6/22/01

Water-logged
invasion

Lord Howe fleet straggles
across choppy lake

By LOHR McKINSTRY, Staff Writer

TICONDEROGA — A seven-bateau flotilla left the southern tip of Lake George early Thursday morning enroute to Ticonderoga for today’s massive re-enactment of the death of British Lord Howe during the French and Indian War.

Intended to resemble the fleet of British warships that brought 16,000 soldiers to Ticonderoga in July 1758 to take Carillon from the French, the boats ran into choppy water and light rain, later forcing all but two of them to put to shore.

The remaining two ships and 10 men continued on, stopping only at Glen Island for coffee and snacks at the camp store there.

"This weather won’t stop us," said re-enactor Richard Seidemann of Minneapolis, Minn. "Keep rowing, that’s the plan. Although I shouldn’t say that — I’m only a private, and I don’t know what the officers want to do."

What they wanted to do was keep going, and the boats soon continued north on the 32-mile-long lake.

The Town of Ticonderoga and the Ticonderoga Historical Society are co-sponsoring the Lord Howe re-enactment at 3:30 p.m. today. Newcomb author Robert Bearor is in charge of a cadre of more than 1,000 re-enactors who will restage the battle in a field between Route 9N and Lord Howe Street.

Parking at the battle site is by permit only, and spectators have been asked to park at the Ticonderoga Little League park downtown, where 11 buses will be standing by to shuttle them to the re-enactment location.

After the battle, which is scheduled to be held rain or shine, the re-enactors will march through the streets of Ticonderoga to Percy Thompson Bicentennial Park for a barbecue and festivities starting at 4:30 p.m.

Town officials have said the event may have to be scaled back if it rains heavily, however.

Seidemann said he came all the way from Minnesota to be in the Lord Howe battle.

"I heard they were going to row up Lake George, and I said ‘I have to do it,"’ he said.

"Being on Lake George like this — you’re part of history. I’m having a great time out here."

Lord George Augustus Viscount Howe was killed by a French marksman on July 6, 1758, as he and the British army prepared to attack the French-held Carillon, later called Fort Ticonderoga.

The British suffered a horrible defeat in the battle that followed, as they were virtually mowed down by heavy French musket fire while advancing on the fort. Almost one-third of the expeditionary force was killed.

It’s believed that had Howe lived, his military strategy might have enabled the British to take the fort, Bearor said.

"But we’ll never know."

Lohr McKinstry can be reached by e-mail: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com 

To contact the Press-Republican, Phone: (518) 561-2300 or send mail to:
Press-Republican, 170 Margaret St., P.O. Box 459, Plattsburgh, NY 12901

Copyright 2001, Plattsburgh Publishing Co., Plattsburgh, NY,  Division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., Campbell Hall, NY. The information you receive from Press-Republican Online is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.