By Christopher R. Sabick, Executive Director
On July 28, 1776, soldiers gathered at Fort Ticonderoga on the southern end of Lake Champlain to hear words that would become some of the most famous in American history. The Declaration of Independence had been adopted in Philadelphia more than three weeks earlier, but in an age before instant communication, news traveled slowly.
It was carried into town and military camps by land and water where people encountered it through public readings, conversations, newspaper printings, and rumors. One of those places was the Champlain Valley, where the American Revolution had transformed daily life long before the Declaration arrived. The war had been raging for more than a year. Control of the lake would shape the course of the Revolution, and with it, the lives, loyalties, and identities of generations to come.
It is tempting to imagine that everyone present for that reading two hundred and fifty years ago today understood they were witnessing a defining moment: that hearing the Declaration’s soaring language about equality and unalienable rights united every soldier in a common cause and launched a nation with unanimous enthusiasm.
The historical record tells a more interesting story. Fortunately for us, a handful of diaries, letters, and memoirs preserve how a few people experienced that day. They reveal that their reactions were anything but unanimous.
The News Before the News
By the middle of July, soldiers serving around Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga already knew Congress had voted for independence. On July 16, Colonel Elisha Porter recorded in his diary:
“This Morning we rec’d the Agreable News of Independenancy being declared by the Congress About Noon 2 or 3 Kettles of Brandy Grog evidenced our Joy at the News, which we express’d in proper Toasts”[1]
The news was worth celebrating. After over a year of war, many soldiers believed the struggle had entered a new chapter.
They would not hear the words of the Declaration for another two weeks.
Creating a National Identity
Following church service on July 28, Colonel Arthur St. Clair gathered troops at Fort Ticonderoga and read the Declaration of Independence aloud.
An anonymous observer later described the moment:
“Immediately after divine worship this day, the Declaration of Independence was read by Colonel St. Clair, and; having said ‘God save the free independent States of America!’ the Army manifested their joy with three cheers.”
The account continues with perhaps one of the most memorable observations recorded from that day:
“…the language of every man’s countenance was, Now we are a people; we have a name among the States of this world.“[2]
It is a remarkable sentence.
Rather than commenting on freedom, something that many today note as the most important part of Declaration, this unnamed observer focused on something simpler: identity. The Declaration of Independence transformed a collection of colonies into something new. Whatever hardships the Patriot army had endured suddenly seemed connected to a nation with a name, and perhaps, a clearer sense of purpose.
One Army, Many Reactions
Captain John Lacey, also stationed at Fort Ticonderoga, remembered the reading rather differently.
Reflecting on the event years later, he wrote in his memoirs that it “made a little Buze, but soon subsided & was forgotten.” He also noted that some resigned their posts as a result, “A few Officers left the Armey in consequence of it, among whom was Lieut Collan Allen.”[3]
These accounts do not contradict one another so much as they remind us that no historical moment is experienced in exactly the same way.
The Patriot soldiers gathered at Fort Ticonderoga and beyond in the summer of 1776 were not a single-minded group united by identical ideals. They came from different colonies, served under different officers, belonged to different regiments, and had enlisted for different reasons.
Some undoubtedly embraced independence as the fulfillment of a political cause they already believed in. Others may have cared less about political philosophy than about supporting their communities or earning a soldier’s pay. Some likely wondered what independence would actually mean in their daily lives and in the lives of their children, and others opposed independence altogether.
The diversity of the few surviving accounts invites us to remember that people’s perspectives, be they from past or present, are far from monolithic.
Remembering What’s Missing
The surviving accounts also raise another important question: whose voices do we hear, and whose have been lost?
The Declaration of Independence was read to soldiers all around the colonies. Historians have not yet found, however, accounts of the reading to the three brigades of New Englanders stationed at what would become Mount Independence. Whether they were never recorded or did not survive, it reminds us that the historical record is never complete.
A More Human Anniversary
As we mark the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s reading at Fort Ticonderoga, we have an opportunity to reject the idea that the American Revolution, or its impact, was ever monolithic. The ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence did not mean the same thing to everyone who heard them, nor did they transform every life in the same way.
The Declaration proclaimed bold ideals, but the people who first heard it brought their own experiences and convictions to those words. Among various reactions, many did what people often do in uncertain times: prepared for what came next while trying to understand the change they witnessed.
Two hundred and fifty years later, perhaps that is one of the most valuable lessons these eyewitnesses offer us. History is rarely unanimous. It is made up of a multitude of voices existing together despite the dichotomy. By acknowledging them all, including the lost, we gain a fuller understanding not only of the past, but of the people who lived it. That understanding reminds us to approach one another with the same curiosity and humility, recognizing that our own moment, like theirs, is shaped by many perspectives rather than a single story.
Want to explore more?
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October 18, 2026, and admission is free for all visitors. Our newest exhibit, Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain explores the complexities of the three days of battles on Lake Champlain in October 1776 and tells the stories of many of the individuals who lived through it. Check the Museum’s calendar for the latest programs and events at www.lcmm.org/Calendar.
Special thanks to the team at Fort Ticonderoga for sharing their resources with our exhibit development team.
[1] Elisha Porter’s diary is in the archives at Fort Ticonderoga. You can read it fully here: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30233.
[2] This quote (from an anonymous letter) was included in several newspapers during the American Revolution. It is most accessible in Peter Force’s American Archives, which you can find on page 630 of the documents scanned here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011247643&seq=377. The italics in the quote in this blog were added for emphasis.
[3] Lacey’s memoirs were published by the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in the early 1990s. Lacey’s 1776 diary, held at Fort Ticonderoga, contains a slightly different version of the quote, which you can read on Page 99 of the digitized text here: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29520
Excellent addition to our/my thoughts and feelings about this day and event. Thanks Chris.