REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Battle Reenactment: Hold the Line for Liberty

Two hundred fifty years ago this October, the future of American independence remained very much in doubt.

On October 24 and 25, Fort Ticonderoga will bring visitors onto the ground where American soldiers confronted that uncertainty during Hold the Line for Liberty as part of Fort Ticonderoga’s REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Signature Event programming.

The two-day reenactment will recreate one of the Continental Army’s most consequential, yet lesser-known, victories of 1776: the moment American forces at Ticonderoga convinced an advancing British army to abandon its push south and return to Canada.

The stand came at the end of a desperate campaign on Lake Champlain. Earlier that month, on October 11, Benedict Arnold’s outnumbered American fleet had engaged a larger British force at the Battle of Valcour Island. The Americans suffered heavy losses, but their resistance helped slow the British advance.

By late October, British forces had reached the waters north of Ticonderoga. Waiting for them were 13,000 Continental Army troops that had spent months transforming the strategic landscape around the fort, constructing fortifications, mounting cannon, building a fleet, and preparing to defend the Lake Champlain corridor. Those preparations would now be put to the test.

Rather than attack the heavily defended American position, the British ultimately withdrew north. On October 28, 1776, American forces at Ticonderoga had held their ground. That victory came on the very same day that George Washington's army suffered defeat at the Battle of White Plains in New York.

Hold the Line for Liberty programming is included in your General Admission ticket. Tickets are valid for two consecutive days.