Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Fort Ticonderoga
A soldier-humanist fights a war for peace in North America.
A few generations ago, American colonial history centered on a single narrative that flowed from Jamestown in 1607 to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Today, early American history has blossomed into a braided narrative with many story lines.
How tough Henry Knox hauled a train of cannon over wintry trails to help drive the British away from Boston
The largest army ever assembled in North America at the time attacked the French at New York’s Fort Carillon, with disastrous results.
By early morning of July 5, 1758, more than a thousand Albany-built bateaux, whaleboats, and three radeaux—cumbersome barges known as “floating castles”—crowded the calm waters of New York’s Lake George in orderly columns.
1741 Born in Norwich, Connecticut.
1758 Enlists in a New York company for service in the French and Indian War.
Some of the infuriating questions surrounding the great hero-traitor can be answered by visiting the fields where he fought. The trip will also take you to many of the most beautiful places in the Northeast.
From Fort Ticonderoga to the Plaza Hotel, from Appomattox Courthouse to Bugsy Siegel’s weird rose garden in Las Vegas, the present-day scene is enriched by knowledge of the American past
It started with jaunty confidence and skirling bagpipes. Five days later it had turned into one of the bloodiest and most futile battles ever fought on American soil.
At Ticonderoga, Lake George spills its waters northward into Lake Champlain, and for over a century whoever controlled the narrows there controlled the gateway to a continent.
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