At the heart of the Ticonderoga peninsula is the Carillon Battlefield and the French Lines, which constitute one of the most important 18th-century military sites on the continent. Here, at the confluence Lake George and Lake Champlain, a French Army commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm defeated a British Army four times its size on July 8, 1758.
The Battle of Carillon is believed to have been the bloodiest battle fought in North America until the Civil War. About 21,000 combatants were involved. Some 1,100 were killed, 2,000 wounded, and 100 whose bodies were not recovered (another 150 were captured).
After the Battle of Carillon, the battle lines were re-fortified by Continental soldiers in the Revolutionary War forming a critical part of the defenses of Ticonderoga in 1776 and 1777. The works remain to this day a physical reminder of the legacy of two wars in which the fate of North America was decided.
Fort Ticonderoga, is now a major cultural destination, museum, and National Historic Landmark located in New York’s 6-million-acre Adirondack Park. Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America.
The American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service has recently awarded a $69,876 grant to Fort Ticonderoga. The grant is expected to be utilized to create a Preservation and Planning Assessment of the Carillon Battlefield. The primary objective of this grant is to complete a comprehensive historical analysis of the Carillon Battlefield and create a condition and management assessment of the Carillon Battlefield for its long-term preservation.
The project will take place under the primary direction of Site Archaeologist Margaret Staudter, who will serve as Project Director. Staudter holds an M.A. in Archaeology from Durham University in the United Kingdom.
Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year. Fort Ti is open for daily visitation May through October. For more information about Fort Ticonderoga visit their website.
Illustration: Map of A Plan of the Town and Fort of Carillon at Ticonderoga; with the Attack made by the British Army Commanded by Genl. Abercrombie, 8 July 1758 by Thomas Jefferys, provided by Fort Ticonderoga.
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