Lodging as the Nature of the Campaign will AdmitSeptember 19–20 REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Signature Event, “Lodging as the Nature of the Campaign will Admit,” invites visitors to build alongside Continental soldiers racing winter and a British advance

Ticonderoga, N.Y. — The fight for independence is unfolding in real time at Fort Ticonderoga, and on September 19 and 20 visitors can take part in it. During the REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Signature Event, “Lodging as the Nature of the Campaign will Admit,” guests of all ages will pick up a mallet or a saw and work beside soldiers of the Northern Continental Army to raise the wooden huts that sheltered an army atop Liberty Hill 250 years ago.

Two hundred fifty years ago this month, the Northern Continental Army held this ground with winter closing in and a British fleet somewhere to the north. Soldiers had to build shelter from what the landscape gave them, and finish before the weather or the enemy arrived. No one knew how the story would end.

This event falls during one of the strongest seasons in Fort Ticonderoga’s 117-year history, on the heels of its recent recognition as a “Best Living History” site for the nation’s 250th birthday by USA Today. Fort Ticonderoga was also featured prominently in Fodor’s, Travel + Leisure, and Smithsonian Magazine among other publications.

“The story of 1776 was not shaped by declarations and battles alone. It was shaped by the daily work required to keep an army together and ready to fight,” said Beth L. Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “Visitors will not simply watch that work in September. They will take up a tool and do it, on the same ground and in the same season it happened. Building shelter may look like a simple act, but it was part of the preparation, ingenuity and determination that allowed the Northern Continental Army to hold its position and keep the Revolution alive.”

The weekend also opens up the historical detective work behind the recreation. Fort Ticonderoga’s historians drew on surviving evidence to piece together the design, materials and purpose of this distinctive 1776 military housing, and visitors will see how boards, posts and beams came together into shelter that carried an army from summer into fall.

By September 1776, the Northern Continental Army was fortifying Ticonderoga and the strategic high ground surrounding it while British forces prepared to advance south from Canada. Soldiers had already endured a difficult retreat, disease and severe shortages. As colder weather approached, dependable shelter became essential to protecting the army’s health, discipline and ability to defend the Lake Champlain corridor.

The huts on Liberty Hill demonstrate the practical problem-solving at the heart of the 1776 campaign. Their construction was one part of a much larger effort that included building miles of earthworks, mounting more than 100 cannon, outfitting a fleet on Lake Champlain and mobilizing nearly 13,000 troops at Ticonderoga.

Event Highlights

“Lodging as the Nature of the Campaign will Admit,” September 19 and 20, 2026:

  • Ongoing, 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. — Hut Building (Liberty Hill Encampment). Help make history. Grab a mallet or a saw and try your hand at timber framing, working alongside Continental Army soldiers to build the simple wooden huts that housed them as they held the line for liberty in 1776.
  • 12:30 p.m. — Author Presentation, Steven Elliott (Mars Education Center Great Room). Steven Elliott of Rutgers University discusses his book Surviving the Winters: Housing Washington’s Army during the American Revolution and the crucial role camp construction and administration played in Patriot strategy.
  • 1:45 p.m. — Fife and Drum Parade to Liberty Hill Encampment (begins at the American Flag). March to the sound of fifes and drums out to the Liberty Hill Encampment, west of the fortress.
  • 2 p.m. — Cannon Demonstration (Liberty Hill Encampment). Examine how the Continental Army mounted old French and British guns within a host of new American fortifications, and see the workings, power and sound of these heavy cannon.

The Fall Series

“Lodging as the Nature of the Campaign will Admit” is the second of three fall REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Signature Events, each one picking up where the last left off as the campaign of 1776 unfolds. The series began August 29 and 30 with “Fleet & Fortification: The Science of Defense” and culminates October 24 and 25 with “Hold the Line for Liberty,” a dramatic recreation of the moment American soldiers convinced advancing British forces to turn back toward Canada. The 250th anniversary of the stand itself falls on October 28, the same day Continental Army Commander-in-Chief George Washington was defeated at White Plains.

About REAL TIME REVOLUTION®

REAL TIME REVOLUTION® follows the American Revolution day by day and season by season, on the ground where it happened. Drawing on primary-source research, Fort Ticonderoga presents the people of 1776 not as figures who knew the outcome, but as individuals confronting genuine uncertainty and making choices that shaped the nation’s future. The programming continues through 2027, when the British return, take the heights above the fortress in July and set in motion the campaign that ends at Saratoga.

Visitor Information

The September 19–20 event runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. More details can be found here.

A complete visitor schedule and more information about other Fort Ticonderoga programs can be accessed here. Signature Event programming is included with general admission and tickets are valid for two consecutive days. Due to the anticipated high demand for Signature Events and the America 250 commemorations, visitors are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets online in advance.

The event is made possible in part through a Preserving America Grant from Americana Corner.

About Fort Ticonderoga

Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga is a major cultural destination, museum, historic site and center for learning. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about North America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 70,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $16 million annually. Presenting vibrant programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations and exhibits, Fort Ticonderoga is open for daily visitation May through October and special programs during Winter Quarters, November through April. Fort Ticonderoga is owned by The Fort Ticonderoga Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, and is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts.

© The Fort Ticonderoga Association. 2026 All Rights Reserved.

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