Ethan Allen was an American revolutionary and a soldier in the French and Indian War, but is perhaps most famous as a guerrilla leader of a group of dissidents called the Green Mountain Boys during a New England land crisis. As was typical for a time period when free or affordable land was in great abundance, Allen and others patented land grants from the 1750s to the early 1770s in the area that is now the State of Vermont. However, the State of New York had another claim to the same land and refused to honor Allen’s and other New Hampshire titles. New York began selling the titles to others, which led to the rebellion led by Allen. The Green Mountain Boys created and maintained what they named the Republic of Vermont from 1777 to 1791, when it became the State of Vermont. The New York state government issued an arrest for Allen, offering a reward of one hundred pounds.

Allen’s Revolutionary experiences were just as dramatic. Just after the war started, in spring of 1775, Allen and Benedict Arnold led a raid and captured Fort Ticonderoga. The group attacked at dawn, catching the British off guard. The fort was taken without a single life lost. The rebels seized large stores of cannon and powder from the fort, which proved to be invaluable in breaking the stalemate at the siege of Boston. Allen, Arnold, and their men continued on to capture other forts, including Crown Point, Fort Ann, and St. John, located in what is now Quebec, Canada.

Allen married twice and may have had five children with his first wife, and three with the second wife. His first marriage was apparently unhappy. He reportedly stood more than six feet tall (unusual for the times) and had bright red hair. After being charged with treason, then released due to a lack of evidence, he returned to Vermont where he continued to fight for the rights of landowners there. He died in Vermont from a stroke at age fifty-one. He was buried in Burlington, Vermont.