Fort Ticonderoga

On June 12, 1776—250 years ago today—Captain John Bigelow was fed up. He had served as captain of an independent company of Connecticut artillery since January, and the company’s service in Canada had exposed him to the shortages, hardships, and failures of the Canadian campaign. In this letter to Connecticut commissary Jeremiah Wadsworth, Bigelow vented his frustrations amid the army’s chaotic retreat.

Bigelow begins the letter by recounting the army’s most recent misfortunes, including the retreat from Quebec, the capture of over 500 Americans at the Cedars, and the June 8 Battle of Trois-Rivieres, where over 200 more men were captured as the army waded through a swamp. “Every thing in this Country Seems against us,” he laments.

Bigelow paints a picture of near-total chaos. Supplies are sent to different posts seemingly at random, “A Cannon Sent… without the Carriage… the Cartridges in One Place the Balls in another”. The officers of the army are hardly in better shape: “there is no Harmony among the Officers, and Every man Seems to do what’s right in his own Eyes… there is orders given and Countermanded often times twice an hour”. He comments caustically on the army’s smallpox epidemic, calling it “A damn’d Pretty Plan to hire thousands of Men to Go into an Enemy Country to make a Hospittle of it.” While he praises the soldiers in general—“We have as Good Men as any in the world”—he believes many healthy men are claiming to be too sick to perform their duties.

In a postscript, Bigelow provides a scathing epitaph for the Canadian invasion: “I suppose you Expected Some news of Consequence, there is nobody Knows the Situation of our Army here but our Enemy’s and So I can’t of Course tell you any. They Keep a look out & We Keep none, they are well Supply’ed we are not, they are well Regulated and we in Confusion”. Within a month, Bigelow’s Canadian nightmare would be over. He retreated with the army to Fort Ticonderoga and spent the rest of the year there working to build up its defenses.

Learn more about this letter (object ID MS.7031) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30264

By June 1776, the British prisoners captured at the sieges of Fort Chambly and Fort St. Jean had been in custody for over half a year, facing long journeys, local tensions, and unpleasant conditions. Conditions for captured officers, though, could be quite different than for the army’s enlisted men. Officers were considered to be gentlemen, and with that status came more trust and more freedom.

Privates captured in Canada initially had some freedom. The Continental Congress hoped to prove through its humane treatment of prisoners of war that America had the moral high ground and deserved a place among enlightened Western nations. British prisoners in Pennsylvania were given the same rations as Continental Army privates and were allowed to move freely through the towns they stayed in. However, as tensions rose between locals and prisoners, restrictions were tightened. By summer 1776, prisoners were confined in stockaded barracks.

Captivity was more comfortable for British officers. As gentlemen, they were presumed to be trustworthy and bound to keep their word of honor. In November 1775, Congress set terms of parole for officers captured at St. Jean. Officers would promise not to go more than six miles from their place of parole, avoid port towns, and “carry on no political correspondence” about the conflict. In return, they could stay comfortably and mostly unmonitored in private homes.

On June 11, 1776—250 years ago today—Captain Jacob Schalch and surgeon James Gill of the Royal Regiment of Artillery were given a new parole pass. Thomas McKean of the Committee on Prisoners signed this certificate affirming that the men “have given me their Parole this day to repair, to Bound-brook… in New Jersey and there to conduct themselves agreeable to the Resolutions of Congress.” Their imprisonment was likely nearing its end; most of the prisoners taken at St. Jean were exchanged by the end of 1776. Schalch returned to the Royal Artillery Regiment after his exchange and continued to serve there until his death in 1789.

Learn about this pass (object ID 1994.55) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30286

This Saturday, June 13, join Fort Ticonderoga and celebrate the Scot in you during a day of Scottish heritage, immersive history, music, ceremony, and culture!

Explore Scottish clan tents and vendors featuring kilts, crafts, and Celtic goods; witness thrilling musket demonstrations showcasing Highland soldiers and their weapons; march alongside clans and the Black Watch to a moving memorial ceremony at the Scottish Cairn; discover the evolution of Highland military uniforms; uncover surprising Scottish stories hidden within Ticonderoga’s collections; and take part in the ceremonial Presentation of the Haggis, celebrating Scottish tradition and community.

The full visitor schedule can be found here: https://fortticonderoga.org/ft_events/living-history-event-scots-day-3/

On June 6, 1776—250 years ago today—the situation in Canada was in such upheaval that when General Philip Schuyler wrote to the army in the field, he could not be entirely sure who the recipient would be. After the siege of Quebec was broken in early May, the army had begun a chaotic retreat. American reinforcements, including a new commander, Major General John Thomas, had arrived in Canada just in time to join the retreat; many of them promptly caught smallpox.

For Schuyler, the commander of the Northern Department, keeping track of a situation in flux hundreds of miles to the north cannot have been easy. However, communicating with the Canadian army was vital, especially since their retreat would lead them to Fort Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Schuyler addressed his letter to “The Honble General Thomas or Officer commanding in Canada”, trying to ensure that his requests reached someone who could carry them out.

Schuyler hoped that the retreating army could bring vital supplies along with it: “I again beg Leave to repeat the Necessity of securing all the Nails you possibly can… and all the Goods you can, as we begin sensibly to feel the want of a variety of articles.” Schuyler was also aware of the possibility that the British would follow the Americans south into New York. To hinder their plans and make it more difficult for them to build a fleet on Lake Champlain, he recommended that “If any Timber plank or Boards are any where in the Country… I think they ought to be destroyed… Saw Mills too should be rendered useless”.

Schuyler’s caution in his address line was well-founded. General Thomas had died on June 2, another victim of the army’s smallpox epidemic. General William Thompson was the next senior officer and would have assumed command but had been captured after the Battle of Trois-Rivieres on June 8, likely before this letter reached camp. The letter was probably forwarded to yet another new commander, General John Sullivan, who took up the baton and organized the American retreat.

Learn more about this letter (object ID MS.2001.0010.001) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29416

She was a Patriot poet. He was a British officer. Learn about the incredible relationship of Jacob and Hannah Schieffelin through several objects in our newest exhibit (and behind-the-scenes video)!

Born in Philadelphia, Jacob Schieffelin’s family moved to Montreal in 1760. As the Revolutionary War began Jacob moved to Detroit, serving as a Loyalist officer in the Detroit Volunteers. In 1778, Schieffelin was deployed to Fort Sackville in Vincennes, Indiana. He was captured with the British garrison in 1779 and forced on an arduous march to Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1780, after seven months of confinement, he escaped and eventually got to British-held New York.

Jacob was quartered with a Quaker family whose oldest daughter Hannah Lawrence was a poet and advocate for the American cause. However unlikely the pair was, they fell in love and were married against her parents’ wishes.

�The following month, the Schieffelins began a remarkable journey back to Detroit in the middle of the war. Following the peace, they ultimately returned to New York in 1794. Now a citizen of the nation he had fought against, Schieffelin took up his in-laws` apothecary business until his death in 1835.

Watch our newest video with curator Dr. Matthew Keagle and Exhibit Designer & Fabricator T.J. Mullen, and be sure to see these incredible objects in person in A Revolutionary Anthology: Revolutionary Possibilities, on view through October 25, 2026!

Vidoe link in bio🔗🎬