The Revolutionary War, pt. 1: A Revolution Kindles, The Battle for the Green Mountains, and Skene's Lost Colony
- Timothy Dusablon
- 3 days ago
- 23 min read
Celebrating 250 Years of America
In the year 2026, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents ever created in modern history. Our founders saw something greater on the horizon, and put to paper the historic words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
This anniversary is sure to include celebrations all summer long, with the pinnacle of these celebrations on and around July 4th. Fireworks will light up the night sky from coast to coast, honoring our status as an independent nation, when we became free from the tyranny and despotism of a dictator. These fireworks do not just honor the civil achievements of our Founding Fathers, but also the incredible sacrifice, amongst some of the most horrendous conditions, of the patriots who fought for the American cause.
Back here in the Champlain Valley, there is something very special about these fireworks as they illuminate and echo along the lake and its shores. For it is in this region of the United States, that some of the most important events of our national history took place. This quiet, unassuming lake, surrounded by majestic mountain ranges to the east and west, empties into a river in another great and free country, that of Canada. A dear friend of the United States, whose relationship with the U.S. got off to a very rocky start.
So many firsts in our country’s history happened on and around Lake Champlain. The first large-scale victory of America was when Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and more than 80 Green Mountain Boys stormed the famed Fort Ticonderoga by surprise, securing the Continental Army with much needed heavy artillery in 1775. At the same time, an unassuming naval supply vessel at present-day Whitehall, NY would be captured, armed, and renamed the Liberty, becoming America’s first warship. You heard that right, the very first American warship sailed the waters of Lake Champlain. Within the following year, America would, for the first time, invade a foreign country, that of Canada, during the failed attempt to capture what was formerly known as New France.
Horrific scenes of death and despair followed the demoralized colonial forces as they retreated back to Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga. But they soon had to turn their attention to the North, as a British Navy was set to invade the Champlain Valley. A hero emerged to build a navy in the middle of a wilderness with limited supplies and limited shipbuilders. Not even a year after capturing Fort Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold, the future traitor, led an army through a howling wilderness along the Kennebec River in Maine, northward into Canada. He was guided by a crude map, and endured hardships along the way that made him a legend in North America. Now his nation turned to Arnold again to not only build, but to command a naval fleet to go against the most powerful Navy in the world.
The Battle of Valcour Island was an incredibly important moment in our nation’s very early history. Although it has been criminally overlooked up until the last couple of decades, the Battle of Valcour Island, which took place just south of present-day Plattsburgh, caused a delay just long enough to cause the British forces to retreat back into Canada before the winter. Arnold and his men, along with his rag-tag fleet of naval vessels, saved the cause of liberty when all hope looked lost in and around New York City in 1776.
The following year, a confident and brash British commander named John Burgoyne followed the path from 1776, although this time he was successful in capturing Fort Ticonderoga and the newly created Mount Independence just across the lake in Present-day Orwell, VT. This happened almost exactly a year after the signing of the document that the mount was named after. This would be Burgoyne’s high point of the campaign though, and through a series of missteps (which included the Battles of Hubbardton, Fort Anne, and Bennington) along with miscommunications, caused his massive army to surrender at the Battles of Saratoga. The importance of the American victory at Saratoga cannot be over-stated. That battle changed the world. That is not hyperbole, that is fact. This victory assured France that the colonies stood a chance against the British, and the French would enter the conflict and turn the tides of the war. We have several episodes ahead that will highlight the important events of the Revolutionary War in the Champlain Valley.
Temporary Peace in the Champlain Valley
But before we delve deeper, let’s discuss the events in the Champlain Valley before the Revolutionary War. Let’s go back to where we left off at the end of the French and Indian War. With the British victory at Ile aux Noix securing the road to Montreal, with New France surrendering shortly after. The British controlled all of Canada, thanks to the brilliant maneuvering of General Jeffrey Amherst.
After the surrender at Montreal, General Amherst made his way back to the Champlain Valley and focused on the security of the colonies to the south. The King of England had issued a Proclamation in 1763 that set the boundary between the new English colony of Canada and the New York and New England colonies to the south. For that boundary, he drew a straight line along the 45th parallel from the Connecticut River all the way to the St. Lawrence River. Now, for anyone who has ever seen the sign for the 45th parallel on Interstate 89, you notice that it is just south of the present-day border between the United States and Canada. That is an incredible story as to why the border is now ¾ mile north of the 45th, and we’ll explore that “Blunder” in more detail in a future episode.
Amherst set about repairing Fort Ticonderoga and building his new massive fortification just west of the old French outpost, Fort St. Frederic. This fort would be the largest and most expensive British fortification built in North America, with an area of over 7 acres. He would name the fort “His Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point”.
But beyond these fortifications in 1759, Amherst had additional plans for securing the population centers to the south from any potential French Canadian or First Nations uprising. He proposed a buffer colony, with ample settlement along the lake and along the newly constructed Crown Point Road, leading from the present-day Vermont shore across the Green Mountains, and terminating at Fort Number Four in New Hampshire.
Amherst's Buffer Colony
For this buffer colony, he looked to his close friend and ally. This person has largely been forgotten in the history books of the region, but was an incredibly important founder of what became the Independent Republic, and soon after, the State of Vermont. Save for a few anecdotes, Philip Skene has largely been forgotten and ignored in our histories of the region post French and Indian War. The only reason being is that he remained loyal to the crown after the Revolution ignited.
But Amherst trusted Skene and admired his character and judgement. Skene, a Scotsman from the old country, served in the French and Indian War. He was involved in James Abercromby’s disastrous attempt to capture the French Fort Carillon in 1758, which was eventually called Fort Ticonderoga. An army of 17,000 failed to take Fort Carillon from a mere 3,500 French troops under the Marquis de Montcalm in the bloodiest battle on American soil prior to the Civil War. For more info on this incredibly important moment in North American history, see Episode 4 of the French and Indian War series. Even before the French and Indian War, Skene had already established himself as a competent and experienced soldier, having served in both the Battles of Fontenoy and Culloden.
In 1759 the following year, during Amherst’s successful capture of Fort Ticonderoga (see Episode 5 of the French and Indian War series), Philip Skene showed an incredible amount of bravery, in which he saved the famed fort. As the French departed the Fort Carillon as it was known to them, they had lit a fuse to the powder magazine. After the initial explosion, Skene rushed into the flames, put his jacket over a barrel of gun powder to keep it from exploding, and carried the barrel away from the flames. Others joined in and removed even more barrels of gunpowder, saving Fort Ticonderoga from further damage.
As the French evacuated Lake Champlain, Amherst set about the planning for his aforementioned buffer colony, and looked to none other than Philip Skene. Skene went about establishing a large estate at the southern tip of Lake Champlain at a place he named Skenesborough. This is present-day Whitehall, NY. At this time, Amherst put Skene in charge of the Lake Champlain forts, Ticonderoga and Crown Point, to continue the reconstruction and building of those fortifications. Amherst also endorsed Skene to be in charge of this new frontier colony, for which he would be appointed governor. This buffer colony would stretch from the Connecticut River all the way over to Lake Ontario.
But Amherst’s plan caused great concern among both the colonies of New York and New Hampshire, as Amherst was a military general who was now delving into matters of charters and settlements, which to that time had been up to the colonial governments. Though the plan had been approved by Lords of Trade in London, those lords did reach out to New York colonial officials to get their input and consideration. Despite the merit of the plan, the buffer colony stalled since the completion of the French and Indian War and the Conquest of Canada made a buffer state unnecessary.
In the meantime, Skene’s settlement at the southern tip of Lake Champlain moved forward, along with his ambitions of power in the new colony sure to be profitable, given the natural abundance of the Champlain Valley. 30 families moved into the settlement along with indentured servants.
Conflicting Grants from New York and New Hampshire
The delay in the plan for the new colony prompted not only New York to take action, but also New Hampshire. Governor Benning Wentworth, a man who became very wealthy through his power as governor, saw a direct threat to the land between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain, which he declared, through some very loose interpretations, as part of the colony of New Hampshire. Governor Wentworth and General Amherst had a tenuous relationship at this time, and as the colony’s financial struggles weighed in the balance, Governor Wentworth took action. During the years of 1761 and 1762, Governor Wentworth made an astounding 71 town charters in the area that became known as “The Grants”. Almost a thousand settlers soon came flooding into the grants and cleared the land. This sounded alarms in New York, where land claims in the Champlain Valley were also granted at a fast rate.
This set the stage for the conflict in the area known as The Grants, the present-day State of Vermont. And at the core of the issue were the different societal structures of the New England colonies and the Colony of New York. The settlers who came with titles from New Hampshire were used to the New England tradition of simple, fee based land titles. As such, the holder of the title would clear and settle the land with the title in hand. In New York however, upper class landlords were the ones who received very large land grants. In turn, the New York landlords would then lease out tracts of land within the larger grant to tenant farmers, not unlike the French seigneurial grants in the region just three decades earlier under that semi-feudal system.
Now, as a Vermonter myself, I can vouch for the traditional narrative of the conflicting grants between New Hampshire and New York. These histories state that New York officials forcefully removed settlers from New Hampshire off of land they worked so hard to clear, just to hand that land over to wealthy landlords. In addition, according to this traditional narrative, these greedy New York landlords used their corrupt legal system to forcefully remove the New Hampshire title holders from their land. In turn, they had no choice but to form the Green Mountain Boys to stop these greedy and corrupt land grabs. Here’s the thing. As with so much in history, the evidence shows that this narrative is overly-simplified and, in some cases, flat out wrong.
The fact is, there seems to be little to no evidence of New York title holders forcefully removing New Hampshire settlers from land in the grants. In fact, doing so would have been a counter-productive move. The landlords needed these tenants to clear the land and therefore make it more valuable. The core of the issue was over land titles. The settlers with titles from New Hampshire had no desire to be tenants. Land-ownership was at the core of New England society, with simple, fee based titles granted to would-be settlers. Land-ownership was the key to social mobility and a better life. The society of New York was very different, with the majority of the colony’s settlers being of non-English descent. This owing to the fact that the Hudson River Valley from Albany to New Amsterdam, today’s New York City, was originally a Dutch colony up until 1666.
In 1764 back in England, the Crown made an important ruling that stated that New York extended all the way to the Connecticut River.
On the side of the New York titleholders, they desired to settle this issue in the courtroom. As such, before they could bring legal action against the “squatters”, they had to send the Sheriff to these settlers and inform them of their titles granted by New York. They also sent representatives to survey the land. At no point does it appear that these sheriffs were there to forcefully remove the settlers, but rather these were legal steps that had to be taken before further litigation could proceed. These sheriffs were, in some cases, met with armed mobs of New Hampshire settlers ready to inflict a beating to anyone who dared question their right to the land.
Another part of the issue here was New Hampshire's very lax oversight of the Hampshire Grants. As stated in the outstanding history book “The Rebel and the Tory”, John Duffy, H. Nicholas Muller III, and Gary Shattuck state “The local government structure notwithstanding, the Grants had no separate county, no representative, no sheriff, no courts, no jails, and no roads built at the direction of or funded by New Hampshire, which left the struggling settlers to shoulder all such responsibilities”. It seems at the surface that Governor Wentworth wanted the income from the fees paid by settlers, but did not want to support the grants in any other way. Numerous times settlers from the Grants went to Portsmouth, at the time the capital of New Hampshire, which was the long trek necessary if they required any sort of government or legal aid. They begged Governor Wentworth for assistance numerous times in this conflict.
Now, there’s another matter here that is important for context. This was NOT the only land conflict that the colony of New York had. New York had similar issues with both Connecticut and Massachusetts regarding title-holdings. In both of those cases, New York was enforcing what was called the “20 mile line”, which stated that all land within 20 miles east of the Hudson River was part of the Colony of New York. As such, New York officials were used to settling land disputes in courts.
The Ejectment Trials
The proceeding trials regarding the grants would come to be known as the Ejectment Trials and took place in Albany. Now, the name sounds worse and more ominous than what the trials actually were. There is a big legal difference between the terms “ejectment” and “eviction”. Ejectment is merely the legal means to resolve land-ownership disputes where a landlord-tenant relationship does not exist, whereas eviction is the act of removing a tenant where there is an active agreement with landlord and tenant.
Now, I already mentioned the book “The Rebel and the Tory”, for which I lean heavily on in this episode. I cannot recommend this book enough. Through extensive and thorough research, the authors examine the actual court proceedings of the Ejectment Trials for the first time, which none of the previous Vermont historians had done. In doing so, they have turned the traditional narrative of Vermont’s founding on its head. Copies are available at the Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier, their online bookstore, and other fine bookshops. I consider this a “must-read” for anyone interested in Vermont’s founding.
Throughout their research, they discovered that, contrary to the previous histories, these Ejectment Trials were not corrupt, and were not a mockery, but were rather resided over in a very tedious legal manner. In fact, the landlords actually had an uphill battle of their own, as traditionally juries did not look favorably on landlords in these types of disputes.
In total, 19 ejectment suits were filed in New York, and court proceedings took place for these initial suits between 1770 and 1771. It was around this time that Ethan Allen and his family entered the picture. Ethan had been kicked out of two communities prior to his arrival in the New Hampshire Grants. The reason for his expulsion had to do with his hot tempered nature and his very unorthodox religious views. In a time of religious revivalism amongst many Christian denominations fueled by the “Great Awakening”, Ethan Allen was an outspoken Deist, who at every opportunity would argue and debate over the flaws of organized religion and Christianity. Two decades later, he would publish a very controversial philosophical work called “Reason, The Only Oracle of Man” which gained him the ire of many religious leaders of the time.
Ethan Allen was the oldest amongst his siblings. He had a thirst for philosophy and education, and had attended a prep school in hopes of attending Yale, but the sudden passing of his father caused Ethan to take over the role as head of the family. His dreams of attending college were over. But during his life, Ethan had been taught by his father, a successful farmer, on the potential value in land speculation, and the possibilities that land ownership had in accumulating wealth.
Allen had purchased land titles in the grants at depreciated values, due to the ongoing conflict with New York land grantees. Many of the grants were along the Winooski River and the surrounding valley. As such, he formed a company for his land speculation ventures, called appropriately the Onion River Land Company, with his brothers Ira, Heman, and Zimri, along with his first cousin who had already established a mill in Arlington, Remember Baker. Ethan and Ira, along with the other stakeholders in the Onion River Land Company, would accumulate 60,000 acres in the New Hampshire Grants during this time. They saw the promise of the land at the northern end of the Champlain Valley. That land belonged to the Abenaki. The French had also settled the region with a few settlements. For more on the French on Lake Champlain, listen to our previous episodes “The French in the Champlain Valley, part 1 and part 2”
Ethan was a brute of a man, with a towering, strong, and intimidating frame. His temperament matched his appearance. On one occasion, Ethan Allen allegedly entered a New York tavern on a bet. Allen at the time had a bounty on his head from New York officials who had placed a notice of Allen’s crimes on the tavern door. Ethan entered the tavern, sat down, introduced himself, and drank a glass of punch. No one batted an eye, and he walked out without confrontation. His hot temper and rash decision-making would cost him later on during his military leadership.
Allen was the right man, in the right place, at the right time to become the leader in this conflict with the New York grantees. His way with words was convincing and stern, and as such he helped many of the defendants in the ejectment trials in Albany. He even sought the help of attorneys who had helped with previous court cases involving the previously mentioned “20 mile line” conflicts with Massachusetts and Connecticut.
As recent reviews of the court filings have been reviewed, many of the traditional Vermont histories of these trials being “corrupt” from self-interested New York elites doesn’t hold up. In fact, the defendants, despite being poorly prepared for these hearings, were often given an extension, in some cases up to a year, to gain the land titles from the Colony of New Hampshire as evidence in their cases. Despite these lenient terms, the defendants and Ethan Allen were unable to get the proper documentation in that allotted time. As such, the defendants lost their ejectment trials.
At this point, what had largely been a peaceful dispute over land-ownership turned violent as it became apparent they were not going to win in court. Ethan Allen as such became head of an unruly mob, who through guerilla warfare tactics hoped the New York title holders would become discouraged and leave those who settled the grants under New Hampshire titles to their land. Several well-recorded incidents of violence broke out, including that at the farm of James Breakenridge. This conflict has been described by many historians as the “Birth of Vermont”. Before they were known as the Green Mountain Boys, they became known as the “Bennington Mob” to New York Officials.
Philip Skene's Lost Colony
But a plan emerged to end this conflict from a very unlikely person. That man was Philip Skene. Skene invited Allen to his thriving settlement at Skenesborough to propose a plan. That plan was the reviving of the previously mentioned buffer colony between Canada and New York and Massachusetts stretching from the Connecticut River all the way to Lake Ontario. What Skene was doing was illegal, as Ethan Allen was a wanted man in the Colony of New York. But they had common interests, and both seemed likely to financially benefit from reviving the plan of a buffer colony.
Skene sought to be Lieutenant Governor of this new colony, and as such would honor the titles of the New Hampshire Grantees. Skeene was already commander of military forces between Saratoga and the Canadian Border and oversaw both Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Another influential settler to the region also endorsed this plan. His name was William illiland, who had a settlement of his own at the mouth of the Boquet River on the western side of Lake Champlain in a town called Willsboro.
Together, Skene, Gilliland, and Allen put together a formal plan for this new colony, for which Skene and his wealth of London connections would work to get this new colony approved by the crown. Skene and Allen struck up a very strong friendship at this time, that surprisingly lasted even beyond the Revolutionary War. This despite the fact that Skene remained loyal to the British Crown throughout the conflict. In fact, it was Skene’s desire to quell this conflict so that the Crown could focus on extinguishing the uprisings in Massachusetts. He desired for all parties to go back to being good British subjects.
On the side of Allen and the New Hampshire grantees, they saw this plan as a positive one. The main contention for those who received grants from New Hampshire was not over who issued the title, or which jurisdiction it came from. The main point of contention was the title to the land. If the settlers had the title, they would be satisfied.
The plan was perfect - the timing was not.
Unrest in the Colonies
Social unrest had plagued the colonies after the conclusion of the French and Indian War. Great Britain was inflicted with a great debt. The cost of the war left the crown in a tough financial position, despite the great gains to the empire that the war had produced. To help control this debt, British authorities had implemented a series of taxes on the American colonies. This seemed fair, since the cost incurred by England was in large part owing to the defense of the Americans.
This broke from tradition though, as previously the individual colonies had raised and levied their own taxes. Now, taxes were being forced upon the colonies from a king 3,000 miles away. The fact is though, the new taxes were still a small fraction of the taxes being paid by those who lived in England. The issue was not necessarily the taxes themselves, but the fact that there was no colonial representation to provide input on those taxes. Henceforth, it was taxation without representation.
The taxes in question originated from the Stamp Act of 1765, which required all printed goods to be produced on paper that had an official stamp from London, paid with British, not colonial, currency. The act was massively unpopular with the colonists and led to widespread protests, especially in Boston. This led to the formation of the “Sons of Liberty” political group. Protests even spread into Canada, where English-speaking merchants refused to print the Quebec Gazette.
The act was so unpopular it was repealed the following year in parliament. However, the Townsend Acts, which were another series of taxes whose implementation lacked any input from the colonies, were imposed the following year in 1767. These also led to mass protests, for which British officials responded with force. This led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, which resulted in 5 Colonists being killed, including an African American freeman that was a former slave, Crispus Attucks. The Townsend Acts were mostly repealed in 1770, with exception to the tariff, or tax, on tea. It is on the topic of tea that the conflict escalates to a new level.
The Tea Act of 1773 reinforced the tariff on tea, but gave the British East India Company the ability to sell tea directly to the colonies, cutting out the colonial merchants who acted as the middleman. Those in England thought they had little reason to worry about the act, which at the end of the day, despite the raise in taxes, meant the Americans were paying less for tea than they were before.
Initially, there wasn’t much of a response in the colonies apart from smugglers and merchants who lost their profits from selling illegal tea. They soon changed their tone, now warning that this act created a monopoly whose purpose was to hurt colonial businessmen.
Protests slowly grew across the colonies, and interestingly enough these protests were late to arrive in Boston. But it is in Boston where the spark that ignited the Revolutionary War would occur.
The Sons of Liberty, dressed as Mohawks, marched to Griffin’s Wharf, boarded the British vessels Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver, and dumped the tea and the chests overboard. They only went after the tea, careful not to destroy other private property to the point where they replaced a lock on one of the chests afterwards.
Adam Beals was 19 years old when he participated in the Boston Tea Party. He later answered the alarm at Lexington, would march on Quebec with Benedict Arnold, and was present at the surrender following the Battles of Saratoga. In connection with the Champlain Valley, Adam and his family settled in St. Albans, Vermont after the war. He died in 1834 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
The Boston Tea Party changed everything. John Adams wrote “This Destruction of the Tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I cant [sic] but consider it as an Epocha in History”.
He was right on all accounts.
The British officials seemed to have abandoned all hope for a compromise, and as such changed their tone to achieve forceful submission of the colonies. In 1774, the “Intolerable Acts” were implemented. These acts included the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston until they received compensation for the lost tea from the Boston Tea Party. In addition, the Massachusetts Government Act revoked the colony of its charter and self-governing body, and placed Massachusetts under the direct rule of Britain. In addition, the Quartering Act forced the colonies to provide housing to the influx of British soldiers on their way to the New World. Contrary to popular belief, it does not appear that housing soldiers in private dwellings was a common practice.
Then, with a sense of incredibly bad timing, the Quebec Act was also passed. The Quebec Act merely sought to end military governance of Canada and formalize the concessions made to the populace of New France by General Jeffrey Amherst ten years prior, which tolerated the French language and tolerated Catholicism. This was viewed as unacceptable for the largely protestant lower 13 colonies. The Quebec Act also prohibited English settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains and instead turned that land into a reservation for the First Nations of North America. This angered land speculators who wished to expand westward. Amongst these speculators were George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, among many others.
Benjamin Franklin, the most popular American colonist in the eyes of the “Old World” tried his best to find a diplomatic solution. He sailed to London, and testified in what was called the “Cock Pit”, where a century earlier cockfighting had been a regular occurrence in the octagonal room. For over an hour, Franklin was publicly humiliated and embarrassed while standing silent. After this event, he realized the time for a diplomatic solution had passed.
The Planned Colony Falls Apart
Back in the Champlain Valley, as the calendar turned to 1775, Philip Skene also made his way to London to formally propose the plan for a new colony spearheaded by himself, Ethan Allen, and William Gilliland. He proposed his plan to London officials who viewed this plan as a way to alleviate at least one of the uprisings in the colonies.
In January 1775, a meeting with representatives from 25 towns in the New Hampshire Grants, including a representative from my hometown of Georgia just 20 miles south of the Canadian border, convened. After some debate, the decision was made to avoid future encounters with New York officials until a “decision” had been made by the Crown. That decision was the approval of Skene’s new colony. They could not say so openly as it would have drawn attention and resistance from New York officials. All involved believed that Skene’s plan would have a favorable outcome. They were right. The plan was approved in London, and Skene’s colony had been officially created, the 14th colony, for which Skene was the Lieutenant Governor. His success was short-lived.
Back in the New Hampshire Grants, violence broke out in an event some historians call the first armed conflict of the Revolutionary War. Over a month before Lexington and Concord, a group of unarmed protesters occupied the courthouse in Westminster, just north of Brattleboro. The arrival of the New York officials, who were there to collect debts, were met by these protesters who blocked the entrance. The New York officials rode south to Brattleboro where they recruited more tories, many were those who tended to be upper-class and more loyal to the British Crown. They came back to the courthouse armed. After alcohol was consumed by both sides, the conflict turned violent when the sheriff told the armed men to fire into the crowd. Two men were killed, and many more wounded. Alarms were sent to all over New England, and a large number of militia from surrounding states responded.
This event would come to be known as the Westminster Massacre, and many historians believe that the two men killed, William French and Daniel Houghton, were the first two Americans killed during the Revolutionary War. The conflict over land-titles had come to a bloody conclusion, and that result did not fare well for Philip Skene and his plans for a new colony.
But further conflict was set to erupt. In February of 1775, the crown had declared Massachusetts to be in an official state of rebellion. As such, a force of 700 British Regulars set out to capture ammunition stores from Concord. A single lantern atop the Old North Church began the alarm, based on the warning signal strategy of “one if by land, two if by sea”. Several night-time riders, including Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott, warned the countryside that the regulars were coming. The regulars was the term used at the time for the British. The militia quickly gathered at Lexington and Concord. On April 19th, as the militia witnessed the regulars marching in proper order, a lone shot rang out. No one knows who fired the first shot - but it would come to be known as “the shot heard ‘round the world”. The militia fell back to Concord, where they would re-engage with the British, eventually forcing the retreat back to Boston.
The War had officially begun.
As the continental forces gazed upon the British regulars from the heights of land surrounding Boston, it became apparent that they lacked heavy artillery in the form of cannon and martyrs. But where could they get their hands on this precious artillery? The answer to that need lay along the shores of Lake Champlain, where two old dilapidated forts from the previous French and Indian War stood in ruin and were ripe for capture.
Sources:
Beck, Derek. "Igniting the American Revolution: 1773-1775"
Bellico, Russell. "Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain"
Cohen, Eliot A. “Conquered Into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath That Made the American Way of War”
Duffy, John, H. Nicholas Muller III, and Gary C. Shattuck. "The Rebel and the Tory: Ethan Allen, Philip Skene, and the Dawn of Vermont"
Duffy, John, and H. NIcholas Muller III. "Inventing Ethan Allen"
Fay Jr., Glen "Ambition: The Remarkable Family of Ethan Allen"
Millard, James P. "Lake Passages: A Journey Through the Centuries Volume 1, 1609-1909"
Morton, Doris B. "Philip Skene of Skenesborough"
Randall, Willard Sterne. "Ethan Allen: His Life and Times"
Sherman, Michael, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash. "Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont"
Smith, Robert F. "A Spark that Ignited a Revolution" The Commons News:
Wren, Christopher S. "Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution"
