Ethan Allen was a giant. Physically, he stood nearly six and a half feet tall, which made him a literal titan in the 1700s. Mentally? He was even bigger. If you think Ethan Allen and the American Revolutionary War is just a story about a guy who captured a fort and then ended up on a furniture store sign, you’re missing the wildest parts of the narrative. He was a philosopher. He was a land speculator. He was a bit of a loudmouth. Honestly, he was exactly the kind of chaotic energy the early American colonies needed to actually break away from the British Crown.
Most people know the name from the Green Mountain Boys. They think of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. But the reality is a lot messier, way more interesting, and involves a level of bravado that borders on the insane. He wasn't just fighting the British; half the time, he was fighting New York.
The Green Mountain Boys and the Ticonderoga Gamble
Before the war even officially kicked off, Ethan Allen was already a wanted man. He lived in the New Hampshire Grants, an area that both New Hampshire and New York claimed. New York tried to evict the settlers there, and Allen wasn't having it. He formed the Green Mountain Boys basically as a private militia to terrorize New York sheriffs. He was a vigilante.
Then came May 1775.
The Revolution was barely a month old. The Battles of Lexington and Concord had happened, and the colonies realized they needed heavy artillery. Fort Ticonderoga sat on Lake Champlain, holding a massive stash of British cannons. It was the "Key to a Continent." Allen teamed up with Benedict Arnold—yes, that Benedict Arnold—and they didn't exactly get along. Imagine two massive egos trying to lead the same group of rugged woodsmen. Arnold had the official commission; Allen had the men who actually liked him.
They took the fort without firing a single shot.
Allen famously claimed he demanded the surrender "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." Historians still debate if he actually said that. Some accounts suggest he was actually swearing like a sailor at the British commander who opened the door in his underwear. Regardless of the dialogue, the result was a massive win. Those cannons were eventually hauled across the snow by Henry Knox to liberate Boston. Without Allen's aggression at Ticonderoga, the early war might have looked very different.
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Why Ethan Allen Still Matters to Vermont (and America)
It’s easy to forget that Vermont wasn't one of the original thirteen colonies. It was a republic. For fourteen years, Vermont was its own thing, and Ethan Allen was its champion. He didn't just want freedom from King George; he wanted freedom from everyone.
This is where his story gets really weird.
After being captured by the British during a failed attempt to take Montreal later in 1775, Allen spent years as a prisoner of war. He was hauled to England, then Ireland, then New York. When he was finally exchanged and returned to Vermont, he found that the Continental Congress still wouldn't recognize Vermont as a state. They didn't want to upset New York.
Allen’s response? He started talking to the British again.
Basically, he entered into secret negotiations—the Haldimand Negotiations—to see if Vermont could become a separate British province. Was he a traitor? Or was he just a master of leverage? Most experts, including those at the Vermont Historical Society, suggest he was playing a high-stakes game of poker. He wanted to scare Congress into granting Vermont statehood by threatening to rejoin the Empire. It was a dangerous, brilliant move that honestly could have ended with him at the end of a rope.
The Philosopher in the Woods
People forget that Allen was an author. He wrote Reason: The Only Oracle of Man. It was a deist manifesto that basically attacked organized religion. In the late 18th century, that was social suicide. He wasn't some cookie-cutter "Founding Father" who prayed in the snow. He was a radical. He believed in logic, land rights, and the common man's ability to govern himself without a priest or a king telling him what to do.
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He lived hard. He drank hard.
When you look at the primary sources—letters from his contemporaries like George Washington—you see a mix of respect and utter confusion. Washington once wrote that Allen’s "fortitude and firmness" were undeniable, even if the man was a bit of a loose cannon.
What You Probably Got Wrong About the Green Mountain Boys
- They weren't a formal army. They were mostly farmers and hunters protecting their own property.
- They used "The Beech Seal," which was basically a fancy way of saying they beat New York officials with beech twigs.
- They were technically outlaws for a significant portion of their existence.
- They didn't always follow orders from the Continental Congress.
The Capture of Montreal: A Lesson in Hubris
If Ticonderoga was Allen’s peak, the Montreal expedition was his valley. In September 1775, he got a little too confident. He tried to seize the city with a small, poorly coordinated force. He expected the local Canadians to rise up and join him.
They didn't.
He was cornered and captured. This began his long stint in British irons. While in captivity, he wrote a memoir of his experiences. It became a bestseller. Why? Because it was gritty. It wasn't the polished, polite prose of Thomas Jefferson. It was the voice of a man who had been shoved into the hold of a ship and survived on grit and spite. This book, A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity, did more to solidify his legend than almost anything else he did. It framed the American struggle not just as a legal dispute over taxes, but as a visceral battle for human dignity.
Lessons from a Revolutionary Rebel
So, what can we actually learn from Ethan Allen and the American Revolutionary War today?
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First, the Revolution wasn't a unified front. It was a mess of competing interests, land disputes, and giant personalities. Allen reminds us that history is made by people who are often "difficult." If he had been a polite, rule-following citizen, Vermont might still be part of New York, and the British might have held Ticonderoga long enough to split the colonies in half.
Second, your "brand" matters. Allen knew how to tell a story. Whether he was standing on a parade ground or sitting in a British prison, he was always "Ethan Allen." He understood that the American cause needed heroes, so he made himself one.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs
If you want to truly understand this era, don't just read the textbooks. Start by looking at the primary sources.
- Visit the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington, Vermont. You can see the actual land he fought so hard to keep. It puts the scale of his life into perspective.
- Read his Captivity Narrative. It’s available for free online through various archives. It’s way more entertaining than you’d expect from a 250-year-old book.
- Explore the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. They have incredible resources on the naval aspects of the war that Allen influenced.
- Compare his writings to the Federalist Papers. You'll see the massive gap between the "intellectual" revolution of the cities and the "frontier" revolution of the mountains.
The legacy of Ethan Allen isn't just a statue in the Vermont State House. It's the spirit of stubborn independence. He was a man who refused to be told "no"—not by the King of England, not by the state of New York, and certainly not by the Continental Congress. He was the ultimate American outsider who forced his way into the room where it happens.
To dig deeper into the actual geography of his campaigns, look into the "Northern Theater" of the war. Most students focus on Virginia or Pennsylvania, but the real survival of the colonies was often decided in the woods of the North, where men like Allen turned the tide through sheer, stubborn willpower.