I should have included something about the fort's history when I opened the thread, but didn't have the time. This text is from a website called: FORT TICONDEROGA AND THE KING'S GARDEN.
Fort Ticonderoga History: 18th Century
Fort Ticonderoga, originally Fort Carillon, was built by the French military between 1755 and 1759. One of a series the French built to control Lake Champlain. The site looks over Lake Champlain at a point where it narrows and the shore of Vermont is a mere cannon shot away. It is at this point, too, that the waters from Lake George enter Lake Champlain via the La Chute River. Control of this strategic narrows meant control of the north-south water "highway".
On July 8, 1758 the Fort was successfully defended by a French army of 3500 soldiers under the command of Louis-Joseph le Marquis de Montcalm despite being severely outnumber by an attacking British army of 16,000 troops under the command of General James Abercromby. This was France's greatest victory in the Seven Years' War.
The following year however, the British under the command of General Jeffery Amherst defeated the French at Fort Carillon. The French troops evacuated the Fort but not before blowing up the powder magazine and warehouse as they went. After several years of archeological site-work the magasin du Roi has finally been rebuilt. The reincarnation as the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center is historically accurate on the exterior and houses modern museum, education and meeting spaces.
American Revolution
At the outset of the American Revolution a small company of British soldiers still manned the Fort. On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys crossed Lake Champlain from Vermont and at dawn surprised and captured the sleeping garrison. This was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. From then until July 1777, Fort Ticonderoga served as an important staging area for the American Army while invading Canada and holding the territory against the British forces.
In 1776 new fortifications were built across Lake Champlain on Mount Independence. During the summer of 1776 a fleet of small warships or gondolas where rigged and fitted out at Mount Independence. This fleet under the command of Benedict Arnold fought the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776. In July 1777 the British General Burgoyne managed to place cannon on Mount Defiance and forced the Fort's garrison under General Arthur St. Clair to evacuate on July 6th. In September 1777 a small American force conducted the final raid on the Fort attempting to retake it from the British. The British finally abandoned the Fort in early November following the surrender of the British army at Saratoga.
