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A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity
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Historical SummaryTICONDEROGA was the first military victory of the Revolution for the Continentals. It removed from British hands a fort which commanded the strategic route between Lakes Champlain and George. But, far more significant, the shipment of the cannon seized at the fort to Washington’s army besieging Boston was directly responsible for compelling the British to evacuate that port. Two independent commanders set out on this campaign. Ethan Allen, leader of Vermont’s "Green Mountain Boys," was instructed by Connecticut, his native state, to capture the fort, and Benedict Arnold, a brilliant military mind, was commissioned by the Committee of Safety of Massachusetts to achieve the same end, Arriving on the scene with but a single servant, Arnold claimed the command, but the "Green Mountain Boys" refused to fight except under their own officers, and it was finally agreed that Allen and Arnold should issue commands jointly. Reporting to the Albany Committee of Safety, Allen announced that "Colonel Arnold entered the fortress side by side with me" at the head of the column. (In those days the commanding officer was expected to lead his attack in person). Yet, in his colorful Narrative of his captivity, written four years later, Alien significantly failed to mention Arnold’s share in the capture of the fort. The shabby treatment of Arnold at the hands of the Massachusetts authorities after this victory was the first of a series of unfair incidents which soured Arnold and laid the foundations for his ultimate treachery. The courage, daring, and impulsiveness of the leader of the "Green Mountain Boys" stands out in his account of his campaigns. Captured in the disastrous assault on Montreal later in ’75, Allen was exchanged for a British officer two years later. Since his trunk and papers were constantly searched during his captivity, he never had a chance to write "a syllable or even a rough minute whereon I might predicate this narration, but trusted solely to my memory for the whole." "I have, however, taken the greatest care and pains to recollect the facts and arrange them. I have made truth my invariable guide, and stake my honor on the truth of the facts." Allen modestly asks to be excused for any inaccuracies, as he had "unfortunately missed of a liberal education." But his narrative was written with a vividness and a true feeling for the dramatic which many beneficiaries of a liberal education might justifiably envy. Allen’s imprisonment left him an Anglophobe, to which his Narrative fully attests. Strangely enough, he and his brothers, Ira and Levi, were later involved in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain which would have made Vermont a province of that country. The Allens may have been seeking to pressure Congress into recognizing Vermont (whose lands were disputed by New York and New Hampshire) as a separate state. Nonetheless, such actions, however charitably construed, hardly sit well with the conqueror of Ticonderoga, who, on the day of victory, "tossed about the flowing bowl" and hailed "the liberty and freedom of America."
Key QuoteEthan Allen tells how he led his Green Mountain Boys at Ticonderoga in the first military victory of the Revolution for the Continentals.
Burlington
1846
"In the Name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress"
[1775]
Ever since I arrived at the state of manhood, and acquainted myself with the general history of mankind, I have felt a sincere passion for liberty. The history of nations, doomed to perpetual slavery, in consequence of yielding up to tyrants their natural-born liberties, I read with a sort of philosophical horror; so that the first systematical and bloody attempt at Lexington to enslave America thoroughly electrified my mind, and fully determined me to take part with my country.
And, while I was wishing for an opportunity to signalize myself in its behalf, directions were privately sent to me from the then colony, (now state) of Connecticut, to raise the Green Mountain Boys, and, if possible, to surprise and take the fortress of Ticonderoga. This enterprise I cheerfully undertook; and after first guarding all the several passes that led thither, to cut off all intelligence between the garrison and the country, made a forced march from Bennington, and arrived at the lake opposite to Ticonderoga, on the evening of the ninth day of May, 1775, with two hundred and thirty valiant Green Mountain Boys; and it was with the utmost difficulty that I procured boats to cross the lake.
However, I landed eighty-three men near the garrison, and sent the boats back for the rear guard, commanded by Col. Seth Warner, but the day began to dawn, and I found myself under a necessity to attack the fort, before the rear could cross the lake; and, as it was viewed hazardous, I harangued the officers and soldiers in the manner following:
"Friends and fellow soldiers: You have, for a number of years past, been a scourge and terror to arbitrary power. Your valor has been famed abroad, and acknowledged, as appears by the advice and orders to me, from the General Assembly of Connecticut, to surprise and take the garrison now before us. I now propose to advance before you, and in person, conduct you through the wicket-gate; for we must this morning either quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress in a few minutes; and, inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt, which none but the bravest of men dare undertake, I do not urge it on
any contrary to his will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your firelocks."
The men being, at this time, drawn up in three ranks, each poised his firelock. I ordered them to face to the right, and at the head of the center-file, marched them immediately to the wicket-gate aforesaid, where I found a sentry posted, who instantly snapped his fusee at me. I ran immediately towards him, and he retreated through the covered way into the parade within the garrison, gave a halloo, and ran under a bombproof. My party, who followed me into the fort, I formed on the parade in such a manner as to face the two barracks which faced each other.
The garrison being asleep, except the sentries, we gave three huzzas which greatly surprised them. One of the sentries made a pass at one of my officers with a charged bayonet, and slightly wounded him. My first thought was to kill him with my sword; but in an instant I altered the design and fury of the blow to a slight cut on the side of the head; upon which he dropped his gun, and asked quarter, which I readily granted him, and demanded of him the place where the commanding officer kept.
He showed me a pair of stairs in the front of the barrack, on the west part of the garrison, which led up a second story in said barracks, to which I immediately repaired, and ordered the commander, Capt. De La Place, to come forth instantly, or I would sacrifice the whole garrison; at which the captain came immediately to the door with his breeches in his hand. When I ordered him to deliver me the fort instantly, he asked me by what authority I demanded it. I answered him:
"In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress."
The authority of the Congress being very little known at that time, he began to speak again; but I interrupted him, and, with my drawn sword over his head, again demanded an immediate surrender of the garrison; with which he then complied, and ordered his men to be forth. with paraded without arms, as he had given orders, and in consequence thereof, sundry of the barracks doors were beat down, and about one third of the garrison imprisoned, which consisted of the said commander, a Lieut. Feltham, a conductor of artillery, a gunner, two sergeants, and forty-four rank and file, about one hundred pieces of cannon: one thirteen inch mortar, and a number of swivels. This surprise was carried into execution in the grey of the morning of the tenth day of May, 1775.
The sun seemed to rise that morning with a superior lustre; and Ticonderoga and its dependencies smiled on its conquerors, who tossed about the flowing bowl, and wished success to Congress, and the liberty and freedom of America.
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Chicago: Ethan Allen, A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LFQELMCMI4STL9W.
MLA: Allen, Ethan. A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LFQELMCMI4STL9W.
Harvard: Allen, E, A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=LFQELMCMI4STL9W.
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