Tag Archives: Fort Ticonderoga

Raising Montcalm’s Cross at Fort Ticonderoga

Raising Montcalm’s Cross at Fort Ticonderoga

Originally posted on January 2, 2013 by Fort Ticonderoga
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Young and old are fascinated by great battles in history.  In addition to these generic themes of the roar of cannons, musketry, and grim statistics, every battle has a unique story. It is these unique stories that have filled the imaginations of armchair generals and casual history buffs alike for centuries.  Fort Ticonderoga has been remembered, preserved, and restored because its grounds hosted five great battles in the course of two wars. In the process of planning a living history event to recreate these battles and wars, our goal is to bring the unique story of each encounter to life.

Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga

This summer’s upcoming ‘Montcalm’s Cross’ event is going to tell the story of the July, 8th 1758 Battle of Carillon. Unprecedented in military casualties in North America to that time, this battle made Ticonderoga a household name. The recreation of this battle is nothing new. Less than three months later it was re-enacted back in France in front of the Paris city hall. Two hundred and fifty-five years later, when bringing this story to life, there are a lot of factors to consider for the visitors of Fort Ticonderoga. The history of the battle and the unique narrative of its events and characters is a basic starting point. But to ensure that participants and visitors alike have an enjoyable and engaging experience, we have to broaden our planning. The battle will be recreated predominantly by re-enactors, dedicated historians who volunteer to recreate historic events. We have to take into account what is feasible to ask of these valuable volunteers. In addition, there are the various safety, comfort, and educational considerations for visitors coming to enjoy and engage in the living history event. The history of the battle and timeline of the event only tell a part of the story. In order to make the experience for visitors and participant as enjoyable and engaging as possible, we seek to recreate not only the basic facts, but the visceral details of the battle. To this end, one of the key considerations in re-enactment will be the setting of this important battle.

By July of 1758, Fort Carillon sat on a cleared tip of the Ticonderoga peninsula that was otherwise surrounded by virgin forest. These trees were tremendously old, so tall and large that they blocked most the light that could filter down to the forest floor. This prevented the usual growth of dense underbrush as with many secondary growth forests in the Northeast today. Most of the woods around this isolated Fort were surprisingly open inside, though the trees themselves were dense enough to obscure one’s view beyond thirty to fifty yards. In fact, French engineer Michele Chartier de Lotbineire described the density of these old growth trees as the cause of placing the Fort west of its initial design. The immediate area of the Fort had been cleared for almost three years by 1758, with the foundation of the fort itself blasted flat by French soldiers beginning in 1756. Therefore, the mown grass surrounding the present day Fort is not too far off the historical reality for 1758.

The Saturday of this two-day living history event will feature the skirmish that erupted as the British advanced from Lake George landing through the LeChute valley towards Ticonderoga. For our visitors attending the entire weekend of events, this will create two distinct days, both telling essential pieces of the story of the Battle of Carillon. Portraying the story of this skirmish is important to understanding the assault on the heights of Carillon. It was in this encounter that Brigadier General Lord Howe, darling of the British Army, was killed undermining British morale and command. This skirmish took place in the heavily forested landscape that dominated the LeChute Valley. To recreate this skirmish we are searching for a location on the site that has that same setting of dense forest. While trying to find a place on the landscape that has that same look, we have to take in to consideration that our visitors have the ability to get there and see what’s going on. They need to be comfortable and not in any actual danger while watching this recreation. Ideally, we are hoping to locate our visitors under the cover of the forest canopy. In this July event, the shade will be a welcome comfort and the perfect place to be immersed in this ancient forest landscape. Standing in amongst tree trunks, visitors can imagine taking shelter from buckshot and bullets, only to rush forward or retreat to the next.

For Sunday, our goal is to recreate the July 8th  direct assault on the heights of Carillon. The real battle of Carillon took place on the rise one mile to the west of the Fort. That hilltop, until a matter of hours before the battle, was still the old growth, virgin forest. The Marquis de Montcalm ordered his soldiers to entrench on that hillside, clearing off the forest for about a 100 yard radius around the top of the high ground. They used the trees they cut down to build the breastwork, their defensive position. Logs were stacked eight feet high, and one half mile long, zigzagging around the heights of Carillon to give intersecting fire against their British assailants. The tops of the trees were arrayed out thirty yards in front with the sharpened branches facing outwards, acting almost like barbed wire. Given the size and age of the trees used, this abatis hid the log breastwork from view.

Though we have the advantage of recreating the Battle of Carillon at the original location, using the actual battlefield itself is not an option. It is an archaeologically sensitive location and we hold our mission of preservation of these historic grounds equal to our mission of education about them. We have to find a place on the landscape where we can create the overall appearance of the Heights of Carillon on that day in July, 1758. Since the French lines were constructed rapidly right before the battle, the area around it was an open landscape of pine needles and leaves dotted by rocks and the remaining stumps from the cleared forest. The grounds for the re-created battle should capture the feel of the real setting. We cannot recreate the full half-mile of the French lines; it would take an army to do so. What we can do is recreate a representative section of the French lines, but have them be as visually faithful to our best understanding of the historic battlefield.

The Abatis of Fort Ticonderoga

The Abatis of Fort Ticonderoga by Rob Shenk

In so doing, we will reuse segments of the eight-foot high log breastwork that were recreated for the 250th anniversary of the battle. These were put together with the effort of many volunteers and have weathered the five years since then in surprisingly good shape. We will restore those segments to recreate a part of the French lines, but we want to move them up to the crest of the hill, which better matches the natural rise of the placement of the actual historic French lines.

Another key aspect of these recreated French lines is the abatis: the tree tops intertwined together, with sharpened branches pointed out in front of the breastwork. Historically, they served as a barbed-wire like barrier to that log breastwork, but they also visually screened the breastwork from the opposing forces. Overall, in recreating the French lines, visitors and participants alike should be able to see a log breastwork, screened by sharpened tree tops, overlooking about 100 yards of dead, barren, no-man’s land. In this way we can, in terms of setting, capture the real drama of that 1758 battle.

As with the skirmish that caused the death of Lord Howe, to portray the actual assault on the French lines, we have to consider where visitors will be. And this question certainly has the same considerations of comfort, safety, and accessibility. In addition, the location for viewing the battle is important in what part of the story we’re trying to tell. Placing visitors looking down from the French lines, just by the nature of where they are, tells the story from a very French perspective. Visitors would see wave after wave of British and provincial soldiers rushing up towards the French soldiers protected by the breastwork. They would feel the immediacy of the French firing as fast as they can to maintain their position and their lives. Conversely, placing visitors down far below the French lines outside this dead, no-man’s land space, lends itself to a more British or provincial perspective. Visitors would see in close detail the restless moments for British and provincial soldiers before they rush out into this open killing field. Visitors would look up at the worried faces of American provincials pinned down by fire from the French soldiers, huddling behind the stumps and rocks, anxiously awaiting nightfall. Still another option is to place viewing along a line perpendicular to the recreated French lines. In this way we would create a cross-sectional view to see the anatomy and the mechanics of the French victory and British defeat.

All these considerations go into telling the story of the 1758 Battle of Carillon at this summer’s, “Montcalm’s Cross,” event. As we figure out the best way to capture the visceral details of this great piece of history, we could not be more excited to have the opportunity to bring the stories of struggle and sacrifice of the individual soldiers to life.

The Raising Montcalm’s Cross at Fort Ticonderoga event will take place July 20-21, 2013

A Very Old, New Look at New France from Fort Ticonderoga

A Very Old, New Look at New France

Originally posted on January 30, 2013 by Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga

The memoirs of Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac provide a window into the Champlain Valley in 1755.

For the 2013 visitor season we are really excited to portray Fort Ticonderoga in its naissance back in 1755. Looking at the transformation of a French army camp at Carillon into a fortified outpost is a great opportunity to talk about the origins and early days of the French & Indian war. Focusing on 1755 also presents a great chance to look around and explore New France and the Champlain valley with all its natural beauty and peoples at that time. This season Fort Ticonderoga’s costumed staff of interpreters will be portraying soldiers from the Languedoc infantry regiment of the French army. We chose this particular unit partly because it was one of the first military units to garrison Carillon, and partly because of a wonderful diary from the regiment.

Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac was a very young second Lieutenant when he arrived in Quebec. His wide eyed enthusiasm and sense of adventure is apparent even in his terse diary entry:

June 27th 1755, 2:30 in the afternoon, we disembarked at Quebec very eager to put our feet on solid ground and look at the settlers of the new world.

By the time he actually set foot in the New World he had already had a chance to see some of the exotic sites and wild life of the North Atlantic. On the 28th of May he saw his first icebergs, which he described as, “mountains covered in snow: they appeared twice as large as a Ship of the Line.” He noted with glee as the naval gunners on board his ship, the Lys, fired cannon shots at these icebergs to no effect.  While sailing across the Atlantic Ocean he also first experienced some of the wildlife in the New World. D’Aleyrac grew up in the town of Saint-Pierreville, in the foothills of the Alps, eating salted codfish on Catholic fast days. He proudly ate his first fresh codfish pulled from the waters Grand Banks on June 7th, 1755. Waterfowl, which he called, “hapefoys,” received a similar treatment as the icebergs dodging barrages of buckshot as they flew over from the ship’s deck.

Once in Canada, Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac carefully noted the geography and landscape around him. He summed up Canada as, “a vast forest interspersed by an infinite number of strong wide rivers, filed with rapids. “ Traversing this vast country by river appears to have been a large part of his experience defending New France as he described in some detail the difficulties in moving by bateau:

Fort Ticonderoga

These flat bottomed wooden boats were the primary means of transportation on both sides during the French & Indian War.

These rapids are very dangerous to descend, whether by the presence of vortexes, or rocks that strike the bottom or overturn the bateaux. In addition, ordinarily the shock means one loads the boats lighter and use three to four additional men to steer. The rest followed along the river while the rapids’ height exceeded what you could pass. Ascending these rivers is no less difficult: not only do you unload the bateaux, but sometimes you must pull it with ropes, what is called pulling, “a la cordelle.” To pull a bateaux, you ordinarily have twenty to thirty people; to climb little rapids one simply needs to stand and pole the river bottom with a large pole. We were still obliged to carry the boats when climbing or descending rapids, because the least rock was enough to pierce the boat.

Hundreds of soldiers in the Languedoc regiment faced these exact difficulties as they ascended the rapids on the Richeleau River on their trip to Carillon in 1755.

The experiences and impressions of soldiers like Lieutenant d’Aleyrac in this wild landscape are critical as we imagine the rocky peninsula of Carillon when it too was a wild place. Coming from France, d’Aleyrac had the same outside perspective that we too would have if we travelled back in time to 1755. It’s easy to imagine the wild beauty of Carillon in 1755, reading about, “pine trees and others one hundred feet tall,” with an understory filled with, “strawberries, raspberries, and wild blackberries,” Likewise d’Aleyrac encountered, beavers, black bears, brown bears, polar bears, elk caribous, muskrats, and ground hogs, among a whole menagerie of wildlife. He was particularly perturbed by the, “very long and very big” rattlesnakes he encountered. British and American accounts of Carillon and rattlesnake hill across the lake corroborate his concern over these serpents.

Beyond the wild landscape, Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac’s impressions of the people he encountered are perhaps the best part of his memoirs. With Canadian milice and native warriors encamped at Carillon in 1755 along with the French regulars, his perceptions are fascinating as we imagine encountering these people over 250 years ago. He described Canadians as, “well-made, big, robust, adroit in the use of the gun and ax,” and, “used to hunting and making war.” While d’Aleyrac appreciated the Canadians’ strength and skills for living in the Canadian wilderness he was concerned about their personal habits. He stated, “the Canadians have an extreme passion for brandy and smoking tobacco,” noting that these habits extended to children and even smoking in bed. Differences in clothing also perturbed this French Lieutenant:

The average Canadian hardly wears French clothing, but one species of, “capots” crossed in front with lapels. The buttons and collars are of another color. A sash around the capot closes it: simple and impractical clothing.

Fort Ticonderoga

With a hood and buttons of a contrasting color, this represents one interpretation of the ‘capot.’

D’Aleyrac encountered several unique garments worn by Canadians including breechcloths, leggings, and soulier de beouf, a Canadian version of the moccasin worn in the summer. Ironically despite his critique, this French Lieutenant probably had to wear this clothing in his service. Another French officer, newly arrived in Canada like d’Aleyrac, received their own officers’ versions of Canadian clothing by the 22nd of July 1755.

Like Canadians, Jean-Baptiste d’Aleyrac encountered Native Americans for the first time in his service in New France. While his vivid account of their customs and dress is interesting, he begins his account with the admission that Native Americans were different than he had been told:

The Indians of Canada are very different than that idea one commonly has in France. Far from being all hairy as we believe, they are much less hairy than us, they have no beard, they pluck the eyebrows with a type of brass gun-worm. Even more, they cut and pluck the hairs from the top of their heads to the fronts, along the temples and above the neck, leaving only that on the back of the head only 2-3 inches long. They attach from here grand white, red or blue feathers with little silver or porcelain ornaments. They rub the top of their heads, the temples and the neck with vermillion, they finally paint their faces with vermillion, of blue, black and white, and they pierce the nose through the septum with a silver ring, they cut the earlobe and attach 3 to 4 bullets to stretch it in order to enlarge the opening. When they are about half a foot lower, they wiggle on a brass wire in the shape of a gun-worm and attach silver pendants. The kind of this country are tall, brown colored, almost olive, erect, well made, black hair and teeth as white as ivory. In any nation no one stands as straight as these Indians who always march with their heads very high. They are of a robust complexion, enduring the cold, heat, hunger and thirst.  They are very agile in a race or swimming because they are always in exercise hunting, fishing, dancing, playing lacrosse, or especially the game of, “paume ou de mail.” They play whichever of these games, nation versus nation, and the prizes are sometimes worth 12 to 15 pounds. They are excellent shots with the firelock and the bow and arrow, they do many exercises to use these advantageously and with sure shots.

As a traveler from France he too had his idea of Native Americans challenged by actually meeting them, much as happens to us as we delve back into the history of this Fort in 1755.