12/08/2025
250 years ago today—August 12, 1775— Ticonderoga’s garrison was holding steady. Much of the garrison was made up of Connecticut soldiers, especially from Colonel Benjamin Hinman’s 4th Connecticut Regiment. Soldiers from Hinman’s regiment had arrived at the fort in mid-June, and Hinman served as its commander until General Philip Schuyler’s arrival in mid-July. While at Ticonderoga, Hinman’s regiment filled out weekly returns like this one tracking its strength and fitness for duty.
On July 1, 478 officers and enlisted men from Hinman’s regiment were stationed at Ticonderoga. On this August 12 return, 397 men are listed, so the detachment had lost about 80 men in six weeks. Connecticut had planned for Hinman’s regiment to be 1,000 men strong, but it never reached that mark, and it had been reduced by illness. The remainder of the regiment was split between Ticonderoga and other posts such as Fort George and Crown Point.
The return lists 175 men, including most of the regiment’s officers, as present and ready for duty. 119 men were already occupied “on command”. The men on command were assigned to a wide variety of tasks. Some of them were likely away on scouts, while others were assigned to fatigue duties or work details, performing tasks like repairing bridges and roads.
Sickness had taken a toll on the regiment, as it typically did in crowded army camps without modern sanitation systems. A total of 73 men were sick in camp, and 13 had been sent to a military hospital for treatment. Despite the sickness, there was good news: no one died in the regiment that week. There were only six losses, with one man being discharged and five deserting. Through returns like these filled out by each regiment, garrison commander Philip Schuyler could quickly learn what human resources he had available as he reinforced Ticonderoga and prepared for an attack on Canada.
Visit Fort Ticonderoga before September 2 to see Hinman’s soldiers in action and learn about their life at Ticonderoga!
View the return of Hinman’s regiment (object ID MS.1935) and learn more on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29972
