In 1758 British officers and engineers examined Ticonderoga's defenses from low on Mount Defiance before the July 8 Battle of Carillon, and during the battle Mohawk, Delaware, and Choctaw warriors allied to the British army positioned themselves on the mount's lower slopes to fire at the right flank of the French lines across the La Chute River, though they were largely out of range. During the American Revolution, Mount Defiance again drew attention because of its commanding location. Although it had not been fortified by the summer of 1776, Deputy Adjutant General John Trumbull believed Ticonderoga might be vulnerable to guns mounted there. With Major Ebenezer Stevens, he conducted experiments firing cannon from Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga that proved the mount was within artillery range. Trumbull, accompanied by Benedict Arnold, Anthony Wayne, and others, climbed the mountain, found the ascent difficult but possible, and urged that a fortification be erected near the summit to cover the narrows of the lake, but his report was not followed. Mount Defiance became critical when General John Burgoyne's British army encircled Ticonderoga in July 1777. Moving with surprising speed, the British cut a road up the mountain and hauled up two 12-pound cannon. Continental troops noticed the activity, and it contributed to their decision to abandon Ticonderoga early on July 6, 1777, before the British guns had opened fire. Burgoyne left one British and one Brunswick regiment to garrison Ticonderoga, completed the battery on Mount Defiance, and began work on a more permanent blockhouse closer to the summit. Early on September 18, Colonel John Brown led an American raid against the British positions at the Lake George landing. The raiders captured the British post on Mount Defiance and turned its artillery on Fort Ticonderoga. In the ensuing bombardment, the only direct attack on Fort Ticonderoga itself, one Brunswick musketeer in the fort was killed. Although Brown's men held Mount Defiance, they were unprepared for a long siege and faced resistance from the remaining German and British garrison, so they withdrew on September 22. Less than a month later Burgoyne's army capitulated at Saratoga. After Burgoyne's surrender, the small garrison at Ticonderoga was dangerously exposed, and in early November 1777 it burned the remaining structures and retreated to Canada. Mount Defiance was later garrisoned by Hessen-Hanau Jaegers during General Barry St. Leger's brief capture of Ticonderoga in late October 1781, its last military role in the 18th century.
