Ethan Allen

Born in Connecticut in 1738, Ethan Allen became a leading voice in the fight over the New Hampshire Grants, the territory that would later become Vermont. He emerged as a leader of the Green Mountain Boys, a militia that resisted outside claims to the region and made him famous on the northern frontier.

At the start of the Revolutionary War, he won lasting renown for joining the surprise capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. Later that year he was captured during the campaign in Canada and spent years as a prisoner before being exchanged and returning home.

Allen remained an important figure in Vermont politics and in the push for the region's independence from New York. He also wrote about his experiences and beliefs, including a captivity narrative and a later book on religion, which shows that he was more than a soldier: he was a forceful public thinker as well as a frontier hero.