Fort Ticonderoga

On this Trades Tuesday we`re building and setting the wooden heel into a woman`s shoe. Our Artificer Carpenter, Jeremy Clifford, carefully laid out the shape of a pair of wooden heels onto a block of dried beech wood. He sawed the excess wood away, then rasped the subtle curves. Artificer Shoemaker, Kevin Maher, then cut and sewed a heel cover onto the women`s shoe. He carefully inserting the heel and pasting it in place.. Stitching around the heel cover secured the heel under the sole.
#TradesTuesday #HistoricTrades #America250

It`s a beautiful, misty morning of sleepy bees and peonies, our Flower of the Week. In addition to peonies, goatsbeard and delphiniums are both approaching full bloom in the King`s Garden.
#KingsGarden #Spring #FloweroftheWeek

The King`s Garden is gorgeous this spring morning, with peonies, columbine, iris, lemon lilies, delphiniums, and our Flower of the Week, poppies!
Don`t forget our King`s Garden Plant Sale, Saturday June 6, from 10 a.m. -3 p.m.
#KingsGarden #Spring

On May 19, 1776, the 400-man American garrison at the Cedars, near Montreal, surrendered to a British and Haudenosaunee force. On May 20, a 140-man relief force on its way to the Cedars was defeated and captured by the Haudenosaunee as well. The affair was chaotic and humiliating for the Americans, who saw about 500 men captured by a force barely half that size. By June 4, 1776—250 years ago today—the Continental Army was looking into the causes of the disaster.

On June 4, the relief party’s commander, Major Henry Sherburne, and other officers from the party gave a deposition. The men shared the difficulties they faced on their journey to the Cedars. They were first delayed in crossing the Ottawa River by a lack of available boats: the fort at St. Anne’s, their crossing point, had only one bateau and a few canoes.

After crossing the river on May 18, “a Letter was received from Capt. Bliss [a scout they had sent ahead], acquainting of his being a Prisoner, likewise that 500 Canadians and Indians were within Two or Three miles of us…it was thought most prudent to retreat.” They tried to set out again on May 19, but high winds made a river crossing impossible. Only on May 20 could they make the crossing, soon meeting the Haudenosaunee and being forced to surrender.

A deposition given by Captain Samuel Young, commander of St. Anne’s, tells a different story. Young describes himself as urging the party to hurry but being repeatedly ignored by the timid, slow-moving Sherburne. He claims to have argued, correctly, that the numbers in Bliss’s letter were inflated: “I [gave] it as my Opinion that Capt. Bliss was obliged to write as he did to prevent the party from going to the Cedars but if they went over speedily they might… Save him, & the Cedars”. Despite Young’s criticism of him, Sherburne was never blamed by the army for his actions at the Cedars and continued to serve in the Continental Army until 1781.

Learn about Sherburne’s (object ID 2001.0009.005A) and Young’s depositions (2001.0009.005B) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29411 https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29412

With June comes poppies, our Flower of the Week! The King`s Garden is alive in late spring color, with Japanese and German iris, lupines, columbine, and the first peony blooms opening.
Like something you see?
Our spring plant sale is Saturday June 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On June 1, 1776—250 years ago today—the new issue of Newburyport printer John Mycall’s Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet had war on its mind. The issue includes an excerpt from a speech given in Parliament in October 1775 by British naval officer George Johnstone. Johnstone argues against using harsh military measures against America, not only because it is unjust, “destructive despotism”, but because those methods are doomed to fail. “It is with pleasure I perceive the force of this country, when wielded in such a cause, is totally inadequate”, claims Johnstone. He argues that a war will cost more than Britain can afford and ruin a vital economic relationship in the process. Learning that words so supportive of their cause were being offered across the sea in Parliament likely heartened the readers of the Journal.

The Journal also included news from America, including a copy of a letter from Philadelphia that reported on the American army’s retreat from Quebec, a naval skirmish on the Delaware River, and the discovery of a counterfeiting ring on Long Island. Another letter, signed “The Forester”, a pen name for Thomas Paine, argues that it is too late for America to reconcile with Britain and that the only path to happiness is self-government: “To live beneath the authority of those whom we cannot love, is misery, slavery, or what name you please.” Months earlier, Mycall had published an edition of Paine’s influential pamphlet Common Sense.

While this issue was dominated by war news, the readers of the Journal had other interests too. The lead article in this edition shared tactics discovered in Amsterdam for reviving drowned people. Methods for saving drowning victims would have interested many people in the seaside town of Newburyport. The actual efficacy of these methods may have varied, though; suggestions offered by the article included performing rescue breaths, warming the victim, tickling the nostrils with a feather, and “blowing air or smoke up the fundament.”

Learn more about this issue (object ID MS.7325, property of Robert Nittolo) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31125

On May 29, 1776—250 years ago today—Massachusetts was celebrating Election Day. This holiday, actually the opening day of the year’s legislative session, was one of the colony’s few public holidays. For legislators, it was also a day of religious and moral instruction, as the Massachusetts General Assembly heard an Election Day sermon from a prominent minister.

In 1776, the man chosen to give the Election Day speech was Reverend Samuel West of Dartmouth, MA. West was a passionate patriot who had volunteered as a military chaplain after the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was also an intellectual who had decrypted a coded letter sent by the head of the army’s hospital, Dr. Benjamin Church, and discovered that Church had been passing information to the British. On Election Day, West combined his intellectual vigor and patriotism to deliver a Biblical defense of the right to rebel against tyranny.

West had much to say on his chosen topic. This printed version of his sermon, expanded from his original speech to the Assembly, is over 17,000 words in length. West argued that people had a moral and religious duty to obey a good government (likely a popular proposition with the legislators in his audience). However, that duty only existed when the government was moral and representative: “As magistrates have no authority but what they derive from the people, whenever they act contrary to the public good…they forfeit their right to govern the people.”

As people had a duty to obey a good government, they had an equal duty, sanctioned by God, to oppose a tyrannical one. The American struggle against Britain was thus entirely justified, and defending American rights by military means was “an indispensable duty… which we owe to God and our country.” As the Continental Congress in Philadelphia debated independence, West took a firm stance on the matter: “Providence seems plainly to point to us the expediency, and even necessity, of our considering ourselves as an independent state.”

Learn more about this sermon (object ID MS.7833, property of Robert Nittolo) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31778

Our sale bed in the King`s Garden is gorgeous this morning! Each fall, divisions from our iris and other extra perennials go into this bed for sale in the spring. Check out the plants, seeds, and produce available throughout the season in our garden.
https://fortticonderoga.org/experience/explore-adirondacks/kings-garden/
#KingsGarden #Spring