 After the construction of Fort Independence on Mount Independence in 1775, rebel soldiers bravely manned the lesser fortifications of the Vermont-side defenses.While those soldiers billeted at Fort Ticonderoga enjoyed comparatively splendid conditions in the French-style fort, Mount Independence proved a trying and difficult environment for its small cadre of revolutionary defenders, who frequently returned to their farms in the surrounding countryside to tend to their homesteads.The fortress was passed between the British and Colonials, until it was eventually abandoned at the cessation of hostilities on the northern front of the war.