Fort Ticonderoga

 Saturday we traveled to New York to visit Fort Ticonderoga.  It was an interesting and amazing place.  It made us want to spend time researching our ancestors who participated in the Revolutionary War.  

There were people dressed in period costumes, like this lady knitting, and the man below standing in the tunnel-like entryway that leads into the fort.  

 We enjoyed the museum with dishes and silver, pots and kettles, candleholders and candle molds, jewelry, guns, knives, coins, maps, and many other old and very interesting items.  We loved the paintings and photographs that told the story of the fort, which was built by the French.

This is the officer who directed the troops.

It was interesting to see how the old flintlock guns worked. 

This is one of three very large buildings.

I never realized that flintlock guns, like those in this picture, actually used a piece of flint,  just like the flint we use to start fires with flint and steel.  When you cock the gun and fire it, the flint hits against something that looks like a small metal spoon causing a spark that sets off the powder and fires the gun. 

All three large buildings have three stories.  The rock-work was amazing.  There were more than 40 cannons, maybe even 50.  We didn't count them.  Some were very beautifully decorated.  

As I mentioned, the French built the fort, then the British captured it.  The British left a small garrison to hold it and the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont captured it from them.  These Americans dragged one or more of the cannons through the snow to Boston where they were used in the Revolutionary War.  History is very interesting.  We can learn from it.  We should learn from it.  We hope our children and grandchildren are keeping journals and recording the important things that are happening in your lives.  

We send our love and greetings to all.