Fort Ticonderoga’s Innovative, Immersive Approach to Public Programming in America’s 250th
2024- 1774
Daily programs will center on the British guard from the 26th Regiment of Foot under Captain William Delaplace. Peacetime garrison life for soldiers and families will be contrasted with growing political dissent and violence around Boston and locally in the Green Mountains.
2025- 1775
Daily programs will begin a REAL-TIME approach, portraying different groups of soldiers & families, from the British Guard –up through May 10—to the Connecticut and New York soldiers who took their turn guarding Fort Ticonderoga.
- May 9, 10, & 11 | No Quarter
The 250th Anniversary reenactment of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys as well as the immediate aftermath. - June 21-22 | Benedict Arnold’s Command
The politics, egos, and unclear authority of Fort Ticonderoga will be recreated as representatives from Massachusetts force Benedict Arnold to resign. - August 30-31 | Onward to Canada
The dramatic first muster of the Northern Continental Army will be recreated as regiments of New Yorkers, Connecticut Yankees, and the Green Mountain Boys assembled for the invasion of Canada. This event will highlight Ticonderoga’s place on Lake Champlain as a supply and naval base through participants rowing to and from Ticonderoga as a fleet of bateaux and vignettes throughout the weekend. - October 25-26 | British Prisoner of Wars at Ticonderoga
British Prisoners of War and their families come in from St. Jean & Chambly. Captive at Ticonderoga, these soldiers, women, and children prepare to march onward to prisoner camps further south, and perhaps the hope of being exchanged for American Prisoners of War. - December 6 | Noble Train Begins
The arrival of Henry Knox, and the proofing and selection of cannon will all be recreated in this day-long event. Special for the 250th Anniversary, this event will reach further in Ticonderoga’s role, recreating the whole first leg of the Noble Train, bringing cannon to Lake George, where they embarked for Boston.
2026- 1776
Daily programs will continue the REAL-TIME approach to our Revolutionary War narrative. Continental portrayals through the spring will evoke the progress of supplies and reinforcements to a beleaguered northern Army in Canada. The summer and fall fatigue projects of recreated entrenchments, soldiers’ huts, and armed vessels will show the struggle to rebuild the army and prepare for the British attack.
- March 28 | Proceed to Canada
Trains of supply sleds and columns of Continental reinforcements, headed for Canada, will be recreated as they assembled and departed Ticonderoga. The challenges of keeping the northern army alive at the gates of Quebec City will highlight Fort Ticonderoga’s place within a rapidly changing campaign. - April 11 | Emissaries to Canada
A special committee from the Continental Congress, including Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carrol, pass through Ticonderoga as they assess the situation in Canada, and attempt to allay fears among French Canadian Catholics, that they will be welcome in the United States. - July 4-7 | Return of an Army
This event will portray the retreat of the Northern Continental Army to Ticonderoga as the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. The maritime arrival and encampment of the Continental Army will show the nadir of this Army, from which their labor would lead to a key Victory in 1776. - July 28 | “Today We Are a Nation among the Peoples of the World”
The first reading of the Declaration of Independence to the troops at Ticonderoga will be presented, set with a backdrop of the ongoing preparations on land and on water for the British Invasion. - September 5-6 |Fleet & Fortification: The Science of Defense
Construction of an armed vessel for Lake Champlain and all the maritime trades work to fit out such a boat will be paired with the art of Fortification, as executed across the Ticonderoga camp. This event will drill into the centuries of military science that informed American ingenuity and effort, in the service of liberty. - October 24-25 | October 28, 1776 Reenactment
This reenactment will dramatically recreate one of the greatest Continental Army victories of 1776 that occurred at the same time as one of its greatest defeats. The moment soldiers and militiamen at Ticonderoga held the line for liberty—and perhaps secured independence—will come to life. - December 19 | Riot!
Regional tensions within the Continental Army explode in this event, as Pennsylvanians turn on their fellow New England soldiers. The riot between, ‘Yankees,’ and, ‘Buckskins,’ will be dramatically recreated, revealing the humanity of soldiers willing to stand up for liberty.
2027- 1777
Real time daily programming will chart the course of the 1777 campaign, with portrayals of soldiers of different regions and nations around the Atlantic World, as Ticonderoga historically changed hands between armies. 1777 portrayals will underscore the diversity of peoples swept up in the Revolutionary War, from Native American warriors to German cavalrymen and loyalist refugee families. At the same time a new professional core within the Continental Army through their defense and retreat from Ticonderoga, in order to fight another day.
- January 16 | 1777 Preparing for the Coming Campaign
With lessons learned in the 1776 defense of Ticonderoga, newly-reenlisted artillerymen work to prepare the cannons, carriages, and ammunition to keep the British at bay again. At the same time, the cold truth of garrisoning Ticonderoga over the winter is revealed through the experience of the winter guard. - May 22-23 | Redoubt Building
Preparations for another campaign season hit high gear as recently arrived Massachusetts soldiers build redoubts to fill in gaps from the entrenchments of 1776. At the same time, gunners and artificers of Ticonderoga’s own battalion of Artillerymen work to prepare the batteries and guns to meet the British on land and lake. - July 10, 11, & 12 | Defiance & Independence
See the defense, fall, and aftermath of the 1777 siege of Ticonderoga in this three-day re-enactment event! Each day from Friday through Sunday portraying events like American soldiers retreating inside their fortified lines, to the British advance up Mount Defiance and a secret evacuation of American-held Ticonderoga. See the first hours of recaptured Ticonderoga, as British & Brunswick soldiers take stock of the spoils of war, and the might of the British fleet on Lake Champlain assembled below Fort Ticonderoga’s storied walls. - September 18-19 | Brown’s Raid
Experience the real-life action adventure of Colonel John Brown’s Raid on Ticonderoga 250 years to the day in real-time. See the exciting, even improbable, actual events as American militia and regulars attack the British & Brunswick guard of Ticonderoga. - November 7 | Evacuation & Destruction of Ticonderoga
Watch the last moments of British-held Ticonderoga as its guard of German, British, loyalist, and Native American warriors embark. As loyalist refugees flee to the safety of Ticonderoga, see how post-war national boundaries were already taking shape while British gunners blew up this storied fort.