Friday, September 20, 2024 (8am to 5pm)
Led by: Jim Rowe and Bruce Venter
Departure: Fort Ticonderoga parking lot
Tour Registration: $150.00
America’s History, LLC will again partner with Fort Ticonderoga to offer a one-day Revolutionary War bus tour.
After leaving Fort Ticonderoga, our tour will start in Bennington, Vermont. On the way to the headquarters of the “Bennington Mob” otherwise known as the Green Mountain Boys we’ll discuss the major characters we’ll meet on today’s tour. Background on the Hampshire Grants dispute, between the settlers led by Ethan Allen and New York officials, will set the stage for what happens on May 10, 1775. In Bennington, we’ll see several landmark sites associated with Ethan Allen like the Catamount Tavern, as the plot to capture Fort Ticonderoga unfolds.
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One of the most iconic operations of the Revolutionary War was the transport of artillery and military munitions from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point to Boston by Col. Henry Knox. In the dead of winter, the “Noble Train of Artillery” was floated south on Lake George. After a heavy snowfall, the guns were pulled by sled from Lake George to Albany after crossing the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, and then hauled over the Berkshires to Boston. Here the guns were placed on Dorchester Heights by George Washington’s army in March 1776, much to the surprise of the British currently under siege in Boston. A young, former Boston bookseller, Knox, who had a penchant for artillery, was given the chance to command the expedition which he completed successfully. It is a story worth telling as we approach the 250th anniversary of this event next year. We’ll avoid the snow drifts, ice and sleet experienced by Knox’s men by traversing the route in June, rather than the blistery cold days of December through February in 1775-76. But it will be a memorable trek, nonetheless. 
West Point was a major fortified installation during the American Revolution. Its purpose was to prevent the British from controlling the Hudson River and dividing New England from the rest of the country. Benedict Arnold’s plot to sell West Point in 1780 is undoubtedly the most famous story associated with New York’s lower Hudson River Valley region. But many other events occurred during the period 1777 thru 1783 in this area.