Fort William Henry

During our trip to Lake George at the end of June/beginning of July we visited Fort William Henry. This was a British Fort at the south end of Lake George and until Fort Ticonderoga was taken from the French, this was the northern most point in the 13 Colonies. It is also the Fort that was taken by the French as told in the movie The Last of the Mochicans.

As you will note from the pictures of Ticonderoga, the British fort is wood versus the French fort of stone. It was a quickly built fort and not designed to withstand heavy cannon bombardment. That said, the British plan for the area involved four forts, two of which were only a short distance away, Fort Ann (15 miles ESE) and Fort Edward (15 miles SES). The third, Fort Saratoga was about 30 miles south. As the British learned with the fall of Fort William Henry their plans of forts helping to reinforce and strengthen each other was a false assumption as undermanned Forts coupled with each commander looking only after their own interested doomed their plan.

Below is the exterior as taken from the lake side.















Below are pictures of the interior as well as of reinactor.

One of the orginal cannons that was discovered at the bottom of Lake George. The French burned the fort and tossed into the lake the cannons they did not take back to Ticonderoga. Blow the cannon picture is the picture of the jail in the bowels of the fort.

Below, dress of the day for the average soldier as well as the common volunteer soldier from the colonies.