Mounted Soldiers in Brown’s Raid
As Fort Ticonderoga prepares to re-create Colonel John Brown’s September 18th, 1777 raid on Fort Ticonderoga, a nagging, or perhaps neighing, question keeps coming up. Were there mounted men among Colonel John Brown’s force of militia and regular continental soldiers? An answer question would not radically change the exact progress of events, but it certainly […]
3 Details for a Perfect New England Militia Portrayal at Ticonderoga
When General Horatio Gates tasked General Lincoln to, “divide and distract,” General Burgoyne’s British and German army with a series of raids along his supply route to Canada, he called upon the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont militia to provide the majority of his 2000 man force amassed in Pawlet, Vermont. Most of these militiamen […]
“The accommodations are first class but limited” Fort Ticonderoga’s Little-Known 19th-Century Hotel
Fort Ticonderoga is best known for its military structures and associated history, but what many people do not realize is that the site played a very important role in the history of 19th-century American tourism. Once steamboat travel became the principle mode of transport on New York’s northern lakes, Fort Ticonderoga became the location where […]
Robert Fairchild and His Powder Horn
Powder horns are unique artifacts in that they have the ability to speak to a single person’s 18th-century military service unlike most other objects. Muskets, swords, and other similar items, though important, are rarely able to connect people today nearly face-to-face with an individual person from the past. What makes powder horns so interesting, and […]
Building the Giberne, Part 2
The red leather that gives the giberne its notable color in the 1757 watercolors is Russia leather, a hard-wearing upholstery leather. This leather was extremely popular through the 18th and 19th century due the preservative effects of the Russian birch tar used in its processing. A German treatise from 1807 advocated for the domestic German […]
Wild French Food in 1755
The past two years visitors often asked, “Did they hunt for their food?” in reference to the historical soldiers we portrayed at Fort Ticonderoga. For the men of Colonel Williard’s 1759Massachusettsprovincial regiment who we portrayed in 2011, the answer was a pretty definitive no. The one comical exception came from the diary of Private Lemuel […]
King’s Garden Volunteers Welcome
It’s always a pleasure to discover a plant growing in an unexpected place among purposefully placed plants in the garden. These “volunteers” are nature’s gift to the gardener, the product of prolific re-seeders, birds or small mammals leaving seeds behind, or a gust of wind carrying seeds from outside the garden. It is not uncommon […]
Building the Giberne, Part 1
One of the essential articles needed to portray soldiers of the Languedoc regiment at Ticonderoga in 1755 are cartridge pouches. These cartridge pouches or, ‘cartouches,’ were properly called, ‘gibernes,‘ for French regular army soldiers. Much like English cartridge pouches; these gibernes were carried slung on leather belts from the left shoulder, and hung down near […]
Maurice de Saxe and Canadian Clothing
While General Montcalm is the most famous and influential French officer in North America, on the continent of Europe, Marshall-General Maurice de Saxe was France’s most famous and successful officer during the middle of the 18th century. Like many officers in the French Army, he was of foreign birth, a son of the Elector of […]
William Ferris Pell, Horticulturalist
When William Ferris Pell purchased the 546-acre Garrison Grounds encompassing the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga in 1820, he preserved the remaining stonework of the Fort and began shaping the landscape surrounding the summer home he built nearby. Set in a pastoral landscape, the site was described as reminiscent of “park scenery of England; and the view of the ruins from […]