Since the beginning of 1775, the commander at Ticonderoga, Captain William Delaplace of the 26th Foot, had been reporting suspicious activity around the post to Lieutenant-General Thomas Gage, the British commander in chief in North America. As the situation worsened, Gage warned Delaplace that a surprise attack might be imminent, although how Delaplace could have made the run-down post more secure with just two officers, 46 enlisted men (mostly old and worn out), and 24 wives and children, is unclear.
On 19 April 1775, after several near misses, hostilities did indeed break out between the King's troops and local militia, resulting in bloodshed at Lexington, Concord, and all the way back to Boston. The following day, an unofficial "army" of 20,000 militia had surrounded Boston, with more on the way - among them one Benedict Arnold. Arriving at Cambridge, Arnold persuaded the Massachusetts Provincial Congress to commission him as a colonel and authorize him to raise 500 troops to attack Ticonderoga. Leaving the mundane task of recruiting to others, he hastened north.
Ethan Allen, commander of the Green Mountain Boys, had been equally excited by the events at Boston and also decided to attack Ticonderoga. On 7 May he gathered 200 men at Castleton and arranged for boats to be brought to Hands Cove, just across the lake from the fort. As he was leaving Castleton, Arnold arrived and showed Allen his Massachusetts commission; Allen (or rather his men) refused to acknowledge it and, with the worst possible grace, the two agreed to march on the fort together. On the night of 9 May they arrived at Hands Cove, but the crossing was a shambles: only two boats could be found, and it was almost 3.00am before 83 men — all that could be carried at one time - crossed to the west side of the lake. Surprising a dozing sentry, whose musket misfired, Allen and his troops surged into the fort. Captain Delaplace and his colleague, Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, were roused unceremoniously from their quarters, and herded onto the parade ground with their men, whereupon Allen's troops found the rum store and proceeded to get drunk.
As more Green Mountain Boys crossed the lake, Allen sent a detachment of 100 men, under Seth Warner and Remember Baker (cousin to both men), to seize Crown Point. The sergeant and ten men living there were merely glorified caretakers and put up no resistance. At the same time, 30 more men under Captain Samuel Herrick were marching to Skenesboro (now Whitehall), the seat of a prominent Loyalist, Philip Skene. Herrick found Skene's schooner, Katherine,' renamed it Liberty and delivered it to Ticonderoga on 14 May.
Meanwhile, Arnold had learned that the British post at St Johns, at the head of the lake, was not only unguarded, but was also home to a 16-gun sloop packed with stores. Aware that such a mission would violate the New York-Quebec frontier, and that a column of Regulars was coming from Montreal to reinforce the garrison, Arnold took over Liberty, and set off up Lake Champlain. Soon after dawn on 17 May, he captured the fort, its 14-man garrison, and the sloop George III (which he renamed Enterprise), destroyed some boats and stores, and returned south. On the way, he met Allen and 100 of his men, who had rowed up the lake in two bateaux.
Against Arnold's advice, Allen intended to occupy the fort and ambush the relief column coming from Chambly. He later thought better of it and withdrew to the opposite side of the river; the next morning he awoke to find 200 Regulars and two small cannon facing him from the west bank. He put his men back into the boats and had soon rowed out of range, but only after losing three men.
By the end of May, Massachusetts and Connecticut had agreed that the latter would look after the defense of the Lake Champlain corridor. Unfortunately, nobody told Arnold and on learning that his Massachusetts commission was now defunct, he took Liberty and Enterprise out into the middle of the lake. When a committee rowed out to reason with him, his crew fixed bayonets and prevented them coming aboard. Finally, they persuaded Arnold to give up the vessels, but this was just the first of a number of clashes between Arnold and his political and military masters.
