British Advance
On 1 July, General St. Clair was still unaware of the full strength of Burgoyne's army, which lay just 4 miles (6.4 km) away. Burgoyne had deployed Fraser's advance force and right column on the west side of the lake, hoping to cut off the defences at Mount Hope. Riedesel and the German column were deployed on the east side of the lake, where their objective was Mount Independence and the road to Hubbardton. Burgoyne gave the order to advance on 2 July.
On the morning of 2 July, St. Clair decided to withdraw the men occupying the defence post at Mount Hope, which was exposed and subject to capture. The detachment there set fire to the works and retreated to the old French lines (so called because they were the site of the French defence in the 1758 Battle of Carillon), getting away not long before the arrival of Burgoyne's advance guard. That afternoon, a company of British soldiers and Indians came toward those lines, but not near enough to do significant damage, and opened fire. St. Clair ordered his men to hold their fire until the enemy was closer, but James Wilkinson fired at a British soldier, spurring the untrained defenders to follow suit. The soldier Wilkinson fired at fell, and the British troops fled. When the man was captured, it turned out he was uninjured, and that he had fallen down because he was drunk. Through the deception of placing him with a man posing as a captured Loyalist, St. Clair learned the nature of the opposing forces.
Fraser's advance forces occupied Mount Hope on 3 July. Burgoyne ordered some of the scouts and Indians over to the east side of the lake for reconnaissance ahead of the German column, and brought some of the Germans over to the west side. Some of the British camp was placed close enough to the American lines that they were harassed by gunfire. This did not prevent the British from making repairs to the bridges on the portage road between Ticonderoga and Lake George.
British engineers discovered the strategic position of Sugar Loaf, and realized that the American withdrawal from Mount Hope gave them access to it. Starting on 2 July, they began clearing and building gun emplacements on top of that height, working carefully to avoid notice by the Americans. They spent several days drawing some of their larger guns up the slope. Burgoyne's objective was to spring the trap only when Riedesel's Germans were in position to cut off the American retreat.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Fort Ticonderoga (1777)
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