Who is Allen, Ethan
Ethan Allen was an American hero in the Revolutionary War. He was the leader of the "Green Mountain Boys" from Vermont, and he is remembered as Vermont's greatest man of his time, but he was not born there. Vermont was not a state (or separate colony) then, and very few people lived there. Ethan Allen was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on January 10, 1738, nearly forty years before the Revolutionary War began.
Ethan Allen was an American hero in the Revolutionary War. He was the leader of the "Green Mountain Boys" from Vermont,
and he is remembered as Vermont's greatest man of his time, but he was not born there. Vermont was not a state (or separate colony) then, and very few people lived there. Ethan Allen was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on January 10, 1738, nearly forty years before the Revolutionary War began. He fought for the British in the French and Indian Wars, just as George Washington did.
After this fighting, when the Governor of New Hampshire offered good farmlands "across the Green Mountains" to some of the soldiers, Ethan Allen was one of those who went there and built himself a home in what is now Vermont. These settlers, though they called themselves the Green Mountain "Boys," were really men. As leader of these Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen rebelled against British rule before the Declaration of Independence was signed. On May 10, 1775, he and his Green Mountain Boys, with the help of Benedict Arnold and some soldiers from Connecticut, attacked Fort Ticonderoga in New York State, held by the British, and captured it. Ethan Allen's words in that attack have become famous. "Surrender," he shouted, "in the name of Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"
The Continental Congress sent Allen to Canada, to see if he could persuade the Canadians to join the Revolution. On his second trip to Canada, he was captured by the British. They put iron shackles on his hands and feet and threw him into the hold of a ship. He was kept there for five weeks before the ship sailed. As soon as the ship left Quebec, the captain released Allen from his dungeon until they reached England. The British knew Ethan Allen was too valuable to kill. They sent him back to America and exchanged him for a British colonel who had been captured by the Americans.
The Continental Congress greeted Ethan Allen with the greatest honor, and Vermont made him a major general. After the Revolutionary War was won, he spent his time as a delegate to the Continental Congress, trying to persuade them to recognize Vermont as a state. He died in 1789, when he was 52 years old, thinking he had failed; but two years later Vermont became a state and he had succeeded after all.
