Fort Crown Point (Crown Point, New York)
Crown Point · New York · French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War
History & Significance
The French had built Fort Saint-Frédéric at Crown Point in the 1730s with 12-foot limestone walls, but the French destroyed it in the summer of 1759 as British forces advanced up the Lake Champlain valley. Sir Jeffery Amherst commanded construction of the new fort following his capture of Carillon (renamed Ticonderoga), using the work as a means of keeping his men occupied through the winter of 1759 after pushing the French into Canada, with Israel Putnam supervising much of the construction.
The fort was never directly assaulted and was completed after the French invasion threat had ended, serving largely for staging rather than as an active military position. A catastrophic chimney fire broke out in April 1773, destroying the log and earth fortress and leaving what one engineer termed an "amazing useless mass of earth."
After the French and Indian War, the British left only a skeletal force at the fort, which yielded without resistance to Seth Warner and the Green Mountain Boys on May 12, 1775; the Americans captured 111 cannons and transported 29 to Boston for harbor defense. Benedict Arnold used the fort as a staging ground for his Revolutionary War navy on Lake Champlain until it was destroyed at the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, after which Americans abandoned the fort. The British abandoned the fort in 1780 and the United States left it to deteriorate.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Largest earthen fortress built in American colonies with preserved walls and ramparts
- Stone barracks ruins and subterranean casemates visible on-site
- Lake Champlain waterfront setting with strategic French and Indian War history
- American Revolutionary War capture site; abandoned 1780 by British forces
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Crown_Point
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Point_State_Historic_Site
- https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/crown-point
- https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/history-crown-point-1734-1783
- https://parks.ny.gov/historic-sites/crownpoint/details.aspx
- https://www.nps.gov/places/crown-point-state-historic-site.htm
- http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=790&ResourceType=District