This is a speech I had to right for our book club and I am posting it for an educational post.
Ethan Allen, Leader Against Injustice
By Chord Tozier
Ethan Allen was born in Litchfield Connecticut, the first born of seven siblings, to Joseph and Mary Baker Allen. He had very little schooling until his father died when Ethan was in his teens, and he started studying under a minister. From there he tried to get into Yale College but being the oldest son he was needed at home for support. During the French and Indian war Allen joined the militia. But he didn’t stay in the army very long. After leaving the army he settled down in Cornwall and started an iron works and a family, marrying Mary Brownson. A few years later he turned over the business to his brother Ira, and moved to Salisbury with his wife and daughter Loraine where they started a farm. Allen and Mary’s marriage was not a happy one. In spite of that, they had five children and they stayed together until Mary died.
Soon war reached the New Hampshire Grants, (a land grant area which later became the state of Vermont) because the governor of New York was given authority over the Grants. He started making the people of the Grants pay very high taxes and if they could not pay, their land would be confiscated. The settlers formed a militia with Allen as their leader. They called themselves the Green Mountain Boys. They had many battles to take back the Grants.
Ethan had gained information about Ticonderoga, the fort located in Northern New York, built by the English soldiers to enforce the law in the Grants. He had sent Seth Warner, his lieutenant, into the fort under cover of getting a hair cut every three weeks. The barber liked to talk, and told Warner, how many cannons there were on the fort, where the cannons were placed, how many soldiers were in the fort and when troops were leaving and coming in. With that valuable information Allen knew that on the fifth of July, 1777 there would only be about 100 men to guard the fort. Old troops were being deployed to a different part of the war and new troops were coming in over night. Allen got word to General St. Clair of the Continental army, and he besieged the fort that the new troops were coming from. Thus preventing them from arriving at Fort Ticonderoga.
Before the famous battle of Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold a General of the Continental army, tried to force Allen out of command. Without their leaders information about the fort they would have lost the battle so the Green Mountain boys turned on Arnold and threatened him unless he would give command back to Ethan. He did and then with Allen as their leader they took Fort Ticonderoga.
After the battle of Ticonderoga, Ethan got a letter from Major John Brown of the Continental army asking him to come to Canada for a meeting with other Commanders. Allen left at once hurrying to Canada, only to be captured by General Guy Carlton of the British army. From Ethan Allen’s capture in 1775 until 1778 about the time of Valley Forge he was held prisoner. After the war ended he settled down and married a young widow by the name of Frances Buchanan and had 3 more children. Ethan Allen died February 12, 1789 in Burlington, Vermont.
Even with very little education Ethan Allen was a man people looked to, as a leader against injustice to the people of Vermont. His participation in the battle of Ticonderoga turned the tides in the war because the cannons, ammunition and supplies were brought to DorchesterieHi Heights, Massachusetts to fortify it and quit the siege of nearby Boston.
