May 30th

Way back near the beginning of my trip, I had a Civil War day (Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry) and then a day in Yorktown and Jamestown. Today I was immersed in two important earlier battles in the Revolutionary War, Ticonderoga and Sarasota.

The French first built Fort Carillon to defend the Portage area between Lake Champlain and Lake George. The British took it over during the French and Indian War and renamed it Ticonderoga, a native word that means “land between the waters”. Then in May 1775, a month after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the fort on behalf of the continental army and that winter moved many of the fort’s cannons all the way to Dorchester Heights in South Boston, persuading the British garrison to evacuate Boston March 17, 1776. In June 1777, as part of the British army’s strategy to control all of New York and separate New England from the rest of the colonies, general John Burgoyne took back Fort Ticonderoga.

That’s the fort’s military history. Its preservation history will reach 200 years next year. A member of the Pell family of Rhode Island (ancestor of Senator Pell of Pell Grants renown) bought the property from the US government in 1820. Restoration finally started in 1909 and has been ongoing ever since. The barracks can be seen and there are exhibits on all three floors of two sides of the fort – one side has been completely modernized as a 21st century museum.

In September 1777, three months after recapturing Ticonderoga, General Burgoyne was leading the British army down the Hudson River to control the whole valley and meet up with General Howe’s troops who were occupying New York City. The continental army, led by Generals Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, set up their troops on a hill in Sararoga overlooking a narrow piece of land next to the Hudson that the British would have to pass through. There was one battle on September 19th where the Redcoats took the field but couldn’t proceed through the bottleneck. Both sides regrouped and fought the decisive battle on October 7th. The Americans prevailed, the British retreated but were surrounded and General Burgoyne laid down his sword – according to the film at the visitor center the first time ever that a British army surrendered on the battlefield. This decisive victory gave George Washington and the Continental Congress the confidence needed to persevere until Yorktown 4 years later.

There is a driving tour of the battlefield with 10 stops, including many monuments and a restoration of a farmhouse used as one of the continental army’s headquarters. And I saw a group of folks on an archeological dig, searching for more clues of what happened 242 years ago.

I also visited the intact house of American General Philip Schuyler (whose daughters became famous in “Hamilton”), drove along the western shore of the very scenic and touristy Lake George and ended the day seeing the hockey arena and the outdoor speedskating oval from the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

There are two songs of the day. For Saratoga, “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon and for the Miracle on Ice “Miracle of Miracles” from “Fiddler on the Roof”.

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