ABSTRACT
When, on June 15th, the garrison at Ticonderoga were told by a prisoner of General Sir John Burgoyne’s preparations for an advance southward with 10,000 men, with a diversion on the Mohawk, the colonists refused to take the threat seriously. Washington’s inability to divine the enemy’s plans, which, as we know, were as confused as he was, and his unwarranted belief in the impregnability of Ticonderoga, lulled the commanders on the spot into an attitude of false complacency. The appointment, in 1776, of Horatio Gates to command the army in Canada, which had been led by Allen and Arnold, and to withdraw their troops to Ticonderoga, created an ambiguous situation which further weakened the defence of the fort. An attempt early in May, by Major Benjamin Whitcomb, the chief scout at Ticonderoga, to learn the enemy’s plans was frustrated when his scouts were driven away by the Indians who formed a screen around the British posts south of Montreal.
