rapidfire Visit a Novel in New York


I


n 1776, Lake Champlain was strategically critical as American colonists sought to repulse a British in- vasion from Canada. Kenneth Roberts tells this story


in Rabble in Arms (Down East Books, 1996), originally published in 1933. In 1957, Roberts received a “Special Awards and Citations” Pulitzer Prize for his historical novels. The novel’s title is de-


rived from British Gen. John Burgoyne’s disparaging descrip- tion of the colonials as “a rabble in arms, flushed with success and insolence.” Indeed, they were “half- clad, half-paid, half-armed, and half-fed” by an ungenerous Congress. America’s naval forces on Champlain were defeated and, after burning their surviving boats, retreated to


Fort Ticonderoga (below) at the lake’s southern end. Nevertheless, by delaying the British for a year, the “rabble” were able to regroup, and in October 1777, they defeated Burgoyne at Saratoga — the turning point of the Revolutionary War. Fort Ticonderoga National Historic Landmark (www.fortticonderoga .org) is about two hours north of Albany via exit 28 on I-87 or from Vermont via a ferry on State Route 74. The website has many photos, both historical and contemporary. Saratoga National Historical Park


(www.nps.gov/sara, above) is about an hour north of Albany via exit 14 on I-87 with a visitor center and a driving tour. The website also


features an interesting virtual tour. — Col. Glenn Pribus, USAF-Ret., and Marilyn Pribus


*fact: Fort Ticonderoga is a star-shaped fort built by French colonists to Canada in the 1750s. 22 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2011


IMAGES: ABOVE, SHUTTERSTOCK; TOP, NPS


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