Frederick B. Richards, Secretary of the New York State Historical Association, at the unveiling of the tablet at Crown Point Forts, N. Y., July 5, 1912, said:
I supplement State Historian Holden because I feel that it will take at least two to make up for the absence of our esteemed President, Ex-Comptroller Roberts, who was to have represented the New York State Historical Association this morning.
We feel deeply honored that the State has designated our Association as custodians of this reservation. We are still further honored by being entrusted with this beautiful tablet, erected by the Society of Colonial Wars, which, linking as it does the past with the present, adds to the interest of these old ruins.
I will not detain you longer this morning except to call your attention to one feature of the tablet in which I am particularly interested. You will notice that the list of the regiments is supported on the left by a Highlander, a private of the Royal Highlanders as they were known in this campaign, otherwise called the 42d, “Old Forty-Twa,” or the Black Watch.
The Black Watch, the oldest Highland regiment in the British Army and one of the regiments under Amherst who helped to build this old fort, was selected for this place of honor because of its unparalleled gallantry in the assault on Fort Ticonderoga under General Abercromby the year before, in which engagement it lost 646, killed and wounded, out of a total strength of a thousand men who went into action, or a mortality of twice that of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, immortalized by Tennyson.
Col. Sanger, Gov. Dix and Staff approaching Memorial at Crown Point, July 5, 1912
III. DEDICATORY CEREMONIES OF CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL LIGHTHOUSE AT CROWN POINT FORTS JULY 5, 1912
At the appointed hour for the dedicatory ceremonies at Crown Point Forts on July 5, 1912, a large multitude had assembled from the Champlain valley and from the two states to witness the exercises.