Mary Anna Phinney Stansbury, a magazine writer who resides in
Appleton, Wisconsin, was born in Vernon, New York, October 5, 1842.
Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, though born in Litchfield,
Connecticut (January 10, 1737), early removed to Vermont. He
participated in the invasion of Canada under General Schuyler, and was
there captured and sent a prisoner to England, where he suffered many
privations. It was largely through his instrumentality that Vermont was
recognized as an independent State. He died in Burlington, February 13,
1789.
The fortress of Ticonderoga (a corruption of the Iroquois “Cheonderoga,”
meaning “rushing waters”) was erected by the French, in 1755, on the
western shore of Lake Champlain, near the outlet of Lake George. It was
originally called Fort Carillon (chime of bells) from the neighboring
waterfall (see stanza 6). It was here that the French under Montcalm
(stanza 13) repulsed the English under Abercrombie, on the 8th of July,
1758.
Allen’s bold capture was effected on the morning of May 10, 1775.
At the time of the taking of Ticonderoga by Allen, the garrison
consisted of but forty-eight men under the command of Captain Delaplace.
The Continental Congress, which Allen invoked at the time of the
surrender, had not yet organized. It held its first session six hours
later on that very day.
=Stanza 11.= =King David.= See 2 Samuel v., 23, 24.
The Vermont “Green Mountain Boys,” mentioned so prominently in a number
of engagements in the Revolution, were first organized in 1772 to resist
the civil power of New York.
In connection with Mrs. Stansbury’s poem it may be interesting to read
Robert Louis Stevenson’s ballad, “Ticonderoga.”