Fort Crown Point - History

History

The French first built a fortress at Crown Point in the 1730s with 12-foot (3.7 m) thick limestone walls named Fort St. Frederic. British forces targeted it twice during the French and Indian War before the French destroyed it in the summer of 1759.

The Crown Point fort was constructed by the British army under the command of Sir Jeffery Amherst following the capture of Carillon, a French fort to the south (which he renamed Ticonderoga), and the destruction of Fort St. Frédéric. Amherst used the construction of the fort as a means of keeping his men working through the winter of 1759 after pushing the French into modern Canada.

The Fort was never directly assaulted. Mostly built after the threat of French invasion had ended, it was used largely for staging rather than as a position in its own right.

After the French and Indian War the British left only a skeletal force at the Fort, which yielded easily to Capt. Seth Warner and 100 Green Mountain Boys, an American militia, on May 12, 1775 in the battle of Crown Point at the start of the American Revolution. The 111 cannons captured from the British at Crown Point, so early in the War for American Independence, soon proved valuable in driving the British out of Boston Harbor. The Fort was used as a staging ground by Benedict Arnold during the Revolution for his navy on Lake Champlain. After the destruction of that navy in 1776 during the Battle of Valcour Island, the Fort was abandoned to the British in 1777. It was abandoned for good in 1780.

The large earthen walls of the Fort are still visible today. A massive, accidental fire in April 1773 entirely destroyed the log and earth fortress, leaving the empty stone ruins of two barracks buildings standing. These ruins still stand and are being carefully preserved.

The Fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.