IMPORTANT EVENT NOTICE
Unfortunately, due to increasing costs, Crazy Crow Trading Post will no longer be able to maintain the Event Calendar by updating or adding new events.
The pages will remain active for a time as there are a number of events with current information and past events that may help you contact the sponsors for new information concerning location, dates & times!
Please do NOT contact Crazy Crow about these events, except for corrections to events with 2020 dates that are incorrect. Email date corrections directly to eventcoordinator@crazycrow.com. PLEASE DO NOT CALL, as we have nothing to do with the events and have only provided the listings as a free service.
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2019 Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga

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Join the Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga on July 20-21, 2019 to highlight the epic 1758 Battle of Carillon! Witness how the British amassed the largest army in North American history to date yet was stunningly defeated by a French army a quarter of its size. Highlighted programming featured throughout the weekend brings to life the story of the courageous French soldiers that protected their lines of defense against all odds. Visitors will meet the British and Provincial soldiers who gave their utmost to drive the French from the rocky peninsula and fortress of Carillon, later named Ticonderoga. Climb aboard tour boat Carillon and see the story from the waters of Lake Champlain. Tours are offered at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Experience the fog of war and smoky haze of battle as the French and British armies maneuver across Fort Ticonderoga.

Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment

Hours: 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Daily

Admission
Special events, such as the Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga, are included in the general admission ticket of Fort Ticonderoga. Admission Information & Online Ticket Sales

Reenactor & Visitor Information and Guidelines

Clothing & Equipment Guidelines for Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment
Detailed information for participants who wish to reenact the roles of British Regulars, Gage’s Lightly Armed Foot, British Allied Natives, Rangers, Massachusetts Provincials, Connecticut Provincials, New Jersey Provincials, New York Provincials, French Soldiers, French Allied Natives, and Milice are provided in detail. Select the link for the persona that you will take for the 1758 Battle of Carillon Reenactment.

Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment Mini-Gallery

Visitor Schedule and Camping Information
Follow the links on Clothing & Equipment Guidelines page for visitor and participant information such as the event schedule and camping details for the Battle of Carillon Reenactment.

Tentative Schedule

[su_accordion][su_spoiler title=”Saturday Events”] 9:30 AM Fort Opens to Visitors
9:45 AM Flag Raising
10:00 AM Inspection of the Armies (Inside the Fort and Carillon Battlefield)
10:15 AM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
11:00 AM British Light Infantry Drill & Musket Demonstration (Demonstration Area, Adjacent Parking Lot)
11:30 AM Garden March (Beginning at the American Flag)
11:30 AM Un Empire de Choses Militaire (Mars Education Center)
11:45 AM Garden & Grounds Tour (Beginning at King’s Garden)
12:30 PM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
1:00 PM Fife & Drum Parade to Re-enactment Battlefield (Beginning at the American Flag)
1:30 PM Re-enactment Battle: The Advance from Lake George Landing (Saturday Woods Battlefield)
Watch as General Lord Howe leads the advanced guard of the British Army from Lake George down through the LeChute Valley from the eerie twilight underneath the canopy of virgin pine forest on the heights of Carillon. See the deadly consequences of a brief encounter with a lost French patrol which killed Lord Howe, a favorite commander of the British Army.

2:00 PM “We Continued in Possession of the Ground”
(Saturday Woods Battlefield)Explore the British & Provincial Army at the end of July 6th. Landed successfully at the north end of Lake George, but deprived of critical commander, how is this army poised to attack Ticonderoga?

The Death of Lord Howe: British Command
As the news of the death of Lord Howe sweeps the British command, discuss British strategy: how the high command will execute his plan for the invasion of New France. Learn what his leadership meant to this 16,000-man army and tactics and the attack on Fort Carillon.

Captain Job Winslow’s Company of Massachusetts Provincials
Meet the men of Captain Job Winslow’s company as they appeared before the July 8th 1758 Battle of Carillon. Who are they and why did they serve? Discuss what it was like to be a Massachusetts soldier serving alongside British regular soldiers in this campaign against New France.

2:15 PM Carillon Battlefield Tour (Carillon Battlefield)
Tour the real Carillon Battlefield with a soldier of the Black Watch, whose legendary sacrifice charging the French lines helped immortalize the battle world-wide. Discover how this battlefield preserves both the memory and the remains of this battle.

2:45 PM Fife & Drum Parade to Fort Carillon (Beginning at the Carillon Battlefield)
3:00 PM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
4:00 PM Mount Defiance: Witness to History Tour
Oh the stories this graceful hill overlooking Fort Ticonderoga could tell! Ascend to the summit of Mount Defiance to get the birds-eye view of this epic military landscape and learn how this height shaped the Fort’s history.

4:30 PM Flag Lowering
5:00 Fort Closes to Visitors[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion][su_accordion][su_spoiler title=”Sunday Events”] 9:30 AM Fort Opens to Visitors
9:45 AM Flag Raising
10:00 AM Inspection of the Armies (Inside the Fort and Carillon Battlefield)
10:15 AM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
11:00 AM French Drill & Musket Demonstration (At the Fort Demonstration Area)
11:30 AM Garden March (Beginning at the American Flag)
11:45 AM Garden & Grounds Tour (Beginning at King’s Garden)
12:30 PM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
1:00 PM Fife & Drum Parade to Re-enactment Battlefield (Beginning at the American Flag)
Follow the amassed military musicians of the French Army as they provide a musical escort from Fort Carillon to the re-enactment battlefield.

1:30 PM Re-enactment Battle: Defending the French Lines, Defending New France(Recreated French Lines)

Secured behind logs stacked eight feet high, French soldiers fired for their lives to keep their foothold on the heights of Carillon. Watch the assault at the recreated French lines as waves of British and American soldiers rushed through French bullets in an attempt to dislodge this tenuously fortified position.

2:00 PM Raising Montcalm’s Cross (Carillon Battlefield)
Just as General Montcalm raised a cross in thanks for the victory of his army in the Battle of Carillon, join us as we raise Montcalm’s Cross in remembrance of the lives lost and forever changed by this tremendous battle.

2:30 PM Fife & Drum Parade to Fort Carillon (Beginning at Carillon Battlefield)
3:00 PM Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)
3:00 PM Mount Defiance: Witness to History Tour
Oh the stories this graceful hill overlooking Fort Ticonderoga could tell! Ascend to the summit of Mount Defiance to get the birds-eye view of this epic military landscape and learn how this height shaped the Fort’s history.
4:30 PM Flag Lowering
5:00 Fort Closes to Visitors[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

Clothing & Equipment Guidelines

1758 Battle of Carillon Reenactment: Battle at the Wall

About the 1758 Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment

Under the warm July sun, French soldiers gazed out from between sandbags atop the breastwork of logs they had hastily constructed over the past two days. Behind them stood the Marquis de Montcalm, a general used to doing the impossible in Canada and the mountains of Italy. With woolen vestes packed away, wearing the white coats of France, each French soldier double-checked his stockpile of loaded muskets and hoped for a miracle to defend New France from a British onslaught. Sweat beading up on their brows, they looked over tangled branches and a forest of mere stumps. With piercing eyes they looked over the top of the stacked logs and began to see blazing musket fire explode as the largest single day of battle yet in the history of North America began.

Three days prior, the largest military force ever assembled in North America embarked by bateaux down Lake George, leaving the ruins of Fort William Henry to invade New France from the south. At Fort Carillon, 3,700 French soldiers, Canadian milice, and native warriors stood to defend French soil in the New World. Abercromby’s army of British and Provincial soldiers landed at the north end of Lake George, after a long night packed into the fleet of bateaux. Sweeping through the La Chute valley, Brigadier General Lord Augustus Howe and the advanced guard encountered a lost patrol of French soldiers. In the ensuing confusing battle Lord Howe was shot through the chest, and killed on the spot. The death of this leader, known as the darling of the army, struck a blow to British morale and tactical command.

Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga

In spite of Lord Howe’s death, British and Provincial soldiers dug in along the La Chute River and General Abercromby prepared to assault the Heights of Carillon. Abercromby’s intelligence led him to believe that the Marquis de Montcalm’s soldiers had prepared merely a defensive abatis, which could easily be taken. Early in the morning of July 8th, General Abercromby moved regulars, provincials, and rangers into position to attack the Heights of Carillon. By this plan, three columns of British and provincial soldiers would attack three sides of the French lines in unison. Instead, individual regiments rushed forward, dissipating their immense numerical advantage. What was supposed to be a well-coordinated attack soon fell apart. The French kept up a consistent fire on the attacking force, pinning many of the British soldiers down, forcing them to hide behind stumps of trees and the bodies of their fallen comrades. David Perry, a Massachusetts provincial soldier, described his perilous situation that July day.

It happened that I got behind a white-oak stump, which was so small that I had to lay on my side, and stretch myself; the balls striking the ground within a hand’s breadth of me every moment, and I could hear the men screaming, and see them dying all around me. I lay there some time. A man could not stand erect, without being hit, any more than he could stand out in a shower, without having drops of rain fall upon him; for the balls came by hands-full.

British Defeat and Retreat
The outcome looked grim for the few attackers who made it to the abatis. Rushing over the bare no-mans-land, they attempted to cut and force their way through the sharp entangled branches, facing clouds of lead bullets. After seven hours of fighting, the battlefield was littered with the dead and dying, and with dusk encompassing the battlefield a disorganized retreat south ensued for the British and provincial soldiers. The retreating soldiers brought with them the story of this great battle, taking the name Ticonderoga home to taverns and newspapers in America and Britain.

This fight for the Heights of Carillon at that time was the single most-bloody day in American history, and gave Fort Carillon a formidable reputation. Having held the French Lines for one day, French soldiers continued to dig in, preparing for a second day’s attack. Their somber celebration for the day’s victory was a single cross raised high behind the French Lines. The Marquis de Montcalm ordered this cross raised as thanks for their miraculous victory, even as they prayed for another such miracle. News of this miraculous victory reached France by the fall of that year. On October 1st, 1758 the French army staged a reenactment of the battle, to accompany fireworks to celebrate in front of Paris city hall.

Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga

Mark your calendar today so you don’t miss the next 1758 Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment in July at historic Fort Ticonderoga!

Tags: Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment at Fort Ticonderoga, French & Indian War Reenactment, Montcalms Cross Battle of Carillon Reenactment, 1758 Battle of Carillon Reenactment, Battle of Carillon Reenactment

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IMPORTANT EVENT NOTICE
Unfortunately, due to increasing costs, Crazy Crow Trading Post will no longer be able to maintain the Event Calendar by updating or adding new events.
The pages will remain active for a time as there are a number of events with current information and past events that may help you contact the sponsors for new information concerning location, dates & times!
Please do NOT contact Crazy Crow about these events, except for corrections to events with 2020 dates that are incorrect. Email date corrections directly to eventcoordinator@crazycrow.com. PLEASE DO NOT CALL, as we have nothing to do with the events and have only provided the listings as a free service.
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