When the American Northern Army arrived at Ticonderoga in mid-July 1776, it began turning the rugged peninsula on the Vermont shore that became Mount Independence into a major fortification. After securing the northern point, fatigue parties built a one and one half mile line of log and stone breastworks along the upper edge of the rocky southern slope, with soil, fascines, sod, and abatis added for protection. The works were probably nearly four feet high and initially had no cannons because the Americans expected a British attack from the north. During the winter of 1776-1777, soldiers built huts and fortifications, though much timber was burned as firewood, and Colonel Anthony Wayne ordered the place made as formidable as possible, including two thirty-foot square blockhouses armed with cannon behind and above the lines. In 1777, with British forces under John Burgoyne moving south on Lake Champlain, Jeduthan Baldwin and his assistant Thaddeus Kosciuszko strengthened the position with batteries and platforms for cannon and a fresh line of abatis. The Americans abandoned Mount Independence on the night of July 5 and 6, 1777, and the British used the newly completed southern batteries. On September 18, 1777, American forces led by Lieutenant Colonel John Brown attacked the British positions around Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, capturing Mount Defiance, two blockhouses, defensive lines at Fort Ticonderoga, vessels on Lake George, four companies of the British 53rd Regiment, a naval detachment, and nearly 136 Canadian troops, but British and German defenders held the southern batteries and repelled repeated demands to surrender. For five days the Americans kept up attacks and constant fire before withdrawing on September 21 with supplies, vessels, and prisoners but without Mount Independence or Ticonderoga. The raid brought the heaviest cannon and musket fire in Mount Independence's short history and helped keep reinforcements under Colonel Barry St. Ledger at the post instead of sending them to Burgoyne. After the British took Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, 1777, they maintained a garrison there under first James Hamilton and then Henry Watson Powell, made up of British regulars, German auxiliaries, Loyalists, Canadian workers, and Royal Artillery, with camps placed on the height above the southern fortifications. Wounded soldiers and American prisoners from Hubbardton and Fort Ann were brought to the general hospital there, the British 62nd Regiment was later replaced by the 53rd Regiment, and the Brunswick Prinz Friedrich Regiment remained a key part of the defense. Reinforcements under Colonel Barry St. Ledger, including the British 34th Regiment, the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and Hesse Hanau Jagers, arrived in late September but were kept there to guard supplies. After news arrived that Burgoyne had surrendered on October 17, the garrison evacuated to Canada on November 8, 1777, after packing what was useful, burning the buildings, and rendering the remaining defenses useless.
