Fort Montgomery on Lake Champlain-- Part 2: Named for Richard Montgomery

When a new survey discovered that the 45th parallel was actually located 3/4th mile south, effectively placing the fort in Canada, all construction on the fort stopped.  Much of the material was scavenged by locals for use in their own homes and public buildings.

There is no evidence that the fort was named before this.  Most contemporary documents list the fortification as the "works," "fortification" or "battery" at Rouse's Point.  It is often mistakenly referred to as Fort Montgomery.  However, the site of the first fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Fort Montgomery in 1977.

It was eventually decided to build a second fort on the site after the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 ceded the strategically important Island Point, the site of the 1816 fort and the northernmost  point on Lake Champlain, to the United States.

Construction began on the new fortification  two years later and it was officially named Fort Montgomery  in honor of the American Revolution's Major General Richard Montgomery who was killed during the 1775 invasion of Canada at Quebec City.

Fort Montgomery was one of the very few "Permanent" ot "Third System" built along the Northern Frontier.  Most of them were built along the Atlantic Coast.

--Brock-Perry