BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - On this day in history, a critical defensive stand occurred in the early months of the American Revolution.

It took place on Mount Independence in Orwell on October 28, 1776.

American forces on the heavily fortified hilltop caused the advancing British navy to retreat back to Canada.

Historian Don Wickman set the scene for us in a story back in 2001.

“In the Fall of 1776, 6,500 men.... But you had major fortifications, you had batteries along the lake, you had a picket fort site which was sort of the last vestige of defense," said Wickman.

The defensive stand put off the British invasion for a full year.

That helped colonial forces get stronger, and though the forts would fall in 1777, the tide of the war would soon shift in the Americans’ favor.

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