The Guns of Fort Ticonderoga

Hello, hello! How are you doing? I've had a great week, and I can't wait to share it with everybody.

The first thing we did was go on a family field trip to the Great Escape. That has nothing to do with the Revolutionary War. But on the way there, I read this book called One Dead Spy. It's about Nathan Hale. He was the most famous American spy during the Revolutionary War. I like that it was really funny and it looks like a comic book. I liked it so much, I read it again the next day.

  

I had a chance to read it the next day because we went to Fort Ticonderoga. The book talked about Henry Knox (you might remember him from another blog post) taking guns from Fort Ticonderoga on the Knox Trail to Boston. It was nice to read about something before I went there! If you're interested in this book, you can look up Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. It's a series from all different wars. 

Fort Ticonderoga is really important because it had a lot of supplies, especially cannons. Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont won the first victory for the Americans there in 1775.  Then Henry Knox delivered the cannons to George Washington. 

The fort has been around ever since the French and Indian War (that was before the Revolutionary War), but the British won it from the French. (Interesting information: George Washington used to be a British soldier. He is the one who started the French and Indian War!)

Fort Ticonderoga is next to Lake Champlain. The view there is amazing! These are some views from outside the fort buildings, but inside the walls.

This is the parade grounds in the very middle of all three parts of the fort.  

 

 Speaking of three, the fort was blown up three times. It was blown up once during the French and Indian War and twice during the Revolutionary War. It was never blown up by the winners, but always by the people who lost the fort! They did that because they didn't want the other side to be able to use the fort. 

This is a sleeping quarter. And again, speaking of three, three thousand soldiers lived at the fort during the French and Indian War. It would have been really crowded!

 

We got to see the cannons go off in the afternoon. We watched a four pound shot cannon. Some of the cannons at the fort were eighteen pounders! This is a four pound shot.

 

This is a sloooooooow motion video of the cannon. Don't be alarmed!

Across the lake is Mount Defiance. It's how far some of the cannons could shoot. In this picture, the arrow is where it could shoot and the ball is the cannon. The arrow is pointing at a flag pole, which you cannot see. It's really far away!

These are some baby cannons. (* They're called "mortars.") We're going to call them baby cannons. 

  

Here are some other weapons, including a gun and sword.

 

This is a "gabion." The French weaved them and filled them with dirt to make the walls. They didn't use tacky glue (haha!).

 

These are some models of the fort when it was first being built. It was all tents. 

Remember that book we talked about? This is a model of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold taking over Fort Ticonderoga.

And here's the same spot in the real fort.

This is a famous painting of "Knox the Ox" bringing the cannons back. (Knox the Ox is a nickname people from the war called Henry Knox.) They also had a model of the painting.

In one of the rooms, they had a cannon pulling machine. We failed horribly to lift the cannon. It was real and it was heavy!

The last stop at Fort Ticonderoga was the King's Garden. This is where they would grow all their crops. It didn't look as nice as it does now. The picture on the right is a picture of a tadpole. They had tons of them in a fountain! The tadpoles were cute. The picture on the left is a picture of the beautiful scenery. I think my grandma is going to like that picture!

 

Thank you everybody for reading this blog post. We already have our next adventure planned, so keep watch for that. Peace out, guys!