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The leader of the Green Mountain Boys-Allen, Ethan (1738–1789)
Allen and his brothers claimed 300,000 acres of Vermont land.
The leader of the Green Mountain Boys, Allen waged guerrilla warfare on behalf of Vermont’s independence and took part in several important battles within the first six months of the Revolution. He was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and served briefly in the French and Indian War. Allen and his two brothers settled about 1769 in the territory of Vermont, which was then known as the New Hampshire Grants. The ownership of this area was being contested by New Hampshire and New York.
Allen took sides with New Hampshire and organized the Green Mountain Boys in 1770 to drive out the “Yorkers.”
The guerrilla activities of this backwoods militia so frustrated New York’s Governor William Tryon (1725–1788) that in 1774 he offered a reward for Allen’s arrest. When the Revolution started the following year, Allen, together with Benedict Arnold, seized Fort Ticonderoga.
Allen and the Green Mountain Boys subsequently wrested control of Lake Champlain from the British.
