The Hubbardton Military Road was originally a trail cut through the wilderness of western Vermont, during the American Revolutionary War to connect fortifications on Lake Champlain with existing roads and frontier settlements, so that the Continental Army could be reinforced and supplied. [1]
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America.
The Continental Army was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the ex-British colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in their revolt against the rule of Great Britain. The Continental Army was supplemented by local militias and volunteer troops that remained under control of the individual states or were otherwise independent. General George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the army throughout the war.
The road stretched about 35 miles from the fortifications on Mount Independence in today's Orwell, Vermont, to Rutland (today's "Center Rutland") where it joined an older military road that ran diagonally from the ruins of the originally British fort Crown Point southeast to the Fort at Number 4 on the Connecticut River in Charlestown, New Hampshire.
Mount Independence on Lake Champlain in Orwell, Vermont, was the site of extensive fortifications built during the American Revolutionary War by the American army to stop a British invasion. Construction began in July 1776, following the American defeat in Canada, and continued through the winter and spring of 1777. After the American retreat on July 5 and 6, 1777, British and German troops occupied Mount Independence until November 1777.
Fort Crown Point was a British fort built by the combined efforts of both British and provincial troops in North America in 1759 at a narrows on Lake Champlain on what later became the border between New York and Vermont. Erected to secure the region against the French, the fort is in upstate New York near the town of Crown Point and was the largest earthen fortress built in the United States. The fort's ruins, a National Historic Landmark, are now administered as part of Crown Point State Historic Site.
The Fort at Number 4 was a fortification protecting Plantation Number 4, the northernmost British settlement along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire until after the French and Indian War. Number 4 was one of 32 towns established on the same day through the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Now known as Charlestown, Plantation Number 4 was more than 30 miles (50 km) from the nearest other British settlement at Fort Dummer. Settlement of the town began in 1740 by brothers Stephen, Samuel and David Farnsworth. By 1743, there were 10 families settled at Number 4.
The Hubbardton Military Road was constructed in the fall of 1776 under orders from patriot Major General Horatio Gates. On July 6, 1777, most of the Continental Army's Northern Department, stationed on either side of Lake Champlain at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, retreated on the road and were pursued by British and German troops, culminating in a rear guard action, the Battle of Hubbardton, on the morning of July 7. [2]
Horatio Lloyd Gates was a retired British soldier who served as an American general during the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory in the Battles of Saratoga (1777) – a matter of contemporary and historical controversy – and was blamed for the defeat at the Battle of Camden in 1780. Gates has been described as "one of the Revolution's most controversial military figures" because of his role in the Conway Cabal, which attempted to discredit and replace General George Washington; the battle at Saratoga; and his actions during and after his defeat at Camden.
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between October 1755 and 1757, during the action in the "North American theater" of the Seven Years' War, often referred to in the US as the French and Indian War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.
The Battle of Hubbardton was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought in the village of Hubbardton, Vermont. Vermont was then a disputed territory sometimes called the New Hampshire Grants, claimed by New York, New Hampshire, and the newly organized and not yet recognized but de facto independent government of Vermont. On the morning of July 7, 1777, British forces, under General Simon Fraser, caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga. It was the only battle in Vermont during the revolution.
After the war, this supply road was abandoned by the military and became farmland and forest. Although most of the route is known, local historians continue to study maps and terrain seeking to understand obscure details. [3]
