillon became Ticonderoga. Yet the place continued to be a fort; and both there and at Crown Point, some fifteen miles to the north, lay quantities of good ordnance in the spring of 1775. (4 – Evacuation: Parkman, Montcalm, II., 239.)

But the British themselves had a use for those guns. ‘ It is not only expedient, but indispensably necessary,’ to keep the lake posts in repair. General Carleton had declared as early as 1767; and he pointed out the reasons with force and precision. The Earl of Dartmouth saw that something must be done; and at his request General Haldimand, after looking well into the matter, gave his opinion in March, 1774. Two months later, John Montresor, the commanding engineer at New York, received orders to go to Lake Champlain ‘with all possible expedition’ and make plans for either repairing one of the posts or building a new fortification. Two weeks more, and Haldimand said he was going to propose to General Gage that a couple of regiments be stationed at Crown Point ‘under the pretence of rebuilding that Fort, which from its situation,’ he explained, ‘not only secures the communication with Canada, but also opens an eas}’ access to the back Settlements of the Northern Colonies and may keep them in awe, shou’ d any of them be rash enough to incline to acts of open force and violence’ ; and within a few days a note in French conveyed this hint to Boston. (5 - Carleton to Gage, Feb. 15, 1767: Pub. Rec. Off., Colon. Corres., Quebec, II, p. 479. Haldimand to Dartmouth, Mar. 2, 1774: Can. Arch., B, 35, p. 87. Montresor: Can. Arch., B, 5, p. 240 ; 35, p. 123 ; 33, p. 264. Haldimand to Dartmouth, May 15, 1774; Pub, Rec. Off., Am. and W, Ind., Vol. 129, p. 287. Id. to-Gage, May 20, 1774: Can. Arch., B, 5, p. 249.)

November the second, Lord Dartmouth ordered Gage to have both of the forts ‘put into a proper state of Defence.’ The letter did not reach its destination until a day after Christmas, and apparently Gage made no move at that time; but, very soon after the fight at lycxington, he ordered Carleton to place the 7th Regiment, with some companies of Canadians and Indians, at Crown Point; while, as early as March, the commander of Ticonderoga had received a warning to prepare for trouble in the shape of ‘disorderly People in Arms coming to the Fort and makeing Enquirys of its situation, and [the] strength of the Garrison.’ Besides, a certain Major Skene was just about sailing from England to rebuild the works, and he expected to reach the ground with a thousand men by the first of May. Evidentl}^ the precious cannon were to be under safe British protection very soon. (6 - Dartmouth : Precis of Oper. Gage (the letter went by sea and reached Carleton on May 19, 1775): Carleton to Dartmouth, June 7, 1775 (Pub. Rec. Off., Colon Corres.? Quebec? II, p. 283). At Ti. : Gage to Dartmouth, May 17, .775 (Pub Rec Off Am. and W. Ind., Vol. 130, p. 327)- Skene: Phelps to Conn. Assembly, May 16, 1775 (Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., p. 174)

But Skene was delayed, and a force lay nearer Ticonderoga than Carleton’s. Vermont did not exist in 1774 even as a Colony, yet people lived already on the fair slopes of the Green Mountains. ‘New Hampshire Grants ‘ was the usual name of the region; but New Hampshire had relinquished whatever title she had to it, while New York still asserted claims and seemed very much in earnest about making them good. To this, most of the residents objected with still greater zeal, for the land grants of New York literally cut the ground from under their feet. The legal case, argued at Albany, went against the settlers ; but they could see no justice in the verdict. On leaving the courtroom, their leader, Ethan Allen, remarked, ‘The gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills’; and his people proceeded to enforce their rights, as they understood them, with both humor and energy, — the humor appreciated mainly on one side of the controversy, but the energy felt quite as much on the other. The hamlet of Bennington Centre became their headquarters; and there sate the Grand Committee, which maintained a sort of government. The capitol was a rambling two-story tavern, and, for an ofiBcial standard, there was a stuffed catamount in front of it, grinning defiance toward New York from the top of a sign-post some twenty-five feet high.’ (7 - For this and the two folio-wing paragraphs : Merrill, Historic Bennington Walton, Records of Council of Safety; Isham, E. Allen ; Benton, Vermont Settlers ; Swift, Addison County: sM passim ; 4 Force, I., 1323 ; 11., 215-218.)

Unpretentious enough the seat of government, but thence went orders that did not return to it void. One Dr. Adams, tied in an arm-chair, was hung up under the ensign for two hours to meditate on the controversy, and came back to the earth with changed convictions. New York surveyors had to give up their compass and chain. New York sheriffs failed to get the land, but received some of its produce in the shape of beech switches.

One morning Allen, appearing at the door of a York settler, informed him that the timbers of his dwelling were to be offered up ‘as a burnt sacrifice to the gods of the woods’; and soon only ashes remained. Colonel Reid, who lived on a large estate where comely Vergennes now stands, received a visit from about one hundred men in August, 1773. His houses vanished in smoke ; his mill returned to its elements ; the millstones were smashed and pitched down the falls. In March, 1775, the ‘Benington Mob,’ as Governor Tryon called them, seized Benjamin Hough, one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, put him through a form of trial for daring to act under the authority to New York, counted him out two hundred good stripes on his bare back, and ordered him out of the country.

These men bore arms, — a firelock with ‘Ball or Buck-Shot answerable,’ and ‘a good tomahawk,’ as the rules provided. Many were old rangers, veterans of Putnam, Stark, and Rogers ; all were ‘as brave as Hercules and as good marksmen as can be found in America,’ said Esquire Gilleland, who knew them; and, as early as 1771, they organized a regiment with Allen as their colonel. When some were indicted, the rest solemnly voted to ‘stand by and defend’ them at the hazard of life and property. After Remember Baker was wounded and arrested, his friends pursued the posse and rescued him by force. Rewards were offered against the ‘Mob,’ and its leaders were outlawed, but Allen, Baker, Peleg Sunderland, and others published a simple notice which had far greater effect: ‘immediate death’ would be the fate of whoever tried to arrest them; or, said the warning, if any person should succeed in carrying off one of these individuals, ‘we are resolved to surround such person or persons, whether at his or their own house or houses, or anywhere that we can find him or them, and shoot such person or persons dead.’ (8 – Proceedings of Representatives, Jan. 31, 1775. Isham, E. Allen, passim, Gilleland to Cont. Cong.. May 29, 1775; 4 Force, II., 731. Swift, Addison County, passim. Hall, Vt., pp. 178, 183.)

Peleg Sunderland was appointed by the Grand Committee to guide John Brown on his journey to Montreal, and later Brown wrote his principals in Boston to this effect: ‘The Fort at Tyconderogo must be seised as soon as possible should hostilities be committed by the King’s Troops. The People on N. Hampshire Grants have ingaged to do this Business and in my opinion they are the most proper Persons for this Jobb.’ (9 – Sunderland: Journ. of Vt. Assembly, Mar. 7, 1787; Trumbull, Origin, p. 8 ; Hall, Ti., p. 8. Brown to S. Adams, Mar. 29, 1775: Mass. Arch., Vol. 193, p. 41.)

Apparently Sunderland had talked over-confidently to Brown, for his chief had not committed himself to such a project. But ‘the first systematical and bloody attempt, at Lexington, to enslave America thoroughly electrified my mind,’ Allen said later; and soon afterward ‘the principal officers of the Green Mountain Boys, and other principal inhabitants were convened at Bennington.’ It was ‘resolved to take an active part with the Country, and thereby annihilate the old quarrel with the government of New York by swallowing it up in the general conflict for liberty.’ ‘But the enemy having the command of lake Champlain and the garrisons contiguous to it, was ground of great uneasiness to those inhabitants who had extended their settlements on the river Otter Creek and Onion River, and along the eastern side of the lake aforesaid; who, in consequence of a war, would be under the power of the enemy. It was therefore projected to surprise the garrisons of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with the armed vessel on the lake; . . . but whether such a measure would be agreeable to Congress or not they could not for certain determine.’ There- fore the plan remained only a ‘project’; and meanwhile a fleet ship was hurrying north every hour with Gage’s order to Carleton.’ (10 – E. Allen, Narrative, p. 17. Id., Vindication (Records of Gov. and Council, I., p. 448).

Bustling to and fro in the quiet village of New Haven, Connecticut, treading hard the new grass of the College Green, and cutting the shadows of the elms with a quick stride, lived a man of thirty-four years, who seemed expressly contrived for these perilous and arduous times. When less than fifteen years old, he had run away from home and enlisted in the French and Indian War; and, after his mother got him back, he went a second time. Soon weary of military discipline, however, he took leave of the army in the same ready style, and enlisted in a drug store at New Haven. On reaching man’s estate, he established himself there as an apothecary and book- seller. Like his father before him, however, this brisk 3-oung man owned ships, and sometimes he ^went out in charge of one. More than once he sailed to the West Indies, and he bought horses for that trade at Quebec.” (11 – (This paragraph and the next.) Tlie sketch of Arnold is based on I. N. Arnold, B. Arnold, pp. 17-27 ; Arnold’s MS. letters in N. Y. Pub. Library (Lenox); Thompson, Hist. 2nd Co., Gov.’s Footguards- Hist. Mag., Jan. i860, p. 18 (his mother’s letter); Earle, Costume, p. 59 (Gabriel); and of course a wide range of reading. The hymn-book is still in existence (Am. Antiq.Soc). The author hopes that he will not be accused of palliating treason, because he sets down some things to Arnold’s credit. His duty is to report the facts. And it will not injure us, as students of events, to remember that a judge who does not discriminate is no judge at all. A person unable to see that snow is white cannot see that ink is black. He is blind, and therefore not entitled to express an opinion on such questions. To refuse to recognize merit is to deprive ourselves of the right to censure faults. Besides, the Arnold of West Point was the result of development, and we are bound to take the man of 1775 and 1776 as he was at that time.)

Socially he stood high. Every generation had honored his name — Benedict Arnold — as far back as the second President of Rhode Island. His mother had given him some of her beauty if not a great deal of her gentleness. The strength of her affections, likewise, appeared in the son more distinctly than her piety; but he used to hold one side of the hymn-book in the old church at Norwich with decorum, and he had not yet forgotten her loving exhortation, ‘Don’t neglect your presios soal which once lost can never be regained.’ Strong, active, quick-witted, and resolute, he could not fail to be a leader, in spite of egotism and a domineering temper. His house, embowered in shrubbery, was an arc of the gayest circle in the town. No doubt many a “newest fashioned bonnet ‘ was turned out b}’ Marie Gabriel, ‘Milliner from France,’ at her maximum price of two shillings and sixpence, to grace his parties; and, on public occasions, he shone in an elegant uniform as the captain of a ‘crack’ body of militia, the second company of the Governor’s Footguards.

The next day after the skirmish at lLexington, word of it reached New Haven. ‘Good God!’ Arnold had exclaimed on hearing of the ‘Boston Massacre’ while at St. George’s Key; ‘Good God, are the Americans all a Sleep & tamely giving up their glorious Liberties, or are they all turned Philosophers, that they don’t take imediate vengence on such miscreants ? ‘ and now he was ready to draw. At once he assembled his command on the Lower Green, proposed marching to Cambridge, and called for volunteers. The greater part of his men stepped forward. The next day these resolutes and some Yale students — about fifty in all — appeared again on the Green. A little difficulty as to ammunition arose; but the Captain marched his force to the place where the Selectmen were in session, and announced that he would break into the magazine unless they handed over the keys within five minutes. The devout Governor Trumbull — a Puritan divine grafted on a senator of Rome — had written to a friend about a week before, lamenting ‘the late awful restraints of the Spirit’; but he could not complain of his Second Footguards, and he addressed the volunteers in ringing words. Then, with a fresh series of resolutions in their breast-pockets, addressed to ‘All Christian People,’ forswearing ‘drunkenness, gaming, profaneness, and every vice of that nature,’ and scorning all ‘ignoble motives,’ the company raised a flag bearing the pious motto, ‘Qui transtulit sustinet,’ and set out with martial music and a quick step for the seat of war. (12 – Arnold to , June 9, 1770 : Dreer Coll. I. N. Arnold, B. Arnold, PP- 36. 37- Thompson, Footguards: Note 11. Trumbull, Apr. 17: 4 Force, XI., 339. Resoiutions:it)., 383.)

April twenty-ninth, they reached Cambridge, and the very next day their captain informed Dr. Warren and his Committee of Safety that heavy cannon — many of them fine pieces of brass — could be found at Ticonderoga. Probably Arnold had seen the lakes as a boy, and very possibly that visit was his only source of information. But, even though his figures flew somewhat wide of the mark, they were quite exact enough to be highly interesting. The Committee asked him to put them in writing. He did so at once and added, ‘The place could not hold out an hour against a vigorous onset.’ Before the day ended a letter was written to the Committee of New York, explaining the urgent need of cannon, and the necessity of trespassing a little on the rights of a sister Colony. The reply was not waited for, however. Within forty-eight hours, a sub-committee received instructions to confer with Arnold on the matter. Supplies were voted for ‘ a certain service approved of by the Council of War,’ and the next day the Committee of Safetj’, ‘confiding in the judgment, fidelity, and valor’ of Captain Arnold, did constitute and appoint him ‘Colonel and Commander in chief over a body of men not exceeding four hundred,’ with instructions to ‘proceed with all expedition’ and reduce the fort at Ticonderoga if he could. (13 - Journ. Mass. Prov. Cong., etc., pp. 527, 534. 4 Force, II., 450, 748, 750, 751, 782.)

This was well; but Lake Champlain lay beyond the western mountains, and the men had still to be enlisted; whereas the 7th Regiment of Foot already stood under arms, and every whiff of wind carried Gage’s order nearer to Quebec.

But meanwhile other things happened. On his way- east, Arnold had met Colonel Samuel H. Parsons of Connecticut and given him “an account of the state of Ticonderoga,’ mentioning ‘that a great number of brass cannon were there.’ Parsons reached Hartford (April 27) two days earlier than Arnold reached Cambridge, and immediately had a talk with Colonel Samuel Wyllys and another gentleman. This other gentleman, a comely, alert and businesslike person, with a straight, keen nose — never keener than just then — was Silas Deane, a member of the Continental Congress. (14 – Portrait, engraved in 1783, N. Y, Pub. Library (Lenox). Every prominent citizen of Connecticut understood the character of the Green Mountain Boys, for many of them had emigrated from that Colony, and their doings had become famous; and the trio at once decided to forward sinews of war to the Grants, and there find muscles, if possible, to get hold of the needed cannon, for on this plan no large body of men would betray the scheme by marching through the country. So the next day, supported by Christopher Leffingwell and two more citizens of weight, the schemers drew three hundred pounds from the Colonial treasury on their personal responsibility, and sent off Noah Phelps and Bernard Romans with that amount, — plus the promise of more, should more be needed. (15 – Authorities on which the account of the expedition against Ticonderoga is based: The Connecticut documents (Mott’s account, Parsons’s letter, EJlisha Phelps’s letter, etc.) in Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., I. ; the letters of Arnold, Allen, Mott, and others to the Mass. authorities printed with the Journal of the Mass. Prov. Cong, and Com. Safety; E. Allen’s account in his ‘Narrative ‘; John Brown’s account (in substance) (4 Force, II., 623); Easton’s (account in sub- stance) f4 Force, II., 624); Easton’s Memorial, June 14, 1786 (Coutin. Cong. Papers, No. 41, III., p. 1331; Account of ‘ Veritas’ (4 Force, II., 10851; Hartford Courant, May 22, 1775 ; Worcester Spy, May 17, 177S I various letters of Allen and Arnold (‘found readily in Force by looking at this period in the chrono- logical list at the beginning of Ser. 4, Vol. II.); Memorial of Delaplace (Conn. Arch., Rev. War., I.. Doc. 4051; Minutes of ordnance (4 Force, IV., 534). More or less valuable information has been found in : Goodhue, Shoreham, pp. 1-17 ; Thompson, Vt.; Hall, Vt., pp. ig8-2oi ; Hall, Ti., pp. 8-27; Chittenden, Ti., pp. 23-51 ; Trumbull, Origin, p. 8 ; Hemenway, Hist. Gazetteer ; Isham, E. Allen, p 75 etc.; I. Allen, Vt , pp. 55-59; Arnold, B. Arnold; HoUister, Conn; siieldon, Deerfield ; Trumbull, Northampton ; Smith, Pitlsfield, I., pp. 215-221 ; Field Pittsfield ; Dewey, Stockbridge ; Pope, Western Boundary; Picturesque Berkshire; Dewey, County of Berkshire ; T. Allen. Berkshire County ; ‘First Church of Pittsfield ‘ ; Burnham, T. Allen; ‘ Greylock,’ Taghconic ; Bryan, Book of Berkshire ; Benton, Vt. Settlers, pp. 105, 106; Caverly, Pittsford ; Rudd, Salisbury, p. 11 ; Jennings, Memorials ; Mrs. Plunkett in N. Y. Gen. and Geog. Record, Oct., 1897. [T. Allen] to [Pomeroy], May 4, 1775 (4 Force, II., 507); [Id.] to [Id.], May 9, 1775 (ib., 546); Walton (ed.), Records, passt’m; Chipman, S. Warner, p. 73 ; Vermonter, Mar., igos ; Swift, Addison County; Cook, Ti.; Joslin and Fnsbie, Poultney ; Dawson, Battles ; De Puy, E. Allen ; Gordon, Hist, U. S.; Robinson, The Hero of Ti. (i. e., Beaman); an article by N. Beaman, printed in theN.Y. newspaper called the /’aZ/afl^mw, May 28, 1835. The author visited the ground and obtained interesting information from the local anti- quarians. Remark III.)

Later the same day (April 28), Edward Mott, just appointed a captain in Parsous’s regiment, went to Hartford and met Leffingwell.

‘How are the people in Boston?’ inquired the latter. Mott had been making a visit at the camp, and gave what news lay on his tongue.

‘How can they be relieved ? ‘ L,effingwell then asked, with an air of simplicity. ‘ Where do you think artillery and stores can be got ? ‘

‘That I know not, except we go and take possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and that I think might be done by surprise with a small number of men,’ replied Mott. Perhaps he, too, had met Arnold on the road. (16 - If not, the coincidence was extraordinary. It should be added, how- ever, that the idea of getting cannon from the lakes was somewhat wide- spread in Conn.; see Saltonstall to Deane, Apr. 25, 1775 : Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., II, p.218)

‘Wait here a moment,’ responded Leffingwell, hurryingaway. In a little while he returned with Deane and Parsons.

‘Will you undertake such an expedition as we were talking of just now ? ‘ he asked.

‘I will,’ replied Mott.

On this Mott was let into the secret, and invited to follow after Phelps and Romans with a few others. The first party was to halt at Salisbury and the second could join it there.

Accordingly, on Saturday afternoon, April the twenty-ninth, Mott and five companions rode out of Hartford toward the Housatonic valley. That night they put up at Smith’s in New Hartford. Sunday, they pressed ou without drawing rein at the church doors, crossed Norfolk, and skirted the long ridge of Wangam Mountain, probably turning off to the right, as they approached Canaan, for a glass of something warm at the Lawrence Tavern. Refreshed, they traversed the flat intervale of the Housatonic, forded the river at Indian Crossing, left Tom’s Mountain over the right shoulder, and, after winding between the hills and ponds of Salisbury, found before them — beautiful of itself and enamelled at that hour with all the colors of sunset — the broad sheet of water that has given a name to Lakeville.

Salisbury Furnace the place was called then; and, where the outlet of the lake — a clear and musical brook, tumbling over a high bank — made what people described as a ‘water privilege,’ there stood a forge and a blast furnace, with a pair of wheezy bellows driven by the falls. Primitive, no doubt, yet not mean was this establishment, the earliest of the sort in Connecticut; for, between 1776 and 1780, it was to cast many a swivel and mortar and even cannon as heavy as i8-pounders, to back up the Declaration of Independence. But just now Salisbury Furnace had an interest of another sort. Ten years before, one of its proprietors had been Ethan Allen; one, if not two, of his brothers lived here still; and Heman Allen was despatched to let Ethan know what was on foot, so that his Green Mountain Boys might be ready.(17 – It has been disputed whether Heman Allen was despatched from Salishury or from Pittsfield. The point seems to be settled by an entry in Romans’s accounts : ‘ Paid H. A. going express after E- A. 120 miles, £2 sh.16.’ See Hall, Ti., p. 28.) For another reason, also, the Furnace was a good halting-place. In August, 1774, the inhabitants had voted in their town-meeting that ‘our poor brothers of Boston, now sufifering for us, shall share with us our plentiful harvest’; and help to get cannon for the relief of the patriot capital could well be expected in such a community.

By morning the numbers had risen to sixteen; and it seemed best, instead of adding more, to keep the affair secret still, and press on — unarmed — for the Grants. Setting out, then, and turning to the north, the partyrode along very quietly all day beside the willows and the windings of the dark Housatonic ; crossed Stock- bridge plain, in the shade of its handsome elms, with the famous Indian Mission on the hill at the left; and passed on the right the parsonage of Jonathan Edwards, covered with broad, hewn clapboards, where his daughter, coming home for a visit nineteen 3′ears before, had laid a bundle of flannels in her mother’s arms with the proud words, ‘This is my boy,’ — Aaron Burr.

Still more interesting to the martial pilgrims, no doubt, was the inn, swinging its cheery sign of the Red Lion. But no long tarry could be made there; and at night they lodged in Pittsfield with one James Easton, a builder by trade, a colonel by election, a deacon by the grace of the church, and a tavern-keeper by the favor of the public.

Pittsfield, reclining like a conscious beauty among its fair hills, had just reason to be called the second node of the expedition. On the word of the minister, its Tories were the worst in the country; but a couple were now rotting safely iu the horrible jail at Northampton; two more had made for New York with the hue-and-cry at their heels; and the rest, ‘mute and pensive,’ preferred to let their opinions suffocate at home in pure air. Evidently the patriots did not lack zeal. Only the day before, they had filed into the paintless, blindless, belfryless, and fireless church, and heard one of the most notable among them preach, — one whose mild and delicate features and slight figure gave little token that he would be known as the ‘fighting Parson Allen’ of Stark’s famous victory. John Brown, resting from his Canadian trip, was certainly to be counted as another of the patriots; and Easton, who possessed a knack of inspiring confidence — a sort of ‘confidence-man’ he was, indeed — could claim to rank pro tempore as a third. In fact, these three with four others had been chosen in 1774 as the Standing Committee of Safety and Correspondence. (18 – Tories :[T. Allen] to [Pomeroy], May 4, 1775 (4 Force, II ,507). Jail: Trumbull, Northampton, II., p. 337. Com. : Hist. Mag., Apr., 1857, p.108. Smith, Pittsfield, I., p. 190. )

Hearing that Brown had served the cause so ably, the conspirators opened their plans to him and Easton. Both agreed to join the party and they advised that, as the people on the Grants were poor and provisions not abundant among them, it would be well to gather some men and rations in Berkshire. Accordingly, while the rest of the party struck out for Bennington, to do what they could there, Mott and Easton, slipping round the skirts of Mt. Greylock on Tuesday morning, picked up fifteen of Easton’s militia in Williamstown, while the long, patriotic vale of Jericho, which was soon to borrow a new name from President Hancock, contributed twenty-four. Equipment and provisions were secured, — all, as Parson Allen wrote, with ‘the utmost secrecy’; and on Thursday, the fourth of May, this group also marched for Bennington.

That evening, bad news. An express from the front burst upon them, all excitement. A man who had been at Ticonderoga had met the advance party; the garrison of the fort had been reinforced, he said; they were on their guard and repairing the works; better dismiss Easton’s troops and go no farther.

‘Who is this man ? Where does he belong ? Where was he going?’ demanded Mott; but the express could not say, and Mott exclaimed, ‘The men shall not be dismissed; we will proceed.’

And proceed they did. Skirting, after a brisk march, the broad base of Mt. Anthony, and casting a final glance at misty Greylock behind them, they passed the little Walloomsac Inn on the left, and on the right a diminutive Common with an equally diminutive church at the foot of it, and arrived in a few minutes more at a large wooden building with two chimneys and a stone doorstep inscribed S. F. This was the Catamount Tavern; and aloft there, looking saucier than ever, grinned the emblem of defiance. Here they found the rest of the party, except that Mr. Halsey and Captain Stephens had gone to feel the pubHc pulsc at Albany, and Noah Phelps with Mr. Heacock to reconnoitre Ticonderoga.

A ‘ Council of War ‘ sate without delay, doubtless in the chamber where the words ‘Council Room,’ faintly scratched on the marble lintel of the fireplace, denoted the assembly hall of the Grand Committee. Ethan Allen, longing for an opportunity to ‘signalize ‘ himself, was eager for the expedition, and had already done much. An amiable giant named Seth Warner, second in command among the Green Mountain Boys, had little to say but looked all battle and victory. Dr. Jonas Fay, son of the landlord, agreed to go as the surgeon.

Provisions were still found scanty, and two men set off to Albany New City (19 – About five miles north of Albany, on the east side of the river (Liv., Journal, Sept. 23). in search of supplies. Arrangements had to be made for patrolling all the roads leading toward the enemy, so as to pick up information and prevent any interesting news from going astray. Some volunteers had come in, but not enough; and steps were taken to raise more as fast as possible. Then, with some cattle and some wagons full of provisions, the embryonic army set out for the north. It was only a shapeless body of roughly dressed farmers, with guns at all angles on their shoulders and hats at all angles on their heads. No banners flashed gay notes of color in the sunlight; no drums roused the pulses ; no fifes woke the nerves. But courage, skill, and purpose lay out of sight under the humble coats, and then as ever the invisible things outweighed the seen.

Climbing first a slight hill, they reached the spot where the Bennington Battle Monument was later to rear its grand height. Below them spread a vast flat basin of woodland. Bald Peak and the main line of the Green Mountains cheered them on from the right; the Taconics walled them in on the left; and Mt. Equinox, rising midway almost straight ahead, beckoned them forward.

Plunging at once down the steep slope, they buried themselves in the woods, and strode on with a long, lithe gait — suggestive of the lion if not of the drill sergeant — gathering at every step that highland stimulus which has always made the mountaineer a freeman. Hepatica, trilium, and bloodroot beamed encouragement from the roadside with bright though drowsy eyes just washed in dew. Morning breezes that had slept overnight on the odors of the hemlock and the fir, breathed upon them the spirit of liberty and of power. The grand ranges past which they filed, gave them a sense of tremendous protection and support. At Arlington, over against the hill where Ethan Allen built himself a house and dug a well — destined, like Jacob’s, to outlive its maker — Saddleback and Bald Mountain upreared a front so majestic and inspiring that Vermont has engraved this view on her state seal. At North Dorset the ranges planted their splendid marble columns face to face with an air of sublimity that enjoined great purposes and bold exploits.

The volunteers perhaps — even probably — did not suspect how far-reaching their mission was; but, with the capacity if not the consciousness of doing grand things they blithely traversed these magnificent scenes, pressed on through the widening valley beyond, and finally debouched on the sandy but shady plain of Castleton. At the western end of the long, straight street, just where plain sank into intervale, stood the tavern of Zadok Remington, facing toward their own dear mountains; and, in the two stories of this rambling but roomy hostelry, they found comfortable lodgings. It was now Sunday cveniug. May the seventh.

‘Cassel Town’ — so Mott called it — had been appointed as the general rendezvous, and on Monday about one hundred and seventy men were gathered there. Phelps arrived with good news from Ticonderoga. In the guise of a country bumpkin, he had rowed across the lake and put up for the night at a house near the fort. Several officers came there for a supper-party, and he listened with his very pores while they discussed the feeble state of the works. The next morning, shambling past the guards to get shaved, he noted that nearly all the cannon were unavailable, the walls and gates out of repair, the garrison unsuspicious; and he also heard that the powder had been damaged. (20 – Remark IV. )

In due season, the Committee of War — Captain Mott, Chairman — got together in Richard Ben tley’s modest farmhouse, and the final plans were laid. Allen, Easton, and Warner should rank in that order, according to the number of men raised by each of them. Shoreham was to be the port of embarkation to cross the lake. A party under Captain Herrick (21 – He spelled his name Hearlck : letter.May 31, 1775, N.Y. Pub. Lib. (Lenox) of Bennington should go to Skenesborough, about nine miles distant, at the very head of Lake Champlain, take possession of the place, and bring down to Shoreham in the night whatever shipping could be found; while Captain Douglas would visit his brother-in-law residing opposite Crown Point, and contrive some way to get hold of the King’s boats lying there. The party for Skenesborough was drafted out, and Allen, striking across into Sudbury, took the old Crown Point military road for Shoreham to meet some volunteers. By this time night was at hand; but, in the stead of evening zephj-rs, there came a whirhvind on horseback: Benedict Arnold.

Equipped with his commission, ten horses, one hundred pounds of ‘cash,’ a quantity of ammunition, and the privilege of selecting his chief officers, Arnold had appointed a number of captains on the third of May, and sent them off to enlist their men. (22 – Remark V.) John Brown’s report, advising that Green Mountain Boys be employed to seize Ticonderoga, lay in the files of the Committee that dealt with Arnold, and probably he had conned it well. At all events, he made for the New Hampshire Grants without loss of time. On the morning of the eighth, he was at Rupert, heard that the fort had been alarmed, and knew something about the Allen-Mott expedition; but for all this he had no thought of giving up his plan. Writing hastily ‘To the Gentlemen In the Southern Towns,’ he begged them to ‘send forward as many Men to join the Army here as you can Posably spare. . . . Let Every Man bring as much Powder & Ball as he can Also a Blanket their wages are 40/ pr. Month. I humbly engaged to see paid also the Blanket.’ (23 – A facsimile in Smith, Pittsfield, I., p. 218. Robert Cochran, a leading Green Mountain Boy, resided at Rupert (Hall, Vt,, p. , 460). The towns referred to were Pittsfield and those adjacent.” Then he pushed for Castleton.

A knotty problem now challenged the Committee of War. There stood Arnold, with a commission in his hand but not a man at his back except one servant, coolly proposing to take command of their expedition. Worse yet, he could offer some very uncomfortable reasons, and no doubt he did. The Colony of Massachusetts had appointed him a colonel, had sent him out for the express purpose of seizing Ticonderoga, and had taken steps to satisfy New York for the invasion of her soil. His authority lacked nothing, and nobody else had any authority at all. Allen was no more a colonel than he was an angel; Easton had no rank save in the local militia; Mott was only a volunteer. To blot a just cause with an act of private lawlessness would not merely be wrong in the eyes of the world; it would even be ridiculous.

And that might prove only the smallest part of the mischief. In the view of New York, these Green Mountain Boys were outlaws. Only yesterday, as a penniless, exiled victim of the Bennington Mob, Hough had been seen begging for bread in the streets of Manhattan, and heard repeating right and left how Allen called the Yorkers ‘damned cowards.’ (24 – Force, II., 215-218) ” An armed invasion of her territory by these fellows would seem to the Colony a fresh outrage, menace, defiance and insult, and might place it side by side with the British government in wrath and resentment. As for the Connecticut men in their company, New York would very likely demand their punishment. Connecticut would refuse it. There would be a feud. The union of Colonies, absolutely indispensable for the success of the cause, would break in two; New York would go over to the enemy; and America would be doomed. But only let the Boys enlist under Arnold, and they would be soldiers instead of bandits, patriots instead of outlaws. If they cared for the cause, would they hesitate ?

Hesitate they did, and more. The leaders had assigned the parts and apportioned the honors ; Connecticut funds were paying the expenses; the men had been guaranteed the officers of their choice; under no others would they serve; and as for the haughty, domineering stranger, with his gaudy uniform, his lackey, and his piece of paper, the Castleton graveyard — as very likely some one suggested—lay just across the street. Yet the force of Arnold’s position must have been felt; for the next morning, when he set off to have a lion-and-unicorn bout with Allen on the subject, the men were much afraid their stubborn leader would yield, and, abandoning the pack- horses already laden with provisions, they hurried on after him, threatening to ‘club their firelocks’ and march for home, if an officer not of their choosing were to give them orders. In fact, Allen did show signs of yielding. ‘Your pay will be the same if he does command,’ said he to the men.

‘Damn the pay! ‘ they shouted; and they looked it.

But happily the difficulty could be settled. Allen had notions of responsibility, and felt anxious to get under cover of the law once more. Arnold could not bear to drop out of the enterprise, and did not wish the men to scatter and betray the secret. The Green Mountain Boys, needy farmers eager to plant their crops, could not remain long from home; and Arnold remembered that his own volunteers would soon begin to arrive. So it was agreed that Allen should issue commands jointly with Arnold for the present, and later, as his men disbanded, he would naturally give way. Ruffled plumage then subsided gradually ; eyes faced front again; and, since the enemy were now at hand, the force moved on through the woods very cautiously. Guided by the mellow notes of a human cuckoo, it slowly approached Lake Champlain; and, during Tuesday afternoon, it concealed itself in a shallow ravine at Hand’s Cove, — a small bay of little depth about a mile to the northward of Ticonderoga.

Meanwhile, Major Beach had set out from Castleton with a final call for recruits, and within twenty-four hours he covered sixty miles of intricate woods. It was a march fit for the heroic age. Even the forest was taken by surprise. In and out of the shadows darted another shadow like a shuttle; in and out of the bright sunHght, a brighter flash of steel. The violet and the arbutus found themselves pressed to the soil; but they lifted their heads in an instant, sweetened — -not crushed — by the light foot. The lynx opened his crystal eyes; but he quickly saw that he had not been sent for, and closed them with along breath. The frightened robin stooped to fly; but already theintruder was gone. From clearing to clearing flew the summons, and it was obeyed as quickly. No dragon’s teeth were needed to draw armed men from this ground. The axe dropped at the foot of the tree; the fork stood still in the turf; the farmer hurried to his cabin. Two words to the woman at the loom; a glance into the rough box on rockers; a snatch at the firelock and powder-horn; a shadow on the thres- hold; and already he was on his rapid way to Hand’s Cove.

There, hidden among the trees, the company waited for light and the boats from Skenesborough : night came but the boats did not. Douglas had better fortune, though not all that he wished. On his way to get a scow that he remembered, he stopped to enlist a man named Chapman, and two smart lads in bed upstairs heard enough of the talk to satisfy them what was going on. Getting up, they quickly dressed, took a jug of rum, and hurried to a point of land near which a certain barge had been lying that day, enrolling volunteers as they went. Hailing the boat, they asked to be taken up the lake for a squirrel-hunt that was on at Shoreham. At first Black Jack, the captain, and his two helpers demurred; but the boys promised to help row and dropped a hint about the contents of the jug, for they knew Jack’s weak spot. The bargain was closed, the trip made with all speed, and, on reaching Shoreham, every one except the crew pronounced the hunt a great success. At least, so the story went.

An oblique voyage of about a mile had to be made across the lake, and the work of getting over without the expected boats from Skenesborough proved very slow; but, as dawn approached, the two colonels and about eighty -five men stood on Willow Point, one hundred rods or so north of the fort, while about a hundred and iifty impatient comrades under Warner were still on the Vermont side. (25 – Remark VI) ‘ Some of the advance party desired to wait for the rest; but, as the sky was already shot with yellow above the Green Mountains and a delay might be fatal, (26 – Note the different version of ‘Veritas’ (4 Force, II., 1085,, which gives Arnold special credit for the crossing and the immediate advance, and also for being five yards ahead of Allen at the wicket, A few probable points have been accepted from this account. Arnold was certainly present, and he could not be there without doing something. It is unfortunate that this account is anonymous. There are two Willow Points near Ticonderoga.) it was decided to attack.

Arnold now claimed the right to lead, perhaps feeling better entrenched in his position because no longer on the Grants.

‘What shall I do with the damned rascal, — put him under guard ? ‘ cried Allen, turning to Amos Callander.

‘Better go side by side,’ was the sensible reply, and that was agreed to.(27 – Goodhue, Shoreham, p. 14. Allen to the Albany Com., May 11, 1775: 4 Force, II., 606 (‘ Colonel Arnold entered the fortress with me side by side ‘)

The men were then drawn up in three lines, and in low but thrilling tones Allen briefly addressed them. ‘You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your firelocks ! ‘ he concluded; and every gun went up.

‘Face to the right! ‘ All faced; and then, guided by young Nathan Beaman — who lived opposite and had dined with the commander of the fort only a daj^ before — they set forward on their march by an old French road through the woods. (28 – See Jefferys’s map of 1758.)

In a few minutes they had a glimpse of Ticonderoga, rising on its elevated ground well up above the horizon. ‘Great and surprising works,’ Chaplain Robbins called them a year later, and the dim light made them seem greater than they were. (29 - Robbins, Journal, Apr. 20.) Higher still flew the British standard, the emblem of authority and power; and more than one heart shivered a trifle at the thought of defying it. Little by little, as the men silently advanced, the bastions charged one by one out of the gloom and mist of the dawn; the old French redoubts on the low ground seemed crouching to spring; the fort loomed higher and higher in the sky. Presently, against the grey blue set with fading stars, they could make out the chimneys and gables of the barracks; and some wondered what the soldiers below those hard angles were doing just then. Everything looked very quiet and confident, as if scorning such an improvised foe. The cannon seemed ready and waiting.

Ere long they were under the glacis. Military men might condemn the old fort; but it still feared nothing except artillery,(30 – Gage to Dartmouth, May 17, 1775; Pub. Rec. Off., Am. and W. Ind., Vol- 130, p. 327.) and this little squad of enemies had not even bayonets. Beyond the high glacis were a moat and a wall; and beyond them — regulars.

Three minutes more, and the invaders were stealing along by the foot of the precipice, crowned with masonry, which took the place of a glacis on the side toward the lake. To the left, at the edge of the water, lay thirteen of the precious cannon; but there was no time to think of them just then. Straight ahead, at the very point of the promontory, glowered the Grenadier Redoubt, — was it going to open fire ?

Creeping swiftly but warily round the curving preci- pice, they saw a path running down from the fort and turning a little toward the north. A few rods away it ended — at the well. Here lay the weak point of Ticonderoga, its back door. This path, which led down to the water, led up to a gate and a covered way and through them to a small rectangular parade, walled-in with stone barracks, the heart of the fortress.

The gate had been closed; but the wicket — large enough to admit two men side by side — was open. Outside stood a sentry, thinking drowsily of his sweetheart, the next pay-day, the yellow streak above the Green Mountains, his near relief, his breakfast, — heaven knew what. Suddenly, round the slope at his left, appeared new shadows, moving shapes, forms, persons, men with swords and guns. In an instant the leaders were upon him. But he knew his business. lyevelling his piece at Allen, then almost at its muzzle, he pulled the trigger.

Quick as the Green Mountain catamount, Allen struck the musket aside with his sword. But that was unnecessary: the damaged powder would not explode. Allen still lived, — lived in earnest; and his blade whirled back to descend on the fleeing sentry. For a moment, however, the low ceiling of the covered way stopped the sweep of it; and the next instant, close under the steel, the soldier burst into the parade, and with one yell vanished into a bomb-proof.

Another sentry — there were two — tried to fire; but he also failed. Pricking an American officer with his bayonet, he found the same blade flashing above his head. Only a quick softening of Allen’s heart, aided by a comb in the soldier’s hair, saved his brains. The musket dropped, and he begged for quarter.

No alarm was given; none could be. That one yell merely curdled a dream or two. The garrison slept on.

But not long. ‘Darting like lightning,’ as Allen said, through the covered passage or swarming up the wall on either side of the gate, the invaders poured on to the parade, formed roughly, and split their throats with horrible Indian yells, while some of them — at Arnold’s order — secured the barracksdoors. No more dreams now : it was a terrible awakening.

Borne along on the roar of this pandemonium, the two leaders dashed up the stairs opposite the covered way, which led to the rooms of the commander. Captain Delaplace of the 26th.

‘Come out of here this instant, you damned old rat, or I ‘ll sacrifice the whole garrison!’ bellowed Allen, pounding on the door with the pommel of his sword.

The door opened; and there stood the Captain in his shirt, breeches in hand; while the frightened face of his wife half appeared in the darkness.

‘Give up the fort instantly!’ was the form of salutation that greeted him.

‘By what authority do you demand it ? ‘ stammered the dumfounded officer.

‘In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental

Congress,’ thundered Allen, while Arnold added, ‘Give

up j^our arms and you ’11 be treated like a gentleman.’

Delaplace began to stutter something.

‘Surrender this instant!’ cried the giant on the land- ing, cutting him short with a whirl of the sword, none too far above his head. (31 – An unwarranted importance has been attached to Allen’s words. The version of the text is an attempt to combine all the well-supported accounts of the matter. See, in particular, E. Allen, Narrative; W. C. Todd, Biog”. and •other Articles, p. 104, Note ; I. Allen, Vt., p. 58 ; Goodhue, Shoreham, p. 14. )

It looked hardly necessary to surrender. The fort seemed already possessed of the devil, and the volunteers were smashing doors and dragging out redcoats ; but Delaplace gave the word, and the Americans, rushing pell-mell into the barracks — where the troops had been too much astonished and dismayed to fire, even if they could — quickly ‘seized, brought out and disarmed’ the rest of them. Not over gently was this done, for, as Allen phrased it, the assailants ‘behaved with uncommon rancour.’ Cutlasses and the like clashed a little. But in ten minutes, without loss of life or serious wounds, the whole affair was over, the fort vanquished, the forty-seven soldiers of the garrison made fast, and fifty-five good cannon, besides a couple of mortars, captured for Boston. Then, ‘with a superior lustre,’ as Allen observed, the sun rose.

The next day, as this joyous news went speeding across the hills and valleys of Massachusetts, it found the good people of that Colony bowing low in their churches for ‘Publick Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,’ and beseeching the Most High that America might ‘soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven’; and to many, when they heard the message, it seemed as if the petition had been answered while still in their hearts. Different in form but equivalent in meaning was the comment of Dr. Warren. When the tidings reached Cambridge, he sat down and wrote his friend SchoUy, ‘Thus a War has begun’ ; and no doubt both he and Samuel Adams reflected exultantly that now the road to Canada — and from Canada — was being cleared. (32 – Fast • 4 Force, I., 1364. Warren, May 17, 1775 : Bancroft Coll., Eng, and Am., Jan.-Aug., 1775, p. 229.)

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