s place the opposite shores of New
York and Vermont are pushed out into the lake toward each other, thus
forming two peninsulas, with the lake contracted to a width of half a
mile, or point-blank cannon range, between them: one is Ticonderoga; the
other, Mount Independence. Thus, together, they command the passage of
the two lakes.

Ticonderoga itself is a tongue-shaped projection of quite uneven land,
broad and high at the base, or where it joins the hills behind it, but
growing narrower as it descends over intervening hollows or swells to
its farthest point in the lake. That part next the mainland is a wooded
height, having a broad plateau on the brow--large enough to encamp an
army corps upon--but cut down abruptly on the sides washed by the lake.
This height, therefore, commanded the whole peninsula lying before it,
and underneath it, as well as the approach from Lake George, opening
behind it in a rugged mountain pass, since it must be either crossed or
turned before access to the peninsula could be gained. Except for the
higher hills surrounding it, this one is, in every respect, an admirable
military position.

The French, who built the first fortress here, had covered all the low
ground next the lake with batteries and intrenchments, but had left the
heights rising behind it unguarded, until Abercromby attacked on that
side in 1758. They then hastily threw up a rude intrenchment of logs,
extending quite across the crest in its broadest part. Yet, in spite of
the victory he then obtained, Montcalm was so fully convinced that
Ticonderoga could not stand a siege, that he made no secret of calling
it a trap, for some honest man to disgrace himself in.[3]

Ticonderoga, however, was henceforth looked upon as a sort of Gibraltar.
People, therefore, were filled with wonder when they heard how Ethan
Allen had surprised and taken it on the 9th of May, 1775, with only a
handful of men; how Seth Warner had also taken Crown Point; and how
Skenesborough[4] and Fort George, being thus cut off from Canada, had
also fallen into our hands without firing a shot.[5]

Thus, in the very beginning of the war for independence, and at one bold
stroke, we regained possession of this gateway of the north; or in
military phrase, we now held all the strategic points by which an
advance from Lower Canada upon the United Colonies was possible.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] CROWN POINT, built by the French in 1731, greatly strengthened by
the Britis