The American Revolution had been over for sixty years when writer Benson Lossing decided to take a grand tour of the East Coast to view any site he could find connected with the war. His experiences resulted in two large volumes of his recollections filled with more than 1,100 sketches. His painstaking effort was the most important work on the Revolution to be published in the 19th century. In his travels, he met several ancient veterans of the conflict. He must have sensed that within a few short years, all of these aged soldiers would be gone. Ever the historian, he dutifully recorded personal histories that otherwise would have been lost forever. Lossing was keenly aware that it wasn't only the old soldiers who were dying off. The sites themselves were disappearing at a great rate. Fort Ticonderoga was certainly one of the most substantial monuments left behind by the Revolution. On Wednesday, May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen and his men seized command of the fort from a small contingent of British soldiers. Militia Colonel Benedict Arnold was at his side in the takeover yet his association with this American victory had already been blotted out of America's memory. The capture of the fort itself wasn't especially important. The fort's artillery, however, was. The captured cannons from Ticonderoga were later transported to Boston where a grand display of them from the fortified American position of Dorchester Heights caused the British to pack up and leave the occupied city. The ruins of Fort Ticonderoga must have shocked and depressed Lossing. This once magnificent stone fort, so central to the early history of the war, was fast vanishing. It was already a popular tourist attraction yet no efforts were being made to preserve it. Today, Fort Ticonderoga has been beautifully restored, although In the 1840's its fate seemed anything but certain. It's interesting, in an age before Federal parks and conservation acts, to hear of an aging veteran's plan to set up a refreshment stand within the ruins of the fort to sell beer and fruits to the tourists. Ironically, while Ticonderoga is now perfectly restored, it is Lossing's fine work that has nearly disappeared. Sadly, it has long been out of print. Fragile, leather-bound copies sit in libraries where any attempt to photocopy a page or two results in death threats from the librarian. Visit to the Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga: 1840 Back to Cry Havoc #23 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com