What was ethan allens role in the revolutionary war

Educated locally, Allen furthered his studies under the tutelage of a minister in Salisbury, CT with the hopes of gaining admission to Yale College. Though possessing the intellect for higher education, he was prevented attending Yale when his father died in After moving to Vermont, he was elected colonel commandant of the local militia, better known as the "Green Mountain Boys.

Upon his exchange and release by the British in , Allen was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and major general of militia. After returning to Vermont later that year, he was made a general in the Army of Vermont. A year later, Allen married Frances "Fanny" Buchanan. The union produced three children, Fanny, Hannibal, and Ethan.

Fanny would survive her husband and lived until Marching north, the expedition soon learned that the Marquis de Montcalm had captured the fort. Assessing the situation, Allen's unit decided to return to Connecticut. Returning to farming, Allen bought into an iron foundry in Making an effort to expand the business, Allen soon found himself in debt and sold off part of his farm.

He also also sold part of his stake in the foundry to his brother Hemen. The business continued to founder and in the brothers gave up their stake to their partners. Moving north to the New Hampshire Grants Vermont in at the behest of several locals, Allen became embroiled in the controversy over which colony controlled the region. In this period, the territory of Vermont was claimed jointly by the colonies of New Hampshire and New York, and both issued competing land grants to settlers.

As a holder of grants from New Hampshire, and wishing to associate Vermont with New England, Allen aided took in legal proceedings to defend their claims. An anti-New York militia, the unit consisted of companies from several towns and sought to resist Albany's efforts to take control of the region.

With Allen as its "colonel commandant" and several hundred in the ranks, the Green Mountain Boys effectively controlled Vermont between and With the beginning of the American Revolution in April , an irregular Connecticut militia unit reached out to Allen for assistance in capturing the principle British base in the region, Fort Ticonderoga.

Located at the south edge of Lake Champlain, the fort commanded the lake and the route to Canada. Agreeing to lead the mission, Allen began assembling his men and the necessary supplies. The day before their planned attack, they were interrupted by the arrival of Colonel Benedict Arnold who had been sent north to seize the fort by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Commissioned by the government of Massachusetts, Arnold claimed that he was to have overall command of the operation.

Allen disagreed, and after the Green Mountain Boys threatened to return home, the two colonels decided to share command. On May 10, , Allen and Arnold's men stormed Fort Ticonderoga , capturing its entire forty-eight man garrison. They came across on Lake St. John, and while Benedict Arnold provided the men food he also attempted to discourage Allen from his goal.

However, he refused to heed the warning. When the group landed just above the fort, Allen learned that at least British regulars were approaching.

Being outnumbered, he led his men across the Richelieu River where his men spent the night. While Ethan and his men rested, the British began to fire artillery at them from across the river, causing the Boys to panic and return to Ticonderoga. Allen was able to convince Warner to allow him to stay on as a civilian scout as the Green Mountain Boys were participating in the campaign in Quebec.

On September 24, Allen and about men crossed the Saint Lawrence River, but the British had been alerted to their presence. In the ensuing Battle of Longue-Pointe, he and about 30 of his men were captured. Allen was imprisoned in Cornwall, England for approximately two years and returned to the United States on May 6, , as part of a prisoner exchange. Upon his return, Allen settled in Vermont, a territory which had declared its independence from the United States as well as from Britain.

He took it upon himself to petition the Continental Congress to make Vermont the fourteenth U. He then negotiated with Canadian governor Frederick Haldimand to become part of Canada but those attempts also failed. In , Ethan retired to his home in what is now Burlington, Vermont. He died in Burlington on February 12, Two years later, Vermont joined the United States. His daughter Fanny converted to Catholicism and then she entered a convent. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Allen, however, had a genuine intellectual bent, and he was to write a number of pamphlets on such diverse subjects as the taking of Ticonderoga, Vermont's controversies with New York, and religion. From to Allen and his Green Mountain Boys harassed the New York surveyors, sheriffs, and settlers who had invaded Vermont, which was then commonly known as the Hampshire Grants.

Allen himself speculated in lands, forming a company to sell tracts along the Onion River. As "chieftain of the Grants," his authority uncontested, Allen sympathized with the colonists elsewhere in their opposition to British imperial policy, although the position of the Vermonters was complicated by the fact that they were currently petitioning the King to be reannexed to New Hampshire. The once-mighty fortress at the juncture of Lake Champlain and Lake George was now a crumbling and lightly garrisoned structure, but New York governor William Tryon had suggested that it be used as a base for bringing Vermont to heel.

Moreover, Allen recognized that any large-scale effort by Britain to win an American war would undoubtedly include a southward invasion from Canada along the Lake Champlain-Lake George route. According to Allen, word of the battles of Lexington and Concord "electrified my mind, and fully determined me to take part with my country. Allen and his men agreed to let Arnold join them, though it is doubtful that they recognized Arnold as joint commander, as Arnold subsequently claimed.

The fracas over authority and the boat trip across the dark, squall-ruffled waters of Lake Champlain to the western shore were more troublesome to the Americans than the Redcoat garrison: 45 officers and men who were "old, wore out, and unserviceable. The capture of Ticonderoga's heavy guns, sledged eastward the next winter to Washington's camp, hastened the British evacuation of Boston in Soon afterward Allen appeared in Philadelphia and persuaded the Continental Congress to authorize the organization of a regiment of Green Mountain Boys under such officers as the citizens of Vermont should elect.

Allen's further advice on the advantages of an invasion of Canada seems to have added some impetus to Congress's order to Gen. Philip Schuyler to advance northward from Ticonderoga against Montreal and other parts of the province.

At a public meeting in Vermont, however, Allen's former subordinate Seth Warner was chosen instead of Allen to raise the regiment of Green Mountain Boys—because, according to Allen, the older settlers constituted a majority of the voters at the meeting, and they considered him to be headstrong and radical.