Conflict and Settlement
Fighting for Independence
The first American victory of the Revolutionary war took place in the Champlain Valley when Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, along with Benedict Arnold, seized Fort Ticonderoga from the British on May 10, 1775. Henry Knox hauled cannon taken from Ticonderoga and Crown Point to Dorchester heights to drive the British from Boston. Arnold built a fleet of war ships to fight the British at Valcour Island in the fall of 1776, which kept the British at bay for another winter. Britain retaliated by sending General John Burgoyne to quell the feisty rebels in New York, New England and the Hampshire Grants (Vermont).
Burgoyne's Campaign of 1777 moved south along the waterway, pausing to drive the Americans from Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, fight battles at Hubbarton and Bennington and finally to meet defeat at Saratoga, the turning point of the American Revolution. Every museum and historic site along the way has their part of the story to tell.
The sites:
- Fort Ticonderoga,
- Crown Point State Historic Site
- Clinton Community College,
- Mount Defiance,
- Mount Hope,
- Prisoners Island,
- Clinton County Historical Museum,
- Saratoga Battlefield,
- Valcour Island,
- LC Underwater Preserves,
- Diamond Island,
- Sunken Fleet "Bateaux Below,"
- Skenesborough Museum,
- Rogers Island,
- Fort Hardy Park,
- Stillwater Blockhouse,
- General Schuyler House,
- Peebles Island State Park,
- Remington Tavern,
- Knox Trail,
- Fort George and Battlefield Park,
- Old Fort House Museum,
- Parks-Bentley House,
- Salem Revolutionary War cemetery,
- Schuyler House,
- Saratoga Monument,
- NY Independence Trail
