1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ticonderoga

TICONDEROGA, a village in the township of Ticonderoga, Essex county, New York, U.S.A., on the outlet of Lake George, 100 m. by rail N. by E. of Albany. Pop. (1800), 2267; (1900), 1911; (1905), 1749; (1910), 2475. Ticonderoga is served by the Delaware & Hudson and the Rutland railways. The water from Lake George falls here about 30 ft., providing water-power, and among the manufactures are paper pulp, paper-making machinery and lumber. Flake graphite was discovered in this vicinity as early as 1815, and for years two mines (with quartzite veins, respectively 1–5 and 2–15 ft. thick) at Ticonderoga were the principal source of supply of good crystalline graphite. Commanding a portage on the line of water communication between Canada and the English colonies, Ticonderoga was a place of considerable strategic importance during the Seven Years’ War. On a commanding elevation overlooking the present village and Lake Champlain the French began building a fort of earth and timber in 1755 and called it Fort Carillon; later it was named Fort Ticonderoga. Sir William Johnson led an expedition in the same year against this fort and Crown Point; though he failed to capture the forts he defeated Baron Ludwig August Dieskau in the battle of Lake George and erected at the head of the lake Fort William Henry, which was captured by the marquis de Montcalm in 1757. On the 8th of July 1758 less than 4000 Frenchmen were confronted at Fort Carillon by about 6000 British regulars and 10,000 provincials under Lieut.-General James Abercrombie and Brigadier-General George A. Howe, but Howe, the controlling spirit of the British force, had been killed on the 6th of July, and Abercrombie, after an ineffective attack which cost him nearly 2000 men killed or wounded, retreated. In 1758, however, when Montcalm had gone to Quebec to oppose Wolfe and a force of only 400 men was left at Ticonderoga, Lord Amherst with 11,000 men invested it, and on the 26th of July the garrison blew up and abandoned the fortifications. At the beginning of the War of Independence, on the 10th of May 1775, the fort was surprised and captured by Ethan Allen. It was recovered by the British on the 5th of July 1777, during Burgoyne’s campaign, was abandoned immediately after Burgoyne’s surrender in October 1777, but was re-occupied by the British in 1780. After the close of the war it was allowed to fall into ruins. In 1909, on the occasion of the tercentenary celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain, the restoration of the fort was begun under the direction of the owner of the site. The settlement of this region was begun soon after the close of the Seven Years’ War, and the township of Ticonderoga was set apart from the township of Crown Point in 1804. The village of Ticonderoga was incorporated in 1889. The name “Ticonderoga” is a corruption of an Indian word said to mean “sounding waters.”