“For Use of the Troops at Ticondaroga”: New York and Connecticut Feed an Army

Posted on July 22, 2025

“For Use of the Troops at Ticondaroga”: New York and Connecticut Feed an Army

250 years ago today—July 22, 1775—the colonies were working to feed an army. The garrison at Fort Ticonderoga had grown since its initial occupation by American forces in May. Numbers fluctuated as troops deserted or were discharged and new regiments arrived, but by July 1 there were over 500 men stationed at the fort, and by August 1 there were nearly 600 men, mostly from Connecticut.

Each of the soldiers stationed at Ticonderoga needed to be fed. Most of the garrison was composed of Connecticut men, but many of their provisions were supplied by New York, whose Provincial Congress had agreed to “furnish such supplies as we shall deem necessary” to the forces at Ticonderoga. In order for the two colonies to ensure a steady flow of supplies, the Continental Congress recommended that Connecticut appoint a commissary to be stationed in Albany and coordinate the transfer of food and supplies from southern New York to points farther north.

On June 8, Connecticut chose Captain Elisha Phelps, one of the organizers of the May 1775 expedition to Ticonderoga, as the commissary for Connecticut troops in the Northern Department. In this pay order dated July 22, 1775, members of Connecticut’s Committee of the Pay Table order Connecticut’s treasurer to “Pay Lieut. David Phelps… one hundred ninety one pound Seven Shilling mony in Bills, it being for Beef &c. by him Supplied to Commisary Elisha Phelps for use of the Troops at Ticondaroga, &c.”

The identity of Lieutenant David Phelps, who supplied the beef, isn’t known with certainty, but it’s likely that he was a relative of Elisha’s. At least two men named David Phelps served as a lieutenant or higher rank in Connecticut’s forces during the Revolutionary War. One, later a captain, was Elisha’s older brother, while the other, who served in Connecticut’s state troops in 1776, was a distant cousin. Thanks to the work of the Phelps family, with David supplying the meat and Elisha sending it on its way, soldiers in the Ticonderoga garrison stayed fed and ready to work.

Learn more about the pay order (object ID MS.7027) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database here.