Editing Green Mountain Boys (section)

==History==

The original ''Green Mountain Boys'' were a militia organized in what is now southwestern [[Vermont]] in the decade prior to the [[American Revolutionary War]]. They comprised [[settler]]s and land speculators who held [[New Hampshire]] titles to lands between the [[Connecticut River]] and [[Lake Champlain]], an area then known as the [[New Hampshire Grants]], that is now modern Vermont. [[New York (state)|New York]] was given legal control of the area by a decision of the [[United Kingdom|British]] crown and refused to respect the New Hampshire titles and town charters. Although a few towns with New York land titles, notably [[Brattleboro (town), Vermont|Brattleboro]] on the Connecticut River, supported the change, the vast majority of the settlers in the sparsely populated [[frontier]] region rejected the authority of New York. 

With several hundred members, the Green Mountain Boys effectively controlled the area where New Hampshire grants had been issued. They were led by [[Ethan Allen]], his brother [[Ira Allen]], and their cousins [[Seth Warner]] and [[Remember Baker]]. They were based at the [[Catamount Tavern]] in [[Bennington, Vermont|Bennington]]. By the 1770s, the Green Mountain Boys had become an armed military force and ''[[de facto]]'' government, which was also a militia, that prevented New York from exercising its authority in the northeast portion of the [[Province of New York]]. New York authorities had standing [[Warrant (law)|warrant]]s for the arrest of the leaders of the rebellious Vermonters but were unable to exercise them. New York [[Surveying|surveyor]]s and other officials attempting to exercise their authority were prevented from doing so and in some cases were severely beaten, and settlers arriving to clear and work land under New York–issued grants were forced off their land, and sometimes had their possessions destroyed. At the same time, New York sought to extend its authority over the territory. During an event once known as the [[Westminster massacre]], anti-Yorkers occupied the courthouse in [[Westminster, Vermont|Westminster]] to prevent a New York judge from holding court, and two men were killed in the ensuing standoff. Ethan Allen then went to Westminster with a band of Boys and organized a convention calling for the territory's independence from New York.

When the [[American Revolutionary War]] started in 1775, Ethan Allen and a troop of his men, along with [[Connecticut]] [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] [[Benedict Arnold]], marched up to Lake Champlain and captured the strategically important British military posts at [[Battle of Ticonderoga (1775)|Fort Ticonderoga]], [[Fort Crown Point|Crown Point]], and [[Fort George, New York|Fort George]], all in New York. The Boys also briefly held St. John's in [[Québec]], but retreated on word of arriving British regulars.<ref>''History.com Editors (2020). HISTORY. A&E Television Networks.'', [https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/capture-of-fort-ticonderoga], The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga</ref>

In Summer 1775, the Green Mountain Boys became the basis for the Green Mountain Rangers, a regiment in the [[Continental Army]] that selected colonel Seth Warner as its leader.<ref>[https://benningtonmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Seth-Warner.pdf Colonel Seth Warner], ''Bennington Museum''</ref> Some of the Green Mountain Boys preferred to remain with Ethan Allen and were taken prisoners along with Allen in August 1775 in a [[Battle of Longue-Pointe|bungled attempt to capture]] the city of [[Montreal]]. Among them were [[Congressman]] [[Matthew Lyon]] and Lieutenant Benjamin Tucker. 

Vermont eventually declared itself an independent nation in January 1777, and organized a government based in [[Windsor, Vermont|Windsor]]. The armed forces of the [[Vermont Republic]] was based upon the Green Mountain Boys. Although Vermont initially supported the [[American Revolutionary War]] and sent troops to fight [[John Burgoyne]]'s British invasion from Quebec in battles at [[Battle of Hubbardton|Hubbardton]] and [[Battle of Bennington|Bennington]] in 1777, Vermont eventually adopted a more neutral stance and became a haven for [[deserter]]s from both the British and colonial armies. [[George Washington]], who had more than sufficient difficulties with the British, brushed off Congressional demands that he subdue Vermont. During the [[Haldimand Affair]], some members of the Green Mountain Boys became involved in secret negotiations with British officials about restoring the Crown's rule over the territory.

The ''Vermont Army'' version of the Green Mountain Boys faded away after Vermont joined the [[United States]] as the 14th [[U.S. state]] in 1791, although the Green Mountain Boys mustered for the [[War of 1812]], [[American Civil War|The Civil War]], the [[Spanish–American War]], and following [[World War I]] as the [[Vermont National Guard]].

===Notable members===
* [[Ebenezer Allen (Vermont politician)|Ebenezer Allen]] – militia member (lieutenant) (Ethan Allen's cousin)<ref>{{Cite book|author=Willard Sterne Randall
| url-access=registration 
|url=https://archive.org/details/ethanallenhislif00rand/page/261|title=Ethan Allen: His Life and Times|date=2011|publisher=W. W. Norton & Co.|page=261|isbn=978-0-393-07665-3}}</ref>
* [[Ethan Allen]] – militia leader (general)
* [[Ira Allen]] – militia leader, and the founder of the [[University of Vermont]] (Ethan Allen's brother)<ref>{{Cite book|first=Henry | last=Hall|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NX40AAAAMAAJ/page/n185|title=Ethan Allen The Robin Hood of Vermont|date=1892|place= New York|publisher=D. Appleton
| page= 172}}</ref>
* [[Remember Baker]] – militia member (captain) (Ethan Allen's cousin)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Raabe|first=Emily|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbwOWXKX2EsC&pg=PA740|title=Ethan Allen: The Green Mountain Boys and Vermont's Path to Statehood|date=2002|publisher=PowerPlus Books|isbn=978-0-8239-5722-4|page=740
<!-- page number exceeds length of book cited. unable to verify. could be a typo -->
}}</ref>
* [[John Fassett Jr.]] – Vermont Supreme Court Justice, 1778–1786, diarist who chronicled the Green Mountain Boys’ 1775 expedition to [[Canada]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Fassett |first=John |date=1991 |title=Diary of Captain John Fassett, Jr. (1743-1803): When a First Lieutenant of "Green Mountain Boys," September 1st to December 7th, 1775 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_4mnQEACAAJ&q=%22john+fassett%22+%22diary%22+%22green+mountain%22 |location=Manchester Center, VT |publisher=Thompson, Incorporated |page=Title page}}</ref>
* [[David Fay]] – Vermont Supreme Court Justice, [[State adjutant general|adjutant general]] of the Vermont Militia<ref>{{cite book |last=Hemenway |first=Abby M. |date=1867 |title=The Vermont Historical Gazetteer |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNQbAQAAMAAJ&q=%22david+fay%22+%22green+mountain+boys%22&pg=PA174 |location=Burlington, VT |publisher=A. M. Hemenway |pages=160, 174}}</ref>
* [[Jonas Fay]] – regimental surgeon and political leader of early Vermont<ref>{{cite book |last=Hemenway |first=Abby Maria |date=1867 |title=The Vermont Historical Gazetteer |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNQbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA173 |location=Burlington, VT |publisher=A. M. Hemenway |ref={{sfnRef|''The Vermont Historical Gazetteer''}}}}</ref>
* [[Jonas Galusha]] – militia leader (captain), future [[governor of Vermont]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Rann |first=William S. |date=1886 |title=History of Chittenden County, Vermont |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchitten02rann |quote=jonas galusha green mountain boys. |location=Syracuse, NY |publisher=D. Mason & Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchitten02rann/page/747 747]}}</ref>
* [[Joab Hoisington]] – militia leader, Hoisington's Rangers (major), served in the French-Indian War, and participated in the Battle for Crown Point
* [[Matthew Lyon]] – militia member (second lieutenant), and future congressman<ref>{{Cite book|last=McLaughlin|first=James Fairfax|url=https://archive.org/details/matthewlyonhamp00mclagoog/page/n141|title=Matthew Lyon, the Hampden of Congress: a biography|date=1900|place=New York 
| publisher= Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company|page=116}}</ref>
* [[David Robinson (1754–1842)|David Robinson]] – son of Captain Samuel Robinson, a founder of Bennington
* [[Moses Robinson]] – colonel in Vermont Militia during [[American Revolution]], 2nd governor of [[Vermont Republic]], one of the first two senators from Vermont.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hetzel |first=Susan Rivière, Historian General |date=1896 |title=Lineage Book |volume=XVI |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3024146&view=1up&seq=13 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution |pages=135–136 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Rowley (poet)|Thomas Rowley]] – poet, militia member, and spokesman, known as the "Bard of the Green Mountains" who "Set the Hills on Fire".<ref>{{Cite book|author=Vermont: Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4UIlXT-iSIC&pg=PA293|title=Vermont: A Guide to the Green Mountain State|date=1937|publisher=US History Publishers|isbn=978-1-60354-044-5|pages=70, 293}}</ref>
* [[Elishama Tozer]] – militia member (lieutenant)
* [[Seth Warner]] – militia leader (colonel)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bellesiles|first=Michael A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVCkx7428QoC&pg=PA124|title=Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier|date=1995|publisher=University Press of Virginia|isbn=978-0-8139-1603-3|pages=34, 124}}</ref>