In the last half of 1776, regiments from Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the American Second Brigade were encamped here after the retreat from Canada, and this well-defined fifteen-foot square stone foundation may be the remains of quarters for one or more of their officers. Many soldiers had lost their tents, so they first cleared trees and brush and established a regulated camp with enlisted men housed along company streets and officers quartered behind them, with lieutenants and captains nearest the men and colonels furthest away. Rank shaped both living arrangements and rations: colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors usually lived alone and received more food and supplies, while surgeons, adjutants, captains, and lieutenants may have shared huts in pairs, and servants prepared meals in separate structures. Most of the wood came from the site and was hand-hewn or perhaps sawn at the mill at Fort Ticonderoga, while nails and window glass were bought in Albany, shipped up the Hudson River to Skenesborough, and then carried by Lake Champlain or Lake George to Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga. Housing for officers and enlisted men was built in similar ways, as shown by Zephaniah Shepardson of Colonel Timothy Bedell’s New Hampshire Regiment, who on July 30, 1776, cut and laid logs, split basswood for the door and floor, covered the roof with bark, and made a stone fireplace for his hut. This hut and others nearby likely had fireplaces, chimneys, and enough headroom to stand upright. Archaeological investigations in 1989 and 1990 of several probable officer structures found evidence of differences between enlisted men and officers, whose wealthier civilian backgrounds and better-paying occupations were reflected in window glass, finer stoneware and creamware tableware, and wine glasses.
