August 1776 was a busy time at Fort Ticonderoga. The ranks of the garrison swelled as soldiers built defenses on both sides of Lake Champlain and prepared to face the British. The Fort Ticonderoga Museum has two documents created on August 20, 1776, 250 years ago today, each of which sheds its own light on the pivotal summer of 1776.
On August 20, Colonel John Trumbull, deputy adjutant general of the Northern Department, wrote a letter to Captain Richard Varick. Trumbull wrote to Varick with “a List of Articles wanted in the Store, for the Naval Department”, including “a large Quantity of Blocks”, pump boxes, and “a Sett of Palms”. The shipyard at Skenesborough was hard at work building ships to strengthen the American fleet on the lake, but those ships needed a variety of supplies to be ready to face the British.
Also on August 20, an officer from Captain James Bancroft’s company of Colonel Jonathan Reed’s Massachusetts militia regiment filled out this mileage abstract. Reed’s regiment was one of the four that the state had sent to reinforce the Northern Army that summer. The abstract lists how far each soldier had to travel from their homes to Ticonderoga and the amount of money due to them. The soldiers received a day’s wages per 20 miles traveled.
This abstract is a window into the diversity of Ticonderoga’s garrison. At least four of the soldiers listed—Cato Freeman, Titus Potamia, Doss Freeman, and Primus Freeman—were free Black men. Little is known of Cato and Primus’ lives. Titus Potamia was likely in his late 50s and had military experience, having served in Massachusetts’ provincial forces in 1746 and 1756. In 1775 he was part of Colonel Ebenezer Bridge’s regiment, which fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Doss Freeman was younger, in his late 20s, and would later serve at the Battles of Saratoga and Monmouth. These four soldiers and the rest of their company devoted their efforts to strengthening Fort Ticonderoga.
Learn more about the letter (object ID MS.2074) and the abstract (MS.7033) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30082 https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30265