The New Student's Reference Work/Allen, Ethan

Al'len, Ethan (born 1737, died 1789), a brigadier-general in the American revolutionary army. In 1775, after the, he gathered a small company of his "Green Mountain Boys" and marched against the fortresses of and Crown Point. Landing with 93 men, just before daybreak, he surprised the fort, getting inside and forming his men on the parade ground where they awoke the sleeping garrison with a shout of victory. The British commander rushed out in his nightclothes and asked: "What does this mean?" He was ordered to surrender. "In whose name?" he asked. "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," replied Allen, and the fort was surrendered. In the attempt to take, at the head of a small body of troops, he was captured after a sharp engagement and sent to. After his release and return to, he was appointed commander of the state militia.