Alternate Outcome At Fort Ticonderoga - 874 Words

Alternate outcome at Fort Ticonderoga In order to come to an alternative outcome, one must first address the instructional letter sent from General Gage to General Carleton after the battles at Lexington and Concord. The letter took far too long to get to General Carleton. General Gage had credible human intelligence suggesting that the colonists wanted to take Fort Ticonderoga. While one understands that one must use the chain of command, one would think the immediacy of the letter was far more important and should have gone directly to Fort Ticonderoga, instead of the 10 – day long ride to Montreal. And even if that was not proper protocol, General Gage could have at least sent an advisor with knowledge of surveillance techniques to Fort Ticonderoga to aid in their post and give better forewarning of a potential attack. Secondly, had the British force at Fort Ticonderoga had cavalry scouts assigned to it, there would not have been much of an American Revolution. The cavalry scouts would have picked up the trail of Colonels Allen, Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys. The Scouts could have performed reconnaissance and then reported back to the garrison commander, putting the whole fort on guard. Then the garrison commander could have contacted both the British sloop in Lake Champlain and the garrison at Fort Crown Point for further aid and reinforcements, beating back the patriot attacking force. Thirdly, with more troops at the fort, the British could have afforded a couple