(from Ethan Allen,
A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity, 1779)
ETHAN ALLEN SHOUTED these famous words in anger and exasperation. He and his Green Mountain Boys had just stormed Fort Ticonderoga before dawn on May 10, 1775. He caught the British commander inside the fort in the act of putting on his pants. The commander asked Allen by what authority he demanded surrender.
“In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” came Allen’s inspired answer.
Ethan Allen was a tall man of Herculean strength. Stories had it that in an altercation with a New York sheriff and his six deputies, Ethan single-handedly knocked all seven unconscious. And that in a dispute with two land surveyors, he grabbed the pair, one in each arm, lifted them off the ground, and banged their heads together. He also had a sense of humor. When the British sought to arrest him and offered a twenty-pound bounty, he rode to Albany and tacked up his own poster offering a twenty-pound bounty for the arrest of the governor.
As a boy he read the Bible and every other available book in Cornwall, Connecticut. At age nine he wrote down his thoughts, which so impressed his father that Ethan was sent away to school in Salisbury, to prepare for college. But his father died when Ethan was in his teens, and he had to return to the farm to support his family.
After successfully operating a furnace to produce potash, he sold it and moved to Vermont, which at that time was part of the New Hampshire Land Grants. New York considered this land under its jurisdiction and tried to add a second settler’s fee on top of New Hampshire’s. Those who refused this double taxation would face eviction. This galvanized armed opposition which evolved into the Green Mountain Boys—some three hundred men led by Ethan Allen.
The Connecticut Assembly financed Allen to mobilize his Green Mountain Boys to seize Fort Ticonderoga at the southern end of Lake Champlain. On the night of May 9, 1775, 350 armed men rendezvoused at Hand’s Cove on the east side of the lake. Boats were scarce. What few there were had to ferry the men across, then return for others. Before dawn only eighty-three men and officers had reached the other side. Rather than wait for more men and lose the advantage of surprise, Allen decided to strike with the force he had. His report follows, as published in his 1779 memoir, A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity.
I LANDED EIGHTY-THREE MEN near the garrison, and sent the boats back for the rear guard, commanded by Seth Warner. But the day began at dawn, and I found myself under the necessity to attack the fort before the rear could cross the lake. As the attack 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 sent to me (from the General Assembly of Connecticut) to surprise and take the garrison now before us.
“I now propose to advance before you in person and conduct you through the wicker-gate. For we must this morning either quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress in a few minutes. And, in as much 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, I marched them immediately to the wicker-gate aforesaid, where I found a sentry posted. He instantly snapped his fuse at me. I ran immediately toward him, and he retreated into the parade ground within the garrison, gave a halloo, and ran under a bomb-proof.
My party, who had followed me into the fort, I formed on the parade ground in such a manner as to face the two barracks, which faced each other. The garrison being asleep (except for the sentries), we gave three huzzahs, which greatly surprised them.
One of the sentries made a pass at one of my officers. 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. I demanded of him the place where the commanding officer slept. He showed me a pair of stairs in the front of a barrack, on the west part of the garrison, which led up to a second story in said barrack, to which I immediately repaired. I ordered the commander (Capt. Dela-place) to come forth instantly, or we would sacrifice the whole garrison. The captain came immediately with his britches in his hand.
I ordered him to deliver to me the Fort instantly. He asked me by what authority I demanded it. I answered: “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, I again demanded an immediate surrender of the garrison, to which he immediately complied.
He ordered his men to be forthwith paraded without arms, as he had given up the garrison.
In the meantime some of my officers had given orders, and consequence thereof, sundry of the barrack door were beat down, and about one third of the garrison imprisoned—which consisted of the said commander, Lt. Feltham, a conductor of artillery, a gunner, two sergeants, and forty-four rank and file; about one hundred pieces of cannon, one 13 inch mortar, and a number of swivels. This surprise was carried into execution in the gray of the morning on the 10th day of May, 1775. The sun seemed to rise that morning with a superior luster; and Ticonderoga and its dependencies smiled on its conquerors, who passed about the flowing bowl, and wished success to Congress, and liberty and freedom of America.