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- Revolutionary War Vermont Militia Officer. A fiercely independent soldier who often caused problems for the American side as well as the British during the war, he served in the French and Indian War at Fort William Henry, acquiring land in Vermont for his services. When the area that would become the State of Vermont came under Land Grant disputes between New York and New Hampshire in the late 1760s, he formed and became Colonel of the "Green Mountain Boys" militia unit to discourage New York aims with guerrilla attacks (this led to Royal Governor Tryon putting a reward out for his capture). When the Revolutionary War started, he led his militiamen with Benedict Arnold in his most celebrated feat - the May 10, 1775 capture of the lightly defended Fort Ticonderoga. The guns Colonel Allen and Arnold captured there helped force the British out of Boston. His resistance to efforts to incorporate his Green Mountain Boys into the Continental Army caused him to be voted out of command by his men (they would be led by Colonel Seth Warner for the rest of the war). Ethan Allen then accompanied Benedict Arnold in the expedition to Canada, and was captured in the failed assault on Montreal. He was imprisoned in England until paroled in October 1776. After his formal exchange in May 1778 he received a brevet of Colonel in the Continental Army, but received no command, and returned to Vermont. Frustrated in his attempts to have Vermont become its own state (it was part of New Hampshire at the time), he entered into negotiations with the British in Quebec to make it a English Colony (these plans were wholly unsuccessful). A popular history of his life states that he was a "talented guerrilla leader, devoted to Vermont, but indifferent to the United States".
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1738 - 1789 (51 years)