Hmm, that's sounds like an apocryphal story to me. Anyway I thought he was imprisoned and eventually sent back to America as part of a prisoner swap. I wonder why the history books make little mention of the co-captor of Fort Ticonderoga, namely one Benedict Arnold!
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He was captured and exchanged in a prisoner swap.
If Allen gets more credit for taking Ft. Ticonderoga it's because Allen was unquestionably the leader of the battle for Ft. Ticonderoga. On paper and to his credit, Benedict Arnold understood the importance of the Ft. Ticonderoga on the Finger Lake region of New York which was a transportation conduit from Quebec to the Mohawk and Hudson valley regions. Arnold obtained intelligence that the British has re-occupied Ticonderoga which had fallen into serious disrepair after the Seven Years war (French and Indian War here), that it was poorly defended and had a large number of artillery that the Americans saw they had an opportunity to capture and put to good use. The Boston Committee for Safety Commissioned Arnold a Colonial of Militia and gave him authority to recruit 400 men and take Ft. Ticonderoga.
Arnold was unable to recruit the 400 men that he was authorized but headed north with approximately half that number. When he arrived in the area he found that Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys had learned the same intelligence and had arrived on the scene before Arnold. Allen had about half the men that Arnold did but his Green Mountain Boys were some serious BAMF's.
The men that Arnold brought with him were garden variety militiamen. The Green Mountain Boys on the other hand were hard core frontiersman with many years of experience in fighting Indian wars against the Iroquois league (who were serious BAMF's themselves). In short the Green Mountain Boys were the most effective and disciplined group of guerilla fighters on the North American continent (they were also the predecessors of what became, eventually, the U.S. Army Rangers.). Why is this significant? It's significant because the Green Mountain Boy's refused to fight under Arnold's leadership and it was made clear to Arnold that they would not fight under him or in a joint command. They would only fight if Allen was leading the attack.
Given that the Green Mountain Boys were far and away superior fighting men to Arnolds militia he had little choice and assumed a second in command role during the attack.
Now to be fair to Arnold, he probably understood the strategic significance of taking Ticonderoga from the British more so than Allen did as it would allow the Americans to dominate the Finger Lake country meaning that it would be very difficult for the British Army to use that region to supply it's forces in New England via Canada. Also, the artillery that was captured was put to good use later in defending the Boston Commons area.
Having said that Allen was by far and away a superior tactical commander to Arnold. You have no idea what seriously badass guerilla fighters he and the Green Mountain Boys were.
