<P> Although the scope of this military action was relatively minor, it had significant strategic importance . It impeded communication between northern and southern units of the British Army, and gave the nascent Continental Army a staging ground for the invasion of Quebec later in 1775 . It also involved two larger - than - life personalities in Allen and Arnold, each of whom sought to gain as much credit and honor as possible for these events . Most significantly, artillery from Ticonderoga would be dragged across Massachusetts to the heights commanding Boston Harbor, forcing the British to withdraw from that city . </P> <P> In 1779, Fort Ticonderoga's location did not appear to be as strategically important as it had been in the French and Indian War, when the French famously defended it against a much larger British force in the 1758 Battle of Carillon, and when the British captured it in 1759 . After the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which the French ceded their North American territories to the British, the fort was no longer on the frontier of two great empires, guarding the principal waterway between them . The French had blown up the fort's powder magazine when they abandoned the fort, and it had fallen further into disrepair since then . In 1775 it was garrisoned by only a small detachment of the 26th Regiment of Foot, consisting of two officers and forty - six men, with many of them "invalids" (soldiers with limited duties because of disability or illness). Twenty - five women and children lived there as well . Because of its former significance, Fort Ticonderoga still had a high reputation as the "gateway to the continent" or the "Gibraltar of America", but in 1775 it was, according to historian Christopher Ward, "more like a backwoods village than a fort ." </P> <P> Even before shooting started in the American Revolutionary War, American Patriots were concerned about Fort Ticonderoga . The fort was a valuable asset for several reasons . Within its walls was a collection of heavy artillery including cannons, howitzers, and mortars, armaments that the Americans had in short supply . The fort was situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, a strategically important route between the Thirteen Colonies and the British - controlled northern provinces . British forces placed there would expose the colonial forces in Boston to attack from the rear . After the war began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the British General Thomas Gage realized the fort would require fortification, and several colonists had the idea of capturing the fort . </P> <P> Gage, writing from the besieged city of Boston following Lexington and Concord, instructed Quebec's governor, General Guy Carleton, to rehabilitate and refortify the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point . Carleton did not receive this letter until May 19, well after the fort had been captured . </P>

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