It is not necessary to dwell here on the events of a war the history of which is so familiar to every one.[28] When the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, the colonies were on the eve of independence as a result of the coercive measures forced on Parliament by the King's pliable ministers led by Lord North. The "Declaration," however, was not finally proclaimed until nearly two years later, on July 4, 1776, when the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves "free and independent States," absolved of their allegiance to the British Crown. But many months before this great epoch-making event, war had actually commenced on Lake Champlain. On an April day, in the now memorable year 1775, the "embattled farmers" had fired at Concord and Lexington, the shots "heard round the world," and a few weeks later the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, then defended by very feeble garrisons, were in the possession of colonial troops, led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the two "Green Mountain Boys" who organised this expedition. Canada was at this time in a very defenceless condition. Burgoyne was defeated at Saratoga, and his army, from which so much was expected, made prisoners of war. This great misfortune of the British cause was followed by the alliance of France with the States. French money, men, and ships eventually assured the independence of the Republic, whose fortunes were very low at times despite the victory at Saratoga. England was not well served in this American war; she had no Washington to direct her campaign, and Gage, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis were not equal to the responsibilities thrown upon them. Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown, October 19, 1781, was the death blow to the hopes of England in North America. Had General Sullivan's campaign of 1779, as planned, been successful, he would have attacked Fort Niagara, but disaster overtook him, though he led an expedition against the Iroquois, routed a force of Indians and Tories at Newtown, near the present Elmira, and wrought wide devastation in the country of the Cayugas and Senecas.