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- Ticonderoga and Crown point
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- The immediate object of the attack on the British Forts at
- Ticonderoga and Crown Point on May 10 and 11, 1775 was first to
- capture the forts themselves, but also to obtain a cannon and supplies
- to use for the impending seige of Boston. Washington, who assumed
- command of the American forces on July 2, 1775, could not attempt
- this attack without heavy artillery, which was procured by Colonel
- Ethan Allen, Colonel Benedict Arnold and Colonel Seth Warner with
- VermontÆs Green Mountain Boys.
- Green Mountain Boys, was the name of a group of soldiers from
- Vermont led by Allen, Warner and Arnold. They took their name from
- the Green Mountains in Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys were
- originally organized by Ethan Allen before the revolution to protest the
- claims of the New York government to Vermont territory, and were
- later joined by Seth Warner and Benedict Arnold.
- Seth Warner, was born in Connecticut and later moved to
- Vermont, where he was declared an outlaw in 1771 for forcibly
- resisting a New York claim to the area, and had a reward offered for his
- capture. Under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, he participated in the
- seizure of Fort Ticonderoga and led the force that took Crown Point
- the next day. Later that year, he was elected lieutenant-colonel
- commandant of the Green Mountain Boys.
- Ethan Allen was also born Connecticut, moving to Vermont in
- 1769. He became involved in the struggle between New York and New
- Hampshire for control of the region, just like Allen was. The New York
- authorities rejected an appeal that the region be established as a
- separate province, and Allen organized a volunteer militia, called the
- Green Mountain Boys, to resist the New York cause. Volunteers were
- raised by the Committee of Correspondence. They recruited fifty men
- and three hundred pounds to set up the Green Mountain Boys. Allen
- too, was declared an outlaw by the governor of New York. At the
- outbreak of the Revolution, Allen and The Green Mountain Boys offered
- to fight against the British.
- Arnold was born in Connecticut and enlisted in the militia
- during
- the French and Indian War. Later, as a militia colonel, Arnold joined
- with Allen and The Green Mountain Boys to take Fort Ticonderoga .
- Allen and Arnold, by order of the Connecticut legislature,
- crossed lake Champlain in two boats with a total of eighty-three men
- and captured Fort Ticonderoga early in the morning of May 10, 1775,
- while the British garrison was still sleeping. Allen demanded that the
- British commander surrender in the name of the Great Jehovah and
- the Continental Congress. The commander complied and
- consequently there was no bloodshed. Military supplies from the fort
- were used to aid George Washington's ill-equipped American forces,
- who were attempting the seige of Boston.
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