 Early in the war, the colonial militias attempted to expel the British from Boston; however, this undertaking could not be achieved without heavy artillery.The British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, were known to have ample supplies of artillery and were weakly manned by the British.Thus, the colonial militias devised a plan to take control of the two forts and bring the guns back to the fight in Boston.