Editing Lake Champlain (section)

===Colonial America and the Revolutionary War===
[[File:Lac Champlain (Nouvelle-France) 1739.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of ''Lac Champlain'', from Fort de Chambly up to Fort St-Fréderic in ''Nouvelle France''. [[Cadastre|Cadastral]] map showing concessions and ''seigneuries'' on the coasts of the lake according to 1739 surveying.]]
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2017}}
[[New France]] allocated concessions all along Lake Champlain to [[French people|French]] settlers and built forts to defend the waterways. In [[Thirteen Colonies|colonial]] times, Lake Champlain was used as a water (or, in winter, ice) passage between the [[Saint Lawrence River|Saint Lawrence]] and [[Hudson River|Hudson]] valleys. Travelers found it easier to journey by boats and sledges on the lake rather than go overland on unpaved and frequently mud-bound roads. The lake's northern tip at [[Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu]], Quebec (known as St. John in colonial times under British rule) is just {{convert|40|km|order=flip}} from [[Montreal]], Quebec. The southern tip at [[Whitehall, New York|Whitehall]] (Skenesborough in revolutionary times) is {{convert|23|mi}} north of [[Glens Falls, New York|Glens Falls]] on the Hudson River and {{convert|70|mi}} north of [[Albany, New York]].

Forts were built at [[Fort Ticonderoga|Ticonderoga]] and [[Crown Point, New York|Crown Point]] ([[Fort St. Frederic]]) to control passage on the lake in colonial times. Important battles were fought at Ticonderoga in 1758 and 1775. During the Revolutionary War, the British and Americans conducted a frenetic shipbuilding race through the spring and summer of 1776, at opposite ends of the lake, and fought a significant naval engagement on October 11 at the [[Battle of Valcour Island]]. While it was a tactical defeat for the Americans, and the small fleet led by [[Benedict Arnold]] was almost destroyed, the Americans gained a strategic victory; the British invasion was delayed long enough so the approach of winter prevented the fall of these forts until the following year. In this period, the [[Continental Army]] gained strength and was victorious at [[Saratoga campaign|Saratoga]].

====Beginning of the Revolutionary War====
At the start of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], British forces occupied the [[Champlain Valley]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The American Revolution |last=Countryman |first=Edward |publisher=Macmillan |year=2003 |page=4}}</ref> However, it did not take long for rebel leaders to realize the importance of controlling Lake Champlain. Early in the war, the colonial militias attempted to expel the British from [[Boston]]; however, this undertaking could not be achieved without heavy artillery.<ref name=":0">Countryman (2003), p. 103</ref> The British forts at [[Ticonderoga, New York|Ticonderoga]] and [[Crown Point, New York|Crown Point]], on Lake Champlain, were known to have ample supplies of artillery and were weakly-manned by the British. Thus, the colonial militias devised a plan to take control of the two forts and bring the guns back to the fight in Boston.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Lake Champlain Ferry.jpg|thumb|[[Lake Champlain Ferries|Charlotte Ferry]], Lake Champlain]]
The necessity of controlling the two forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point placed Lake Champlain as a strategic arena during the Revolutionary War. By taking control of these forts, Americans not only gained heavy artillery, but control of a vast water highway as well: Lake Champlain provided a direct invasion route to British Canada. However, had the British controlled the lake, they could have divided the colonies of [[New England]] and further depleted the [[Continental Army]].

The Continental Army's first offensive action took place in May 1775, three weeks after the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.lcmm.org/shipwrecks_history/history/history_revolution.htm |title=History of Lake Champlain: Revolutionary War |website=www.lcmm.org |access-date=April 28, 2016 |archive-date=January 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125212537/http://www.lcmm.org/shipwrecks_history/history/history_revolution.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Ethan Allen]], accompanied by 200 [[Green Mountain Boys]], was ordered to capture [[Fort Ticonderoga]] and retrieve supplies for the fight in Boston. [[Benedict Arnold]] shared the command with Allen, and, in early May 1775, they captured Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point and the southern [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] settlement of [[Whitehall (village), New York|Skenesborough]].<ref name=":1" /> As a result of Allen's offensive attack on the [[Champlain Valley]] in 1775, the American forces controlled the Lake Champlain waterway.

====Siege of Quebec: 1775–1776====
The Continental Army realized the strategic advantage of controlling Lake Champlain, as it leads directly to the heart of Quebec.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Iroquois in the American Revolution |last=Graymont |first=Barbara |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1975 |page=66}}</ref> Immediately after taking Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the Americans began planning an attack on British Canada. The American siege of Quebec was a two-pronged assault and occurred throughout the winter of 1775–1776.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy |last=Weigley |first=Russell |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1977 |page=47}}</ref> Brigadier General [[Richard Montgomery]] led the first assault up the Champlain Valley into Canada, while Benedict Arnold led a second army to Quebec via the [[Maine]] wilderness.<ref name=":2" />

Despite the strategic advantage of controlling a direct route to Quebec by way of the Champlain Valley, the American siege of British Canada during the winter of 1775 failed. The Continental Army mistakenly assumed that it would receive support from the Canadians upon their arrival at Quebec. This was not the case, and the rebel army struggled to take Quebec with diminishing supplies, support, and harsh northern winter weather.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Iroquois in the American Revolution |last=Graymont |first=Barbara |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1975 |pages=74}}</ref>

The Continental Army was forced to camp outside Quebec's walls for the winter, with reinforcements from New York, [[Pennsylvania]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]] and [[Connecticut]] allowing the soldiers to maintain their siege of the city. However, smallpox descended on both the sieging forces and their reinforcements and savaged the American force.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Thrust for Canada: The American Attempt on Quebec in 1775–1776 |last=Hatch |first=Robert |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1979 |location=Boston}}</ref> The reinforcements traveled hundreds of miles up the frozen Lake Champlain and St. Lawrence River, but were too late and too few to influence a successful siege of Quebec. In May 1776, with the arrival of a British convoy carrying 10,000 British and [[Hessian (soldier)|Hessian]] troops to Canada, the Continental forces retreated back down the Champlain Valley to reevaluate their strategy.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |title=The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy |last=Weigley |first=Russell |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1977 |pages=23}}</ref>

[[File:Champlain Valley.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The Champlain Valley as seen from [[Camel's Hump]]]]
"I know of no better method than to secure the important posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and by building a number of armed vessels to command the lakes, otherwise the forces now in Canada will be brought down upon us as quick as possible, having nothing to oppose them...They will doubtless try to construct some armed vessels and then endeavor to penetrate the country toward New York." (Brigadier General [[John Sullivan (general)|John Sullivan]] to [[George Washington]], June 24, 1776).<ref name=":1" />

Both British and American forces spent the summer of 1776 building their naval fleets, at opposite ends of Lake Champlain.<ref name=":3" /> By the October 1776, the Continental Army had 16 operating naval vessels on Lake Champlain: a great increase to the four small ships they had at the beginning of the summer.<ref name=":1" /> General [[Benedict Arnold]] commanded the American naval fleet on Lake Champlain, which was composed of volunteers and soldiers drafted from the Northern Army. With great contrast to the Continental navy, experienced [[Royal Navy]] officers, British seamen and Hessian artillerymen manned the British fleet on Lake Champlain.<ref name=":1" /> By the end of the summer of 1776, the opposing armies were prepared to battle over the strategic advantage of controlling Lake Champlain.

====Battle of Valcour Island====
On October 11, 1776, the British and American naval fleets met on the western side of [[Valcour Island]], on Lake Champlain.<ref name=":0" /> American General Benedict Arnold established the location, as it provided the Continental fleet with a natural defensive position. The British and American vessels engaged in combat for much of the day, only stopping due to impending nightfall.<ref name=":1" />

After a long day of combat, the American fleet was in worse shape than the experienced British Navy. Upon ceasefire, Arnold called a council of war with his fellow officers, proposing to escape the British fleet via rowboats under the cover of night. As the British burned Arnold's flagship, the ''Royal Savage'', to the east, the Americans rowed past the British lines.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |title=Benedict Arnold's Navy: The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain But Won the American Revolution |last=Nelson |first=James |publisher=McGraw Hill Professional |year=2006}}</ref>

The following morning, the British learned of the Americans' escape and set out after the fleeing Continental vessels. On October 13, the British fleet caught up to the struggling American ships near [[Split Rock Wildway|Split Rock Mountain]].<ref name=":5" /> With no hope of fighting off the powerful British navy, Arnold ordered his men to run their five vessels aground in Ferris Bay, [[Panton, Vermont]]. The depleted Continental army escaped on land back to [[Fort Ticonderoga]] and [[Mount Independence (Vermont)|Mount Independence]]; however, they no longer controlled the Lake Champlain waterway.<ref name=":5" />

The approaching winter of 1776–1777 restricted British movement along the recently controlled Lake Champlain. As the British abandoned Crown Point and returned to Canada for the winter, the Americans reduced their garrisons in the Champlain Valley from 13,000 to 2,500 soldiers.<ref name=":1" />

====General Burgoyne's Campaign====
[[File:Lake Champlain, Vermont.jpg|thumb|Lake Champlain, [[Charlotte, Vermont]]]]
In early 1777, [[Great Britain|British]] General [[John Burgoyne]] led 8,000 troops from Canada, down Lake Champlain and into the Champlain Valley.<ref name=":4" /> The goal of this invasion was to divide the [[New England]] colonies, thus forcing the Continental Army into a separated fight on multiple fronts.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |title=Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War |last=Ketchum |first=Richard |publisher=Macmillan |year=1997}}</ref> Lake Champlain provided Burgoyne with protected passage deep into the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]]. Burgoyne's army reached Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in late June, 1777. During the night of July 5, the American forces fled Ticonderoga as the British took control of the fort. However, Burgoyne's southern campaign did not go uncontested.

On October&nbsp;7, 1777, American General [[Horatio Gates]], who occupied [[Battles of Saratoga|Bemis Heights]], met Burgoyne's army at the Second [[Battle of Freeman's Farm]].<ref name=":6" /> At Freeman's Farm, Burgoyne's army suffered its final defeat and ended its invasion south into the colonies. Ten days later, on October&nbsp;17, 1777, British General Burgoyne surrendered his army at [[Saratoga campaign|Saratoga]].<ref name=":6" /> This defeat was instrumental to the momentum of the Revolutionary War, as the defeat of the British army along the Champlain-Hudson waterway convinced [[France]] to ally with the American army.<ref name=":1" />

====Aftermath of 1777====
Following the failed British campaign led by General Burgoyne, the British still maintained control over the Champlain waterway for the duration of the Revolutionary War.<ref name=":1" /> The British used the Champlain waterway to supply raids across the Champlain Valley from 1778 to 1780, and Lake Champlain permitted direct transportation of supplies from the British posts at the northern end of the lake.

With the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, the British naval fleet on Lake Champlain retreated up to St. John's.<ref name=":1" /> However, British troops garrisoned at Fort Dutchman's Point ([[North Hero, Vermont]]) and [[Fort au Fer (New York)|Fort au Fer]] ([[Champlain, New York]]), on Lake Champlain, did not leave until the 1796 [[Jay Treaty]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lakechamplainlife.com/military-sites/ |title=Lake Champlain Historic Military Sites |website=lakechamplainlife.com |publisher=Lake Champlain Life |location=Alburgh, Vermont |access-date=July 24, 2017 |archive-date=July 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170702164154/http://lakechamplainlife.com/military-sites/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://dmna.ny.gov/forts/fortsA_D/auFerFort.htm |title=Fort au Fer |publisher=New York State Military Museum |location=Saratoga Springs, New York |access-date=July 24, 2017 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803041539/https://dmna.ny.gov/forts/fortsA_D/auFerFort.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Post-Revolutionary War period====
[[File:Dutton House Shelburne Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont)|Dutton House]], Shelburne Museum]]
[[File:Stagecoach Inn Shelburne Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Stagecoach Inn (Shelburne, Vermont)|Stagecoach Inn]], Shelburne Museum]]
[[File:Sawmill Shelburne Museum.jpg|thumb|Sawmill, [[Shelburne Museum]]]]
Eager to take back control of Lake Champlain following the end of the Revolutionary War, Americans flocked to settle the [[Champlain Valley]]. Many individuals emigrated from [[Massachusetts]] and other New England colonies, such as [[Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont)|Salmon Dutton]], a settler of [[Cavendish, Vermont]].<ref name=":7">[[Shelburne Museum]]'s [[Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont)]]</ref> Dutton emigrated in 1782 and worked as a surveyor, town official and toll-road owner. [[Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont)|His home]] had a dooryard garden, typical of mid-19th century New England village homes,<ref name=":7" /> and his experience settling in the Champlain Valley depicts the industries and lifestyles surrounding Lake Champlain following the Revolutionary War.

Similar to the experience of Salmon Dutton, former colonial militia Major General [[Hezekiah Barnes]] settled in [[Charlotte, Vermont]], in 1787.<ref name=":8">[[Shelburne Museum]]'s Stagecoach Inn</ref> Following the war, Barnes worked as a road surveyor; he also established an inn and trading post in Charlotte, along the main trade route from Montreal down Lake Champlain. Barnes' stagecoach inn was built in traditional [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] style, with 10 fireplaces, a ballroom on the interior and a wraparound porch on the outside.<ref name=":8" /> In 1800, Continental Army Captain Benjamin Harrington established a distillery business in [[Shelburne, Vermont]], which supplied his nearby inn.<ref>[[Shelburne Museum]]'s Hat and Fragrance Textile Gallery</ref> These individual accounts shed light on the significance of Lake Champlain during the post-Revolutionary War period.