“From Lake George to the Governors”: Repairing Ticonderoga’s Firearms

Posted on September 9, 2025

“From Lake George to the Governors”: Repairing Ticonderoga’s Firearms

As the early months of the Revolutionary War unfolded in the Northern Department, soldiers and supplies flowed north from the colony of Connecticut. Connecticut soldiers formed the majority of Ticonderoga’s garrison over the summer of 1775, and Connecticut’s farms and industries produced many of the goods and supplies that fed and outfitted the army.

Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the only colonial governor who chose to throw in his lot with the Revolution, was dedicated to the American cause. With previous military and mercantile experience, Trumbull was well-suited for the management of Connecticut’s forces and paid attention to the minutiae of war.

On August 3, 1775, Trumbull wrote to General Philip Schuyler, then the commander at Ticonderoga, with a proposition. He had heard that “a great number of gun-barrels, locks, &c., are perishing at Ticonderoga and Crown-Point, with, which care and expense to get the same repaired, cleansed, and stocked, may be rendered useful. If you please to give… orders to collect, get appraised, and send down such as are valuable by the empty teams which return into this Colony, our workmen will repair them”.

250 years ago today—September 9, 2025—Trumbull’s plan had borne fruit. In this pay order, Connecticut’s Committee of the Pay Table orders that money be delivered to Robert Patrick, a conductor of teamsters, for “Cartage of 180 Gun Barrels from Lake George to the Governors”. The “Governors” was likely Trumbull’s store and office in Lebanon, next door to his home, which had been converted into the colony’s War Office. From Lebanon, the barrels likely traveled to workshops where Connecticut gunsmiths would repair and re-fit them for use. From there, they could return to the battlefield, ensuring that more American soldiers had weapons they could rely on.

Learn more about the pay order (object ID MS.7666, property of Robert Nittolo) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31569