Samuel Mott, Military Engineer: On to a New Challenge

Posted on August 16, 2025

Samuel Mott, Military Engineer: On to a New Challenge

In late June 1775, Connecticut chose Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Mott, a veteran of the Seven Years’ War, as military engineer for the garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Mott’s job of reinforcing or replacing the fortifications at the dilapidated Fort Ticonderoga and mostly-destroyed Fort Crown Point was a challenging one and likely to take a long time. However, matters could change quickly in the Northern Department as personnel assignments shifted and new priorities arose. 250 years ago today—August 16, 1775—Mott was still assigned to Fort Ticonderoga, but his eyes were fixed on a new challenge.

On August 16, when Mott wrote this letter to fellow officer Captain Nathan Peters, he was not at Ticonderoga. Instead he was in his hometown, Preston, CT, which he had reached after “Only Six Days passage by Land, which was very fatigueing.” He had returned to Connecticut only briefly for “Business in the Country, & with the Governor” and was planning to begin his journey back to Ticonderoga.

Mott had been stationed at Ticonderoga and Crown Point for over a month and had experienced the tribulations of life in a busy, under-supplied garrison. “We have been very Much Neglected This year,” he laments, “with Regard to Supplies of Men, Ammunition And Provision”. After his return to Ticonderoga, though, Mott anticipates a change in his circumstances: “By the time I Arrive, twas Expected we should be Ready to go forward into Cannada. The Enemy are in Great Preparation both by Land & Water to Give us a warm Reception at St. Johns”.

Mott would experience that warm reception in person. Rather than resuming work as Ticonderoga’s military engineer, he was assigned to the American army’s new northern priority, the invasion of Quebec. Mott marched north towards Quebec, where he would serve as chief engineer at the successful siege of Fort St. Jean. The job he left behind, the re-fortification of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, would have to be continued by others.

Learn more about Mott’s letter (object ID MS.3059) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database here.