Amos Chaffee Revolutionary War powder horn. Photo courtesy of Fort Ticonderoga.
On July 7th Fort Ticonderoga will receive a remarkable donation. For over two centuries the Chaffee family has preserved their ancestor, Amos Chaffee’s, engraved powder horn, musket and walking stick. Now the family is entrusting the Fort Ticonderoga Association to preserve their ancestor’s Revolutionary War objects for future generations. The Chaffee family donation will be formally presented to Fort Ticonderoga at a ceremony on Fort Ticonderoga’s parade ground at 1pm, Saturday, July 7. The public is invited to attend.
“We met with curators from both the Smithsonian Institution and Fort Ticonderoga before deciding which institution to donate our historic items to,” said Hal Chaffee of Chicago, Illinois. “We chose Fort Ticonderoga for three reasons – one is that Amos Chaffee served there; the second is that at Fort Ticonderoga they are interested in keeping the items that a particular person owned even if they have similar items in their collection; and the third is they have a collection of about 150 powder horns from that era.”
“Fort Ticonderoga’s collection is greatly enhanced by the addition of these objects,” said Chris Fox, Curator of Collections. “It gives us the extraordinary opportunity to directly link a personal and powerful story of someone who served at Fort Ticonderoga to our object holdings.”
Amos Chaffee (1744-1815) served at Fort Ticonderoga between mid-January to mid-March 1777 with the Hampshire County Militia. Raised in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, the militia served as part of the Fort’s garrison guarding the Fort, going on scouts to spy on the British, and working to maintain Ticonderoga’s fortifications and sustain it through a long, cold winter season.
Amos Chaffee’s powder horn was made at Woodstock, Connecticut in 1762 and is inscribed with his name and an image of a globe showing a detailed map of the western hemisphere. His musket, which has seen heavy use and was repaired after the war as well as his walking stick were likely also made in Connecticut.
Fort Ticonderoga’s collection of 18th-century military objects is celebrated as one of the best of its type in the world. The collection of engraved powder horns numbers about seventy-five pieces spanning the French & Indian War and American Revolution.
Dozens of engraved powder horns are exhibited in the museum each season and many will be featured in the museum’s newest exhibit Bullets & Blades: The Weapons of America’s Colonial Wars and Revolution which opened in May 2012.