New York

Albany
Auriesville Shrine
Bear Mountain
Beekman Arms
Bennington Battlefield
Bush Homestead (Putnam's Headquarters)
Butlersbury
Castles of the Mohawk Indians
Cherry Valley
Clermont
Clinton House
Continental Village
Crown Point Reservation and Campsite
Dobbs Ferry Site
Field of Grounded Arms, Fort Hardy
Fishkill Landing
Fishkill Village
Fort Ann
Fort Crailo ("Yankee Doodle House")
Fort Dayton Site
Fort Delaware Reconstruction
Fort Edward
Fort Frey
Fort Herkimer Church
Fort Hill
Fort Hunter
Fort Johnson
Fort Klock Restoration
Fort Niagara
Fort Ontario
Fort Plain (Fort Rensselaer) Site and Museum
Fort St. George
Fort Stanwix
Fort Wagner
Gardiner's Island
German Flats
Glen-Sanders House
Guy Park
Haynes (Lemuel) House
Herkimer Home
Huguenot Street Historic District
Hurley
Indian Castle Church
Iroquois Indian Museum
John Jay Homestead State Historic Site
Johnstown
Kings Ferry
Kingston
Knickerbocker Mansion
Knox Headquarters (John Ellison House)
Lake George
Lake George Village
Long Island
Minisink Ford
Mount Gulian Reconstruction
Newtown Battlefield State Park
New Windsor Cantonment
New York City

MANHATTAN
Battery Park
Beekman House Site
Bowling Green
Central Park
City Hall Park
Columbia University (King's College)
Dyckman House, Dyckman House Park
Federal Hall National Memorial
Fort Amsterdam Site
Fort Tryon Park
Fort Washington
Fraunces Tavern
Golden Hill
Governors Island
Gracie Mansion
Greenwich
Hale Execution Site
Harlem Heights
Hollow Way
Horn's Hook
Kips Bay Site
Laurel Hill Fort
McGown's Pass
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Morris-Jumel Mansion
Mortier House Site
Murray Hill
Museum of the City of New York
New-York Historical Society
Point of Rocks
Prison Sites
Rivington's Printing Shop Site
St. Paul's Chapel
Trinity Church and Cemetery
Willett Memorial

QUEENS
Bowne House
Friends Meeting House Graveyard
Grace Church Graveyard
King Manor
Prospect Cemetery
St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church

BROOKLYN
Green-Wood Cemetery
Howard's Tavern Site
Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument
Prospect Park
Red Hook (Fort Defiance)
Vechte House (Old Stone House Historic Interpretive Center)

THE BRONX
Fort Independence Park
Fort Number Eight
Fort Number Four
King's Bridge Site
Pelham Bay Park
Throg's Neck
Valentine-Varian House
Van Cortlandt Mansion and Park

STATEN ISLAND
Conference (Billopp) House
Onondaga Reservation
Oquaga
Oriskany Battlefield
Paine (Thomas) Cottage
Palatine Church
Peekskill
Pelham Manor
Philipsburg Manor (Upper Mills)
Philipse Manor
Ramapo Valley ("the Clove")
Raynham Hall
Richmondtown
Robinson House Site
Sag Harbor
Sagtikos Manor
St. Paul's Church National Historic Site
Saratoga National Historical Park

FIRST SARATOGA
SECOND SARATOGA
Schenectady Stockade Historic District
Schoharie Valley
Seneca-Iroquois National Museum
Setauket
Sharon Springs Battleground
Shell's (Schell's) Bush
Shoemaker House
Skenesboro
Smith (Joshua Hett) House Site
Springsteel's Farm
Stark's Knob
Steuben Memorial
Stone Arabia
Stony Point
Sullivan-Clinton Expedition
Tappan Historic District
Tarrytown and North Tarrytown
Ticonderoga

RECONSTRUCTION
MOUNT DEFIANCE AND MOUNT HOPE
Unadilla Region
Valcour Bay
Van Alstyne House
Van Cortlandt Manor
Van Cortlandtville
Van Schaick Mansion
Verplanck's Point (Fort Lafayette Site)
Washington Headquarters (Hasbrouck House)
West Canada Creek
West Point Military Reservation
Whitehall
White Plains
Young's House

New York has a disproportionately large place in this guide for many reasons that are obvious and a few that should be pointed out. The colony was very active in the events leading up to the Revolution, and remained the main British base during much of the war. Nearly one-third of approximately three hundred battles and engagements took place on New York soil. The border warfare sustained by Loyalist and Indian raiders from Canada is recalled by many landmarks, particularly in the Mohawk Valley. These are the most apparent reasons. A less self-evident one is this: New Yorkers have shown an exceptional interest in preserving their colonial and Revolutionary history, perhaps partly because of their not being diverted by the Civil War interest that predominates in the South.

About 2,800 historic markers were erected in the thirteen years following the first appropriation of state funds for this purpose in 1926. The program was not controlled, typographical and historical errors were common, and proper records were not established. A new historic marker program, managed by the New York State Museum, was established in the 1960s, and the museum published a 129-page guide giving the text and location of approximately 139 large historical markers put up since 1960. The pocket-sized Historical Area Markers in New York State is available from the New York State Museum, which is located in Albany, New York on Madison Avenue across the plaza from the State Capitol Building. Phone: (518) 474-5877. To order this and other publications, phone (518) 402-5344 or email:[email protected].

Also available through the New York State Museum is the pamphlet "The Hudson Valley in the American Revolution" and an excellent little booklet by David C. Thurheimer, "Landmarks of the Revolution in New York State: A Guide to the [45] Historic Sites Open to the Public." The booklet's value to users of this guide will be its twenty-eight photographs and about the same number of crude sketch maps showing locations of sites in terms of today's roads. Of considerable historical value is the section of Claude Sauthier's map of 1779, used for cover decoration.

A noteworthy pamphlet, "The Mohawk Valley and the American Revolution," once offered for sale, is still available via the internet at http://www.fortklock.com/mvinrevolution.htm. There is one segment of the website, www.fortklock.com, which contains information on American Revolution landmarks in New York's Hudson, Mohawk, and Schoharie Valleys. Another helpful website to look at is www.nysparks.state.ny.us. Click on "Historic Preservation" for detailed descriptions and locations of landmarks.

Albany

Albany. In 1609 Henry Hudson ended his exploration of the Hudson River within two months of the time Samuel de Champlain was less than 100 miles to the north, on the lake that now bears his name. The Dutch trading post of Fort Nassau was built in 1614 on an island that now is part of the Albany seaport. Ten years later the first settlers arrived and built Fort Orange. The patroonship of Rensselaerswyck was established in 1630. Centered on Fort Orange, this vast tract straddled the Hudson and was settled by Dutch, Germans, Danes, Norwegians, Scots, and other nationalities. In 1652 the new director general of New Netherland ordered the village of Beverwyck laid out around Fort Orange, and modern Albany got its name when the British took over in 1664. Transition of the colony from one European government to another occurred peacefully, Dutch settlers retaining their language, customs, and local institutions as their leaders—Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Gansevoorts—mingled with Clintons, Yateses, and Livingstons. Rensselaerswyck became the Manor of Rensselaer and was the only "English" manor to survive the colonial era.

Albany has several important sites from the colonial and Revolutionary period. At the foot of State Street is the place where Henry Hudson landed and where Fort Orange was built. A few blocks up the hill, at the other end of State Street, stood Fort Frederick, the objective of Burgoyne in 1777. At Lodge and Pine Streets is a marker pointing out that near here was the colonial hospital that treated the wounded from Saratoga in 1777, having previously received those from the 1758 attack on Ticonderoga. The body of Lord George Augustus Howe, killed in the latter battle, is said to lie beneath the vestibule floor of St. Peter's Episcopal Church on State Street. This building dates from 1859 but contains important items going back to its origins in 1715.

The home of Colonel Philip Van Rensselaer preserves much of the quality and character dating from its construction in 1787. Located between First and McCarthy Avenues on 5231/2 South Pearl Street, it is operated by the state-chartered Historic Cherry Hill Association and is open most of the year. Phone: (518) 434-4791; website: www.historiccherryhill.org. Ten Broeck Mansion was built in 1798 by the militia general and Patriot politician Abraham Ten Broeck (1734–1810). Located at 9 Ten Broeck Place, it is furnished in the federal period and is open on a limited schedule. The mansion serves as the headquarters for the Albany County Historical Association. Phone: (518) 436-9826; website: www.tenbroeck.org.

The First Church in Albany (Dutch Reformed) on North Pearl Street at Clinton Square was organized in 1642 and has a pulpit dating from 1656, said to be the oldest in the United States. Sites associated with the Albany Congress of 1754 have been destroyed by streets and buildings of downtown Albany, and both old churches were rebuilt after the Revolution. Across the bridge from Albany is Fort Crailo in Rensselaer.

Located at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Broadway is the Quackenbush House (c. 1730). It is the former home of Colonel Hendrique Quackenbush, who led Albany's Fifth Military Regiment against Burgoyne's army at Saratoga in 1777. Burgoyne was held prisoner at Quackenbush House for a short time after the battle of Saratoga. Privately owned, it is the oldest intact structure in the city of Albany, and is presently an upscale restaurant. Alongside the Quackenbush House is the Albany Visitor Center, wherein visitors can see a variety of maps and drawings of Albany during the American Revolution period. Albany Visitor Center's phone: (800) 258-3582.

Schuyler Mansion (the Pastures). By any criterion, the Schuyler Mansion is among the most noteworthy historic houses in America. Its master, Philip John Schuyler (1733–1804), served the revolutionary cause in a number of capacities. A statue of a stern-faced Philip Schuyler in full general's regalia is located in front of City Hall on Eagle Street.

Philip was born into the fourth generation of the New York Schuylers. His mother was a Van Cortlandt, he married a Van Rensselaer, and one of his daughters married the eighth patroon of the Manor of Rensselaer. Another daughter married Alexander Hamilton.

In 1763, when his father's estate finally was settled, thirty-year-old Philip Schuyler inherited thousands of acres in the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys. In addition, from his Uncle Philip he inherited the old Schuyler homestead where he had spent much of his childhood. This brick manor house, known as the Flats, built in 1666 and only slightly altered in three centuries, stood until burned in 1962 under mysterious circumstances (perhaps as a Halloween prank; the cause has never been determined) just as plans had been made to protect and restore it. The foundations remain (south edge of Watervliet on First Street), archaeology continues to yield important finds on both white and Indian settlements, and a nature trail has been put in near the site along the river. The Schuyler Flats Archeological District was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. In 2002 the town of Colonie, which owns the area, created the Schuyler Flatts Cultural Park. Philip also inherited lands in the Saratoga Patent, and here he built his country mansion at the place later called Schuylerville. (See under saratoga national historic park.)

Schuyler had an excellent education, was commissioned a captain at the start of the Seven Years' War, and gained a reputation as a logistician. In 1761 he started building a mansion on a gentle slope that rose from the Hudson River just south of Albany's communal pasturing grounds. General John Bradstreet loaned him carpenters from British army units camped in the vicinity. While slaves and off-duty soldiers started putting up the mansion, Schuyler went to London with Bradstreet to help the latter settle his War Office accounts and to buy items for his own new house. He named his home the Pastures.

When completed in 1762 the Schuyler Mansion was a Georgian structure of rose-red brick, a building material much favored by the New York Dutch. (Salvaged brick from the Flats, mentioned above, has been used in the restoration of the Herkimer Home.) With a full basement, two stories, and a large attic with dormer windows, the house is 63 feet wide by 48 feet deep. The double-hip roof is enclosed by a wooden parapet of "Chinese" fretwork and is surmounted by twin chimneys. Detracting from the house's original lines is a six-sided vestibule leading to the front door, a tasteless addition of later years (the date not known). Four large rooms (almost 20 by 20 feet) are on each floor, arranged in the common plan of center-hall houses. The halls are 20 feet wide.

Furnishings and decorations of the Schuyler Mansion are particularly noteworthy. The state of New York purchased the building a little more than a century after it had passed out of possession of the family. Public funds were used to restore the building itself, but Schuyler descendants and private benefactors contributed furniture, furnishings, and other eighteenth-century treasures. Others contributed some $20,000 for purchase of period pieces before the mansion was opened to the public in 1917. The state has published a handsome book, Schuyler Mansion: A Critical Catalogue of the Furnishings and Decorations, by Anna K. Cunningham (1955). This admirable work includes 114 photographs of items in the collection, from paintings to jewelry, and is available through Willis Monie Books in Cooperstown, New York. Phone: (800) 322-2995.

The home you see today is fundamentally as Philip Schuyler and his many important guests knew it. The Pastures became unofficial headquarters of Patriot political and military affairs in the North. Schuyler was prominent in events leading to the Revolution, having been elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 (again in 1777 and 1779–1780). He was military commander of the Northern Department until relieved of that post shortly before the battles of Saratoga. In October 1778 he was cleared of charges of incompetence in repelling Burgoyne's offensive, having meanwhile had "Gentleman Johnny" as a prisoner-guest at the Pastures. In April 1779 he resigned his commission as major general but held public office continuously until 1798. His daughter Elizabeth married Alexander Hamilton at the Pastures, and Lafayette was a guest at the wedding. Visitors on other occasions included Washington, Franklin, Von Steuben, Rochambeau, and Benedict Arnold.

Schuyler Mansion is in the southern section of modern Albany at 32 Catharine Street. It is open to the public at specified hours. Phone: (518) 434-0834.

Auriesville Shrine

Auriesville Shrine, Mohawk Valley, located 3.5 miles east of Fultonville, and 5 miles west of Amsterdam on N.Y. Route 5S. A Catholic shrine was erected in 1930 to 1931 at the place where Father Isaac Jogues and other French Jesuit priests were martyred in the 1640s. Honoring the first North American saints, the shrine is on 600 landscaped acres and provides fine views of the Mohawk Valley. Auriesville is on the site of one of the original Castles of the Mohawk Indians.

Beacon and Mount Beacon

Beacon and Mount Beacon. Seefishkill landing.

Bear Mountain

Bear Mountain area, Hudson River, junction of Palisades Interstate Parkway with U.S. 9W and Bear Mountain Bridge. Forts Clinton and Montgomery were captured by the British after a difficult march from Stony Point and a dangerous double envelopment astride Popolopen Creek. Most of the landmarks of this important and interesting operation are preserved within New York's newest historic park, the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site. The outer redoubt of Fort Clinton is in good condition, though a zoo now occupies the site of the main work, and only traces of other fortifications remain here. The site of Fort Montgomery, on the other hand, is free of modern encroachments. The outlines and foundations of this important river fortification have survived. Interpretive signs or an audio tour guide the visitor past the remains of the fort, the powder magazine, and the North Redoubt. There are also occasional Revolutionary War reenactments. Phone: (845) 786-2701, ext. 226.

Beekman Arms

Beekman Arms, Rhinebeck, mid-Hudson Valley. In about 1700 a two-room stone tavern was built where the Kings Highway crossed the Sepasco Indian trail, 60 miles south of Albany on the east side of the Hudson. The spot is now the intersection of U.S. 9 and N.Y. 308, at the center of Rhinebeck, and the tavern has evolved through two and a half centuries into a large modern inn. Its name comes from the fact that Henry Beekman sold the land on which this, "America's Oldest Operating Inn," was built. The present stone walls of the central portion date from an expansion in 1769. Oak beams measuring 8 by 12 inches support the first floor, which has planks 14 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. In emergencies the tavern became a community fortress, with field artillery firing from the first floor and noncombatants being sheltered in the large cellar. General Montgomery lived in the inn before marching to his fate in Canada in 1775. Washington and many of his senior officers used the building during the Revolution.

The Beekman Arms retains a great deal of its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century character inside, where some original structural features can still be seen. Phone: (845) 876-2995.

Bemis Heights

Bemis Heights. Seesaratoga.

Bennington Battlefield

Bennington Battlefield, north side of Route 67 between Walloomsac, New York and Vermont state line. Phone: (518) 279-1155. The Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site is part of Grafton Lakes State Park, and further information on the Bennington Battlefield site is accessible from that entity. Phone: (518) 686-7109. Although many sites associated with the Battle of Bennington are in Vermont, the battlefield itself is in New York.

"Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne met so little resistance as he moved along Lake Champlain toward the head of the Hudson Valley in 1777 that he became overconfident. He fatally underestimated the ability of the Patriots to organize an effective resistance. But Burgoyne could see that he would have to live off the country now that his 185-mile-long line of communications with his Canadian bases was being overtaxed. He particularly needed horses to move his artillery and wagons, and to mount the 250 Brunswick dragoons. Inaccurate intelligence convinced him that the Continentals had a large number of horses as well as other military stores at Bennington.

Piling blunder on blunder, Burgoyne selected the Brunswickers to form the nucleus of this eight-hundred-man expedition, because these were the people who most needed the horses. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, spoke no English, and since one purpose of the operation was to win Loyalist support in the areas overrun, Philip Skene, Loyalist proprietor of some 60,000 acres around modern Whitehall (then called Skenesboro), was sent along as "public affairs advisor." In addition to his own dragoons and other Germans totaling 374 officers and men, Baum had fifty British marksmen and three hundred or so Loyalists, Canadians, and Indians. By 13 August his expedition had reached Cambridge, about 20 miles by road from Bennington, Vermont.

In the few weeks before this operation, however, the Patriots had become sufficiently aroused to start taking action. The present state of Vermont, a wilderness claimed by New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in colonial times, had been known since 1763 as the New Hampshire Grants and was sparsely populated. When the Vermont Council of Safety asked for help, New Hampshire and Massachusetts both said they lacked the necessary funds. The wealthy John Langdon, a Patriot of New Hampshire, allegedly stepped forward in this crisis to offer his personal fortune and credit and to nominate "our friend Stark" as commander of the forces to be raised.

John Stark accepted a commission as a brigadier general from New Hampshire on 17 July and quickly raised a force of about 1,500. The colorful and temperamental hero of Bunker Hill had resigned his commission as a colonel of the Continental army about four months earlier because Congress would not promote him. The "rustic Achilles" agreed to quit sulking in his tent and take the field only when assured that he would be independent of Congressional orders.

When Stark arrived with his brigade at Manchester, Vermont (about 26 miles by road north of Bennington), from which point he intended to attack the flank and rear of Burgoyne's forces in the Hudson Valley, he ran into trouble. A fat major general from Massachusetts, one of the officers previously promoted over Stark's head, was there with orders from Congress to take command of all New England militia raised for the emergency. This individual also had orders from General Schuyler to send Stark's brigade to join the main army on the Hudson. John Stark flat refused. General Benjamin Lincoln tried to make Stark see that such insubordination could be disastrous to the Patriot cause, but when reasoning accomplished nothing, Lincoln showed the character and good sense not to give up in disgust. He reported this problem to Congress, but then proceeded to treat Stark as an ally and to fall in with Stark's strategic notions. Lincoln agreed to his plan of operating against the enemy's flank and rear, and he urged Schuyler to modify his own plans accordingly.

Ironically, Stark's insubordination resulted in his being located, completely by accident, at the very place toward which the enemy raiders were headed: Bennington.

Seth Warner and his Green Mountain Regiment had reassembled at Manchester after their defeat at Hubbardton, Vermont. Here they remained temporarily when Stark moved on to Bennington, some 25 miles south, where he was joined by Vermont's troops, some militia from the Berkshires, and the Stockbridge Indians.

Having camped in Cambridge overnight, Baum resumed his advance on the morning of 14 August, a Thursday. When Stark heard that Indians were ravaging the area around Cambridge, he had sent a two-hundredman detachment there to chase them off, but on the evening of 13 August he learned that enemy regulars in strength were following the Indians. He therefore ordered Warner to move his men immediately to Bennington. Baum's scouts, meanwhile, reported that the militia force in Bennington was much larger than expected, so the German commander reported back to Burgoyne that he would advance cautiously.

The Battle of Bennington started around 9:00 the morning of Thursday, 14 August 1777 at St. Croix, or Sancoick's Mill, about 12 miles from Bennington, Vermont, on modern Route 67 and 67A (roughly the route Baum was marching). Stark held the bulk of his forces at a crossing of the Walloomsac about 4 miles from town while detachments carried out a delaying action. Baum advanced slowly, and finally decided he had better request reinforcements. When he reached the point where the road crossed the Walloomsac, he secured this critical area with troops on both sides of the river and started deploying the rest of his force in small defensive detachments.

With the idea of establishing a position he could hold until reinforcements arrived, Baum made the fundamental error of scattering his forces. On the Bennington side of the river about 150 of his men, most of them Loyalists, constructed a hasty fortification that became known as the Tory Redoubt. On the other side of the crossing were about seventy-five regulars. Camp followers found and occupied a log cabin between the Tory Redoubt and the river crossing, and other cabins on either side of the river were occupied by Loyalists and Canadians. On the side of a hill overlooking the crossing from the north (his direction of advance), Baum placed 200 officers and men in a position that became known as the Dragoon Redoubt. On top of this hill the Indians encamped. Back along the road to Sancoick's Mill, about 1,000 yards from the vital crossing, Baum posted fifty German infantrymen and some Loyalists to guard his rear. To keep the Americans from infiltrating along the right (north) bank of the river to the crossing site, a detachment of fifty jaegers was posted between the Dragoon Redoubt and the river.

The next day, Friday, 15 August, was so rainy that both sides were content to remain inactive, particularly because both were waiting for their reinforcements to arrive. About 350 of Seth Warner's men left Manchester on Friday morning and made camp that night about two hours' march from Stark's bivouac. Lieutenant Colonel Breymann started marching to Baum's relief on Friday morning with about 650 slow-moving German grenadiers, chasseurs, riflemen, and two cannon. But when he went into camp that night he had covered only 8 miles, and he did not reach the battlefield until 4:30 the next afternoon.

Stark, meanwhile, had reconnoitered the enemy positions and formulated the plan of attack so dear to the hearts of military amateurs—the double envelopment. Splitting his forces into three columns, he planned to have two of these loop wide around the enemy's flanks to join in an attack on his rear, while he himself led the main body in the middle. The rain stopped around noon on Saturday 16 August, and at 3 p.m. the Patriots launched their attack. Two hours later, after what Stark in his report called "the hottest [action] I ever saw in my life—it represented one continued clap of thunder," the first part of the battle was over, and the Patriots had possession of the field. They were preparing to loot the enemy camps when, to their considerable consternation, Breymann's relief column was reported to be only 2 miles away. Breymann had reached Sancoick's Mill around 4:30, half an hour before Baum fell mortally wounded and resistance in the Dragoon Redoubt had collapsed. But because of the phenomenon known as "acoustic shadow," no sound of battle had been heard at Sancoick's Mill, only 4 miles distant. Breymann's troops realized too late that they had marched into a hornets' nest. Warner's Green Mountain Regiment arrived just in time to play the leading role in this final action, which lasted until dark. The Germans then withdrew, leaving Breymann's 2 cannon. Stark reported the capture of 4 cannon (Baum had only 2), 2 brass drums, 250 sabres, 4 ammunition wagons, and several hundred stand of arms. Enemy casualties numbered about 200 dead on the field (others, including Baum, died of wounds) and around 700 prisoners. Only 9 of the 374 Germans of Baum's force returned to Burgoyne's army. Stark reported the loss of 30 of his command killed and 40 wounded, although the generally accepted figure is 40 Americans killed and wounded.

This was one victory the Patriots badly needed. It did much to set the stage for Burgoyne's greater defeat at Saratoga.

Bennington Battlefield State Park encompasses about 276 acres of wooded terrain, and at the battlefield's entrance there is a marker. A map for the entire area is available onsite, and three stone memorials can be found at the top of the hill, in addition to various markers that indicate battlefield positions. From the entrance on the highway a tourist winds up a narrow road through second-growth woods, circles a grassy hill, and can park near the top. This is the site of the Dragoon Redoubt, where the fiercest fighting took place, and there is an excellent map showing troop movements and positions. But even with a good mental picture of what happened at Bennington, it is difficult for visitors to orient themselves. The landmarks of the action are not readily identifiable from this observation point. If a person leaves it and walks back up the road and to the northwest, through a vista cut in that direction can be seen the hill where the Indian auxiliaries of Baum's were positioned on the eve of the battle. Having seen this, one gets a somewhat clearer picture of the total action and can locate the route by which Colonel Moses Nichols enveloped Baum's position. However, until the site is developed further, a visitor will not be able to visualize the action at the Tory Redoubt and the position of the jaegers on the southern slope of the hill below the Dragoon Redoubt. (Sites associated with Stark's approach to the battlefield are covered under bennington and vicinity, vermont.)

Leaving Bennington Battlefield State Park and driving west and north to Cambridge for 10 miles, a tourist will find landmarks of the German advance. Initially, the route is through ugly vestiges of the mill operations that developed in modern times along the Walloomsac River. The site of Breymann's defeat is indicated by a highway marker a little less than a mile west of the entrance to the battlefield park, but there is nothing else to see here except a run-down industrial plant, railroad tracks, and evidence of economic distress. Exactly 2 miles farther west on N.Y. 67 is a highway marker on the left (south) side indicating that St. Croix Church was here, so this is in the vicinity of Sancoick's Mill, where the action started on 14 August (above). The visitor who continues north on N.Y. 22 toward Cambridge (a fine highway through scenic country), will pass the place where Patriot militia skirmished with Baum's advance guard. (Historical marker is on the right [east] of the road .35 mile north of the N.Y. 67-22 road junction, 4 miles south of Cambridge.)

On entering the village of Cambridge, a visitor will learn from a marker on the left (west) that this is the route of the Great Northern War Trail, along which the Indians took their captives from New England to Canada from about 1650 to 1700. Other than an open space at the junction of N.Y. 22 and 327 in Cambridge that was a militia training ground, there are no Revolutionary War sites to see in this attractive little place where Baum camped before marching toward Bennington. (See bennington under Vermont for the site of Baum's death of wounds and his burial. Here also the landmarks associated with the Patriot advance to the battlefield may be found.)

Boyd-Parker Memorial

Boyd-Parker Memorial, site of Little Beard's Town, or Genesee. Seesullivan-clinton expedition.

Bush Homestead (Putnam's Headquarters)

Bush Homestead (Putnam's Headquarters), Port Chester, also known as the Bush-Lyon Homestead. Headquarters of General Israel Putnam from May 1777 to March 1778, when he was commander of the Hudson Highlands, this well-preserved Georgian Colonial house was built shortly before the Revolution by Abraham Bush, a sea captain. The original furniture, including the bed and desk used by "Old Put," has been preserved, as have the slave quarters. Listed in the "Sites Also Noted" category by the National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings (1964), the Bush Homestead is in Lyon Park overlooking King Street and is open only on Thursdays from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Phone: (914) 939-8919.

Butlersbury

Butlersbury, Mohawk Valley. On Switzer Hill, near Fonda, overlooking the Mohawk River, the ancient home-stead of the much-dreaded Loyalist soldiers John and Walter Butler remains standing despite almost two centuries of local indifference to its historic and architectural significance. The simple frame house built in 1742 by "Old" Walter Butler has survived the modifications of successive farmer-owners, who masked its cherry paneling and hand-hewn beams with lath and plaster, made rambling additions, and covered its clapboard siding with asbestos shingle. The magnificent view over the Mohawk to the west from the 700-foot hill remains virtually unspoiled.

"Old" Walter Butler and his son John were among Sir William Johnson's most valuable subordinates, and their landholdings in the Mohawk Valley—7,800 acres—approached his in magnitude. But the Butlers earned their position in history by military duty far from their comfortable home fires. John spent much of his youth at the exposed outpost of Fort Ontario, where his father was commandant, and he was fifty-three years old when, in the summer of 1778, he led Loyalist and Indian raiders almost 200 miles through the wilderness from Niagara to attack the Wyoming Valley settlement in Pennsylvania. "Young" Walter, John's son and "Old" Walter's grandson, was known as one of the brightest young men in the valley when he was studying law in Albany on the eve of the Revolution. He turned out to be equally talented as a man of military action.

Among the many Loyalists who fled to Canada, John and Walter Butler were the most effective leaders of the raids that subsequently ravaged the Mohawk Valley. Young Walter was captured at the Shoemaker House in 1777 while on one of the boldest missions of the war. Sentenced to death but reprieved because of the intercession of several Patriots, including Philip Schuyler, he escaped to Canada. (There he helped a former neighbor, as outlined in the article on fort frey.) After leading the famous raid on Cherry Valley, Major Walter Butler played a key role in the operations of Major Ross in 1781 (see johnstown) and was killed in the rear-guard action on West Canada Creek.

Colonel John Butler was active in establishing a settlement of Loyalists in Canada, where he was given 5,000 acres and a pension. Until his death at the age of seventy-one he held important public offices.

The Butler estate was confiscated by the Patriots during the Revolution and later bought by John Fonda. In 1834 his widow and son Jelles sold it to Henry Wilson, whose family occupied the house and farmed the land through the 1940s. For a few years the house remained unoccupied and neglected until bought by Mrs. Eleanore Rockwell in 1959. Extensive restoration of the interior has been completed. When what was believed to be a post-Revolution addition to the back of the house was taken off, an 1826 penny was found, which confirmed the suspicion and eliminated the "saltbox" character of the house. In late 1971, after Mrs. Rockwell's death, her daughter Cynthia moved into Butlersbury with her family. Among the first guests were several busloads of Canadians revisiting the homes of their Loyalist ancestors. Butlersbury has had new owners since that time, and remains privately owned.

The house is reached from Fonda by driving east about 100 yards and turning north on Switzer Hill Road. At .75 mile, turn right on Old Trail and go 100 yards to Walter Butler Lane on the right. The house is visible on the left (east) side of this short, dead-end road, about 100 yards away. Casual tourists will find the site is well worth visiting for the view. Since ownership is in private hands, tours are not available, but information is available by contacting the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives. Phone: (518) 853-8186.

Castles of the Mohawk Indians

Castles of the Mohawk Indians. The easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Mohawks, were responsible for guarding the approaches along the Mohawk Valley. During the period 1580 to 1666 they had approximately sixteen villages known as Indian castles, but all except Auriesville were burned in 1666. The four built to replace these were again destroyed in 1693, and the Mohawks were greatly reduced in numbers. The survivors then planned a separate castle for each clan, and these were in existence from 1700 until 1775, when the Mohawks took the British side in the American Revolution and were finally driven from the valley. Sites of the last three Indian castles are at Fort Hunter (Wolf), Fort Plain (Turtle), and Indian Castle (Bear).

The other Iroquois tribes had castles to the west, most of which were destroyed by the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of 1779.

Cherry Valley

Cherry Valley, Otsego County. Walter Butler and Joseph Brant owe their negative reputation as Loyalist and Indian raiders primarily to the fact that they were such good military leaders. They collaborated in a raid on this strategically important settlement and surprised the ineptly commanded garrison ignorant of frontier warfare. The 700 Loyalists and Indians killed some 30 noncombatants and 15 soldiers in an action (11 November 1778) lasting about four hours. The raiders took 71 prisoners but released most of them the next day.

A memorial was erected in the Cherry Valley cemetery on the 100th anniversary of the massacre, and the local museum, at 49 Main Street, has items of historical interest and information on walking tours of historic Cherry Valley. Phone: (607) 264-3098; website: www.cherryvalleymuseum.org.

Clermont

Clermont, Clermont State Park, Germantown, Hudson River. The first Robert Livingston (1654–1728) reached America in 1673, and by 1686 had by purchase and grant acquired 160,000 acres on the east side of the Hudson. His third son, also named Robert, was bequeathed 13,000 acres in the southwest corner of the Manor of Livingston. This Robert II built Clermont around 1730. His son, Robert III, married Margaret Beekman in 1742, and when the British in their raid of 1777 burned Clermont it was this vigorous lady who undertook immediately to rebuild the mansion. North and south wings were added in 1800.

Robert Livingston IV, statesman and diplomat of the Revolutionary era, retired to Clermont in 1804 after negotiating the Louisiana Purchase in his capacity as minister to France. Here, in addition to work in progressive agriculture, he pursued his earlier interest in steam navigation. He and Robert Fulton produced the first practical steamboat, which was named for the Livingston home and which made a record-setting run up the river to this place.

The steep-pitched roof and dormers of Clermont date from 1878. The state now owns the house with 500 acres, and restoration has been completed. In 1973 it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and the site is a key element to the Hudson River National Landmark District, which was established in 1990. Clermont is the most important of the many structures associated with the remarkable Livingston family, and a local organization, Friends of Clermont, provides tours and maintains an informative website on the house and grounds. Phone: (518) 537-4240; website: www.friendsofclermont.org.

Clinton House

Clinton House, 549 Main Street, Poughkeepsie. Named in honor of the state's first governor and said to have been occupied by him in 1777, this much-reconstructed house of rough fieldstone was built around 1765. It is a state-owned historic site with period furnishings and is open daily to the public for tours. Contact the Dutchess County Historical Society for more information. Phone: (845) 471-1630.

Clove, The

Clove, The. Seeramapo valley.

Constitution Island

Constitution Island. Seewest point military reservation, which now includes this historic site on the Hudson River.

Continental Village

Continental Village (site), Putnam County, from Van Cortlantville, just north of Peekskill, north about 2 miles on Gallows Hill Road. Here, at the main entrance to the Hudson Highlands east of the river and a few hundred yards south of the junction of the Old West Point Road and the Old Albany Post Road in 1777, the Patriots established a camp and supply center. A few months later (9 October) the small guard detachment was routed by a British force under Governor William Tryon, and the base was destroyed. Maps of Robert Erskine thereafter indicated "Burnt Barracks" at this place on Canopus Hollow Road, but the Patriots reoccupied the area in 1781. This and other Patriot camps in the vicinity have been excavated by the New York Historical Society.

Crown Point Reservation and Campsite

Crown Point Reservation and Campsite, 739 Bridge Road on the west end of the Lake Champlain Bridge. In 1609 Champlain visited this site in his voyage of discovery, and his battle with the Iroquois took place either in this area or at Ticonderoga, about 12 miles farther south. Recent research reveals that the French built a fort across the lake on the Vermont side at Chimney Point before starting the construction of Fort St. Frédéric at Crown Point in 1731. The latter was an outpost for the protection of Canada and also a forward base for their own raids on English settlements. At the approach of Amherst's expedition in 1759 the French garrison blew up their fort and retreated to Canada. (See also ticonderoga.)

The English started building a large fort a short distance inland from demolished Fort St. Frédéric, but with French power in North America almost immediately thereafter broken (1763), the plans for making Fort Crown Point a major fortification were curtailed. A fire in 1773 virtually destroyed the outpost, and when Seth Warner occupied the place two years later (after the capture of Ticonderoga) he found a pathetic little garrison of nine men and some camp followers.

During the remainder of the Revolution, Crown Point was important only as an outpost for Ticonderoga. It figured in Arnold's naval operations (see valcour island) and as a post on the British line of communications in 1776 and 1777.

Now split by the highway leading to the great bridge across Lake Champlain but not disfigured by these modern developments, Crown Point Reservation and Campsite is a picturesque state park. The ruins of the French and English forts are classified as National Historic Landmarks. The French did a thorough job of blowing up Fort Frédéric, which had never been fully developed anyhow: the design was faulty and the construction work had been unsatisfactory. Part of the ruins are fenced off, but the ramparts of this star fort remain.

The English fort, only a few hundred feet away, is a ruin of exceptional beauty and interest. A narrow footpath leads around the top of the ramparts, an earthen mound rising some 30 feet in places from a moat. Portions of this moat were blasted from rock. Inside these high earthen walls are the ruins of two large masonry barracks, their gray walls rising from a green carpet of grass. A spring feeds a rock pool within the parade ground. One would hope that the site will be preserved as a picturesque ruin (like the Loire River chateau of Chinon, where Joan of Arc entered the pages of history).

Across the highway is the campsite. In addition to the vestiges of other fortifications, monuments, historic markers, and a replica of the French trading post, this park includes the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse (1909). On the side facing the lake is a particularly fine bronze by Rodin: a life-size head of a woman symbolizing La France.

The sites are closed during the winter months. Phone: (518) 597-4666 (Crown Point Historic Site); (518) 597-3603 (campsite).

De Wint House

De Wint House. Seetappan.

Dobbs Ferry Site

Dobbs Ferry Site, Dobbs Ferry, Hudson River. Only the name has survived of this important colonial and Revolutionary War crossing of the lower Hudson River. The site is nevertheless interesting for what remains of the topography. Turning west off U.S. 9, which was originally the Albany Post Road and the extension of Broadway, one winds through the business district of modern Dobbs Ferry and then descends a steep grade to the railroad tracks along the river. The shoreline has been altered beyond recognition, but a park and marina near the railroad station preserve some semblance of its original appearance. At this date there are no historical markers.

Esopus

Esopus. Seekingston.

Field of Grounded Arms, Fort Hardy

Field of Grounded Arms, Fort Hardy, Schuylerville. Most of the field where Burgoyne's 6,300 troops laid down their arms after surrendering to the Americans is preserved as open ground. Located at the corners of Route 4 and Route 29 is a fully staffed visitors center open to the public seven days a week. Phone: (518) 695-4195. In 2004 the battleground site became the recipient of a grant through the American Battlefield Protection Program to assist in funding nomination into the National Register of Historical Places. (See end of article on saratoga national historical park.)

Fishkill Landing

Fishkill Landing, Hudson River opposite Newburgh. Since 1913 incorporated in the town of Beacon, Fishkill Landing was an outpost of the Continental army's defensive system in the Hudson Highlands. Nearby Fishkill Village was a main supply base. In laying plans for letting the British capture the strategic works at West Point, Benedict Arnold found pretexts for weakening its garrison by detaching troops to the Fishkill area for guard duty and to cut wood. In relatively recent years the last vestiges of earthworks have been obliterated, but the site of "Fort Hill" is indicated by a marker on U.S. 9 at the county line.

Mount Beacon (1,640 feet) was once accessible by a renowned inclined railway from 1902 until the railway's closing in 1975. At a point 1 mile by trail to the summit was a signal station during the Revolution, and there rests a 27-foot high monument erected to honor militiamen who were in charge of the beacon fires. The trail continues 2 miles to South Beacon Peak (1,635 feet). Mount Beacon is accessible to hikers, and plans for another railway are continually being proposed.

Fishkill Village

Fishkill Village, near intersection of U.S. 9 and I-84, in southwest Dutchess County. About 5 miles road distance east of Fishkill Landing (now part of Beacon) and lying pleasantly in the lap of a plain near the foot of the mountains, as Benson Lossing described it, the village of Fishkill is rich in Revolutionary War associations. In 1775 it comprised only a dozen or so houses, a tavern, two churches, and a schoolhouse, although Dutch settlers had been in the area since the start of the century. Wiccopee Pass, just south of the village, was fortified early in the war, with three artillery battery positions there from 1776 to 1783 and a lookout point nearby as the signal relay station to Washington's headquarters in Newburgh. In relatively recent years the last vestiges of earthworks have been obliterated, but the site of "Fort Hill" is indicated by a marker on U.S. 9 at the county line. Barracks and storehouses were constructed in Fishkill, and the place became the principal military depot for the Continental army.

When the British overran the lower Hudson Valley, Fishkill was crowded with refugees. The New York Provincial Congress was in session here during the period 5 September 1776 to 11 February 1777, after being run from New York City to White Plains and before moving on to Kingston. The ambulatory legislators met in the First Reformed, or Dutch, Church, which also served as a prison. A famous inmate of the prison was Enoch Crosby, the model used by James Fenimore Cooper for his character Harvey Birch in The Spy, A Tale of the Neutral Ground.

The Dutch Church, 1153 Main Street, dates from 1731, and the exterior of stuccoed stone and brick has been little changed. The interior was radically altered in 1854, and it was after this date that most of the village's surviving houses were built. Phone: (845) 896-9836.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Main Street, east of Route 9, was built around 1769. It was a hospital during the Revolution. Except for removal of the upper part of the tall steeple, which became necessary in 1803 because it was structurally unsound, the exterior of the small frame church is unaltered. Of special architectural interest is its curious cornice. (The hollow concave molding known as cavetto is used rather than the more usual cymatium—a practice common in Etruscan architecture.) Phone: (845) 896-9884.

Because of its association with Fishkill Landing, where a ferry was established in 1743 and where Hudson River traffic stopped, the village of Fishkill was an unusually important stop on the Albany Post Road, or King's Highway. On U.S. 9 about 1.3 miles south of Fishkill is an old red stone marker inscribed "66 Miles to N. York." Although the Albany Post Road dates from 1703, when an act of the colonial assembly started its construction, the more than forty milestones were not set up until after 1797. About half have survived, having been reset in concrete with protective coverings, and can be discovered at various points. The stone markers were erected on the order of the new nation's first postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, to assist mail carriers in navigation.

The Derick Brinkerhoff House, about 3 miles east of Fishkill at the junction of N.Y. 52 and 82, is where Washington stayed whenever he came through. The house is still owned by a family descendant, Todd Brinkerhoff. Across the street, a blue marker was erected to show the Abraham Brinkerhoff store site. Visible from the Derick Brinkerhoff House is a large marker, the Lafayette Memorial informing visitors that the major general lay there many weeks recuperating from a near-fatal fever. Upon his recuperation, subsequent victory over Cornwallis in 1781, and return to France, Lafayette sent, as a token of his gratitude, a large French-made punch bowl. That bowl now rests in the Madam Brett Homestead, 50 Van Nydeck Avenue, in Beacon. The Madam Brett Homestead, maintained and shown by the Melzingah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is the oldest building (c. 1709) in Dutchess County. Phone: (845) 831-6533. The Melzingah DAR Chapter is among the most active chapters in the country, and is very helpful in securing additional information. Email: [email protected].

Fort Ann

Fort Ann, Washington County, on U.S. 4, about midway between Fort Edward and Whitehall. Colonial and Revolutionary War forts were located at this critical point along the Hudson-Champlain route. From a contour map one can see why: Fort Ann is at the mouth of a defile through which troops moving south along Wood Creek from Skenesboro (now Whitehall) would debouch into flatter country for the rest of their march to the Hudson. The British built a fort here in 1757. The next year about five hundred men under Israel Putnam and Robert Rogers were sent by Abercromby to observe French activity around Ticonderoga. They were returning to Fort Edward from around Skenesboro when they were ambushed in the area of modern Kanesville, about a mile northwest of Fort Ann. Putnam was wounded, taken prisoner, and cruelly treated before being sent to Montreal and eventually exchanged.

A delaying action against Burgoyne's invasion in 1777 was fought on 8 July in the gorge about three-quarters of a mile north of Fort Ann (mentioned earlier). Colonel Pierce Long had fallen back with his 150-man rear guard, and at Fort Ann he was reinforced by about 400 New York militia under Colonel Henry Van Rensselaer. Having fewer than 200 men, the commander of the British advance guard decided to stop and wait for reinforcements. Van Rensselaer and Long sallied forth about 10:30 a.m. One Patriot column crossed to the east bank of the creek (now the barge canal) and threatened the British flank and rear as the other attacked the mouth of the defile. Hard-pressed, the British shifted their position from the bottom of the narrow gorge (now widened out and deforested) to the sharp, 500-foot-high ridge to the north (on the left as one drives from Fort Ann toward Whitehall). The Patriots broke off the engagement after two hours of fierce fighting because their ammunition was running out and the war whoops of enemy reinforcements were heard in the distance. It was later revealed (during the investigation of Burgoyne's operations) that these "Indian war whoops" all emanated from one British captain advancing alone after his troops refused to follow him into the battle.

Although it may be difficult to find, a marker indicating "Battle Hill" is located about one-half mile past the bank on U.S. Route 4. There is a railroad intersection on the right and a large rock cut on the left. Just into the rock cut is the marker. Ownership of the actual battlefield is in flux and a highway runs through it, but visitors can get a sense of the grounds where this significant confrontation took place. For further information contact the town historian, Virginia Parrott. Phone: (518) 639-5375.

Fort Clinton

Fort Clinton. Seebear mountain area and west point.

Fort Constitution (Constitution Island)

Fort Constitution (Constitution Island). Seewest point.

Fort Crailo ("Yankee Doodle House")

Fort Crailo ("Yankee Doodle House"), 9 1/2 Riverside Avenue, Rensselaer, south of Dunn Memorial Bridge, Rensselaer, 1 mile across the Hudson from Albany. The front portion of this house, designated a National Historic Landmark, is believed to have been built by Hendrick Van Rensselaer, brother of the first patroon of Rennsselaerswyck. Dating from about 1704, the building may be on the site of the 1642 residence of Arent Van Curler, cousin of these Rensselaers and manager of the patroonship from 1637.

The much-restored brick house is maintained by the state as a museum of Dutch culture. The older portion features huge beams, broad floorboards, and large fire-places, whereas the rear wing (1762) reflects the architectural refinements that came to New Netherland with the intervening years. Like most frontier homes, this one had loopholes in the heavy outside walls.

Some verses for "Yankee Doodle" may have been conceived here in 1758 by British army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh from his impressions of a militia muster. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Phone: (518) 463-8738.

Fort Dayton Site

Fort Dayton Site, Mohawk Valley. In the present village of Herkimer (not to be confused with Fort Herkimer Church or the Herkimer Home), which was settled by Palatines in 1722, is the site of the fort built in 1776 by Colonel Elias Dayton and called Fort Dayton. From here the Patriots under General Nicholas Herkimer started their ill-fated march to Oriskany. The well is the only remaining remnant of Fort Dayton. In Myers Park is a recently refurbished heroic bronze statue depicting the wounded Herkimer directing the final successful stages of the battle. Information on Fort Dayton and other regional areas of interest can be obtained from the Herkimer County Historical Society, 400 North Main Street. Phone: (315) 866-6413.

Fort Delaware Reconstruction

Fort Delaware Reconstruction, Sullivan County, north of Narrowsburg, on N.Y. Route 97. On the Delaware River a few hundred yards from where the original fort stood before the site was eaten away by the river, this commercial reconstruction includes a stockade, block-houses, three log cabins, a blacksmith shop, a shed, an armory, an animal yard, and an herb garden. Called the Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History, it is representative of early forts erected by settlers in this region around 1750. This popular attraction for tourists portrays life for those who settled the upper Delaware Valley in the 1750s. There are a variety of programs and events scheduled all year, including programs tailored for students. The fort is located three-quarters of a mile from Narrowsburg. Phone (845) 726-3869 (September-April); (845) 252-6660 (May-August).

Fort Edward

Fort Edward and vicinity, upper Hudson. The town of Fort Edward is located near the Hudson River's end on Route 197. Prior to the 1700s, the Indians named this area the Great Carrying Place because the river's end forced them to portage their canoes over to Lake Champlain. Fort Edward, briefly the third-largest city in British North America, was the site of British works built in 1709, 1731, 1755, and 1757. The famous rangers of Robert Rogers were based here during the colonial wars. The 40-acre site of these early forts and the ranger camps is on Rogers Island, joined to today's village of Fort Edward by N.Y. Route 197. Natural and man-made changes in the Hudson River have vastly altered the island's configuration since colonial times, portions of the original island having become part of the mainland and vice versa. Rogers Island, although still privately owned (at this writing the state is negotiating a purchase) was opened to the public in July 2001. The site is primarily devoted to history of the Seven Years' War and features a visitors center that is open daily from June through August. Admission is free. In September an annual Seven Years' War encampment is presented. Phone: (518) 747-3693; website: www.fortedwardnewyork.net.

If one goes south on U.S. 4 and N.Y. Route 197 through the village of Fort Edward and passes under the railroad, there is a marker on the right (west) that says that the northeast bastion of the old fort was near there. The marker is encompassed within the grounds of the Anvil Inn Restaurant. Continue straight (not bearing left on the highway) and take the first right onto Old Fort Street. On the right (north) is a marker indicating that the low ground there was part of the old moat. Continue a few hundred feet to the dead end at the river, opposite Rogers Island, and there is a boulder with a plaque attached marking the site of Fort Edward, 1775.

If the traveler retraces their route and continues south on the highway, just to the west of U.S. 4 and 0.1 mile beyond the junction with N.Y. 197 is the Old Fort House Museum. Built in 1772 by Patrick Smyth, it was constructed in part with timbers from the ruined Fort Edward. In 1777 Benedict Arnold arrested Smyth and removed him from his home for being a Loyalist. At various historic junctures, the house was used by Generals Schuyler, Arnold, Washington, Burgoyne, and Stark. The two-story white structure has been restored and is a regional museum with Indian relics, furniture, glass, models, and dioramas. It is open to the public daily from June to August, on weekends from September to October, and year-round by appointment. For further information contact the Fort Edward Historical Association, located at 29 Broadway Street. Phone: (518) 747-9600.

Fort Edward is the scene of the Jane McCrae atrocity, which the Patriots, notably General Horatio Gates, skillfully exploited to bring about the great rally of militia that helped to defeat Burgoyne. The episode has been so distorted that the facts will never be certain, but the following outline may be considered reasonably accurate: McCrae was captured by a small patrol of Burgoyne's Indians and killed when another patrol appeared with orders from her Loyalist fiancé to bring word from her. McCrae's captor, a Huron named Le Loup but better known in legend as the Wyandotte Panther, presumably expected a reward for his young female prisoner, and in a fit of rage he ended the argument with the other Indian leader by shooting her. McCrae's scalp was identified by her fiancé in the British camp, and another prisoner filled in what details she could of the episode. Then the propagandists and mythmakers took over.

A marker in front of a privately owned dwelling just north of the high school states that it is the Jane McRae House, supposedly the place of her capture. However, the actual place of her capture was just behind this dwelling, at what used to be Sara McNeil's house. A marker of the actual site where McRae was killed can be found just south of the high school. A highway marker says "The graves of Duncan Campbell and Jane McCrae are just within and to the left of this gateway." Enclosed by a high iron fence, the graves are easy to spot as one drives into the large cemetery. The white stone on McCrae's grave was erected in 1852 by a niece when the remains were moved from their second burial place (in Fort Edward). Her age is given erroneously as seventeen; she probably was twenty-six years old at her death. About 2.2 miles south of the bridge one crosses when leaving Fort Edward on U.S. 4 is the marked site of McCrae's first grave (on the west side of the highway). A Patriot camp was here when the famous atrocity occurred.

Another legend of some renown is connected with Union Cemetery. The story is that Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, major of the Forty-second Regiment of Foot, better known as the Royal Highlanders, or Black Watch, had witnessed a murder but had sworn to keep his knowledge secret. When he later learned that the victim was his own cousin, he still held fast to his oath, whereupon the cousin's ghost appeared in a dream and said, "Farewell, Inverawe, till we meet at Ticonderoga." Campbell tried to rise above his superstitions as his regiment moved on Ticonderoga in 1758 with Abercromby's expedition, but on the eve of battle he is said to have resigned himself to death. He was mortally wounded and died nine days later, 17 July, at Fort Edward. Robert Louis Stevenson knew the story, which was famous in Scottish history, and while spending six months at Saranac Lake (1887–1888) he used it for his ballad "Ticonderoga." The poet errs in the concluding lines: "He sleeps in the place of the name, / As it was doomed to be." At Ticonderoga is a monument to the Black Watch that mentions the above episode. But Campbell does not sleep at Ticonderoga; he sleeps beneath an interesting old brown headstone next to Jane McCrae.

For reference and information on these and other sites, contact the Fort Edward Historical Association listed previously in this section.

Fort Frey

Fort Frey, Mohawk Valley. On N.Y. Route 5, exactly a mile west of the junction of N.Y. Route 10 in Palatine Bridge, a state marker identifies the Frey House. Just west of this sign, on the south side of the highway, is the start of a private road that winds 0.3 mile to the house. It is privately owned (1971) but can be viewed from the outside.

Typically Palatine, this long, stone, story-and-a-half house with a gable roof was built in 1739 on the site of a log cabin erected in 1689 by Hendrick Frey, a Swiss. British military posts were located here in 1702 to 1713 and 1755 to 1763.

Hendrick Frey died shortly before the Revolution, but his three sons were active in the war. The most famous, John, was born in the Frey House in 1740 and became chairman of the Tryon County Committee of Safety and major of the Palatine Regiment, Tryon County Militia Brigade. His brothers, Bernard and Philip, became officers on the British side. John was wounded at Oriskany, narrowly escaping death before going to Canada as a prisoner. From the surviving Frey papers it is known that he was well treated. Major Frey's old neighbor, John Butler of Butlersbury, saw that he got the best medical attention available and better food than was the normal lot of prisoners, and on one occasion Butler prescribed an issue of port wine to speed Frey's recovery. When John Frey finally was exchanged, John Butler lent him 20 guineas to get home. When Montgomery County was formed from Tryon County in 1784, John Frey became its first sheriff. He was state senator for twenty years and helped write Annals of Tryon County.

Bernard Frey served in Butler's Rangers, was promoted to captain in 1780, and settled in Niagara, upper Canada. He was killed during the War of 1812.

Philip served as an ensign in the Eighth Foot during the Revolution. A surveyor and an attorney, he later returned to the Mohawk Valley and practiced law not far from his birthplace.

Fort Herkimer Church

Fort Herkimer Church, 2 miles east of Mohawk on N.Y. Route 5S. Construction of this building was started by Palatine settlers about 1730 to replace a log church of 1723, but work was not finished when the Seven Years' War started in 1754 and the walls formed the center of colonial Fort Herkimer. (Another Fort Herkimer, dating from 1775, was the wooden blockhouse that had fallen into ruin and was the site of the Revolutionary War's Fort Dayton. See german flats.) The present structure, altered and enlarged in 1812, dates from 1767. Johan Herkimer (also spelled "Herchheimer" and "Erghemer"), father of Revolutionary War General Nicholas Herkimer, and twelve others established a trading post here after emigrating from the Rhenish Palatinate around 1722, and an inscription on the church indicates that he built it in 1767.

During the Revolution the church was part of a stockaded fort, and here settlers were saved on Sunday, 13 September 1778, from a raid by Loyalists and Indians that ravaged their property in the neighborhood. They had been warned by Adam Helmer, who detected the raiders and stayed ahead of their fastest runners in a dramatic 22-mile race to the settlements.

Later the walls were raised 10 feet to convert the structure from fort to church, and a pitched roof and cupola were added. A picturesque graveyard adjoins the church. The site is open for special occasions and is used for Revolutionary War reenactments. Phone: Don Fenner (607) 547-8490.

Fort Hill

Fort Hill, Long Island, westerly end of Lloyd's Neck, overlooking Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor. Here the remains of Fort Franklin (earthworks and barracks) are in the hands of a private owner. In the days of the Revolution, American and French troops made several attempts to capture Fort Franklin. When the British abandoned it at the close of the war, they threw guns into wells and buried others. Some of these have been recovered and placed in spots overlooking the harbor. Nearby, the Lloyd Manor House (1767), an early colonial saltbox of special architectural interest, is owned by the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities. Phone: (631) 692-4664; website: www.splia.org.

Fort Hunter

Fort Hunter. Strategically located where the Schoharie Valley joins the Mohawk Valley, this was a well-known place in the early colonial history of New York and during the Seven Years' War. Queen Anne ordered construction of a chapel here in 1712 "for my Mohawk Indians." The chapel is gone, some of its cut stone having been used in 1820 for the lock of the Erie Canal on Schoharie Creek, but the stone parsonage has survived. Still standing as a testimonial to ancient American craftsmanship is the Dutch Barn (dating from about 1730). Fort Hunter is under the jurisdiction of the New York State Military Museum. Phone: (518) 581-5100.

Fort Johnson

Fort Johnson, sometimes called Old Fort Johnson, Mohawk Valley, about one mile west of Amsterdam, where N.Y. Route 67 joins N.Y. Route 5. This is the third home of William Johnson, built in 1749 when his personal fortunes had prospered because of his success as an Indian agent and militia colonel in King George's War (1744–1745). Both of his earlier homes have been lost—the small frame building in which he lived near Fort Hunter when he first came to America and the stone house called Mount Johnson, in the area of modern Amsterdam, where he lived during the years 1742 to 1749. When Johnson moved on to Johnson Hall in 1763 (see johnstown), Fort Johnson was taken over by his son, Sir John Johnson (1749–1774).

It was during his years at Fort Johnson that Sir William won his baronetcy, gained further fame for his management of Indian affairs, and enlarged his personal estate. During the Seven Years' War (1754–1763) the house was fortified—a palisade was erected, artillery positions were built in the vicinity, and a small garrison was installed. The name Fort Johnson dates from this period. (The French had put a price on Johnson's head.)

Fort Johnson is now a museum maintained by the Montgomery County Historical Society. Phone: (518) 843-0300. Much of the interior woodwork is original, and the house is furnished with a number of pieces that belonged to Sir William. In the attic the hand-hewn, wood-pegged roof timbers are visible, and the construction discredits the myth that it supported a roof of lead sheets (allegedly melted by the Patriots for bullets); the best evidence appears to indicate that wooden shakes were used. Some authorities also challenge the theory that Sir William sent to London for this lead-sheet roofing, interior paneling, hardware, and other fittings and furnishings. But Fort Johnson does have the architectural distinction of departing from the Dutch tradition in the Mohawk Valley and being the first manor house of the English style in the region.

The house is open for tours Wednesday through Sunday from May to September.

Fort Klock Restoration

Fort Klock Restoration, N.Y. Route 5, is about 2 miles east of St. Johnsville. Of exceptional charm, architectural distinction, and appeal for the casual tourist as well as for serious historical conservationists, Fort Klock deserves to be better known. The large, L-shaped, fortified trading post was built on the bank of the Mohawk in 1750. Its native limestone walls are 2 feet thick and loopholed on all sides. One unique feature is a spring that still flows from the cellar's solid stone floor to form a large pool.

Fort Klock is one of the few surviving fur-trading centers in the Mohawk Valley, and its military and trade room displays a beaver skin, a bark canoe, and the goods that Johannes Klock used for barter. The equipment of colonial troops is also exhibited, reflecting the house's changed role when the Revolution came and its master at that time, John Klock, was on the Tryon County Committee of Safety. (The Klock family retained possession of its ancestral home for almost two centuries and held annual reunions there until recent years.)

Other restored and furnished rooms are a large dining room, a bedroom, and a spinning and weaving room. The kitchen has a sink made from native limestone and a door arrangement through which heavy logs for the fireplace could be dragged by a horse or ox. Several outbuildings have been restored on the site, including a schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and Dutch barn, forming an attractive setting for the main house.

The Battle of Klock's Field took place on 19 October 1780 just east of Fort Klock. Sir John Johnson's raiders had annihilated one Patriot force earlier in the day at Stone Arabia and were making their way from the present Nelliston westward along the King's Highway (now the railroad tracks). Late in the afternoon they were spotted by the pursuing militia force on the opposite bank of the Mohawk. While militia general Robert Van Rensselaer dined with Governor George Clinton at Fort Plain, his troops improvised a crossing and forced the enemy to turn and fight. Attacking at about sunset, the right flank units under Robert McKean and Chief Louis (with about sixty Oneidas) routed a jaeger company and some Indians under Joseph Brant, but the Loyalists and British regulars held their main position. Van Rensselaer refused to let his men renew the assault, and his officers subsequently charged him with incompetence. He was cleared by a court of inquiry.

Fort Klock was filled with neighborhood families during this action. One of the militia defenders dropped a British officer from the saddle with a long shot, the horse galloped up to the fort, and the officer's camp kettle became a Klock family heirloom.

Fort Klock is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from May to October, and is maintained by the Fort Klock Historic Restoration Committee. Phone: (518) 568-7779.

Fort Montgomery

Fort Montgomery. Seebear mountain.

Fort Neck House (Tryon Hall) Site

Fort Neck House (Tryon Hall) Site, Massapequa, Long Island. Seebridgeport, connecticut.

Fort Niagara

Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario, near Youngstown. Old Fort Niagara is administered by the Old Fort Niagara Association. Phone: (716) 745-7273. The site is an approved National Historic Landmark in the area of French exploration and settlement. The fortified barracks built by the French in 1726 is the heart of the elaborately restored frontier fortress that figured prominently in four distinct periods of American history. This "French castle" is furnished in the period of the Seven Years' War. It includes the trade room, sleeping quarters, council chamber, military kitchen, prison, dungeon, Jesuit chapel, and gun deck. The "Gate of the Five Nations" features a drawbridge operated by chains, windlasses, and stone counterweights. The British redoubts of 1770 are stone blockhouses with walls 5 feet thick on which cannon are mounted. During the summer months costumed staff play the roles of the British garrison.

Sir William Johnson temporarily assumed command of the British column advancing on Niagara when British General Prideaux was killed in action, and so he had the honor of receiving the surrender of the French post in 1759. During the Revolution, when Johnson's retainers and clansmen from the Mohawk Valley remained loyal to the crown, they used Niagara as their base for bloody raids back into their home territory. The British did not relinquish this post until 1796, thirteen years after the American Revolution ended. In 1813 they recaptured Niagara from the Americans, giving it up after the end of the War of 1812.

The site is now visited by hundreds of thousands annually and has a particular charm for children.

Fort Ontario

Fort Ontario, 1 East Fourth Street, on Lake Ontario at the mouth of Oswego River, opposite the city of Oswego. Phone: (315) 343-4711. The name "Oswego" occurs often in Revolutionary War accounts of fighting on the northwestern frontier. Strategically located on the Great Lakes waterway and at the end of the Mohawk Valley-Wood Creek-Lake Oneida-Oswego River route from the Hudson Valley at Albany, the British fort was the base for Loyalist-Indian raids into New York and the point of departure for St. Leger's abortive invasion of 1777. (See fort stanwix.) In modern Oswego, just across the river from Fort Ontario, is a stone monument marking the site of Fort Oswego, established by the British in 1726 to 1727 as protection for their fur agents. The Pontiac Boulder at West First and Oneida Streets marks the site of Pontiac's submission to Sir William Johnson in July 1765.

Fort Ontario State Historic Site preserves the ramparts of the fort built in 1755 about a quarter of a mile from the Fort Oswego just mentioned. Montcalm destroyed this new fort (1756); the British rebuilt it in 1759 and used it as a base for the capture of Fort Niagara and Montreal. But Oswego continued to be a frontier post. "Old" Walter Butler was Sir William Johnson's representative "at the difficult outpost at Oswego" in the early 1740s and was still there in the early 1750s, his sons being there with him much of the time. (See butlersbury.)

When the Mohawk Valley Loyalists were forced to flee in the summer of 1775, they went to Oswego and there made contact with the British authorities they would serve so well during the Revolution. In 1777 the British abandoned Fort Ontario, and the next year it was partially burned by Continental troops. In 1782 the British reoccupied the post and rebuilt its defenses, holding the fort until forced to leave in 1796 under the terms of the Jay Treaty.

In the War of 1812 the British captured Fort Ontario and demolished it. Work on restoring it was done during the periods 1839 to 1844 and 1863 to 1872, and in 1946 Fort Ontario became a State Historic Site. Most of the buildings a tourist sees there today are from 1839 to 1844, when the existing scarp wall and casements were built. But the ramparts are original. A museum depicts the ups and downs of Fort Ontario and this strategic site. Open 1 May to 31 October, Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Fort Plain (Fort Rensselaer) Site and Museum

Fort Plain (Fort Rensselaer) Site and Museum, village of Fort Plain, 389 Canal Street, Mohawk Valley. A fortification covering half an acre and built around a stone farmhouse in 1776, it was an important Patriot base during the Revolution. A raid by Joseph Brant in 1780 killed sixteen people in the village and took sixty prisoners. General Robert Van Rensselaer operated from Fort Plain later in 1780 while coping unsuccessfully with Sir John Johnson's raiders at Stone Arabia and Fort Klock. Colonel Marinus Willett had his valley headquarters here in 1781 to 1783, when the place was called Fort Rensselaer. From here he conducted some of the final, successful operations of the Revolution. (See sharon springs, johnstown, and west canada creek.)

The Fort Plain site and museum features a reconstructed 1848 limestone Greek Revival house, and has exhibits on local history. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from mid-May to September. For the remaining year, tours are available by appointment. Phone: (518) 993-2527.

Fort Putnam

Fort Putnam. Seewest point military reservation.

Fort St. George

Fort St. George, Long Island, near Mastic Beach just north of Smith's Point Bridge, off William Floyd Parkway. Colonel William ("Tangier") Smith, so called for his early career in the North African city of that name on the Strait of Gibraltar, came to America with his family in 1686. He acquired large holdings patented in 1693 as the Manor of St. George, and "Tangier" Smith subsequently became the first chief justice of New York. Soon after his death at the manor house near the first family burial ground in modern Setauket, a new manor house was built at Mastic.

When the British occupied Long Island in 1776 they fortified the new house by constructing a 90-foot-square earthwork on the higher ground a little over 100 feet to the west and building a stockade that incorporated this work, the manor house, and another structure. Three barracks within this stockade housed the garrison of Fort St. George.

This became an important British base, the earthwork commanding an inlet into Great South Bay (it survives only as the name of a Fire Island community, Old Inlet), and on the land side Fort St. George was a stronghold in a region where the British gathered valuable supplies (see long island).

In a predawn surprise attack on 23 November 1780 the fort fell quickly to a small force of Continental troops led by Major Benjamin Tallmadge. Having crossed the sound from Fairfield, Connecticut two days earlier and been delayed by a severe storm, the raiders destroyed much of the fort, seized a supply vessel, burned forage at Coram as they withdrew to their boats at Mount Sinai, and returned to Fairfield with about two hundred prisoners. Tallmadge's only loss was one man wounded, and he received commendations from Washington and the Congress for his feat.

The Manor of St. George is now a 127-acre public park and museum, after having been in the Smith family for over 260 years. Eugenie Annie Tangier Smith, the last lineal descendant, died in 1954 and is buried near the manor house with many of those who shared her remarkable heritage. The existing house, a large frame structure, was built in 1810. It is the third on this location, and contains some furniture saved from the fire that destroyed its Revolutionary War predecessor. Part of the house is open to visitors. Thousands of original documents were preserved by the Smiths and were not generally available to scholars until after 1954. Among those exhibited in the museum room are a letter written by General Nathaniel Woodhull shortly before his death as a British prisoner, letters from Robert R. Livingston and George Clinton, and two deeds of 1691 signed by Indians.

The trace of the British fort (which may be on the site of one built two years earlier) was clearly revealed after a severe drought in 1957. Archaeologists have learned that grass has a distinctive growth pattern on topsoil that has been disturbed, and an aerial photograph taken in 1957 shows the outline of the fort.

As recently as 1928 one authority on Long Island historic homes was able to write that the Manor of St. George was still in a picturesque area of fields and forests little changed since the Revolution. It is now reduced to the status of a large park hemmed in by real-estate developments. The view over Great South Bay remains virtually unspoiled. Open May through October, Wednesday to Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (631) 475-0327.

Fort Stanwix

Fort Stanwix, in Rome, Oneida County. Here a 1-mile portage between the headwaters of the Mohawk River and Wood Creek made the site strategically important on the natural route between the upper Hudson Valley and the Great Lakes. (See fort ontario.) It also was a frontier post where Iroquois and white leaders held several historic conferences. Starting in 1725 the British kept the site fortified, and in 1758 General John Stanwix built a fort to replace two earlier ones. With the French threat from Canada eliminated in the Seven Years' War, the British fort was abandoned in 1760. Eight years later Sir William Johnson met here with two thousand Indians to negotiate the famous Treaty of Fort Stanwix. In addition to strengthening the British alliance with the Iroquois, Sir William and the Indians agreed to a new boundary that opened vast areas of central New York, western Pennsylvania, and the future states of West Virginia and Kentucky to white settlers. (The earlier Proclamation Line of 1763 is now followed by the Blue Ridge Parkway. See this heading under both north carolina and virginia.)

In June 1776 a detachment of Continental troops under Colonel Elias Dayton started rebuilding the fort. For a while it was called Fort Schuyler, but the older name clung, and the place continued to be known as Fort Stanwix.

In August 1777 Colonel Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812), a native of Albany and only twenty-eight years old at the time, defended Fort Stanwix with an exceptionally able second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett (1740–1830), and 550 troops. The besiegers under British Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger (1737–1789) numbered about 2,000; about half of these were Indians under Joseph Brant, another 350 were British and German regulars, and the rest were Loyalists and Canadian auxiliaries. Among the Loyalist units were Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens and Colonel John Butler's Rangers, most of them natives of the Mohawk Valley.

An American relief column was ambushed 5 miles short of Fort Stanwix at Oriskany and driven back, but this strategic victory for the British turned out to be the doom of St. Leger's operation. His Indian allies had been recruited with the understanding that they would have lots of looting and scalping but little if any serious fighting. Badly decimated at Oriskany, they came back to find that Willett had made a bold sortie with 250 men and systematically cleaned out the undefended camps of the Indians and the Loyalists.

Willett and another officer slipped out of the fort and reported to General Schuyler at Stillwater (about 11 miles below Saratoga) that Fort Stanwix could not hold out much longer without assistance. Benedict Arnold led eight hundred Continentals to the relief of Stanwix, and news of his approach was enough to send St. Leger's Indians packing. The British commander then had to accept the fact that his expedition was a failure and withdraw to Canada. The heroic defense of Fort Stanwix saved the Mohawk Valley from being invaded and contributed to the greater triumph at Saratoga (see saratoga national historical park).

A controversy has raged over whether the first Stars and Stripes flown by ground forces in battle was raised over Fort Stanwix or someplace else. One positive historical gain from this regional controversy is that the Rome Historical Society has been active in bringing about the establishment of the Fort Stanwix National Monument. The National Parks Service reconstructed Fort Stanwix in the center of downtown Rome at the corner of North James Street and Erie Boulevard. The 18-acre site is open every day from April through December and offers an interactive look at eighteenth-century life through a variety of venues. Phone: (315) 336-2090. The Rome Historical Society, located at 200 Church Street, displays exhibits featuring numerous items from the American Revolution, including artifacts from Fort Stanwix. Phone: (315) 336-5870.

Fort Wagner

Fort Wagner, Mohawk Valley, about 150 yards north of N.Y. 5, 5 miles west of its intersection with N.Y. 10 in Palatine Bridge and half a mile east of its junction with Stone Arabia Road (County Road 34). A highway marker at this point identifies the house built in 1750 by Peter Wagner (or Waggoner), Patriot leader and lieutenant colonel of the Palatine Regiment during the Revolution. Privately owned, the original, two-story stone house has a much larger and unattractive frame house built onto its eastern end. The 1750 house, though long empty and neglected, remains reasonably sound structurally, for the time being.

Gardiner's Island

Gardiner's Island, between the eastern forks of Long Island. An anchorage "where even the largest ships can ride out a storm," as Major Baurmeister of the Hessian forces reported to his superior in Hesse-Cassel (Revolution in America, p. 368), Gardiner's Bay and the island are mentioned frequently in naval operations of the Revolution. The place became particularly important for the British when the French fleet was at Newport. Robert David Lion Gardiner, sixteenth "lord of the manor" of Gardiner's Island, successfully fought efforts to turn it into a national monument; he died in 2004. Today the 3,300-acre island remains private and is an important breeding ground of the osprey, an endangered species. Currently the family is divided between holding on to the island or deeding it to the Nature Conservancy or the federal government. Lion Gardiner, first owner of the manor, established in 1639, lies in the Old Burying Ground, East Hampton, Long Island.

German Flats

German Flats, Mohawk Valley. This designation is usually applied to the entire 10-mile stretch of Palatine settlements that extended, generally on the south side of the Mohawk, to the place now called Herkimer. The latter was the site of Fort Herkimer, erected in the early part of the Seven Years' War and rebuilt in 1776 to 1777 as Fort Dayton. (Two miles to the east was the Fort Herkimer Church of the Revolution.) Some old maps limit the name German Flats (spelled "Flatts" in the original documents) to the spot that is now Herkimer.

The principal reason for encouraging the settlement of Palatines in this region was to provide a buffer against the Iroquois west of the more heavily populated, eastern portion of the Mohawk Valley. German Flats consequently got more than its share of attention from the Indians and Loyalists during the Revolution. The most devastating raid came in September 1778 (authorities disagree as to the precise day), when Joseph Brant and Captain William Caldwell moved against the settlements from Unadilla with 450 Indians and Loyalists. Lieutenant Adam F. Helmer was the sole survivor of a four-man reconnaissance patrol sent out to watch for the expected raid.

A highway marker on N.Y. Route 5S just west of the Shoemaker House indicates where Helmer entered the valley to spread the warning, and a plaque on a boulder at Fort Herkimer Church commemorates this hero. (Walter D. Edmonds has immortalized this American marathon in the novel Drums Along the Mohawk.) The settlers had time to gather for protection at Fort Dayton and Fort Herkimer Church. The raiders spared women and children and killed only three men, but inflicted tremendous property damage. Colonel Peter Bellinger said in his report that 63 homes, 57 barns, and 4 mills were burned by the enemy and more than 700 head of livestock captured.

German Flats was raided again in the fall of 1780 when Sir John Johnson withdrew up the valley from his operations in the Schoharie Valley. Small bands of Indians destroyed property in the settlement in early 1781. On 6 August 1781 the settlement of Shell's Bush, 5 miles north of Fort Dayton, was surprised by sixty Indians and Loyalists under Donald McDonald. Most of the Patriots, who had been working in the fields, ran for Fort Dayton, but John Christian Shell (or Schell) made it to his blockhouse with his wife and six sons. They suffered no casualties in successfully defending their position against a determined enemy attack, and McDonald was dragged inside and taken prisoner as he tried to force the door with a crowbar.

Glen-Sanders House

Glen-Sanders House (Glen Sanders Mansion, Scotia Mansion), just across the Mohawk River from the Schenectady Stockade in Scotia, on N.Y. 5. Erected in 1713 using stone and other material from a house built in 1658 nearer the river, this large historic structure has recently been restored after having been vacant for many years. Its furnishings were moved long ago to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. The historic mansion was originally the home of Alexander Glen, a Scot who bought land here in 1655 and became the first permanent white settler in the Mohawk Valley. Because of Glen's enlightened policies toward the Indians, his house was spared by French and Indian raiders. Scotia was the name Glen gave the settlement in the seventeenth century, and it survives as the name of this suburb of Schenectady.

The Glen Sanders Mansion, as it is now called, has had several additions to the original structure and is an upscale restaurant inn. It is plainly visible at the western end of the Great Western Gateway Bridge at 1 Glen Avenue. Phone: (518) 374-7262.

Groveland Ambush

Groveland Ambush. Seesullivan-clinton expedition.

Guy Park

Guy Park, at Lock 11 of the Mohawk River on Route 5W at Evelyn Street in Amsterdam (Fort Johnson). The best landmark to watch for here is the lock of the state barge canal. Sir William Johnson built a frame house here in 1766 for his daughter Mary and her husband, Guy Johnson, a nephew of Sir William. This burned in 1774, and the central section of the present stone house was built that same year. Guy succeeded his father-in-law as superintendent of Indian affairs on Sir William's death in July 1774, and exactly a year later fled to Canada with about two hundred Rangers and some Indians; he lived in Guy Park only five months. Colonel Guy Johnson was successful in winning all but two tribes of the Iroquois, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, entirely to the British side at the outbreak of the Revolution. He has been described as "a short, pursy man, of stern countenance and haughty demeanor." Much more the politician than the field soldier, he spent almost two years with the British army around New York City and then operated from Niagara without personally accompanying any of the raiding parties sent out from there. (He was not at the Battle of Newtown [see newtown battlefield state park], as some authorities have said.) In March 1782 he was succeeded by Sir John Johnson as superintendent general and inspector general of the Six Nations. After the war he went to England, where he died at about forty-eight years of age.

Guy Park lost much of its Georgian character in 1848 when the roof and cornice were reconstructed, and most of the interior woodwork dates probably from this remodeling. Ten years later the massive central section was given two-story wings, and Guy Park does not meet the criteria for selection as a National Historic Landmark. It is, however, a state-owned historic site, and it houses the current office of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. It is open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Phone: (518) 842-8200.

A highway marker on N.Y. 5 just west of Guy Park says that the Daniel Claus House was nearby. (Its site is about a mile west of Guy Park.) Claus was the other son-in-law of Sir William. He and Ann lived in the stone house on the bank of the Mohawk that had been Sir William's home during the years 1742 to 1749; they called the place Williamsburg during their occupancy. (This structure survived in ruins until the 1920s; no trace now remains.)

Haynes (Lemuel) House

Haynes (Lemuel) House, South Granville. Home of one of the most prominent African Americans of the early republic, this house is on the National Register of Historic Places. Haynes, born in 1753 to a black father and white mother, was indentured as a servant until the age of twenty-one. Demonstrating a precocious intelligence, Haynes became a popular lay sermonizer while still a teenager. He served in the Massachusetts militia during the Revolution, seeing action during the siege of Boston. Near the end of the Revolution he was called to the Middle Granville Congregational Church, becoming probably the first black minister of a predominately white congregation in the United States. In 1785 he became the first known ordained African American minister when the Congregational Church recognized his calling. He served mostly white congregations for the next forty years in Connecticut and Vermont, becoming a well-known poet, abolitionist, and Federalist. In 1822 he moved to South Granville and served as minister of the Congregational Church there until his death in 1833. The house is still a private residence, but visitors are welcome to drive by Parker Hill Road off of N.Y. 149; the Haynes House is the second on the right.

Herkimer

Herkimer, Mohawk Valley. Seefort dayton site.

Herkimer Home

Herkimer Home, 200 State Route 169, Little Falls, Mohawk Valley on N.Y. 5S, 3 miles east of Little Falls between Thruway Exits 29 and 30. Descriptive literature and photographs cannot do justice to this site. Should you come into great wealth and want to build a family mansion, by all means see this one before you get too far along with your plans.

Nicholas Herkimer (1728–1777) was to the Patriot element of the Mohawk Valley what Sir William Johnson's heirs were to the Loyalists. He was born near the present town of Herkimer a few years after his family came to America from the Rhenish Palatinate of modern Germany. By the start of the Revolution he had become the most successful landowner in the Mohawk Valley. The term "farmer-trader" is sometimes used to describe his occupation. Perhaps this is as close as modern Americans can come in tagging Herkimer, but he personally did little farming, and "trader" hardly connotes the large scope of his entrepreneurial activities.

When the Revolution came to the Mohawk Valley and the Johnsons and Butlers took refuge in Canada, Nicholas Herkimer emerged as the most powerful figure in the Whig leadership. His support naturally was strongest among the Palatines in German Flats. In July 1777, as general of the local militia, Herkimer led about four hundred troops to Unadilla for a conference with former neighbor Joseph Brant (see indian castle church). This chief of the Mohawks had temporarily fallen out with Guy Johnson, Sir William's successor as superintendent of Indian affairs, and was in a mood to bargain with the Patriots. But the conference failed, and only Herkimer's cool handling of the situation kept it from degenerating into a battle.

Later in the year, when he led the militia to the relief of Fort Stanwix, General Herkimer's better judgment was shaken by the dissension of impetuous subordinates. His patriotism as well as his martial ardor assailed by these lesser men, Herkimer put himself at the head of the column and marched into a skillfully planned ambuscade. Then, despite a shattered thigh, he personally directed the defensive battle that eventually saved his force from total annihilation at Oriskany. Eleven days later, after an ineptly performed amputation, he called for the family Bible, read to his assembled family in a clear voice, and died. He is buried in the family cemetery adjoining the home.

There is no other mansion in the Mohawk Valley that so typifies the Germanic style as does this structure. The wide central hall of the two-story brick house is typical of the colonial architecture one finds in all regions. Also typical are the two rooms on one side of this hall. But the German influence is seen on the other side of the central hall, upstairs as well as downstairs, where instead of the expected two rooms are single rooms running the depth of the house. Centered in the outside wall is a large fireplace, built shallow to reflect the maximum heat. The great hall on the ground floor was what we might tritely call the family room today, and the corresponding chamber upstairs was the guest room. The inside dimensions of this room, if one allows for the 2-foot thickness of the outer walls, are about 36 by 23 feet.

Native pine paneling in this house gives a mellow feeling that is lacking in the more elegant colonial mansions of the Georgian style. Dragon's blood stain on the upper floor paneling is as vivid as when it was applied more than two centuries ago.

General Herkimer built this house in 1764 on land given to him by his father, but it did not remain in the family long after his death. The Erie Canal was dug through the backyard of the house, and one owner converted the house into a tavern. Partitions were slapped up to make three rooms out of those great chambers, plaster was smeared on the paneling, and all sorts of other disfigurations were made in the name of commercial enterprise. Then a railroad was put through the backyard, and the tavern keeper went out of business. Now the canal has been filled in and the tracks are silent. The New York State Historic Trust has restored the Herkimer Home and developed the 160-acre tract that surrounds it.

The site is open mid-May through October, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Phone: (315) 823-0398.

(Central N.Y. State Parks Commission, Clark Reservation, Jamesville, N.Y. 13078.)

Hinckley Reservoir

Hinckley Reservoir. Seewest canada creek.

Huguenot Street Historic District

Huguenot Street Historic District, New Paltz, Ulster County, near Thruway between Newburgh and Kingston. Eight stone houses dating from the early eighteenth century preserve the spirit of this unique settlement of plain folk. Each one of the buildings, including the Jean Hasbrouck House, built in 1712, is owned by the Huguenot Historical Society, formerly the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society. All of them are included in the Huguenot Historical Society's guided tour, which is available to the public May through October, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on every day except Monday. Access inside the houses is available only through the tours. For information, contact the Huguenot Street Historic District, P.O. Box 339, 18 Broadhead Avenue, New Paltz, N.Y. 12561. Phone: (845) 255-1660. The tour begins at the Dubois Fort at Huguenot Street, now the tour's visitors center.

Hurley

Hurley, U.S. 209 about 4 miles southwest of Kingston. This three-century-old village of almost uniform limestone Dutch houses was the state capital from 18 November to 17 December 1777. The Van Deusen House (1723), in the center of the village, was used by the legislators during this period.

Most of the ten original houses on the main street, all but one privately owned, are open to the public on Stone House Day, held since 1951 on the second Saturday in July. Of special note is the Dumond House, "Spy House" (c. 1685), employed by General Clinton to house prisoners. However, the tour does not allow access through the basement door leading into the actual prison—a deep and inescapable cellar. Hurley is a National Historic District.

Indian Castle Church

Indian Castle Church, Mohawk Valley, on N.Y. 5S about 8 miles west of Fort Plain and roughly the same distance east of Little Falls. On a grassy knoll just south of a particularly scenic stretch of Route 5S sits the simple, white frame mission church built in 1769. Behind it, on slightly higher ground and also visible from the highway, are the graves of many Mohawks and several early white settlers.

The church is on the site of Upper Castle, largest of the last three Castles of the Mohawk Indians and home of Sir William Johnson's principal Indian ally, King Hendrick, uncle of Joseph and Molly Brant. Legend has it that Molly started her liaison with Sir William here, but this is not documented. It is known, however, that she returned to the village after his death in 1774. In August 1777 Molly sent her brother Joseph the intelligence that brought about the Battle of Oriskany. A month later she fled to Canada.

Joseph Brant contributed the land and Sir William put up the money for the church. The entire bill of materials is carefully itemized in the published papers of Sir William. In addition to the timber, stone, nails, paint, plastering, miscellaneous hardware, and a church bell, 80 gallons of rum were budgeted for the project. But the early-American programmers proved to be as fallible as their counterparts today, and an additional 10 gallons and 3 quarts of rum had to be furnished before the job was completed (Sir William Johnson Papers, VII, pp. 666-668).

Indian Castle Church is the only surviving structure of the Mohawk Castles. It has been much altered, the present belfry replacing a smaller one and the interior being completely changed. But Joseph and Molly Brant would recognize it today, and the site retains much of its rustic charm. The Indian Castle Church Restoration and Preservation Society owns and maintains the structure and grounds. Phone: (315) 823-2099.

Iroquois Indian Museum

Iroquois Indian Museum, Howes Cave. The main building of this museum devoted to the history and culture of the Iroquois is built in the shape of the traditional longhouse. The Iroquois played a vital role in the American Revolution, dividing between the majority who sided with the British and those who preferred to remain neutral or take the Patriot side. The collection, while devoted to representing all members of the confederation, is strongest on the Mohawk. Located at 324 Caverns Road just north of N.Y. 7. Take the Central Bridge Exit off I-88. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Phone: (518) 296-8949.

Jerseyfield

Jerseyfield. Seewest canada creek.

John Jay Homestead State Historic Site

John Jay Homestead State Historic Site, Westchester County, on N.Y. 22 between Bedford and Katonah. The large clapboard house, brick cottage, and other outbuildings are preserved here in a beautiful setting of ancient trees essentially as John Jay knew them. Until the 1950s the homestead was occupied by Jay's descendants. Bought by the county in 1958 and deeded to the state, the property has been open to the public since 1964.

John Jay (1745–1829) started his public career in the Continental Congress and ended it as two-term governor of New York. In the interim he was principal author of his state's first constitution, author of several of the Federalist Papers, first chief justice of the United States, and negotiator of the controversial treaty of 1794 known by his name.

Many of the furnishings in the Jay House are original. There is an outstanding collection of eighteenth-century paintings and a display of historical documents. The site's grounds are open all year round and the house is open from April through November, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Phone: (914) 232-5651.

Johnson Hall

Johnson Hall. Seejohnstown.

Johnstown

Johnstown, Fulton County, Mohawk Valley. Established in 1760 by Sir William Johnson (1715–1774) as the capital of his vast frontier domain, Johnstown has many important landmarks of the colonial and Revolutionary era.

William Johnson, first baronet of New York, reached the Mohawk Valley in 1737 at the age of twenty-two to manage the estate of his uncle. He quickly revealed talents that made him an outstanding frontier leader. In 1755 all five of the colonies sending troops to northern New York for the expedition against Crown Point commissioned him a major general. At Lake George he defeated a force of French professionals and Indians and was made a hereditary baronet of the British Empire. General Sir William Johnson succeeded to command of the expedition that took Fort Niagara in 1759, and the next year aided Amherst in taking Montreal. As superintendent of Indian affairs north of the Ohio and colonel of the Six Nations, he kept the Iroquois from joining Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, and negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768.

For about the last ten years of his life Sir William was in ill health, and in 1774 he died suddenly at Johnson Hall a few hours after making a long address at an Indian council there. Only fifty-nine years old at this time, he left three children from his union in 1739 with a seventeen-year-old indentured servant named Catharine Weisenburg. These children—Ann, John, and Mary—were baptized in their mother's name. But Sir William refers to her in his will as "my beloved wife," a wedding ring engraved with the date "1739 June 26" was found in his grave, and the College of Heralds—which is quite particular in matters of legitimacy—recognized his son John's title as second baronet of New York.

Sir William had eight children by the first of his two "Indian wives" who moved into Johnson Hall after Catharine's death, and in maintaining the intimate relations with the Iroquois for which his services to the crown were so valuable, he undoubtedly sired others. But when his reputation as a "squaw man" became bruited about the coffeehouses of London and prompted an official inquiry, he replied simply that the rumors of his numerous progeny had been grossly exaggerated. (The first "housekeeper" was the famous Mary, or "Molly," Brant, sister of the noted Mohawk Joseph Brant.)

Although Sir William had been dead a year when the American Revolution came to the Mohawk Valley, his dynasty remained a strong Loyalist force. His son had inherited the title and the wealth. His two daughters had married Sir William's principal lieutenants, kinsman Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus. The two Indian mistresses were nieces of Chief Hendrick of the Mohawks, a circumstance which gave the Johnsons "dynastic" ties with the Iroquois. Hundreds of Highland Scots brought to settle Sir William's domain were a further source of Loyalist support.

In the summer of 1775 the principal Loyalists of the valley left for Canada to join the British and organize themselves to reestablish loyal government along the Mohawk by force of arms. Sir John Johnson (1742–1830) had to stay behind temporarily. For one thing, his wife was expecting a baby. Also, Sir John had duties to perform as a judge and as major general of the militia. When the Patriots learned that he was in correspondence with Royal Governor Tryon and was arming his retainers, they marched to Johnson Hall (January 1776) for a showdown. General Philip Schuyler forced Johnson to disband his personal army, to give up three Highlanders as hostages, and to put himself on parole to await orders from Congress. About four months later, after his life had been threatened, Johnson buried his family silver in the cellar of Johnson Hall, his papers in another place, and fled with 170 of his tenants to Montreal, abandoning his wife and the hostages.

The first and greatest battle between the Loyalist exiles and their Mohawk Valley kinsmen and former neighbors was at Oriskany in August 1777. The next spring Sir John led a raid that took the Johnstown settlements by surprise. With four hundred Loyalist Rangers and two hundred Indians under Joseph Brant he had sailed up Lake Champlain to Crown Point, had gone up Lake George, and then had marched overland to continue up the Sacandaga River (now a great reservoir). Killing, burning, taking prisoners, and evacuating families of his Loyalist officers, Johnson destroyed much of Johnstown, and Brant's Indians raided as far south as the Mohawk. After five days, and without meeting the expected Patriot attack, Johnson retraced his steps to Crown Point.

On this first raid Sir John recovered his papers and silver, forty-two pieces of the latter being entrusted to as many of his soldiers and all arriving safely. All but four pieces of the Johnson silver were later put aboard a ship for England and lost in a storm. Sir Colpoys Johnson, the eighth baronet of New York, has a small bowl and salver from this salvaged collection. Sir John's recovered papers had been ruined by dampness.

In the fall of 1780 Johnson and Brant joined forces at Unadilla to ravage the Schoharie Valley. They descended to Fort Hunter and laid waste settlements on both sides of the Mohawk as far up as Fort Plain before the Patriots were able to muster any effective resistance. On 19 October there was fighting in Stone Arabia and near Fort Klock. The raiders then withdrew safely westward to Onondaga Lake (at modern Syracuse) and continued to the site of Fort Ontario.

The Battle of Johnstown was fought on 25 October 1781. Joseph Brant had been ravaging the upper Mohawk since the early part of that year, and in October a force of 570 Loyalists and 130 Indians under Major John Ross had raided to within 12 miles of Schenectady without meeting any real resistance. Sir John was supposed to invade the valley from the direction of Crown Point, but Ross decided to withdraw to Johnstown when this support did not materialize. Colonel Marinus Willett commanded the militia that followed Ross. The weather had been bad for several days, and troops on both sides were tired and wet when the battle started about midafternoon on a dark and gloomy day. The British line was formed generally along the present Johnson Avenue, near Johnson Hall. The Patriots attacked from the southeast, their base being the fortified jail that still stands on South Perry Street. In the early phase of the battle, Patriot militia broke under the attack of Ross's Indians, some seventeen being killed as they tried to escape across Cayadutta Creek near Johnson Hall, and others not stopping until they reached the safety of Old St. John's Church and Fort Johnstown (the stockaded jail). The enemy line then stood fast against an attempt by a reinforcement of one hundred Massachusetts levies to envelop it from the hill about 500 yards to the northeast of Johnson Hall. Ross then maneuvered to counterattack, capturing a small cannon and stripping its ammunition before it could be retaken, and probably would have annihilated the Patriot force if darkness had not fallen early that day.

Foolish claims have been made that the Revolution already was over because Cornwallis had surrendered a few days earlier at Yorktown and that the Battle of Johnstown was fought only because the news had not arrived there. Although there were no more major military operations, the Revolution lasted for two more years.

Today's visitor to Revolutionary War sites in the Mohawk Valley will find historic Johnstown a good place to establish a base for several days. The glove factories, textile mills, and other modern commercial enterprises have made Johnstown and adjoining Gloversville an unattractive specimen of urban development, but the informed sightseer will find more here than he can properly appreciate in a short visit. The following attractions, starting with one of our most important and interesting national landmarks, are all within walking distance in today's Johnstown.

Johnson Hall State Historical Site. On Johnson Avenue just north of its junction with West State Street (N.Y. 29). Completely restored and authentically furnished by state authorities, this white frame mansion stands in a wooded park of some 19 acres. Guided tours are provided May through October. Phone: (518) 762-8712.

Giving nearby Fort Johnson to his son, Sir William built Johnson Hall in 1763. The two-story structure of Georgian Colonial style has a full basement, where the kitchen is located, and an attic. Wooden blocks grooved to simulate stone are used for the siding, as in the central section of Mount Vernon. Samuel Fuller, builder of several other well-known landmarks in the Mohawk Valley, gave Johnson Hall particularly handsome architectural touches in its rooflines, heavy dentiled cornices under the eaves (those added over the windows have, fortunately, been removed), and in the finely detailed little entrance porch.

The floor plan follows the tradition of large central halls upstairs and down, with two rooms on each side. Sir William's study, where he died, is at the head of the cellar stairs on the ground floor, and above it is "Molly Brant's Room." The gigantic upper hall is reproduced in a delightful animated model in the basement museum depicting "a musical evening at Johnson Hall in 1772." With taped music of the period and narrative, the visitor sees Sir William and an assortment of guests playing various instruments as the "faithful housekeeper" Molly Brant sits surrounded by young children. At one point a door opens slightly and briefly to reveal the grinning faces of children in their nightclothes.

The two stone blockhouses were built in 1764 not only for defense but also to provide additional quarters, storage space, office, and study. Only one is original, and it was connected by a narrow underground passageway to the basement. In 1855 this tunnel had to be filled in because it was a safety hazard.

A scale model of the entire complex of buildings around Johnson Hall in Sir William's day is among the exhibits in the blockhouse. A large council house (30 by 100 feet) stood about 300 yards west-southwest of the mansion. The much-reproduced painting by E. L. Henry in 1903 of an Indian council being held between the blockhouses on the back steps of Johnson Hall is wrong in this last detail (although accurate in architectural matters). The painter also has western Indians in his picture, not Sir William's Iroquois.

Lost Grave of Sir William Johnson. A large stone behind new St. John's Church in the center of Johnstown marks the rediscovered grave of the city's founder. He had built St. John's on this site in 1772, and two years later his body was laid to rest beneath the chancel floor. In 1836 the old church burned, and in 1840 the new St. John's was built in a slightly different location. The grave was rediscovered by accident (this same year, 1840), somebody having noticed that dirt kicked into a small hole in the surface of the ground here disappeared into a cavity below. The local Masonic lodge, which Sir William had founded, recovered the remains and reburied them in 1866.

One item of particular historic interest came to light at this time: on Sir William's finger was a wedding ring engraved with the date "1739 June 26." It was a woman's ring enlarged to fit his finger, and the date is that of his union with Catharine Weisenburg. This ring disappeared in 1964, was rediscovered in 1971 (in a Bennington, Vermont, warehouse), and is now exhibited in the cellar museum of Johnson Hall. The search continues for Catharine's grave and her marriage license.

Another item found in Sir William's grave was the lead ball carried in his left hip from his victory at Lake George. It is privately owned and not on exhibit.

Tryon County Courthouse. In the center of the city (West Main between Melcher and William Streets) is the colonial courthouse built in 1772 and still in use. Johnstown became a county seat in this year, and until then the village had comprised only about a dozen houses located a mile away from Johnson Hall. The opening of the first term of court was announced by ringing an improvised device in the cupola that has never been replaced: a large bar of iron bent to form a triangle. The courthouse is a low structure of brick with an interesting cupola. Except for one four-year period, it has been in constant use as a courthouse. Among those said to have argued cases there are Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, but this is not documented.

Other Historic Sites. The Colonial Cemetery on West Green Street contains the graves of Revolutionary War veterans. Fort Johnstown, now the county jail, was built by Sir William in 1772 and fortified by a stockade and two blockhouses; Washington inspected it in 1783. Burke's Tavern, at West Montgomery and South William Streets, was moved to this location in 1788 and is used by the DAR for meetings; it is almost a duplicate of the Miller House in White Plains. The site of Johnson's Free School (1764) is on West Main Street between Market and William Streets. The Drumm House at the intersection of State, William, and Green Streets, near the Colonial Cemetery, is erroneously identified by a state marker as dating from 1763 and being the home of schoolmaster Edward Wall (or Wahl). On this lot was a small frame building used as a church before Old St. John's was built (1772). An official map of 1784 shows an empty lot here, and the Drumm House, moved onto the lot in 1840, has no historical significance other than as an illustration of mythmaking.

St. Patrick's Lodge, No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons, now housed in the Masonic Temple built in 1925 on Perry between East Main and East Green Streets, was founded by Sir William in 1766. The silver jewelry insignia of the officers, furnished by Sir William, are still in the possession of the lodge; those taken away by Sir John when he fled to Canada in 1776 were returned after his death in 1830.

For further information on guided and self-guided tours of Johnstown, contact the following: Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce, phone: (518) 725-0641; Bob Gould, phone: (518) 762-8309; the Johnstown Historical Society, 17 North William Street, phone: (518) 762-7076. Internet users should go to: www.johnstown.com.

Jones (Judge Thomas) House Site

Jones (Judge Thomas) House Site, Massapequa, Long Island. See under bridgeport, connecticut.

Kings Ferry

Kings Ferry. Crossing the Hudson River between Stony Point and Verplanck's Point, this ferry was of great strategic importance to the Patriots: with the British in control of New York City during most of the war, this was the southernmost crossing of the Hudson that could be safely used. The armies of Washington and Rochambeau used Kings Ferry in August 1781 in their march to Yorktown. No structures have been preserved, but a good view of the site is provided at Stony Point.

Kingston

Kingston. Here at the principal rendezvous of the Esopus Indians, a fort was established by Dutch traders in 1615. Settlers from Albany arrived in 1653 to live near the protection of Fort Esopus, and in 1661 their village was chartered as Wiltwyck. The present name was bestowed in 1669 by the English governor in honor of his family home in Berkshire. Having had serious Indian troubles from the start, Kingston was a particular target of Indian and Loyalist raids in the early years of the Revolution because it was a center of Patriot sentiment in a region where Loyalism was strong. On the other hand, Kingston became notorious as a Loyalist prison.

During the period 19 February to 7 October 1777 the New York provincial government met at Kingston, having fled ahead of the British invaders from Manhattan to White Plains to Fishkill. At Kingston the first state constitution, primarily the work of John Jay, was adopted and the first state officials took office. General George Clinton was inaugurated as governor in the courthouse on whose site the present Ulster County Courthouse was built in 1818, and he is buried with other Revolutionary War veterans in the graveyard adjoining the Dutch Reformed Church.

The Senate House, at Clinton Avenue and North Front Street, is the important historic landmark in Kingston. It is a one-story house of rock-cut limestone with a rear wall of Holland brick, built about 1676 by Colonel Wessel Ten Broeck. Around 1751 it was acquired by Abraham Van Gaasbeek, who made the south room available to the newly elected state senate. Reconstructed after the British raid on 16 October 1777 (see below), the house continued to be a residence until acquired by the state in 1887 from the Ten Broeck family. Now open year-round to the public from April through October (Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.), it is furnished with items of the colonial period that belonged to early settlers in the region. The adjoining museum (built in 1927) is devoted to regional history and features the paintings of Kingston's John Vanderlyn (1775–1852). Phone: (845) 338-2786.

The British sailed up the Hudson after defeating George Clinton in the vicinity of Bear Mountain, and on 16 October 1777 burned almost every building in Kingston. The government fled to nearby Marbletown and then to Hurley, but the Council of Safety had been meeting in the Conrad Elmendorf Tavern, which survives at 88 Maiden Lane as a privately owned structure. The only house to be entirely spared by the British, the Van Steenbergh House, has survived at Wall Street facing Franklin Street, and is also a private home. The Hoffman House, at 94 North Front and Green Street, was owned by the Hoffman family from about 1707 to the beginning of this century. It has been an upscale restaurant since 1976 and is open for lunch and dinner; phone: (845) 338-2626.

Klock's Field

Klock's Field, Battle of. Seefort klock.

Knickerbocker Mansion

Knickerbocker Mansion, Rensselaer County, near Schaghticoke. Important in the development of New York as a colony and said (on very doubtful authority) to be the inspiration of many tales by Washington Irving, this site is presently undergoing renovation by the Knickerbocker Historical Society. At the base of a low ridge and about 3 miles off the main highway in a rural setting of rich bottomland, the place has the makings of an exceptionally attractive American landmark. On the grounds is the site of the Tree of Peace planted by Governor Andros in 1676 after a treaty had been made to strengthen the alliance between the River Indians and the Fort Albany militia. Colonel Johannes Knickerbocker arrived here in 1709, built a log cabin, and took command of the fort about a mile away that served as an important patrol base. (It was headquarters for scouts who covered the approaches from Ticonderoga.)

The existing two-story brick house was completed by 1770. A spacious structure with a full basement and attic, its walls have settled in one corner and shoddy work has been done in pointing up the rear wall.

Southwest of Schaghticoke on N.Y. Route 40, 1.6 miles from the junction of N.Y. 40 and 67, a tourist takes Knickerbocker Road westward 2.6 miles and goes north 0.6 mile to the site. The mansion is visible from a great distance as one approaches on an excellent highway through picturesque country. The Knickerbocker Historical Society can be reached by mail at Box 29, Schaghticoke N.Y. 12154; email: [email protected].

Knox Headquarters (John Ellison House)

Knox Headquarters (John Ellison House), near Vails Gate, 4 miles south of Newburgh on N.Y. Route 94 at Thruway Exit 17. The main two-story stone house was added in 1782 to the single-story frame wing whose original portion dates from 1734. Henry Knox used the house as his headquarters for various periods between the summer of 1779 and the fall of 1782, as did Nathanael Greene and Steuben. Horatio Gates lived here while the army was in the nearby New Windsor Cantonment, and the house was a social center during those months. The "lively and meddlesome but amiable" wife of the gargantuan General Knox lived with him here at one time and enhanced his local reputation as a host.

Well restored and furnished, the house has notable fireplaces, mantels, and woodwork. There is a curious stairway to the attic that will enchant children. State property since 1922, it is open Memorial Day through Labor Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Phone: (845) 561-5498.

Lake George

Lake George. This narrow, 32-mile-long body of water was a link in the chain of river, lake, and portage connections between the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, and it consequently figured prominently in the Colonial Wars and the Revolution. The short portage to the north into Lake Champlain was dominated by Ticonderoga. From the southern end of the lake, now Lake George Village, the Great Carrying Place extended over about 10 miles to Fort Edward on the Hudson River.

In December 1775 the "Noble Train of Artillery" started south from Ticonderoga along Lake George on its 300-mile trip to the Boston lines. In 1777 Burgoyne made the serious mistake of not using Lake George as the route for his entire invasion force. Instead he sent only his heavy artillery and supplies along the lake, and moved the rest of his expedition from Whitehall (then Skenesboro) along Wood Creek to Fort Edward. The distance was only 22 miles, but the Patriots so obstructed his way that he took twenty days to make the trip.

Two months later the Americans attacked Burgoyne's overextended line of communications. Colonel John Brown had some success in a surprise attack on Ticonderoga; then he moved south on Lake George in captured boats to surprise the British post at Diamond Island. Unfavorable winds slowed his advance, a paroled Loyalist warned the enemy of his approach, and Brown lacked the artillery firepower to attack the British breastworks, so he withdrew after a short bombardment of the island. Located south of Diamond Point and about 3 miles above Lake George Village, Diamond Island is now owned by the state and has a large stone monument dedicated to the armies that passed by between 1666 and 1777.

The Lake George Association was organized in 1885 to protect the lake's natural state, and what Thomas Jefferson called "the most beautiful body of water I ever saw" remains remarkably unspoiled. Of the 155 islands, 48 are state-owned. Lake George Association phone: (518) 668-3558. Lake Shore Drive (N.Y. Route 9N) is a 40-mile scenic route to Ticonderoga.

Lake George Village

Lake George Village and vicinity, U.S. 9 and I-87. Just south of Lake George Village (southern tip of the lake) are state parks that include important sites associated more with the Colonial Wars than with the Revolution. In September 1755 William Johnson won his baronetcy (becoming Sir William) by defeating French baron Dieskau. Two days after winning this Battle of Lake George Johnson established Fort William Henry a short distance away to control the portage between the lake and the Hudson River. In March 1757 the new fort easily beat off a French attack, but five months later the garrison surrendered after holding out for almost a week against a well-organized and much larger force under Montcalm. Many hundreds of the Americans were massacred when Montcalm's Indians got out of control and violated the French leader's honorable surrender terms.

The Fort William Henry Corporation (phone: [518] 668-3081), formed in 1953, has reconstructed the fort. A museum displays objects found in archaeological investigations, and there are exhibits with taped explanations. Guided tours, military drills, musket and cannon firing, bullet molding, and the hourly showing of a thirty-minute film, Last of the Mohicans, are among the daily attractions during the summer season. (Fort William Henry and the massacre figure prominently in James Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans.) The fort is open May through October, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; phone: (518) 668-5471.

Ruins of Fort George (1759) are in the Lake George Battlefield Park, about half a mile south of Fort William Henry and easy to locate. The site of Fort Gage is more difficult to find. It figures in literature of the Seven Years' War (young General Lord George Howe was there just before his death), it is plotted on the U.S. Geological Survey map of the region (Glens Falls quadrangle, 1:62,500), and it is identified in the WPA Guide as "Fort Gage Park." But the fort was never more than a fieldwork and was only very briefly occupied, and now there is nothing to find in the ground and not much more to see. The location is the sandy hill behind cabin number 7 of the Fort Gage Motel, just west of U.S. 9 at its junction with U.S. 9N (0.9 mile south of the entrance to Fort William Henry). Within living memory it has never been part of a park.

Bloody Pond is alongside U.S. 9 on the east, just 1.4 miles south of the Fort Gage site (junction of U.S. 9N) and about 3 miles south of the village of Lake George. It is 0.4 mile past Bloody Pond Road (do not be diverted by this promising name). There is a marker noting the pond's name with the date 1755 listed on it. The pond fills to an impressive size—about an acre—during the rainy season, but much of the time it is a stagnant puddle. Digging during a drought failed to reveal evidence that it had been filled with the bodies of men killed in the "Bloody Morning Scout" (see below).

Slightly more than a mile farther south on U.S. 9 is the grave of Colonel Ephraim Williams, just west of the highway. He and the elderly Chief Hendrick were killed in an ambuscade near this point the morning of Johnson's victory at Lake George. His will, made shortly before he led his regiment to join Johnson, left his property to a township on condition that its name be changed to Williamstown and a free school be established. The latter (in 1793) became Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

One of the handsome bronze markers indicating the route of Knox's "Noble Train of Artillery" from Ticonderoga to the Boston area is west of the highway, about midway between Bloody Pond and Williams's grave.

See lake george for other related sites.

Livingston Manor

Livingston Manor. Seeclermont.

Long Island

Long Island. The western end of the 120-mile-long island settled in 1636 by Dutch farmers is part of New York City, and the Revolutionary War sites in Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens boroughs are listed under the former heading.

The British controlled the entire island after their victory on 27 August 1776 over the Patriot army in what is known generally as the Battle of Long Island but should perhaps be called the Battle of Brooklyn. Long Island was an important source of supplies for the British—cattle, vegetables, hay, salt, and firewood—and the numerous windmills (several of which survive) were commandeered for grinding grain and pumping water. The island was also an important base for amphibious raids across Long Island Sound into Connecticut and for naval operations (see gardiner's island). Active Patriot operations on the island, "whaleboat warfare" in the Sound, dramatic intelligence work centered around Raynham Hall, and the highly successful Patriot raids to Fort St. George and Sag Harbor are remembered today by the physical remains at many historic landmarks.

The cultural and architectural treasures of Long Island deserve special notice. Many are in a remarkably fine state of preservation; others are disappearing as these words are written. The region is unusual also in that its historic and preservationist organizations have been especially effective. The Long Island Historical Society (in Brooklyn; see under new york city) and Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (in Setauket; see end of this section) have long been venerated by Americans with a serious interest in our heritage. Because up-to-date information on historic sites on Long Island is available from these organizations, the author will here identify only the major landmarks.

The town of Southold covers most of the north fork at the top of Long Island. As the earliest settled portion of the island it is rich in structures of great architectural importance, although many are badly neglected. At the far tip of the island (and a longer drive than it might appear) is Orient Point. Conspicuous near the ferry slip is the great ghost of the Orient Point Inn, used by British troops during the Revolution and (expanded and raised to four stories) as a famous hotel until 1967. Gardiner's Island and Bay may be seen from this area. The ferry trip from Orient Point to New London, Connecticut can be enjoyable and historically profitable in conveying an impression of what Long Island Sound might have been like in the days of "whaleboat warfare" and British raids along the Connecticut coast. For a schedule, contact the Cross Sound Ferry Service. Phone: (631) 323-2525; website: www.longislandferry.com.

The Old House at Cutchogue (1649) has no Revolutionary War associations, but as its National Historic Landmark citation states, it is "one of the most distinguished surviving examples of English domestic architecture in America." The house, in the Village Green Historical Complex on Route 25, can be visited in June and September on Saturdays and Sundays, 2 to 5 p.m., and in July and August on Saturday through Monday, 2 to 5 p.m. Phone: (631) 734-7122.

Rock Hall (c. 1767), 199 Broadway in Lawrence, one of the last great manor houses on Long Island and now the Town of Hempstead Museum, is said to be one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in America. Open year-round, Wednesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (516) 239-1157.

Fort Hill, Sagtikos Manor, and the several historic landmarks in and around Setauket are covered under those headings.

For information and guide material, write or visit the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 161 Main Street, P.O. Box 148, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. 11724. Phone: (631) 692-4664; website: www.splia.org.

McCrae (Jane) Atrocity

McCrae (Jane) Atrocity. Seefort edward.

Minisink Ford

Minisink Ford, Delaware River, Sullivan County, opposite Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania. On a hill overlooking this ancient crossing place is an attractive historical park preserving landmarks of the battlefield where a Patriot force was wiped out on 22 July 1779. Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant had retreated toward the ford with captured cattle, booty, and a few prisoners after raiding the village of Minisink, about 25 miles to the east. His 90 Indians and Loyalists were pursued by 150 militia, most of them from around Goshen. The impetuous Patriots had divided their force, sending an advance party ahead to cut the raiders off at the ford, when they discovered that Brant had safely crossed the river and circled back to cut off their retreat to Goshen. Brant skillfully set up an ambush, cut off a third of the Patriot force from the main body on the hill, and then attacked the latter with superior strength. Around dusk, when the defenders were running out of ammunition, Brant found a weak point and penetrated their position. In the massacre that followed, forty-five Goshen men and a number of others were killed.

In an attractive area developed by the Sullivan County Division of Public Works are marked the two places where the critical action took place at the end of the battle. From a large parking and picnic area a visitor climbs a paved path for about 100 yards to a small plateau where an interesting monument to the battle was erected in 1830. A recorded narrative is provided. About 100 yards to the southwest is a large boulder, "Sentinel Rock," where the Indians made their breakthrough. (Brant saw that the Patriot defender of this point had been killed, and he exploited the opportunity.) About 100 yards west of the old monument is a ledge called Hospital Rock, where Lieutenant Colonel (Doctor) Benjamin Tusten and seventeen other wounded were slaughtered. For information from the Sullivan County Division of Public Works, phone (845) 794-3000 ext. 3066. Another good information source is the Minisink Valley Historical Society. Phone: (835) 856-2375; website: www.minisink.org.

The park is easy to find if a visitor approaches on N.Y. 97 from the west: the junction of County Road 168 and N.Y. 97 has many historical markers and directions to the park entrance, which is 0.8 mile up a steep grade to the north. If approaching on N.Y. 97 from the east, continue past the junction of the Old Minisink Ford Road to the junction of Route 168, just mentioned. (The old road is passable and picturesque, joining Route 168 about 0.1 mile from N.Y. 97 and 0.7 mile below the park entrance.)

N.Y. 97 is along the general trace of the historic Old Mine Road that was built by early colonists along the Minisink Indian route from the Hudson River (around Kingston) to the Delaware (at Port Jervis), then up the Delaware through Minisink Ford and the Delaware Water Gap. The name "Old Mine Road" comes from legends that Dutch prospectors from the Hudson Valley used it to reach copper and silver deposits in New Jersey. It may have the distinction of being the first Indian trail on the east coast to evolve into a true road; by 1756 it was traveled by wagons and stagecoaches. Today it is U.S. 209 from Kingston to Port Jervis, and N.Y. 97—up the Delaware Valley—passes through country that is wild and scenic.

Mount Defiance

Mount Defiance. Seeticonderoga.

Mount Gulian Reconstruction

Mount Gulian Reconstruction, just north of Beacon, 145 Sterling Street. Gulian Verplanck and Francis Rombout were partners in acquiring a vast tract around Beacon in 1663, and an old Verplanck house, Mount Gulian, was Steuben's headquarters in the final months of the Revolution. It is remembered primarily as the place where on 13 May 1783 a group of senior officers of Washington's army organized the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1931 this landmark burned to the ground. A small group that includes Verplanck descendants rebuilt the house, which is now open to the public and serves as museum displaying artifacts from the Society of the Cincinnati and the Verplanck family. Mount Gulian is open Wednesday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and is available Sundays for special events. Phone: (845) 831-8172.

Mount Hope

Mount Hope. Seeticonderoga.

Newburgh

Newburgh. Seewashington headquarters, new windsor cantonment, and knox headquarters.

New Paltz

New Paltz. Seehuguenot street.

Newtown Battlefield State Park

Newtown Battlefield State Park, near East Elmira, 3 miles east of Elmira, on N.Y. 17.

More than one thousand Indians, Loyalists, and British regulars under Joseph Brant, Major John Butler, and his son Walter were defeated here on 29 August 1779 by four thousand veteran Continental troops under Major General John Sullivan.

The notorious massacres of frontier settlements at Cherry Valley, New York and Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania took place in 1778, and the American political and military authorities almost simultaneously decided to launch a punitive expedition into the Iroquois territory of upper New York. Washington made Continental troops available for this operation. Major General John Sullivan was selected to lead the expedition, and his orders from Washington were brutal: "total destruction and devastation" of the Iroquois settlements and "the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible" to be held as hostages for future good behavior of the surviving Indians.

In accordance with the strategic plan, Sullivan's 2,500 troops were joined at Tioga (now Athens, Pennsylvania) by 1,500 who had come south under Brigadier General James Clinton from the Mohawk Valley.

Against the advice of Walter Butler the Indians insisted on making a stand at Newtown, which was only some 15 miles up the Chemung River from the starting point of Sullivan's expedition at Tioga. But here the Indians had found a good place for an ambuscade, and they made elaborate preparations, taking advantage of the time provided by Sullivan's dilatory efforts to get his expedition moving. An elaborately camouflaged breastwork of logs was built along a ridge parallel to the river. Its left flank was anchored on the slope of a steep hill, and the right flank was protected by a defile. After delivering a devastating surprise fire from this position, the defenders planned to sally forth from both flanks and annihilate the Rebel column.

At about 11 a.m. Sullivan's advance guard approached Newtown, and the Virginia riflemen of Dan Morgan's Rangers detected the trap. Morgan's three companies of riflemen were attached to the veteran brigade of General Enoch Poor, and these troops worked their way skillfully through difficult terrain onto the hill the Indians thought would protect their left flank. They were followed by Clinton's division. The Rebel artillery meanwhile took up a position to enfilade the enemy breastworks—that is, to deliver a sweeping fire from one end to the other. The guns opened up and Poor's reinforced brigade charged with the bayonet at about the same time, throwing the defenders into confusion and causing a great many of the Indians to flee in panic. The Loyalists, the fifteen regulars of the British Eighth Regiment, and many of Brant's Indians put up a determined defense, however. Colonel John Reid's Second New Hampshire Regiment on the flank of Poor's column was hit on three sides by a counterattack that would have wiped it out if Colonel Henry Dearborn had not turned back with his Third New Hampshire Regiment and two of Clinton's New York regiments to support Reid.

While this was going on, the brigades of General William Maxwell and Edward Hand, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Continentals, had moved along the river-bank and were on the enemy's other flank. Now outnumbered more than five to one, the defenders withdrew only with difficulty. Sullivan's pursuit was not vigorous, and he therefore threw away his opportunity to annihilate the disorganized enemy force. Casualty reports of this action are unreliable, but Sullivan apparently lost only three men killed, and the enemy had about thirty killed.

This was the only pitched battle of Sullivan's expedition, which proceeded to carry out a ruthless devastation of forty Iroquois towns. During the next two years the Iroquois struck back with greater ferocity and frequency than ever. Sullivan had brought back no hostages.

A portion of the battlefield has been preserved in the 330-acre park, where traces of the earthworks may be seen on high ground overlooking the Chemung River. Newtown Battlefield State Park features a Living History Center and is the sight of large-scale Revolutionary War reenactments. It is open to the public from Memorial Day through mid-October. Phone: (607) 732-6067.

New Windsor Cantonment

New Windsor Cantonment (Temple Hill), southwest of Newburgh, about 1 mile north of Knox Headquarters on Temple Hill Road. It is a common misconception that the American Revolution ended with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in October 1781. Actually, hostilities continued for another eighteen months, and the greatest crisis in George Washington's personal leadership came while his army was in its last cantonment here at New Windsor.

Steuben laid out the great camp that held six to eight thousand officers and men during the winter of 1782 to 1783. The troops built some seven hundred huts, each of which accommodated two squads, using trees immediately adjacent to the site. A causeway across Beaver Dam Swamp connected separated portions of the camp. Then a large structure of rough-hewn logs was erected as an all-purpose assembly hall. Originally dubbed "the Temple of Virtue," it was inaugurated with boisterous enthusiasm that "disrobed it of its mantle of purity," as Benson Lossing puts it (Field Book, II, p. 118). It became known simply as the Temple, then as the Public Building.

It was used for religious services, for Masonic meetings, and for other assemblies. Here on 15 March 1783 Washington appeared unexpectedly before a tense group of his officers and delivered a dramatic appeal to their sense of duty and patriotism that killed the so-called Newburgh Conspiracy. This was a movement of disgruntled officers to coerce Congress into meeting their demands for long over-due pay and allowances and for a life pension.

In mid-June 1783 most of Washington's troops headed home after learning that Congress was granting them furloughs until the peace treaty was signed and they could be permanently discharged. Their eight months in the Hudson Highlands had been particularly onerous because of shortages in rations and clothing; they were ready to go, and the authorities were happy to be rid of them. On 2 September an auction was held in the Temple to sell off the camp buildings. One of the officers' huts has survived, having been moved a few miles to become somebody's war-surplus home and then having been rescued in 1934 and moved back to the cantonment area.

In a well-qualified sentence that brooks no paraphrasing, the New York State authorities say, "it stands today as the only known existing wooden camp structure built by Revolutionary soldiers." The Temple was demolished soon after its sale, but a representation of the building now stands on the site.

The New Windsor Cantonment is open to the public from Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. from mid-April through October. Groups are welcome year-round by appointment. There are drills, demonstrations, and museum exhibits (including of Freemasonry of the colonial era); the 120-acre site includes a picnic area. Phone: (845) 561-1765; email: [email protected].

New York City

New York City. The principal nineteenth- and twentieth-century sources for the historic geography and architecture of New York City include Henry Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County (1846 and 1884); Henry P. Johnston's The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn (1878) and The Battle of Harlem Heights (1897); Albert Ulmann's Landmark History of New York (1901 and 1939); Historic Guide to the City of New York (1909), compiled by F. B. Kelley; Landmarks of New York (1923), edited by A. Everett Peterson; Historical Markers and Monuments in Brooklyn (Long Island Historical Society, 1952); the six-volume Iconography of Manhattan Island (1915–1928), compiled by I. N. Phelps Stokes; Bruce Bliven's Battle for Manhattan (1955) and Under the Guns: New York, 1775–1776 (1972); The American Revolution in Queens (1961) by Frank McMaster, the borough historian; and the first volume of Sol Stember's The Bicentennial Guide to the American Revolution (1974), covering the war in the North.

More current works include John Gallagher's The Battle of Brooklyn, 1776 (1999) and Barnet Schecter's The Battle for New York (2003), which outlines a walking tour of the five boroughs and Westchester County, with directions at the website TheBattleForNewYork.com. Another self-guided tour, with photographs and maps, is Eric Kramer and Carol Sletten's "New York Freedom Trail" at NYFreedom.com, which can also be accessed through the website of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, SonsOfTheRevolution.org. See also the websites and webpages for individual parks, historic houses, and monuments.

The sites in the five boroughs are arranged alphabetically under Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Staten Island.

MANHATTAN

Battery Park

Battery Park, southern tip of Manhattan. Most of the 22-acre Battery Park, which includes Castle Clinton National Monument, sits on landfill and has no Revolutionary War associations. In 1693 the British built a fort on the rocky island where Fort Clinton was subsequently constructed (1808–1811). In 1870 the shoreline was moved out to incorporate the present Battery Park with the island. State Street, along the northeastern edge of the park, marks the original waterfront, where a line of cannon faced the harbor in the Dutch and English periods. In August 1775 John Lamb's artillery company, which included Alexander Hamilton, began hauling the British guns up Broadway to the Common (today's City Hall Park) for safekeeping. This provoked a broadside from the man-of-war Asia, which spurred the ongoing exodus of New York's residents. Charles Lee's forces completed the capture of the heavy guns when he arrived to fortify the city in February 1776.

Looking south from Battery Park into New York Harbor, one can see the Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in 1886 as a gift to the United States from France, the ally whose backing ensured the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Closed after 9/11, the statue was reopened to the public in August 2004. This renowned monument sits on the 12-acre Liberty Island and offers panoramic views from its crown that rank among the finest in the world.

Beekman House Site

Beekman House Site, 51st Street and First Avenue. A tablet on Public School 135 indicates the site of Mount Pleasant, the home of James Beekman, erected in 1763 and used during the British occupation of New York as headquarters for Generals Howe, Clinton, and Carlton in turn. Tradition holds that Nathan Hale was kept in the Beekman greenhouse overnight before his execution on 22 September 1776. The house was demolished in 1874.

Bowling Green

Bowling Green, an elliptical park at the south end of Broadway near Battery Park, just north of the United States Custom House, which now houses the National Museum of the American Indian. The Stamp Act Riot of 1765 began on the Common and culminated at Bowling Green, where the mob pounded on the gates of Fort George (now the site of the Custom House), which contained the royal governor's residence. The rioters burned the lieutenant governor's effigy and carriage on the green, using the fence for kindling. On 9 July 1776, after a public reading of the Declaration of Independence on the Common, the crowd marched to Bowling Green and pulled down the gilded lead statue of George III erected six years earlier. The mob also hacked off the crowns on the iron gate around the green. The gate is New York's first designated City Landmark. Most of the statue was reportedly made into bullets, but the horse's tail and bridle have survived and are in the museum of the New-York Historical Society. The site is now occupied by the statue of Mayor Abraham de Peyster (1691–1695).

Central Park

Central Park. The 843 acres of Central Park are what Bruce Bliven has called "a tidied up sample of what the whole island used to be like." Conservationists see it as a significant inspiration of the nation's park movement. In one corner can be found the vestiges of McGown's Pass.

In 1850 a press campaign launched by William Cullen Bryant and backed by Washington Irving and George Bancroft persuaded the city government to acquire the land. It was then located north of the built-up area, which ended at 42nd Street, and was an unsightly wasteland where squatters raised pigs and goats near their shanties. A largely African American settlement, Seneca Village, covered the area from 81st to 89th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. It was demolished in 1857, and the following year an army of unemployed went to work carrying out the design of Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed Brooklyn's Prospect Park) and Calvert de Vaux. The work involved the movement of a billion cubic feet of earth, which explains the degree to which the colonial topography was "tidied up." Central Park is enclosed between 59th Street and 110th Street, bordered on the west by Central Park West and on the east by Fifth Avenue.

City Hall Park

City Hall Park, between Park Row and Broadway at City Hall. The park was originally part of the Common, also known as the Fields. In the colonial period, City Hall stood at Wall and Nassau Streets, today the site of Federal Hall National Memorial. The Fields is where the Stamp Act protesters gathered in 1765 and where, by some accounts, the first blood of the Revolution was shed on 11 August 1766, when residents clashed with British soldiers who had cut down the first Liberty Pole. The various structures that occupied the Fields are marked today by plaques and architectural footprints. These include the soldiers' barracks, the Liberty Pole, and the provost prison, called the Bridewell, all of which are located to the west of City Hall.

A statue of Nathan Hale faces the front of City Hall's east wing, but he was executed elsewhere. (See hale execution site.) To the east of City Hall stood the New Gaol, a jail for debtors, which the British used, along with the Bridewell, to confine American prisoners of war. There is also a plaque in honor of Isaac Barre, who proclaimed in Parliament that the colonists were the "Sons of Liberty."

New York patriots met in the Fields on 6 July 1774 and decided to send delegates to the first Continental Congress. Alexander McDougall presided, Alexander Hamilton spoke against British coercion, and the occasion became known in history as the Meeting in the Fields.

Almost exactly two years later the Declaration of Independence was read in the fields to the troops in Washington's presence.

Columbia University (King's College)

Columbia University (King's College). At the southeast corner of Park Place and West Broadway a tablet indicates the site of King's College during the period 1755 to 1857. The college occupied an area now bounded by Murray, Barclay, Church, and Chapel Streets. Used as a prison during the British occupation (1776–1783), the college reopened in 1784 as Columbia. It moved to Madison Avenue and 49th Street in 1857, and to its current location, at 116th Street and Broadway, in 1897.

Dyckman House, Dyckman House Park

Dyckman House, Dyckman House Park, Broadway at 204th Street. The Dyckman House site was once part of a 300-acre Dutch Colonial farm which served as the Patriot bivouac after the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776 and as a British camp for the rest of the war. One of the fifty Hessian log huts found at another British camp in northern Manhattan has been reconstructed in the garden, where a well and replica of a smokehouse are also to be seen among the boxwood hedges, fruit trees, and grape arbor of the restored farmyard.

The house itself is of fieldstone, brick, and wood. The southern wing probably dates from 1725, but most of the house was built around 1785 by William Dyckman, grandson of a Westphalian immigrant, and his descendants gave the property to the city in 1915. Members of the family have since helped in caring for the house. The restored garden and eight furnished rooms of the house are open to the public. The Relic Room contains artifacts gathered from the Fort Washington battlefield: bullets, cannonballs, explosive shells, guns, bayonets, a uniform, and even a tattered American flag. Although recent construction has resulted in some unexpected closings, under normal circumstances Dyckman House Park is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (212) 304-9422.

Federal Hall National Memorial

Federal Hall National Memorial, Wall and Nassau Streets. The site of the old City Hall has been occupied since 1842 by a Greek Revival structure that is now Federal Hall National Memorial. Here the Stamp Act Congress convened in 1765, Congress sat during the period 1785 to 1790, and the first United States Congress was called (4 March 1789). Washington was inaugurated on the balcony of the old building, and the Departments of State and War, as well as the Treasury and the Supreme Court, were created within its walls. The Bill of Rights was adopted here by Congress. In 1790 Philadelphia had its turn as the seat of the federal government, and the old City Hall fell into ruin. The memorial now exhibits documents and artifacts interpreting the role of old City Hall in early American history.

Fields

Fields, Meeting in the. Seecity hall park.

Fort Amsterdam Site

Fort Amsterdam Site. Now occupied by the United States Custom House, below Bowling Green at the foot of Broadway. After taking New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the British built Fort George on the same spot, and it became the focus of American anger during the Stamp Act riot in 1765. The lieutenant governor, Cadwallader Colden, duped New Yorkers by secretly transferring the newly arrived stamps from the British ship to the fort. The rioters threatened to storm the fort, and Colden was prepared to fire on the crowd, but a compromise was reached, and the stamps were moved to City Hall. When Charles Lee fortified the city in 1776 he had the northern wall of the fort torn down and pointed cannons at the interior to prevent the British from using it as a stronghold, as they had in 1765.

Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park. In a 62-acre park of wooded hills on the north end of Manhattan Island overlooking the Hudson, the stone ramparts of Fort Tryon occupy the site of a redoubt where American Patriots put up their most effective resistance before surrendering Fort Washington. The earthworks on the 250-foot hill were manned by Colonel Moses Rawlings and 250 Maryland and Virginia riflemen supported by three small cannon of the Pennsylvania Artillery. An outpost was located on Cock Hill, about a mile north in what is now Inwood Hill Park.

About three thousand German troops under General Knyphausen crossed Kings Bridge and attacked Rawlings in two columns. Because of the rugged, wooded terrain, the narrow front that did not enable them to deploy into their normal linear formations, and the effective American defenses, the Germans made very slow headway and sustained heavy casualties. Margaret Corbin became America's first battlefield heroine by replacing her mortally wounded husband and helping keep his gun in action until she herself was severely wounded. The traffic circle and roadway next to the park are named for her, and she is honored by a bronze tablet mounted on the exterior of the fort. (She is buried at West Point.)

On the site of the American earthworks the British built Fort Tryon. John D. Rockefeller Jr., bought the estate that became Fort Tryon Park and presented it to the city in 1933. A residence on the site of the fort was demolished, and the hilltop now provides a magnificent view of the Hudson, the East River, and Manhattan.

Fort Washington

Fort Washington and related landmarks. The George Washington Bridge (between 178th and 179th Streets) crosses the Hudson between Forts Washington and Lee (in New Jersey), almost completely obliterating those two works. But between West 147th Street and the Bronx are many surviving landmarks of the great military disaster suffered by the Americans in November 1776.

On 16 November 1776 the British and Germans attacked in strong columns from the north, east, and south to wipe out the bypassed pocket of American resistance on the high ground in northern Manhattan. From McGown's Pass in today's Central Park came two thousand men under Lord Hugh Percy. About eight hundred Americans under Lieutenant Colonel Lambert Cadwalader opposed them in the three defensive lines established before the Battle of Harlem Heights. These are marked by tablets on Broadway at 147th, 153rd (wall of Trinity Cemetery), and 159th Streets.

Another British attack was from the east across the Harlem River against the defenses of Laurel Hill (192nd Street). On the lawn of George Washington High School at 192nd Street and Audubon Avenue, a boulder at the foot of the flagpole bears a large bronze tablet that reads: "In grateful remembrance of the Patriot Volunteers of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp led by Colonel William Baxter … who, with many of his men, fell while defending this height, 16 November 1776, and was buried near this spot." Baxter's position was later the site of the British Fort George, but his troops occupied only field fortifications when he was attacked by the elite Black Watch and overrun after a spirited defense. Highbridge Park, leading down to the Harlem River from Laurel Hill Terrace, between 181st and 188th Streets, displays the steep terrain the British ascended during the attack. The Forty-second Highlanders dropped down the river to make a diversion about where the foot of 152nd Street is now located. The defenders rushed reinforcements to meet this threat from the converging British columns (Lord Percy having resumed his advance), and heavy fighting took place around Trinity Cemetery. Inside the cemetery, in the southeastern corner (east of Broadway), a bronze tablet on a small boulder marks this middle line of defense and points out the remains of an earthen fort.

Meanwhile, the main attack was taking place to the north against the works later called Fort Tryon.

From Fort Lee, across the river, Washington watched helplessly as almost 3,000 of his best officers and men were taken prisoner. Washington also lost a large quantity of valuable matériel, including about 150 cannon.

The British built on the sites of the main American works, Fort Washington becoming Fort Knyphausen, Rawlings's redoubt becoming Fort Tryon, and the Laurel Hill works becoming Fort George. Archaeologists have identified the sites of many other American, British, and German positions on Washington Heights and in the area eastward to the Harlem River. Along the Bronx side are the sites of eight numbered forts.

The site of Fort Washington, chosen because it is the highest natural point on Manhattan (265 feet), is marked by a flagpole in Bennett Park, on Fort Washington Avenue between 183nd and 185th Streets. The battle is commemorated by a marble monument with a granite tablet and bronze letters, built into the wall of rock to the left of the park's entrance. Granite blocks in the ground at the center of the park indicate where part of the fort's walls once stood, but the 4 acres of ground inside the fort extended well beyond the edges of the park. Between Fort Washington and Bennett Avenues, Colonel Robert Magaw Place honors the commander of the fort, as does the plaque on the Fort Washington Collegiate Church on the corner at 181st Street.

Fraunces Tavern

Fraunces Tavern, lower Manhattan, 54 Pearl Street at Broad Street. "A 1970 conjectural restoration of [the] earliest 18th century structure remaining in Manhattan" is how this landmark has been characterized by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings (1964) puts it in the "Other Sites Considered" category, commenting that "it will be considered in more detail in the study of architecture." Authorities agree, however, that Fraunces Tavern is the oldest surviving building in Manhattan and that—"conjectural restoration" or not—it is a particularly fine specimen of Georgian architecture. Historically, it is remembered primarily as the place where Washington said farewell to his senior officers on 4 December 1783 at the end of the American Revolution.

The basic structure of 1719 now known as Fraunces Tavern was built by Stephen (Etienne) De Lancey, a wealthy merchant, as an elegant town house on land he got as a wedding present from his father-in-law, Stephen Van Cortlandt, in 1700. The latter had acquired the land about 1671 and built a cottage in which he lived after his marriage to Gertrude Van Rensselaer. So the site of Fraunces Tavern has as much historical interest as the structure itself.

In 1737 the De Lanceys moved to Broadway and converted their former home into an office and warehouse. The magnificent drawing room, now known as the Long Room (741 square feet), was leased to Henry Holt, who staged pantomimes and America's first puppet show where New York's colonial elite had so recently been entertained. The building was offered for sale in 1759, but it was not until 1762 that a buyer, "Black Sam" Fraunces, was found.

Fraunces had been a caterer at nearby Bowling Green since coming to New York seven years earlier from the French West Indies. He bought the property for £2,000, converted it into a tavern, and called it the Queen's Head. All this happened as the last Seven Years' War ended and the movement toward the American Revolution started developing. The Long Room became popular for social and political meetings not only because of the prime location of the tavern but also because it was the most spacious and elegant public hall available.

When Van Cortlandt built his cottage on this site it fronted on a canal (now Broad Street) and was on the East River shore. Pearl Street derives its name from the abundance of "pearly shells" scattered here in colonial times. The Whitehall Ferry slip to which Washington walked in 1783 was only two long blocks away. The site is in the middle of today's Whitehall Street, about halfway between Pearl Street and the present ferry landings.

"Black Sam" Fraunces leased his tavern a few years after establishing it, and he devoted himself to running a wax museum in the city. In 1770 he took over personal management of the tavern. Five years later, on the eve of the Revolution, he gave up the wax museum and tried to sell the tavern, obviously planning to direct his entrepreneurial talents elsewhere. But he could not find a buyer, which is why the name Fraunces ended up being immortalized in American history. After the Revolution he was rewarded by Congress and commended for his kindness toward American prisoners in the city's notorious jails and for his covert assistance to the cause. After Washington's famous farewell in the Long Room Fraunces again undertook to sell the tavern. In 1785 he succeeded, getting $250 (£50) less than he had paid twenty-three years earlier. When Washington returned to New York in 1789 as president, Fraunces became his steward. Moving with Washington to Philadelphia in this same capacity, Fraunces died there in 1795 and is buried in St. Peter's Churchyard of Christ Church.

Although listed in the New York census of 1790 as white (with a slave in his household), Fraunces probably was of mixed race.

Restoration of Fraunces Tavern has been functional as well as architectural, its public dining room on the first floor carrying on the tradition of "Black Sam." The Sons of the Revolution bought the three-and-a-half-story building in 1904 and completed the initial restoration in 1907. In 1970 the Long Room was stripped to expose its hand-hewn beams and masonry walls, where patches of the original plaster still showed tufts of the red cowhair binding. The restored room is open to the public, ribbon cutting having been performed by a young descendant of Stephen De Lancey. Throughout the large building are paintings, furnishings, relics, and exhibits that preserve the spirit of the Revolution. The first floor is an upscale restaurant; a museum/gift shop is on the second and third floors. The museum's summer hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The hours from October through April are 12 to 5 p.m. except on Saturday, when the museum remains open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (212) 304-9422.

Golden Hill

Golden Hill, "Battle" of. On 19 January 1770 a force of thirty to forty British soldiers used bayonets to quell a riot involving citizens armed with swords and clubs. The disturbance climaxed a series of protests against the Assembly's support of the Quartering Acts of 1765 and 1774. Several rioters were seriously wounded on Golden Hill, and the action has therefore been called "the first significant fighting of the American Revolution." The site is marked by a tablet at William and John Streets, where once a golden field of wheat grew on a hill.

Governors Island

Governors Island. So called because in 1698 the assembly set it aside for the benefit of the royal governors, it was fortified in 1776 by Colonel William Prescott's regiment. These were the famous diggers of Bunker Hill, but their works on Governors Island were not attacked, and the position was abandoned after the American defeat on Long Island. Governors Island, at the mouth of the East River, helped screen the American retreat to Manhattan on the night of 29 August. Castle William was built on Governors Island at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the old well on the east side is among the few surviving vestiges of the Revolutionary War works.

Gracie Mansion

Gracie Mansion. The mayor's residence. This fine example of Georgian architecture is in Carl Schurz Park. (See horn's hook.) It was built during the years 1770 to 1774, first owned by Jacob Walton, bought by Archibald Gracie in 1798, and restored. Information about tours of the interior is available from the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, at (212) 570-4751. Excursion boats provide good views of the mansion's exterior.

Greenwich

Greenwich (Village). Before the Revolution two rows of wooden houses belonging mostly to prominent families fronted on Greenwich Street, which was close to the Hudson. Today, an iron bollard, where boats once tied up, marks the old shoreline on the sidewalk in front of the Ear Inn, a nineteenth-century pub on Spring Street between Greenwich and Washington streets. The waterfront has been moved out several hundred yards. When General Israel Putnam and his aide, Aaron Burr, rescued 3,500 American troops by marching them from New York City to Harlem Heights after the Kips Bay invasion on 15 September 1776, their route passed through Greenwich and Chelsea, which were then suburbs. Today there are no Revolutionary War landmarks of significance. Greenwich (pronounced "gren-itch") Village, as this section of the city is called, is a redundancy, for "wich" means "village."

Hale Execution Site

Hale Execution Site. The twenty-one-year-old Nathan Hale of Connecticut stepped forward after no other captain in Knowlton's Rangers would volunteer for the mission of spying on the British. He was captured while returning to his own lines on Harlem Heights. Being in civilian clothes and having incriminating papers on his person, he (like John André) was executed as a spy. As was later the case with André, his death was much lamented by friend as well as foe. His final words were "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

While the site of his hanging on 22 September 1776 has been a matter of controversy, the best evidence suggests that he died in the vicinity of Third Avenue and 66th Street, where the Dove Tavern was located and near the British artillery park. A plaque on the Chatham apartments on Third Avenue at East 65th Street calls this the "probable" site and refers the reader to the New-York Historical Society's website, www.nyhistory.org, for further details. The statue of Hale in City Hall Park; a plaque on the Beekman condominium apartments on First Avenue and East 51st Street (where Hale was probably held overnight in the Beekman greenhouse); a plaque inside and one on the outside of the Yale Club (on Vanderbilt Avenue, west of Grand Central Terminal) have all added to the uncertainty about the execution site. Similarly, a tablet on a meatpacking plant at the southeast corner of First Avenue and 46th Street claimed that Hale was hanged nearby. That plaque came down when the building was demolished along with many others to make way for the United Nations complex.

Harlem Heights

Harlem Heights, Battle of. Although the site of this early American victory, on 16 September 1776, has long since been covered by some of the world's most exclusive urban development, many of the most important landmarks can be found. American forces had retreated from southern Manhattan to Harlem Heights, the high ground along the Hudson north of modern 125th Street.

Here they started work on three defensive lines, and before dawn on 16 September Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton led a reconnaissance to find out what the British were doing. With his elite force of 120 Connecticut Rangers, Knowlton made contact near a slight rise still discernable on 106th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive. After a half-hour firefight Knowlton withdrew when threatened with envelopment by the Forty-second Regiment of Scottish Highlanders, the famous Black Watch.

Skirmishing to the rear in good order, the Americans followed approximately the route now marked by Claremont Avenue and dropped into the valley called the Hollow Way, about where the 125th Street subway station is located. Two British light-infantry regiments pursued to a hill near present-day Grant's Tomb.

Washington left the Morris-Jumel Mansion and reached the advanced American posts near West 135th Street as Knowlton fought his delaying action. An aide reported that the Rangers were doing well and suggested they be reinforced. The commander in chief was considering this when a familiar tune floated from the enemy position—the call sounded by fox hunters at the end of a successful chase!

Washington decided that the moment had come to undertake an offensive action. The plan was for one small force to advance directly against the British around the area of Grant's Tomb while a larger body made an envelopment to trap the British. It was working beautifully, the British charging forward from the hill, when unidentified officers in the enveloping wing prematurely gave the order to fire. The British quickly started withdrawing, the Americans pursued, and Washington sent in reinforcements.

Generally along today's 120th Street the heaviest fighting took place in a buckwheat field. A bronze bas-relief at the Columbia School of Engineering, at Broadway near 118th Street, claims to mark the site of the battle. It is about where the artillery on the British right flank was located after these two 3-pounders had been dragged forward 3 miles by hand. The guns and a company of jaegers may have saved the British from annihilation, but a shortage of ammunition forced another withdrawal. After a brief delaying action along 111th Street, the British made a final stand about where the day's events had started, on 106th Street. Not wanting to fight a major battle, Washington ordered a withdrawal at about 2 p.m.

Success in this skirmish lifted American morale at a time when this was badly needed, and some historians have seen the victory as a turning point in the war. American casualties were about thirty killed and one hundred wounded or captured. Among the dead was the gallant Knowlton, one of Washington's most promising young officers.

Hollow Way

Hollow Way. The valley along the bottom of which today's 125th Street runs east from the Hudson to Morningside Avenue was known as the Hollow Way. Here the Battle of Harlem Heights started.

Horn's Hook

Horn's Hook, a point of land on the East River, at the northern end of today's Carl Schurz Park, at East 88th Street on East End Avenue. This was the site of a nine-gun American battery unsuccessfully shelled by the British before their landing at Kips Bay. Gracie Mansion is in this park.

Jumel Mansion

Jumel Mansion. Seemorris-jumel mansion.

Kings Bridge Site

Kings Bridge Site. See below under the bronx.

King's College

King's College. Seecolumbia university.

Kips Bay Site

Kips Bay Site. At the foot of East 34th Street on the East River, the shoreline has been moved out to obliterate the small inlet where British forces landed on 15 September 1776 to overrun Manhattan. Their initial objective was Murray Hill.

Laurel Hill Fort

Laurel Hill Fort, 192nd Street and Audubon Avenue, on the west bank of the Harlem River, about half a mile east of the Fort Washington site. See above under fort washington and related landmarks.

McGown's Pass

McGown's Pass (sometimes spelled McGowan's), near the northeast corner of Central Park, about on line with East 107th Street. A little hill here is crowned with the Fort Clinton Monument—a cannon on a flat boulder to which a plaque is fixed. The marker says the high ground commanded McGown's Pass and was occupied by the British from 15 September 1776 to 21 November 1783.

The Post Road passed between two steep hills here before descending abruptly to Harlem Plains (into the present lake, Harlem Meer, in this corner of Central Park). McGown's Pass was therefore what modern tacticians call "critical terrain," and it figures prominently in contemporary accounts of the war in Manhattan. To protect the American retreat after the British invasion at Kips Bay, Washington posted riflemen just south of the pass with instructions to fall back and ambush the British if they advanced along the road between the hills. McGown's Pass Tavern, which survived into modern times, was on the site of Jacob Dyckman's Tavern, where the provincial assembly met in 1752 while City Hall was being repaired.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art, main entrance on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. The American Wing (northwest corner) comprises three stories designed especially to illustrate the development of American interior decoration from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. From the museum's collections of three thousand paintings, about three hundred are exhibited in the gallery over the arms and armor room.

Of particular interest to students of colonial and Revolutionary War history are the following rooms: the Parlor, from Ipswich, Massachusetts, dating from the mid-seventeenth century; the Samuel Wentworth Room from Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the reconstitution of the Assembly Room from Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia; the Verplanck Room; and the entry hall from the Van Rensselaer Manor in Albany.

An exhibition in a variety of media, George Washington: Man, Myth, Monument, opened in the American Wing on 19 October 2004 and ran until 27 February 2005. The exhibition featured portrayals of Washington through the centuries, including some created during his lifetime. One of the exhibition's purposes was to analyze how the public's changing needs altered depictions of Washington.

Morris-Jumel Mansion

Morris-Jumel Mansion, 160th Street and Edgecomb Avenue in Washington Heights. During the Battle of Harlem Heights Washington used this house as his headquarters and lived in a suite of three small rooms on the second floor. The British and Hessians then used the building until their evacuation in 1783.

When Lieutenant Colonel Roger Morris built his mansion in 1765 it was the first in the colonies to have the two-story Greek Revival portico that later was common. Morris reached America in 1746, took part in the Braddock expedition, becoming a friend of Washington's, and fled the country as a Loyalist at the start of the Revolution. His property was confiscated at the end of the war and bought in 1810 by a wine merchant named Stephen Jumel. The latter's widow married Aaron Burr in 1833, when she was about fifty-five and he was seventy-seven, but the two were separated a few months later.

In 1903 the city bought the house and saved it from demolition; it, St. Paul's Chapel, and Fraunces Tavern are the last important structures of the colonial era in Manhattan. The house and grounds have been restored. The spacious rooms are furnished in the periods of their respective owners: the lower floor in the late nineteenth century, and the upstairs in American Federal and French Empire. The basement has servant quarters and the kitchen. Early American household utensils are displayed on the third floor.

Owned by the city, the mansion is operated by a not-for-profit organization, Morris-Jumel Mansion Incorporated, and is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Website: www.morrisjumel.org; phone: (212) 923-8008.

Mortier House Site

Mortier House Site, Sixth Avenue and Spring Street in lower Manhattan. A tablet on the Butterick Building marks it as the site of the original house used by Lord Amherst, Washington (in 1776), Lord Carleton, Vice President John Adams, and Aaron Burr. Built in 1760 by Abraham Mortier, commissary of the British army in North America at the time, the house was originally on Charlton Street between Varick and MacDougal Streets (two blocks north of Spring Street).

Murray Hill

Murray Hill. At the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 35th Street is a tablet marking the center of "Inclenberg," the colonial farm on high ground that happened to be an initial objective of the British after their landing at Kips Bay on 15 September 1776. Flaunting all historical evidence, circumstantial as well as factual, the myth has persisted that Mary Lindley Murray (1726–1782), a middle-aged Quaker and mother of twelve children, gave a party for British generals Howe, Clinton, and Cornwallis that delayed their military operations two hours and kept them from trapping General Putman's 3,500 troops and 67 guns in lower Manhattan.

Putnam's column started north at about 4 p.m. Following the Greenwich Road close to the Hudson, it then took farm lanes and footpaths along the axis of today's Eighth Avenue. Around the southwest corner of Central Park the Americans struck the Bloomingdale Road, roughly the route of today's Broadway, as far north as West 86th Street.

Through a gap of less than three-quarters of a mile between the Hudson River and Murray Hill the long American column passed on its 12-mile forced march without seeing an enemy soldier. ( Just below today's West 100th Street, the British belatedly tried to intercept the column, but most of the Americans had already passed the intersection, and only one man was killed). But historians point out that Mary Murray's cakes and old Madeira do not deserve the credit for keeping the British inactive at Inclenberg. First, she could not have known that Putnam was slipping away rather than preparing to defend the city. Second, the British were following their plan of waiting on Murray Hill until all their forces had crossed from Long Island.

Yet Mrs. Murray's alleged service to the Patriot cause has been immortalized by painters, playwrights (A Small War on Murray Hill was produced in 1956), and patriotic societies (the plaque on 35th Street was put up by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1926). Another DAR plaque, on the Park Avenue median strip at 37th Street (on the south side), explicitly honors Mary Murray for delaying the British on Murray Hill.

Museum of the City of New York

Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets. Devoted to the history of the city, the museum has miniature groups and dioramas that bring to life historic scenes. There are exhibits of costumes, furniture by New York cabinetmakers, prints and photographs, maps, portraits, silver, toys, fire engines, and ship models pertaining to the colonial and Revolutionary War era. From the top of a reconstructed portion of Fort Amsterdam the visitor can see a panorama of the 1660 skyline. Website: www.mcny.org. Phone: (212) 534-1672.

New-York Historical Society

New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West and 77th Street. Collections deal with all of American history but are particularly strong on New York State and the city. Since November 2000 the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, on the Society's fourth floor, has displayed nearly forty thousand artifacts (including George Washington's camp bed from Valley Forge), many of which were previously in offsite storage. Visitors can take thematic audio tours of the center and learn about the collection through interactive computer ports and mini-exhibition stations. The outstanding reference library on the second floor is also open to the public for research. Website: www.nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400.

Point of Rocks

Point of Rocks, St. Nicholas Avenue at 127th Street. A landmark in the Battle of Harlem Heights, the high ground here was the southernmost defensive position of the Americans overlooking the Hollow Way and the point from which Knowlton's flanking force started forward at about 11 a.m. Knowlton was mortally wounded a short time later about half a mile to the southwest.

Prison Sites

Prison Sites. In Manhattan the sites of the notorious British prisons can be identified by today's visitor at the following places:

Livingston's Sugar House is marked by a tablet opposite the entrance to the Federal Reserve Bank, at 28-36 Liberty Street.

Middle Dutch Church was where the Mutual Life Insurance Building now stands on the northeast corner of Cedar and Nassau Streets, and is marked by a plaque.

Rhinelander Sugar House was replaced by the Rhinelander Building, which has also been torn down, and the site, behind the Municipal Building near City Hall, is now occupied by Police Plaza. A window from the original sugar house, preserved in the façade of the Rhinelander Building, was salvaged from the demolition and is now displayed in the side of a brick shed on the edge of Police Plaza. Such windows had iron bars, but no panes of glass to keep out the cold. Another window is in Van Cortlandt Park (see under the bronx).

Van Cortlandt's Sugar House stood at the northwest corner of today's Trinity Churchyard. One or more other sugar houses were used as prisons.

Provost Jail, administered by the notorious William Cunningham, was in the present City Hall Park.

Dissenter churches, the hospital, and King's College (see columbia university) were also used as prisons. After the fire of September 1776 the prison ships were used for soldiers in addition to the naval prisoners originally held in these death traps. (See prison ship martyrs' monument under brooklyn.)

Rivington's Printing Shop Site

Rivington's Printing Shop Site, corner of Wall and Pearl Streets. James Rivington's Royal Gazette and its successor, published 1773 to 1783, are generally accepted as being the country's first daily newspapers. (A complete file is in the New-York Historical Society Library.) His plant was destroyed in November 1775 by Patriots who objected to his journalistic integrity in presenting both sides of contemporary controversies. Rivington took refuge in England but returned two years later as the king's printer in New York City. In 1781 he started supplying information to the American intelligence service, which enabled him to stay in business after the British left. Renamed Rivington's New York Gazette and Universal Advertiser, his paper struggled along despite declining circulation until its final issue of 31 December 1783. The printer tried unsuccessfully to carry on as a bookseller and stationer but ultimately failed and died in poverty. An interesting and important figure, James Rivington deserves more historical recognition than he has received.

St. Paul's Chapel

St. Paul's Chapel, lower Broadway between Fulton and Vesey Streets. Built in 1764 to 1766 by Trinity Church, whose property it remains, St. Paul's Chapel survived the great fire of September 1776 that destroyed the old Trinity. In addition to being, therefore, the only remaining church of the colonial era in Manhattan, St. Paul's has great architectural interest and merit.

Commencements of King's College (now Columbia University) were held here for twenty-five years, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and De Witt Clinton being among those receiving their degrees. British occupation forces used the chapel. A special service was conducted on 30 April 1789 for Congress and George Washington after the latter's first inauguration at nearby (old) City Hall. In the peaceful old cemetery are remains of British officers among the New Yorkers. Against a handsome Palladian window on the Broadway side is the tomb of General Richard Montgomery, originally buried near where he fell in Quebec in 1775 and moved here in 1818.

Trinity Church and Cemetery

Trinity Church and Cemetery, Broadway at the beginning of Wall Street. The present structure, for fifty years the tallest in New York, was finished in 1846. The first church burned in the great fire of September 1776. Among the interesting graves in the yard are two secretaries of the Treasury: Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin. The oldest grave dates from 1681. Other famous New Yorkers here are William Bradford Jr., the printer, and Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat. (See also st. paul's chapel.)

Willett Memorial

Willett Memorial. A tablet at Broad and Beaver Streets is of artistic merit as well as being historically interesting. It marks the spot where the remarkable Marinus Willett (1740–1830) on 6 June 1775 stopped the British from evacuating five cartloads of weapons and ammunition in their withdrawal from New York City. Seizing the bridle of the leading horse, Willett claimed the British had no authority to carry off the arms. He rallied the mob to his side and took possession of the matériel for the Patriot cause.

After graduating from King's College (later Columbia), Willett became a wealthy merchant and property owner. As New Yorkers took sides on the eve of the Revolution, he was a leading firebrand among the Sons of Liberty, and when the war started he quickly became an effective combat commander. He particularly distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Stanwix and as commander of New York troops during the last two years of the murderous border warfare in the Mohawk Valley. (See fort plain.)

He was a sheriff of New York City and County for many years after the war, mayor from 1807 to 1808, and president of the Electoral College in 1824. At the age of fifty-nine he took for his third wife the twenty four-year-old Margaret Bancker, by whom he had three sons and a daughter. Willett was buried in Trinity Cemetery in lower Manhattan. One son, William, became a famous author on religious subjects and published A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett (1831).

QUEENS

Bowne House

Bowne House, adjoining Weeping Beech Park at 37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing. Built in 1661, this simple colonial frame farmhouse was occupied until 1945 by eight successive generations of the family founded in America by the Quaker John Bowne 284 years earlier. For defying the Dutch ordinance forbidding Quaker meetings, John Bowne was sentenced to a fine (which he did not pay), thrown in jail, deported to Holland, and finally acquitted. A plaque memorializes signers of the Flushing Remonstrance (1657), a little-known document in the history of religious tolerance in America. The Bowne House is the headquarters for the Bowne House Historical Society and is open to the public on Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday with somewhat limited hours. Tours can be scheduled by reservation. Phone: (718) 359-0528.

Friends Meeting House Graveyard

Friends Meeting House Graveyard, at 137-16 Northern Boulevard in Flushing, was opened in 1694, and is the burial site of John Bowne (1627–1695).

Grace Church Graveyard

Grace Church Graveyard, at 155-24 90th Avenue in Jamaica. This is the burial site of Rufus King (see king manor). Opened in 1730, this colonial-era cemetery also contains the graves of Loyalists who served in the various military units supporting the main British army during the Revolution. These include Captain William Dickson of the New York Volunteers, who died in 1780.

King Manor

King Manor, in King Park, 153rd Street and Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica. In 1805 this Dutch and colonial frame house became the country home of Rufus King (1755–1827), and it remained in his family until 1897. King was a lawyer, delegate to the Continental Congress, United States senator, envoy to Great Britain from 1796 to 1803, and unsuccessful presidential candidate (against James Monroe) in 1816. Sections of King Manor were built in 1730, 1755, and 1806. The house was successively an inn, farmhouse, and parsonage before King acquired it. The furnishings are eighteenth and nineteenth century, some originally in the house. After considerable renovation, the King Manor Museum opened to the public in 1992. The museum room contains hats, silver, and needlework samplers, among other items, to offer a historically accurate look at eighteenth-century Jamaica, Queens. Phone: (718) 206-0545.

Prospect Cemetery

Prospect Cemetery, on Beaver Road off Jamaica Avenue, opened in 1640 and holds the graves of two Revolutionary-era Patriots, the Reverend Abraham Keteltas and Judge Egbert Benson.

St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church

St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, at 196-10 Woodhull Avenue in Hollis. A marker on the grounds of the church indicates the approximate site of Increase Carpenter's Tavern, where General Nathaniel Woodhull was taken prisoner by British dragoons on 28 August 1776, the day after the Battle of Long Island. Woodhull and his 200 troops had been driving some 1,500 head of cattle eastward out of the clutches of the British on the night of 26 August, and came within 2 miles of Clinton and Howe's stealthy march around the American left wing. The historian William H. W. Sabine has suggested that Woodhull's failure to discover and disrupt the British plan was a deliberate act of treason that cost the Americans the battle the following day. Woodhull died from wounds reportedly inflicted by his captors after he had surrendered.

BROOKLYN

The name coming from a place near Utrecht in Holland—Breukelen, meaning "broken land"—Brooklyn was settled by Dutch farmers in 1636. They established themselves initially around Wallabout Bay, which was infamous during the Revolution as the place where British prison ships were moored. (See prison ship martyrs' monument.)

The Battle of Long Island in August 1776 was one of the most important, most complex, and most interesting actions of the Revolution. Although the ground is now covered by one of the world's greatest expanses of urban sprawl, the well-read visitor will find a number of interesting landmarks surviving. Scholars have long been indebted to Henry P. Johnston for his detailed history published in 1878, "The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn …" (in Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, III). Johnston's study included a painstaking examination of the ground and identification of landmarks. Another map of historical value was made by Thomas W. Field, correlating these landmarks with streets existing in 1868 (published in Memoirs, II).

As early as 1846, Walt Whitman, as editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, urged the nation to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Long Island with the same fanfare as the Fourth of July. The effort to establish a "Brooklyn battlefield" was revived sporadically in the early twentieth century, and today the anniversary is marked by "Battle Week," a series of lectures, tours, and ceremonies in late August organized by state and local groups in conjunction with the National Park Service. Information is available from Green-Wood Cemetery, the Old Stone House Historic Interpretive Center, the Fraunces Tavern Museum, the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York, and local chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution.

Parks and two cemeteries now preserve—at least to the extent that the ground is not covered by buildings and streets—several of the areas of modern Brooklyn associated with the battle of 27 August 1776.

After a large-scale buildup of army and navy forces on Staten Island, General William Howe and his brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe, launched their amphibious assault on Long Island at dawn on 22 August. An American outpost at Denyse's Point (now Fort Hamilton) withdrew toward Prospect Hill (now Prospect Park). After the initial landing of four thousand British and German troops under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis, their boats returned for an additional five thousand troops; these came ashore in Gravesend Bay between today's Dyker Beach Park and Bensonhurst Park. (The area is now buried under the Shore Parkway of the Belt System and by tall apartment houses.)

As more troops were ferried across Lower Bay, the British established a beachhead line through the villages of New Utrecht (about where the avenue of that name intersects 85th Street), Gravesend (around the present cemetery of that name), and Flatlands (where the avenue of that name crosses what is still called Kings Highway). On Kings Highway just east of Flatbush Avenue, a bronze plaque on the lawn of the Flatlands Reformed Church (formerly the Dutch Reformed Church of Flatlands) marks the path of the British advance on the night of 26 August 1776.

The Americans had long anticipated the British operation and were deployed along a low, densely wooded ridge called Gowanus Heights, not to be confused with Brooklyn Heights. General Howe's strategy was to make a sweeping envelopment (a "turning movement," to be precise) through Jamaica Pass and then advance eastward through the village of Bedford. While ten thousand troops made this main effort under Howe's personal command, two secondary efforts were made: the first along the shore and the other in the center against Flatbush Pass (now in Prospect Park).

The British strategy worked beautifully. (Their lines on the left were formed through today's Green-Wood Cemetery and Prospect Park, extending somewhat to the east of the latter area.) The first contact was made around the Red Lion Inn, at the junction of Martense Lane and the Narrows Road (around 39th Street at Third Avenue). Here on the far western flank the Americans built up their main strength, just as Howe had hoped. Heroic and skillful fighting in this area was under the command of General William Alexander ("Lord Stirling"), culminating at the Vechte House.

In the decisive maneuver, meanwhile, the British had snapped up a five-man American patrol in Jamaica Pass (at Howard's Tavern) and cut behind Washington's main battle position without being detected in time. At 9 a.m. two signal guns were fired by the British in Bedford (about where Nostrand Avenue intersects Fulton Street in today's community of Bedford-Stuyvesant). Some five thousand German auxiliaries under General Leopold Philip von Heister attacked immediately after hearing the signal, pushing through the pass one can see in Prospect Park, fanning right to rout the defenders of Bedford Pass (about where Bedford Avenue intersects Eastern Parkway), moving down the ridge to their left, and pushing north.

The heaviest fighting took place near Baker's Tavern (about where Flatbush Avenue crosses Fulton Street). Caught between the columns of Howe and von Heister, Americans under General John Sullivan inflicted heavy casualties before being overwhelmed and taken prisoner.

Many Americans had fled at the first sign that the enemy was to their rear, streaming back into the defenses along Brooklyn Heights (following the route of First Avenue across Gowanus Creek to Court Street) while this way was still open. After General Alexander's efforts to dislodge the British from the Vechte House were abandoned, the remaining American forces could escape only by the hazardous route close to the mouth of Gowanus Creek, where salt marshes bordered an 80-foot-wide gap of water. Washington watched the retreat of his shattered army. A tablet marking the Ponkiesburg (Cobble Hill) fort on a building at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue indicates that his observation point was here. This fort stood behind a line of forts and connecting trenches anchored on the American left by the major work, Fort Putnam (whose site is in today's Fort Greene Park).

During the land battle the fort on Red Hook exchanged a few shots with a British warship, one of six trying to sail up the East River and threaten the Americans from this quarter.

General Howe did not follow up his success by assaulting the Brooklyn Heights fortifications, which was a costly error that enabled Washington to save most of his army. After a council of war at the Joralemon House, home of Philip Livingston, Washington executed a secret withdrawal the night of 29 to 30 August. (The site of the Joralemon House is 400 feet south of Joralemon Street on the east side of Hicks Street. A DAR marker on a boulder long and incorrectly identified the house at Montague Street and Pierrepont Place as the site of the council of war. Old Ferry Road is now lower Fulton Street, and the Brooklyn Ferry ran from the foot of Fulton Street westward to Fly Market Slip on Manhattan, now the foot of Maiden Lane.) A tablet on a boulder and plaques in the pavement at the entrance to the Fulton Ferry landing mark this as the spot where Washington embarked his forces during the evacuation from Long Island.

Fort Defiance

Fort Defiance. Seered hook.

Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery. In the Battle of Long Island, 27 August 1776, the British left wing of about seven thousand troops under Brigadier General James Grant (1720–1806) deployed from the center of today's GreenWood Cemetery westward to Gowanus Bay. Also within the confines of the present cemetery were Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut battalions under Colonels Atlee and Haslet and General Parsons. A two-hour action in this sector was restricted to an exchange of artillery and the maneuvering of British light infantry while the envelopment was taking place through Jamaica Pass (see howard's tavern site). Grant then advanced and annihilated the American right wing commanded by General Alexander ("Lord Stirling").

Although the battle positions within the present cemetery are not marked, the general topography has been preserved. "Battle Hill," where Parsons and Atlee made a stand against Grant's forces, is the site of an annual wreath-laying ceremony. It is marked by an Altar of Liberty and a statue of Minerva, aligned to gaze and wave at the Statue of Liberty, visible in the distance.

Howard's Tavern Site

Howard's Tavern Site, at the northeast corner of Atlantic and Alabama Avenues. Here stood Howard's Half Way House or Tavern. It was in front of the Jamaica Pass, which General Howe found guarded by only a five-man patrol as he moved through with his enveloping force of about ten thousand troops in the early hours of 27 August 1776. (Howard's Tavern was torn down in 1902 to make way for the elevated tracks of the Long Island Railroad). The Jamaica Pass was near the southern end of what is now Evergreen Cemetery. In order to inspect the Jamaica Pass for additional defenders, the British forced Howard and his son to lead them along the Rockaway Foot Path, an old Indian trail that skirted the pass. The son's grave is marked by a tombstone in Evergreen Cemetery; the path is indicated by signs in the grass between the graves, and a map is available from the cemetery office.

Jamaica Pass

Jamaica Pass. Seehoward's tavern site.

Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument

Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument. In Fort Greene Park, at Myrtle Avenue and Cumberland Street, is the imposing monument designed by Stanford White and dedicated in 1908 to the 11,500 American prisoners who died aboard British prison ships in nearby Wallabout Bay (the vestige of which is now Wallabout Channel and Navy Yard Basin). The bones of the estimated 11,500 bodies were collected in the area of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. White's design, featuring a fluted granite shaft 145 feet high, is an important architectural landmark.

Prospect Park

Prospect Park. Preserved within the 526 acres of this landscaped park are the Flatbush Road (now East Drive) and Flatbush Pass (now called Battle Pass) that figured in the Battle of Long Island on 27 August 1776. While the British commander directed his main effort in a cleverly executed strategic envelopment through Jamaica Pass (see howard's tavern site) and further deceived the Americans by a secondary attack on the other flank (see green-wood cemetery), his center column pushed toward Flatbush Pass. Most of the American defenders here fled to the rear when they realized their situation was hopeless, but General Sullivan and some of his men tried to fight their way out. Near Baker's Tavern, close to where Fulton and Flatbush Avenues now intersect, Sullivan and most of his men were trapped and captured. A small monument topped by a bronze eagle marks the site of the ancient Dongan Oak, felled to bar the enemy's advance, and two plaques are mounted on boulders in Battle Pass, which is a little north of the zoo.

The Maryland Monument is in the south-central part of the park, between the lake and Lookout Hill. A graceful column surmounted by a ball, it commemorates the gallant performance of Smallwood's Maryland Battalion, commanded that day by Major Mordecai Gist. (See vechte house.)

Prospect Park is on land bought in 1859 from the estate of Edwin C. Litchfield, who had purchased the old Vechte-Cortelyou estate. The development of port facilities on the Gowanus Canal was Litchfield's main activity, and in 1855 he built a showy mansion on the bluff overlooking the harbor. "Litchfield's Castle" has a view of almost a mile to the southeast over the park designed by Frederick Olmsted.

A Quaker cemetery near Lookout Hill dates from 1662.

The Lefferts Homestead, on Flatbush Avenue at Empire Boulevard, is a wooden shingle Dutch Colonial farmhouse. Peter Lefferts salvaged wood and hardware from his family home, accidentally burned by the Americans in their "scorched earth" program to deny the British crops, and built this house during the period 1777 to 1783. His family used it as a residence until 1918, when it was presented to the city and moved from 563 Flatbush Avenue to Prospect Park. Authentically refurnished, it is advertised as a children's historical museum and features a spinning and carding room, a Dutch colonial farmyard with farm animals, crafts, storytelling, and a jam-packed educational program.

Red Hook (Fort Defiance)

Red Hook (Fort Defiance). During the Battle of Long Island, 27 August 1776, six British warships attempted to get up the East River to strike the flank and rear of Washington's forces. They were frustrated primarily by a strong wind, but one ship, the Roebuck, got far enough north to exchange a few shots with Fort Defiance. A bronze plaque (1952) on the red-brick building at Dwight and Beard Streets marks the site of the fort. This is in the Erie Basin area of Red Hook.

Vechte House (Old Stone House Historic Interpretive Center)

Vechte House (Old Stone House Historic Interpretive Center), Third Street between Fifth and Fourth Avenues, in J. J. Byrne Park, is the site of the most heroic action in the Battle of Long Island, 27 August 1776. General William Alexander ("Lord Stirling") used the Vechte House (built 1699) as his headquarters in the initial phases of the battle. When the British accomplished their successful envelopment of the American left (east) flank and moved in strength along the Old Jamaica Road behind the main battle positions of the Americans, the only route of escape was across Gowanus Creek. To save what was left of Washington's army, Alexander ordered Major Mordecai Gist to lead diversionary attacks to the north against the British strong point around the Vechte House. Alexander personally took part in the six determined assaults here, which were finally repulsed only after Cornwallis rushed reinforcements up. Almost all of the 250 Maryland Continentals engaged here were captured or killed.

Those who died in this engagement are buried at a place marked by a plaque (1947) on Third Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Streets. The Maryland Monument is near Lookout Hill in Prospect Park. The Vechte-Cortelyou House stood until 1897, and its site was later marked by a tablet. A handsome reconstruction now stands there and is operated by an organization called First Battle Revival Alliance. Hours are 12 to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. Phone: (718) 768-3195.

Wallabout Bay

Wallabout Bay. Seeprison ship martyrs' monument.

THE BRONX

Fort Independence Park

Fort Independence Park, south end of Jerome Park Reservoir just east of Sedgwick Avenue, at the north end of Giles Place. At the entrance to the park are tablets indicating that on the adjacent hill (now covered by apartment buildings) the Americans under General Washington erected breastworks for the protection of Kings Bridge (see kings bridge site) and an advanced work, later called Fort Independence, to command Spuyten Duyvil Creek. The positions were abandoned by the Americans in October 1776 when they retreated to White Plains, and the British later incorporated them into their defenses of New York City. In a diversionary effort that turned into a famous fiasco, "Our General" (as he calls himself in his Memoirs) William Heath moved on Fort Independence in January 1777, recaptured the Valentine-Varian House, and tried to cannonade the fort into surrender. After five days he withdrew.

Children playing on the site discovered cannonballs; this led to excavation of the ruins in 1914 and the recovery of about five hundred balls, shells, and bar shot. One of the children later gave his finds to the museum in the Valentine-Varian House. (See fort number eight.)

Fort Number Eight

Fort Number Eight, New York University campus. A boulder here is inscribed "The Site of Fort Number Eight, 1776–1783." Built by the British, the fort was an artillery base during the attack on Fort Washington. It later figured in the skirmishes of the "Neutral Ground," or "Debatable Ground," between American positions in the Hudson Highlands and the British in New York City. After 1779 the fort was headquarters for Colonel Peter De Lancey's Westchester Light Horse Battalion, the "cowboys" who skirmished with the "skinners" of the Neutral Ground between British and Patriot lines in Westchester County from 1778 until the end of the Revolution.

The site was excavated in 1965, when it was exposed in digging foundations for a new campus building. Numerous artifacts were recovered, much of the material being put in the Valentine-Varian House museum.

Fort Number Four

Fort Number Four, Old Fort Number Four Park, south end of Jerome Park Reservoir. On a rocky outcropping that faces Reservoir Avenue just west of University Avenue is a plaque erected by the DAR in 1914 stating that the fort was built in 1776 as part of the defenses of Fort Washington and Kings Bridge. Twice attacked, the fort was captured by the British and occupied by British and Hessian troops. Numerous relics, including numbered buttons, were found when the site was explored.

King's Bridge Site

King's Bridge Site, King's Bridge Avenue and West 230th Street. At the place where the Boston Post Road crossed Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the first bridge was built in 1693 under a royal grant to Frederick Philipse and rebuilt in 1713. Broken down by Washington's retreat in October 1776, it was rebuilt by German troops. During the period 1779 to 1782 it was abandoned, being too vulnerable to American raids, and a pontoon bridge was put in farther westward. After the Revolution it was rebuilt with a dike to supply water for Macomb's grist and marble mills. This bend of the creek has subsequently been filled in, and Broadway now passes about 200 yards southeast of the old bridge site, which is marked by a plaque on St. Stephen's Church on West 230th Street.

Pelham Bay Park

Pelham Bay Park. After finding his way blocked at Throg's Neck, General Howe reembarked his troops and made another landing a few miles away at Pell's Point. Here, in what has become Pelham Bay Park, was Colonel John Glover's small brigade of Massachusetts troops, including his own Marbleheaders, with three artillery pieces. "Glover's Rock" will be found around the middle of the park, on the old City Island Road, and this marks the place where the Patriots started their well-conducted delaying action on 18 October 1776. Most of the fighting took place near Split Rock, a famous landmark that barely escaped destruction by highway engineers a few years ago; it may be seen on the east side of the New England Thruway near the Hutchinson River Parkway's north entrance to the Thruway (No. 6) at Pelham. For other landmarks associated with the Battle of Pell's Point, see pelham manor.

Throg's Neck

Throg's Neck, on the East River. During the period 12 to 18 October 1776 the British under General Howe landed here and made an unsuccessful effort to advance inland. They found the way barred by American defenders at the Westchester Creek Causeway, about where the Bronx and Pelham Bay Parkway crosses the Westchester meadows. Howe made a second amphibious effort at Pell's Point, which is now Pelham Bay Park.

Valentine-Varian House

Valentine-Varian House, 3266 Bainbridge Avenue at East 208th Street, adjoining Williamsbridge Park. About 1750 the Valentine family established a farm in the wilderness that has become The Bronx. After living first in a simple cottage, they soon built the large fieldstone structure that has miraculously survived not only the Revolutionary War but also modern urban developers. Peter Valentine may have been the builder and first owner of the house, but it is known that Isaac Valentine bought the property in 1758. His family was forced to flee when Washington's army retreated from Manhattan toward White Plains in the fall of 1776; British and Hessian troops took over the house. When General William Heath undertook his abortive attack on Fort Independence in January 1777, the column under General John Scott overran the outposts on Valentine's Hill and captured the house. The Americans were prepared to use artillery against the house, but this proved to be unnecessary, and later the Valentines moved back in.

In 1791 the property was bought by Isaac Varian, whose son Isaac became mayor of New York in 1839. The Varians owned 260 acres between the Bronx River and today's Jerome Avenue. After passing through various hands, the house was donated to the Bronx County Historical Society by William C. Beller in 1965 and moved at his expense across the street to its present location. The two-story colonial fieldstone farmhouse with an attic is in a good state of preservation. In one room the wall structure has been exposed to show the original chestnut laths and the mud-and-cow-hair mortar.

The historic house is owned and managed by the Bronx County Historical Society. Home to the Museum of Bronx History, it is open on Saturday and Sunday and by appointment on weekdays. Phone: (718) 881-8900.

(Bronx County Historical Society, 3309 Bainbridge Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10467.)

Van Cortlandt Mansion and Park

Van Cortlandt Mansion and Park, Broadway and 246th Street, near park entrance at 242nd Street. The recently restored manor house and 1,100 acres remain here from an original Dutch grant of the year 1646. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation touts the mansion as the "oldest house in the Bronx." Frederick Van Cortlandt built this fieldstone-and-brick house in 1748. A full basement lighted by ground-level windows, and an attic with gables, make this a large, four-story structure. Architecturally it is a fine example of Georgian Colonial style, and it has been furnished with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century items of Dutch, English, and American origin. Many of these items belonged to the Van Cortlandt family, which occupied the house until 1889.

During the Revolution the estate was in the Neutral Ground between opposing forces in New York City and the Hudson Highlands. Important public records (the official city archives) were hidden on Vault Hill, the Van Cortlandt burial ground on a hill behind the house. Washington used the house in 1776 when his army was being driven toward the Highlands, and again on the eve of his triumphal reentry into New York City in 1783.

The house and grounds were deeded to the city in 1889. For eight years the historic mansion was a police station, but since then it has been restored and maintained as a museum by the Colonial Dames. Nine rooms open to the public include a Dutch bedroom with cupboard-style bed reached by a ladder, a basement kitchen with cooking fireplace and Dutch oven, a room for spinning and weaving, and a nursery with an eighteenth-century dollhouse. Furnishings are identified as to period, style, and origin, and Colonial Dames in costume are in attendance. The museum includes weapons and documents. Much of the mansion has been restored, but original features are a double Dutch door, high Dutch stoop, a staircase, the floors, and the basic structure.

Near the house is a section of brick wall with a window from the Old Sugar House on Duane Street. (See prison sites in section on manhattan.) The family burial ground also is nearby. Inside the northeastern edge of the park at a place called Indian Field is a DAR marker that reads: "August 31, 1778. Upon this field Chief Nimham and 17 Stockbridge Indians from Massachusetts, as allies of the Patriots, gave their lives for Liberty." The Indians had taken position behind a fence to fire on the flank of an advancing column of troops under the leadership of what one authority calls "the ablest and most dashing partisans of the British army—Simcoe, Tarleton, Emmerick, and De Lancey" (Stephen Jenkins, The Story of the Bronx, pp. 162-164). Simcoe spotted the Indians, hit them with a surprise attack on a flank while they were busily engaged in firing on the troops of Emmerick and Tarleton, and killed or seriously wounded about forty. Chief Nimham wounded Simcoe before being killed by the latter's orderly; Tarleton narrowly escaped death while leading the pursuit. Indian dead were buried in the clearing in Van Cortlandt's woods where they fell, and the place has since been known as Indian Field. The Van Cortlandt House Museum is open to the public on Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on the weekend from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (718) 543-3344.

Other sites in New York State associated with this prominent family are the Van Cortlandt Manor and Van Cortlandtville. The family figures also in the early history of Fraunces Tavern (under manhattan) and Sagtikos Manor.

Varian House

Varian House. Seevalentine-varian house.

STATEN ISLAND

Early in July 1776 General William Howe started an unopposed landing of British troops from Halifax (Nova Scotia), and on 12 July his brother, Admiral Lord Richard Howe, joined with reinforcements from England. German and more British troops followed, and on 12 August Sir Henry Clinton's expedition returned from Charleston to swell the British ranks to about 42,000 soldiers, seamen, and officers. This was the largest expeditionary force to this date assembled overseas by the British.

On 22 August the first wave of British and Germans started crossing the Narrows and landing at Denyse's Point in the opening moves of the Battle of Long Island.

Staten Island remained a British base for the remainder of the Revolution. Several American raids were conducted, and the British launched their own raids from the island to Springfield and other places in New Jersey.

Conference (Billopp) House

Conference (Billopp) House. Definitely worth the detour is the Conference House on the southwest tip of Staten Island, easily accessible from the Outerbridge Crossing from New Jersey. Here is the old stone manor house that Christopher Billopp built before 1688 on his 1,163-acre grant. It stands on a hill of well-tended grass at the end of Hylan Boulevard. From the dead end of this boulevard is a view across Raritan Bay that, if one uses a little imagination, is what Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge saw on the day of their polite but pointless "peace conference" with Lord Richard Howe on 11 September 1776. The Conference (Billopp) House has qualified for registry as a National Historic Landmark, and is open to the public Friday to Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Groups are welcome by appointment. Website: www.theconferencehouse.org. Phone: (718) 984-6046. In 1999 the Conference House Association opened a historical research library in connection with the site.

Niagara

Niagara. Seefort niagara.

Old Fort Niagara

Old Fort Niagara. Seefort niagara.

Old Mine Road

Old Mine Road. Seeminisink ford.

Onondaga Reservation

Onondaga Reservation, Nedrow. The Onondagas sided with the British during the Revolution and were largely dispossessed after the war ended, the majority of the nation moving to Canada. Visitors are welcome to visit the reservation, which includes the grave of the postwar spiritual leader Handsome Lake, though they should appreciate that it is a sacred site. The reservation is on N.Y. 11A just south of Nedrow and is open daily from dawn to dusk. Phone: (315) 460-8507.

Oquaga

Oquaga, now Ouaquaga, in Broome County east of Binghamton on N.Y. 79. Headquarters of Joseph Brant during St. Leger's expedition of 1777 and for many of his subsequent raids on frontier settlements, this Indian fur-trading post on the Susquehanna (the first one that Sir William Johnson established) was an objective of the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of 1779. Ten years before the Revolution about 750 Indians, mostly Mohawks, lived here. Remnants of the Esopus, driven from the Kingston area, were around Oquaga by 1775. Brant was away on a raid when Continental troops destroyed his base at Oquaga after burning nearby Unadilla, but both of these places continued to be used by the Loyalists and Indians until the end of the Revolution.

Oriskany Battlefield

Oriskany Battlefield, state park on N.Y. 69, 5 miles east of Rome. A column of eight hundred Patriot militia under General Nicholas Herkimer was marching to the relief of Fort Stanwix when it was ambushed here on 6 August 1777 by four hundred Indians and Loyalists under the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant.

When Barry St. Leger's expedition of about two thousand British regulars, Mohawk Valley Loyalists, Canadian auxiliaries, and Indians approached Fort Stanwix (now in Rome, New York), a friendly Oneida reported its advance to General Nicholas Herkimer, commander of militia forces in the Mohawk Valley. Despite considerable reluctance of the settlers to muster for their own defense, Herkimer managed to raise a force of eight hundred men and boys, and on 4 August 1777 he left Fort Dayton (modern Herkimer). Although accompanied by four hundred oxcarts, they were within 10 miles of Fort Stanwix when they made camp at the end of their second day (5 August).

Herkimer sent runners to request that a sortie from the fort be made to provide a diversion as the relief column arrived.

The legendary Molly Brant, Indian mistress of Sir William Johnson and sister of the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant, brought word to Barry St. Leger the evening of 5 August that Herkimer was 10 miles from Fort Stanwix. The British commander sent Joseph Brant with four hundred Indians and a party of Loyalists to ambush the relief column at the place now known as Battle Brook. Here a ravine 200 yards wide would have to be crossed on a causeway by the enemy, and heavy woods provided cover and concealment for Brant's force.

On the morning of 6 August, Herkimer was adamantly refusing to march on to Fort Stanwix until he heard evidence that the sortie was being made. The regimental commanders were insisting that the expedition press on immediately. Two of them apparently went so far as to impugn Herkimer's courage and loyalty, and the militia general finally gave way to the pressure.

Herkimer's sixty Oneida scouts failed to detect signs of the ambush, and without the rudimentary security precautions of a column marching in hostile territory, the militia plunged into the trap.

More than a dozen officers, including Herkimer, went down in the initial hail of fire. The mile-long column probably had contracted a great deal as the leading elements bunched up to get through this defile, but it is not likely that all of the two hundred-man regiment of Richard Visscher (or Fisher) had gotten within the ambush when the firing started. Apparently this rearguard regiment panicked and ran for home, leaving six hundred men in the other three regiments to their fate.

The latter reacted like veterans. Instead of cowering where they had been hit by the initial volley, they charged toward their hidden attackers and then formed in little groups for defense. The Indians, who were still outnumbered two to one, hesitated to take advantage of their surprise to close in and annihilate Herkimer's force before it could recover sufficiently to organize a defense. After consolidating into a single perimeter, the militia then took advantage of a lull in the battle—a heavy rain that kept both sides from firing for about an hour—to make another important improvement in their position. General Herkimer, bleeding profusely from a leg wound, insisted on being propped up where he could continue to command his men. He had noticed during the first forty-five minutes of the action, before the rain, that individual defenders along the perimeter were being rushed by the Indians and tomahawked as they reloaded. Herkimer issued orders for men to form pairs, and a good many Indians were stopped dead before the others detected this change in tactics.

Although they continued their sniping for about six hours, the Indians could not pry the militia from their defensive positions. Though the exact number of Indian casualties cannot be determined, Oriskany was nevertheless the heaviest engagement fought by St. Leger's expedition.

A force of Royal Greens came from St. Leger's camp to reinforce Brant, and after turning their coats inside out they attempted to get into Herkimer's lines by pretending to be reinforcements sent from Fort Stanwix. The ruse was about to succeed when a sharp-eyed Palatine recognized a Loyalist neighbor, and a spirited little hand-to-hand civil war ensued.

The Indians started drifting off about this time, and the Loyalists had to withdraw also. Herkimer's militia marched back to Fort Dayton carrying fifty wounded. The number of Patriot casualties also remains unknown, though the dead included two of the regimental commanders who had goaded Herkimer into proving his courage and loyalty by pressing on to Fort Stanwix prematurely, without taking normal tactical precautions. Herkimer died of his wound ten days later in his home near modern Little Falls on N.Y. 58 (see herkimer home).

When Brant and his Indians got back to the siege of Fort Stanwix and discovered that a sortie from the fort had cleaned out their camp, they were more convinced than ever that they had made a bad mistake in joining St. Leger's war party. They were ready to go home, and it was not long before they did so. (See fort stanwix.)

Oriskany State Park includes the well-preserved site of the battle, where reenactments are staged at various times throughout the year. The park features guided tours and interpretive signage and is open to the public from May through October, Wednesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (315) 768-7224.

Oswego and Fort Oswego

Oswego and Fort Oswego. Seefort ontario.

Paine (Thomas) Cottage

Paine (Thomas) Cottage, in New Rochelle at North and Paine Avenues. Built about 1800 and moved here from its original location nearby, this was Thomas Paine's residence intermittently from 1803 to 1806. Best known for his pamphlet Common Sense, which is credited with bringing American public opinion around to demanding independence, Paine had returned to New Rochelle after spending fifteen years in England and France. His last years were spent in poverty, ill health, and virtual ostracism for his deist writings (The Age of Reason) and his public criticism of Washington. The Thomas Paine Cottage is a museum and headquarters of the Huguenot and Thomas Paine Historical Association of New Rochelle. The Paine Memorial Building, 983 North Avenue, and adjacent buildings contain memorabilia of the controversial writer and complex man. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Palatine Church

Palatine Church, Mohawk Valley, on N.Y. 5 about 3 miles east of St. Johnsville. For two centuries the most noted landmark on the Old Mohawk Turnpike (now N.Y. 5), this beautifully proportioned church of fine stonework has been preserved on a slight rise alongside the highway. It is in an island of green formed by a loop of old Route 5, so one can turn off the main route and admire it at leisure.

Built in 1770, it was spared by Sir John Johnson's raiders in 1780 and was the Patriot camp after their fight near Fort Klock. Until 1940 it was in continuous use as a church, and summer services were held in it through 1959. The Palatine Society of New York has restored its original appearance by, among other things, moving the door back to the north side from the east end, where it had been relocated in 1870.

Peekskill

Peekskill, on the Hudson River in upper Westchester County. Taking its name from the creek named for Jan Peek, a Dutch trader who settled on its bank in 1665, Peekskill was a trade town for farmers for two centuries. Early in the Revolution there was much military activity here because the Hudson River landing and road approaches to the Hudson Highlands (see continental village) made it a transportation hub. Few historic sites of the period exist, but the Memorial Museum of the Field Library, 124 Union Avenue, contains a Patriot cannon that fired on the Vulture, thereby setting in train the events that led to Major John André's death as a spy. (See west point military reservation, tarrytown, van cortlandtville, and tappan historic district.)

Drum Hill School, on Ringgold Street past the high school, is on the hill occupied by the British on 23 March 1777 when they made one of their many raids into Peekskill. At 942 South Street is the forty-eighth milestone on the Albany Post Road, placed under Franklin's post-Revolutionary War program of setting up markers. (They were always on the west side, as an aid to land navigation.) Trees where Loyalist spies were hanged have a morbid appeal to some, and a tablet on the grounds of the Peekskill Military Academy immortalizes one of these.

Pelham Manor

Pelham Manor, Westchester County. The Battle of Pell's Point started at Glover's Rock, proceeded along the line of today's Hutchinson River Turnpike past historic Split Rock (see pelham bay park under the section on the Bronx, new york city), then along the old Post Road to end at the bridge over the Hutchinson River. Surviving landmarks in modern Pelham Manor are along Wolf 's Lane. The Pell Mansion, or "Pelham Dale," home of Colonel David J. Pell and built sometime before 1776, is standing off Wolf's Lane at 45 Iden Avenue. The "Lord Howe Chestnut," under which the British commander is said to have paused for lunch, survived until the 1940s near Wolf's Lane and not far from the Pell Mansion. (Edgar H. Browne, historian of the town of Pelham, stated that "it stood above the Boy Scout Cabin along the Hutchinson River Parkway, but it died and was taken down a few years before the Scout Cabin was destroyed by fire in 1947.")

At Wolf's Lane and Colonial Avenue is a marker on a rock indicating that at this point on the old Post Road, the British camped while Colonel John Glover's delaying force slipped away.

Philipsburg Manor (Upper Mills)

Philipsburg Manor (Upper Mills), east bank of Hudson on N.Y. 9 at North Tarrytown, 2 miles north of Tappan Zee Bridge. The Lower Mills survive in Yonkers as Philipse Manor. The manor house at Upper Mills was built in 1682. Never the major family residence, the stone building was the center of a trading complex and on several occasions was used as a fort. The original house, mill, and dam have been fully and authentically restored. Like many other manors of the Hudson, it was subject to tenant uprisings in the years surrounding the Revolution. In addition to tenant farmers, Philipsburg relied on slave labor. The excellent tour of the manor draws attention to this little-known history. It is now a National Historic Landmark. The site is open to the public every day except Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and features guided tours and educational programs. Phone: (914) 631-3993.

Philipse Manor

Philipse Manor, Warburton Avenue at Dock Street, in downtown Yonkers. Since 1966 under the jurisdiction of the New York State Historic Trust, the Manor Hall of Philipsburg may be looked on as a sacrifice to American democracy. The Manor of Philipsburg was established by a man who came to New Netherlands as a carpenter in the early 1650s. As early as 1672 this Frederick Philipse, a Dutch immigrant, had parlayed his skill as a carpenter into real estate, trade, and shipping, and had started acquiring property along the east bank of the Hudson. Ultimately he held all the land from the Croton River south some 22 miles to Spuyten Duyvil Creek (now the Harlem River). In 1693 this estate was confirmed as the Manor of Philipsburg.

The existing Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers was started around 1682 (south wing facing Dock Street), and the modern wing was added around 1745. Located on the Albany Post Road, it was one of the great homes of colonial America.

During the Revolution, the third lord of the manor remained loyal to the constituted authority under which his family had prospered, and his estate was confiscated by New York. The land was fragmented, and the Manor Hall passed through various hands. From 1868 to 1872 it was the Yonkers Village Hall; then it was the City Hall. In 1908 the site was purchased by the state with a cash gift from Eva Smith Cochran, and her son contributed his extensive collection of presidential portraits, now exhibited in the mansion. The priceless collection includes five portraits of Washington, three of which depict him with brown eyes and two with blue eyes.

The L-shaped house of weathered brick with white wood trim, hipped slate roof, dormers, and a roof balustrade is furnished in the colonial period. It is open year-round, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free. Phone: (914) 965-4027.

Other vestiges of this early American and most un-American barony are preserved at Philipsburg Manor, North Tarrytown.

Ramapo Valley ("the Clove")

Ramapo Valley ("the Clove"), roughly between Thruway Exits 15 (Suffern) and 16 (Harriman). An historical area marker at the Sloatsburg service area on the thruway summarizes the story of this unusual region. From the latter place, now in the vicinity of Monroe (where the Museum Village of Smith's Clove is located on N.Y. 17 Exit 129, 4 miles west of Thruway Exit 16; phone: (845) 782-8247), other passes of the Hudson Highlands lead toward Stony Point, the area that is now Bear Mountain Park, West Point, and the Newburgh area. The Ramapo Valley was the best route between the New Windsor Cantonment and New Jersey.

The Ramapo Furnaces, or Sterling Iron Works, dating from 1751, produced the gigantic chain that obstructed the Hudson River.

Even in very modern times this has been an isolated region where descendants of Loyalist, Hessian, Dutch, African American, and Indian refugees lived in seclusion, becoming known collectively as Jackson Whites. During the Revolution the area was the haunt of the notorious Loyalist highwayman Claudius Smith, who specialized in stealing livestock for sale to the British. On a trail about a mile from the railroad station in Tuxedo are two large caves where Smith's men and stolen animals were hidden. In 1779 a concerted effort was taken to exterminate the Smith gang. Their leader was captured on Long Island, returned in chains, and executed.

In Suffern the tavern and store of the village founder, John Suffern (1741–1836), was located at the important crossroads just south of Ramapo Pass. (The tavern site is at Washington and Lafayette Avenues.) During a five-day stay here in July 1777 Washington wrote the letter to Congress that resulted in Robert Erskine's becoming the famous mapmaker of the Continental army. In August 1780 Washington made his headquarters for sixteen days in the home of Andrew Hopper, a mile below Suffern. Here he learned of the disaster at Camden, South Carolina. He was in this area again when French and American troops marched south from Kings Ferry on their way to Yorktown.

Raynham Hall

Raynham Hall, Long Island, on 20 West Main Street in Oyster Bay, 7 miles north of Northern State Parkway Exit 35. Addition of the Victorian wing about 1851 and concurrent alterations in that unfortunate style have not destroyed the attraction of this Revolutionary War landmark. The oldest portion dates from the 1730s, before Samuel Townsend bought the farmhouse in 1738 and enlarged it into an eight-room, clapboard, one-and-a-half-story house. Raynham Hall is presently a twenty-room house museum. In 2002 it was named a Revolutionary War Heritage Trail Site by the New York governor, putting it in line for money designated to help preserve New York's Revolutionary War heritage.

During the British occupation of Long Island, from 1776 to the end of the war, Raynham Hall was used as officers' quarters. John Graves Simcoe lived here during the winter of 1778 to 1779 when his famous Loyalist regiment, the Queen's Rangers, was operating in New York and New Jersey. Among the visitors to the house was Major John André, a principal staff officer of the British commander in chief with whom the traitor Benedict Arnold was dealing from May 1779 until André's capture as a spy in September 1780. The fanciful legend has been perpetuated that Sally Townsend overheard a conversation between Simcoe and André, relayed this to her brother Robert, and thus disclosed the plot to surrender West Point. Plausibility is introduced by the fact that Sally's brother was Washington's most valuable secret agent in New York from about the time Arnold started negotiating his betrayal. Robert Townsend succeeded a former agent in Manhattan called Culper Senior and himself had the code name Culper Junior. But the facts are that Arnold's treason was not disclosed until André was accidentally captured at Tarrytown, and Washington's secret service did not have the slightest suspicion that Arnold had been dealing with the enemy for sixteen months.

Raynham Hall has historical and architectural attraction. The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings (1964) puts it in the "Sites Also Noted" category. In addition to the aura of romance associated with the names of "the adorable Sally Townsend," the dashing young André and Simcoe, and the Patriot secret service, the house has authentic furnishings, old documents, and a colonial garden. Two links from the great Hudson River chain are in the garden. (The owner of the Sterling Iron Works in the Ramapo Valley was a relative of the Townsends of Raynham Hall.) Public visiting hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Website: www.raynhamhallmuseum.org; phone: (516) 922-6808.

Robert Townsend's grave, enclosed by a fence in 1964, may be reached through a right of way on the property at 51 Simcoe Avenue in Oyster Bay.

Rensselaerswyck (Manor of Rensselaer)

Rensselaerswyck (Manor of Rensselaer). Seealbany.

Richmondtown

Richmondtown. This is the island's first capital, and it became the county seat in 1727. Now called the Richmondtown Restoration, or Historic Richmond Town, it is a historic village and museum complex on 100 acres of land with twenty-seven original buildings spanning three centuries of Staten Island's history. There are several houses that date from the colonial period, including the Treasure House (c. 1700), where British officers are said to have hidden in the walls the gold coins that were discovered just before the Civil War. The Christopher House (c. 1720) is said to have been a clandestine meeting place for local Patriots, including members of the Mersereau family, who spied for George Washington during the Revolution. Also of interest are the Voorlezer's House (c. 1695), the Moravian Cemetery, the Church of St. Andrew, and the Museum of the Staten Island Historical Society, which displays objects collected from the British fort on nearby Richmond Hill. The last traces of the fort itself are gone. Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island, N.Y. 10306-1125; phone: (718) 351-1611; website: www.historicrichmondtown.org.

Robinson House Site

Robinson House Site, just south of Garrison, across the river from West Point. The house of Colonel Beverley Robinson (1721–1792) was located at this place until its destruction by fire in 1892. A wealthy Loyalist, he served with distinction as a regimental commander of Loyalist troops (particularly in the capture of Fort Montgomery), but was of most use to the British as an intelligence agent. His fine home was used by the Patriots as a military headquarters and as a hospital. Benedict Arnold and his wife were living here when Arnold's treason was uncovered (see west point).

The site is a plot of lawn just north of a more recent house and alongside N.Y. 9D, about 5.5 miles north of Bear Mountain Bridge. A highway marker has recently been put up. The original well survives. It had stairs leading to an underground storage room. Now protected by a flat frame covering, it is visible near the base of a large tree between the Robinson House site and a frame barn east of the modern highway. (The road ran to the east of the barn in colonial days.)

Southeast of the Robinson House is Sugarloaf, on the northern slopes of which the Patriots built a fort in 1776 to 1777 as part of the defenses of the Hudson Highlands.

A highway marker about 0.1 mile north of the Robinson House indicates the trail down which Arnold fled to Beverley Dock and thence by barge down the Hudson to the British ship Vulture. The trail now winds down a steep hill past modern housing and the village dump to a shoreline reshaped by construction of the railroad. Lossing used the dock and followed this traditional trail of Arnold's flight in visiting and sketching the Robinson House in 1848, when it was in an excellent state of preservation (Pictorial Field Book, II, p. 140).

Mandeville's House (1737) is standing just northwest of the road junction, about 0.9 mile north of the Robinson House. Privately owned and in excellent condition, it may be seen from the road that leads down to Garrison. Officers of the West Point garrison used this house as headquarters from 1778 until the end of the Revolution.

Sag Harbor

Sag Harbor, Long Island. The scene of a famous raid across the Long Island Sound in May 1777, when Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs with 170 men in 13 whaleboats escorted by two armed sloops surprised and badly defeated a large British foraging party (under connecticut see meigs house site and guilford). Now a place of about 2,500 people (although the summer population may be as much as three times that number), Sag Harbor has twelve old structures of architectural importance, the Custom House, Jared Wade House, and Prime House being from the eighteenth century. The Suffolk County Whaling Museum (early 1800s), Main and Garden Streets, has colonial pieces in addition to relics of the nineteenth-century whaling industry for which Sag Harbor was an important center. The Meigs Monument, Union Street, is on the site of the British fort captured by the Patriots.

Sagtikos Manor

Sagtikos Manor, West Bay Shore, Long Island. Originally a Van Cortlandt grant (1697), the 1,200 acres were bought by Jonathan Thompson in 1758. The latter's son Isaac acquired the manor as a gift when he married Mary Gardiner, and the house has remained in the same family since that time. (There were two subsequent intermarriages between Thompsons and Gardiners.) The oldest portion of the well-preserved house dates probably from 1692, and today's visitor can see the bedrooms where General Sir Henry Clinton and President George Washington spent the night, the former an unwanted guest during the Revolution (others were Hugh Percy, William Erskine, and William Schaw Cathcart) and the latter in 1790. Wings were added to the house in the late 1890s. The manor's last private owner, Robert David Lion Gardiner, established a foundation for the home and site's preservation. Suffolk County purchased the home from the foundation in November 2002, and it is presently under renovation to make it a public museum. The manor is located approximately one-half mile east of Robert Moses Causeway on Montauk Highway in West Bay Shore. Tours provided by the Sagtikos Manor Historical Society are available by reservation. Phone: (631) 661-8348.

St. Paul's Church National Historic Site

St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, 897 South Columbus Avenue (Old Boston Post Road) between South Third and Fulton Avenues, Mount Vernon. Take Exit 7 off the Hutchinson Parkway and follow signs. The present structure of stone and brick was started in the 1760s and evidently not completed until after the Revolution. Identifiable graves date from about 1700, and a mass grave contains the bodies of one hundred Hessians, these troops having used the church as a barracks and hospital. In the tower is a bell cast in 1752 by the foundry that made Philadelphia's Liberty Bell. The church was restored in 1942, but the last church service was held in 1977. In 1980 the Episcopal dioceses transferred owner-ship of the historic church to the National Parks Service. Public visiting hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Guided walking tours are available by appointment. Phone: (914) 667-4116.

Saratoga National Historical Park

Saratoga National Historical Park, on the Hudson River near the village of Bemis Heights, 40 miles north of Albany and 15 miles south of Saratoga; Route 29 east to Schuylerville. Several road signs will indicate specific directions. Modern Schuylersville is the Saratoga of the Revolutionary era, and this is where Burgoyne's army finally laid down its arms. The modern village of Bemis Heights, then known as Bemis Tavern, takes its name from the high ground where the Americans had their field fortifications—their base camp—for the battles of Saratoga. The battles are generally known by the names of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights. Sometimes, however, they are given the name of Stillwater, which was (and is) the village 3 miles farther south, where the American forces concentrated before taking up position on Bemis Heights. All these obscure names have become lumped as "Saratoga," a name known today as one of the decisive battles of history.

FIRST SARATOGA

"Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, so called by his soldiers because he treated them like human beings and not like hunting dogs, had been moving down from Canada with a force of about eight thousand fighting men. (Another one thousand or so noncombatants and authorized camp followers came along, the latter including Indian women as well as other ladies such as the baroness de Riedesel and her three very young daughters.) Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger led an expedition from Canada that was supposed to move down the Mohawk Valley and join Burgoyne at Albany. Nobody knows for sure even today what sort of British military effort was supposed to be made up the Hudson from New York City in connection with Burgoyne's invasion. The point did not become obviously important until Burgoyne got in trouble at Saratoga.

Burgoyne captured Fort Ticonderoga and pushed on to the southern tip of Lake George and modern Whitehall with such ease that he let optimism blind him to dangers. But it was apparent to experienced military subordinates in Burgoyne's expedition that their supply lines were at the breaking point. Just a week later (23 August 1777) St. Leger had to acknowledge that his expedition had failed, and he withdrew toward Canada after being stopped by the defenders of Fort Stanwix.

Although General Schuyler's Northern army had been forced to retreat before Burgoyne's advance, it was now succeeding in reducing the enemy to a snail's pace. Putting one thousand woodsmen to work felling trees and placing other obstacles in Burgoyne's path from Whitehall to Fort Edward (on the Hudson River), Schuyler forced the British to take twenty days to cover the 22 miles. Burgoyne now had a line of communications stretching 185 miles from Fort Edward to Montreal, with almost 40 miles of portages at both ends of Lake Champlain and near Ticonderoga. But he pressed on toward Albany. Schuyler had sent the Polish military engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko to select a position for stopping this advance.

Meanwhile, Washington had started sending Schuyler reinforcements. Benedict Arnold, disgusted by the protracted charges that he had misused funds during his Canadian operations, had finally submitted his resignation to Congress, but on that same day (11 July 1777) Congress got a request from Washington that Arnold be assigned to Schuyler's command.

Major General Benjamin Lincoln was sent on Washington's recommendation to command the New England militia being assembled in Vermont to support Schuyler. Both officers proved to be of immediate value, Lincoln at Bennington (see bennington battlefield) and Arnold in leading the relief column to Fort Stanwix. Arnold is also credited with assisting Kosciuszko in laying out the positions at Bemis Heights, and he was a hero of the subsequent Battles of Saratoga.

These two leaders arrived without troops, but Washington also sent Dan Morgan with his five hundred Virginia riflemen and the Massachusetts brigades of John Glover and John Nixon.

Schuyler had the situation under control by this time, but political pressure nevertheless resulted in his being relieved of command and superseded by Major General Horatio Gates. Son of a duke's housekeeper, this unattractive little Englishman was a social radical and sound military professional. He and Arnold were immediately at odds, a personality clash that could easily have given the story of Saratoga a less happy ending. The factionalism between the Gates and the Schuyler parties in the Northern army, New Englanders against New Yorkers, not only weakened the military effort but also led to the so-called Conway Cabal, the objective of which was to have Gates replace Washington as commander in chief. The decisive Battles of Saratoga therefore involved more than a visitor will see from a tour of the site today, and this should make an account of the battles all the more interesting.

On 13 September 1777 Burgoyne started crossing the Hudson from the east bank to Saratoga (now Schuylerville), and four days later he halted his cautious advance and deployed about 3 miles short of Bemis Heights. Abandoned by all but about fifty of his Indians, he was groping in the dark for lack of military intelligence. Rebel patrols had been harassing his now-reduced force of about six thousand rank and file, and Gates was well informed about his movements.

The Battle of Freeman's Farm, or the First Battle of Saratoga, on 19 September, was brought on by Burgoyne's reconnaissance in force by three columns to "develop the situation." Gates was content to sit in his prepared positions, letting Burgoyne take the initiative, but Arnold prevailed on him to use part of his numerical superiority to conduct an "active defense." Dan Morgan and Henry Dearborn therefore moved forward through the rough, wooded terrain on the west side of the battlefield. At 12:30 the advance guard of the British center column had reached Freeman's Farm, where Burgoyne ordered it to halt until the progress of the column on the right was known. Dan Morgan's "turkey shooters" worked their way into position around the unsuspecting enemy regulars, and at 12:45 delivered a surprise fire that knocked out all their officers and drove the others back in blind panic. The Virginians followed up with an enthusiastic but disorganized charge that brought them into collision with the main body of this center column, whose well-disciplined fire sent the Rebels scampering for cover. The American light infantry rallied, however, and they were reinforced by seven regiments. For three or four hours a heavy engagement was sustained, the Americans charging when the opportunity seemed to be promising and always being driven back to their line of departure by equally determined British regulars.

General Riedesel accepted the risk of leaving a reduced force to guard the position he had taken up near the river to protect Burgoyne's supplies, and sent reinforcements to the center column. After detaching four guns for this purpose as soon as he learned that a general engagement was shaping up around Freeman's Farm, Riedesel also reconnoitered a route to be used if he had to send more support. At about 5 p.m. Riedesel got orders from Burgoyne to head for Freeman's Farm and launch an attack on the American east flank to take pressure off the seriously threatened positions of the center column. When Riedesel threw his German regulars piecemeal against the American flank, Burgoyne attacked around Freeman's Farm and slowly gained ground.

Not only did Gates fail to take advantage of his opportunity to annihilate the reduced forces guarding Burgoyne's vital bateaux and supply train along the river bank, but also, when Arnold returned to Bemis Heights for more reinforcements, he did not let him return to the battlefield. The battle ended with Burgoyne's troops holding the field, but their losses had been exorbitant: 350 dead or wounded out of the 800 who bore the brunt of the fighting. The right-flank column spent most of the day beating its way through the wilderness and was never actively engaged. The Americans lost about 320 killed, wounded, and missing.

SECOND SARATOGA

Burgoyne wanted to resume his offensive the next day, 20 September, but General Simon Fraser, who had led the hard but futile effort of the flank column, convinced him that his grenadiers and light infantry would do much better after a day's rest. Having agreed to this delay, "Gentleman Johnny" then postponed his attack again because he received a message from Sir Henry Clinton offering to make a diversion up the Hudson from New York City to support him. Burgoyne therefore put his troops to work building an extensive system of field fortifications. At Freeman's Farm the Balcarres Redoubt was built, and it was the most important of the forward positions. About 200 yards to the north was the Breymann Redoubt. Between these two key works the Canadian auxiliaries went to work forming a screen of stockaded cabins. An entrenched camp was constructed on the plateau overlooking the North Branch of Mill Creek, between the Balcarres Redoubt and the Hudson. On higher ground to the rear the Great Redoubt and two smaller earthworks were built to cover the Great Ravine and the floating bridge constructed across the Hudson.

American militia under the command of Lincoln were now conducting serious raids against British positions along their vital line of communications to Lake Champlain. Militia reinforcements were swelling the ranks of Gates's force at Bemis Heights, and thanks to General Schuyler's efforts, supplies and ammunition were also coming in. Burgoyne's ranks, on the other hand, were being reduced by desertion and disease. His horses were starving. The troops had been living on salt pork and flour for some time, and on 3 October their rations had to be reduced by one-third. Enemy patrols swarmed around Burgoyne's camp, cutting off foraging parties and keeping his men constantly on the alert against threatened attack.

Rejecting Riedesel's proposal that he withdraw, reestablish communications with Canada, and wait for Clinton's diversion to materialize, Burgoyne insisted on making one more effort to fight his way to Albany. The Second Battle of Saratoga, on 7 October, resulted from another reconnaissance in force, because Burgoyne still had been unable to get information with which to plan a coordinated attack on Bemis Heights.

Using his 600 auxiliaries and Captain Fraser's company of rangers to screen his right flank, Burgoyne sent 1,500 regulars in a southwesterly direction toward high ground that had been his objective in the first battle. About half a mile west of the Neilson House this terrain had been unfortified three weeks earlier, but Gates had taken advantage of the additional time and reinforcements to construct earthworks there.

The British tactics were mysterious. They advanced slowly for less than a mile and then formed on a front of about 1,000 yards on a gentle rise north of Mill Creek. A wheat field to the front permitted good observation and fields of fire from the British line, but the flanks were in the woods.

Benedict Arnold had been relieved of command after a dispute with Gates, but the latter was acting as if he had learned something of Arnold's tactical style, and he ordered Morgan to "begin the game" by the same sort of flank attack the Virginians had made before. Gates ordered the eight-hundred-man brigade of General Enoch Poor to move through the woods and hit the opposite flank.

At about 2:30 p.m. this brigade had deployed at the base of a hill held by Major John Acland's grenadiers, who constituted the left (east) flank of Burgoyne's position. Poor's brigade held its formation in the face of all the artillery and small-arms fire Acland could bring to bear. Outnumbered two to one and worried about this well-disciplined operation to their front, the grenadiers responded eagerly to their commander's shouted order, "Fix bayonets and charge the damned Rebels." The veteran New Hampshire Continentals fired on the order of their officers, stopped the grenadiers in their tracks, and then surged forward to overrun their position.

Morgan's Virginians had meanwhile gone into action, routing the flank security of Captain Fraser and hitting the British line on the flank and rear. Dearborn's light infantry arrived just as the British were changing front to meet this threat, and the right of Burgoyne's line was driven back. Sir Francis Clerke was mortally wounded and captured before he could deliver the order for a general withdrawal, and Riedesel's Germans in the center of the line fought on.

Arnold galloped onto the field at this point, hotly pursued by an officer sent by Gates to order him back to camp.

It is quite true that Burgoyne's line had become untenable before Arnold arrived, and a general withdrawal had already been ordered. The Germans withstood the frontal attack that Arnold led personally in his first heroic act of the afternoon (it was actually about noon, the battle having lasted only an hour so far), and they withdrew only when their flanks were threatened and when ordered to do so. But Burgoyne merely pulled back into those fortifications he had been building. Arnold's achievement was to drive the British from their redoubts, which took an inspired effort on his part and some very heavy fighting. The point overlooked by Arnold's critics is that the Americans could not afford to let the British continue to hold those positions when there was the very real threat that Clinton's expedition could be advancing up the Hudson to hit the Bemis Heights fortifications from the rear. Even the rumor of such a threat would have been dangerous to Gates, whose force of eleven thousand troops included more than eight thousand militia.

Having directed the fighting that drove in the British center, Arnold noticed that there was a hero on the other side who was very conspicuous in his efforts to rally troops to delay the American advance.

"That man on the gray horse is a host in himself and must be disposed of," said Arnold to Dan Morgan. The man was General Simon Fraser, and he was mortally wounded by one of Morgan's riflemen. Legend has it that Tim Murphy picked off Clerke and Fraser that day, firing at a range of about 300 feet from a perch in a tree.

Arnold launched a determined attack on the Balcarres Redoubt that was repulsed. Finding a fresh brigade on the field, he then led an assault that cleared out the line of fortified cabins in the low ground between the Balcarres and Breymann Redoubt. Having thus weakened the latter position, Arnold organized and led the attack that overran the Breymann Redoubt, receiving a serious wound in the same leg that had been hit in the assault on Quebec. (There is a monument to this patriotic leg on the battlefield.)

Burgoyne withdrew in good order to his prepared positions around the Great Redoubt, and two days later he had withdrawn to Schuylerville. Gates was unable to pursue immediately, but by 12 October he had the British surrounded and Burgoyne finally accepted defeat. Negotiations were completed the evening of 16 October, and the formal surrender took place the next day. Playing on the threat of Clinton's appearance to the rear of Gates's army, Burgoyne was able to surrender by convention rather than by capitulation, the significance being that his army would be paroled "upon condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest." Burgoyne and two officers of his staff were eventually allowed to return to England, but his troops ended up as prisoners of war because Congress found various pretexts for not ratifying the convention.

A large national park preserves the rolling countryside, terrain features, and principal landmarks of the Saratoga battlefield. A visitor should try to time a visit for the season of the year when the two battles were fought, not only because the impressions will be more valid historically but also because the fall colors will make the experience particularly memorable. The site superintendent quite rightly points out that three hours should be allowed to do this place justice, and you will need at least an hour to see even briefly the nine major landmarks on the 9-mile automobile route.

Eight miles north on U.S. 4 and to the right as one enters Schuylerville is a 25-acre detached section of Saratoga National Historical Park where the restored country mansion of General Schuyler is located. Built in 1777 after Burgoyne's troops burned it and other buildings on Schuyler's estate for tactical reasons, it is a large white frame structure of two stories and beautifully simple lines.

The Field of Grounded Arms, where Burgoyne's surviving 6,300 troops laid down their weapons in surrender on 17 October 1777, is among the "Other Sites Considered" by the National Survey of Historic Sites (1964). On the west bank of the Hudson in Schuylerville on N.Y. 29, a few hundred feet east of U.S. 4, some 50 acres of this historic site have survived as open ground. A neglected landmark is Stark's Knob, just north of Schuylerville.

The Saratoga Park Battlefield Visitor Center is open year-round, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weather permitting, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The Schuyler House is closed in the winter. Phone: (518) 664-9821.

Schenectady Stockade Historic District

Schenectady Stockade Historic District, just off N.Y. 5 (State Street) on the Mohawk River. The tourist is in for a thrill of discovery when he or she turns from the garish sprawl of modern Schenectady into the narrow, tree-lined streets of this recently created historic district. Several hundred houses in this tidy area of several city blocks constitute not only a unique collection of early and intermediate American styles but also a charming neighborhood. All the houses are private, but descriptive literature is available (see below) and guided tours can be arranged.

The historic district, established legally in 1962, is generally within the area enclosed by a stockade built around the settlement soon after its establishment in 1661. In 1690 this westernmost village in the Mohawk Valley was destroyed by 210 French and Indian raiders. All but five or six houses were burned, and it was with great difficulty that the Mohawks prevailed on the Dutch to reestablish the settlement.

During and after the Revolution, Schenectady was an important shipping center and base for operations to the west. Its shipyards had a virtual monopoly on construction of Durham boats, river craft of 15 to 20 tons developed originally to carry bulk freight on the lower Delaware. Raiders came close on one or two occasions, but Schenectady was not attacked.

St. George's Episcopal Church, on North Ferry Street between Union and Front Streets, was built with the help of Trinity Church in New York City and the benefactions of Sir William Johnson during the years 1759 to 1763 by Samuel Fuller, who was responsible for Johnson Hall in Johnstown and other notable structures. According to some authorities, it is the oldest church in the Mohawk Valley. During the Revolution it was closed (probably because of its Loyalist associations), was used as a barracks, and finally became a haven for stray animals. The legend arose that it was the secret burial place of Walter Butler, killed far away on West Canada Creek. In 1793 the building was renovated, a wooden steeple added, and regular services resumed in 1798. Further alterations and renovations took place through the years, the most recent in 1953 when the colonial atmosphere of the interior was restored. Today St. George's is an attractive structure of gray limestone with a gray slate hipped roof and a tall wooden steeple. It sits within an ancient cemetery and now serves the largest parish in the diocese of Albany.

The many private houses of historic and architectural significance—some dating to about 1700—are described and pictured in an extensive website, www.historicstockade.com. In addition, publications are available from the Schenectady County Historical Society. The society also features many exhibits and archives, and is located at 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, N.Y. 12305, in the Stockade District. Phone: (518) 374-0263.

Schoharie Valley

Schoharie Valley. Still a region of great scenic and historic interest, this long, flat, fertile valley a mere half-hour's drive west of the Hudson was a major source of provisions (mainly grain) for the Patriot cause. For this reason it was an objective of Loyalist and Indian raiders from Canada, and a major landmark survives as the Old Stone Fort in the village of Schoharie. Other sites are associated with the legendary Timothy Murphy.

Palatines from Livingston Manor bought land in the Schoharie Valley from Indians and, starting in 1713, established seven villages from Central Bridge to Middleburgh. Many markers indicate historic sites associated with this pioneering effort. The Germans prospered as farmers, maintaining good relations with the local Indians who had inhabited the valley since prehistoric times, but as the Revolution approached they split into Rebel and Loyalist factions. A committee of safety was formed in 1775, five minuteman companies were organized, and three forts were eventually built to protect the valley.

In October 1780 Sir John Johnson and Joseph Brant joined forces at Unadilla and ravaged the valley. Approaching from the southwest and bypassing Upper Fort (the site is in the vicinity of Toepath Mountain), the eight hundred Loyalist and Indian raiders entered the valley at night. The two-hundred-man garrison of Middle Fort (the site is in modern Middleburgh) was alerted by the smoke of burning farms, and the commander was ready to consider surrender terms when Timothy Murphy took matters into his own hands. Already famous for his marksmanship and self-reliance as a scout, Murphy simply drew a bead on the enemy's "flag" each time his craven commander, Major Melancthon Woolsey, tried to receive Sir John's surrender terms. A few stout-hearted fellow soldiers rallied around this insubordinate scout to prevent the officers of the garrison from arresting Murphy, and the raiders, unaware of what was going on inside Middle Fort, moved on for easier pickings.

Murphy had married a local girl when he had been stationed in the valley two years earlier. The site of the house where he lived for several years and where he died is indicated by a highway marker on N.Y. 30 at Watsonville about 4 miles southwest of Middleburgh. It is in pretty, open farm country where deer are still a traffic hazard.

Old Stone Fort is located on the outskirts of the village of Schoharie along Fort Road. Ample signage helps greatly in directing visitors. The Old Stone Fort had been built originally in 1772 as a church, and raiders made an unconvincing effort to capture it in 1780. Parishioners from as far as 15 miles away hauled its native limestone blocks in oxcarts to the construction site, and their names are carved in many of the face stones. Names of Loyalist Christians were obliterated later by Patriots. In 1778 the church was enclosed by a stockade; blockhouses at two corners mounted small cannon. The square tower of the church, once topped by a graceful belfry and spire, was manned by sharpshooters when the fort was defended. A sign on the rear wall of the church points up to a hole in the roof cornice said to have been made by a small cannonball fired by the attackers in 1780.

For almost a century the Schoharie County Historical Society has been collecting relics now displayed in the Old Stone Fort and its cement-block annex. Exhibits include electrified maps and a sound system interpreting Revolutionary War activities of the region. In front of the church is a grave of David Williams, one of the three men who captured Major John André at Tarrytown. The historical society is headquartered on the site and presently maintains six buildings there, including a library that specializes in genealogy dating to the seventeenth century. The site is open to the public from May until the end of October, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 12 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Schoharie County Historical Society can be contacted at (518) 295-7192.

Schuyler Mansion

Schuyler Mansion (the Pastures). Seealbany.

Schuylerville

Schuylerville. Seesaratoga national historical park.

Seneca-Iroquois National Museum

Seneca-Iroquois National Museum, Salamanca. The land of the Seneca was decimated by the troops of Generals Sullivan and Clinton during the Revolution, and then mostly taken from them afterwards. Many Seneca fled to Canada; while those remaining settled mostly around the town of Salamanca, part of which lies within the reservation's grounds. The museum is located on the Allegany Indian Reservation at 814 Broad Street. On Route 17, take Exit 20 and follow the signs. The museum is open April to October, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Phone: (716) 945-1760.

Setauket

Setauket and vicinity, Long Island. The only important village in the central portion of the island during the Revolution, Setauket had been settled initially by Puritans from around Boston. The Battle of Setauket took place on 22 August 1777, when the Third Battalion of De Lancey's Loyalists held off a raiding force of five hundred Patriots ferried across the sound in whaleboats by Caleb Brewster. Another raid in the "whaleboat warfare" was led by Brewster on 10 December 1777, and it also was repulsed.

"The Culper Ring" that furnished Washington with valuable intelligence after its creation in August 1778 was centered at Setauket and built around a cell of prominent townsmen: Caleb Brewster, Benjamin Tallmadge, Abraham Woodhull ("Culper Senior"), Robert Townsend (who took over later as "Culper Junior"), and Austin Roe (the local tavernkeeper). All of these men except Tallmadge, who was not a secret agent until later in the war (see raynham hall), met at the home of Anna Strong to make their initial plans. She subsequently played a key role in signaling Caleb Brewster on the Connecticut shore when there were messages to be picked up.

A popular but reliable account of the ring's operation is A Peculiar Service by Corey Ford (Little, Brown and Company, 1965), a work distinguished by the excellent maps of New York City and the Setauket area during the Revolution. It is still available through internet booksellers.

The Anna Strong House burned many years ago; its unmarked site is on the high ground on the southern portion of Strong's Neck overlooking Little Bay. (Since this is more than 6 miles from the closest point on the Connecticut shore, one wonders about the story that Caleb Brewster watched her clothesline for coded signals.) Roe's Tavern was about half a mile east of the Caleb Brewster House. Built in 1703 and enlarged in 1735, it was moved in the 1930s to a hill off what is now called Old Post Road and is a private residence.

Caleb Brewster's home (c. 1665) stands in a plot of grass on the north side of N.Y. 25A in East Setauket, a few hundred yards east of Old Town Road. Recently restored, it is a simple saltbox house of one and a half stories with shingle siding, two chimneys, and a basement.

Abraham Woodhull's house has disappeared, but its site, overlooking Setauket Harbor, is marked on Dyke Road half a mile north of the Presbyterian Church (1811). Woodhull's grave, including bricks from the foundation of his home, is behind the latter church, which is on the site of two earlier structures, one of which was the Loyalist "fort" during the Battle of Setauket. (To reach the Woodhull house site from the green, drive eastward on Dyke Road from the Caroline Avenue junction and follow Dyke Road as it turns generally north along the edge of the harbor. The highway marker will be on the left, or west, half a mile from the starting point.)

Caroline Church is Setauket's gem. Built in 1729, the severely simple, white frame structure with a twisted steeple is said to be the second-oldest Episcopal Church building in the United States. It and the Presbyterian Church face the triangular village green on Main Street.

The Thompson House (c. 1700) is on North Country Road adjacent to the headquarters of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA). The society's museum house is a classic eighteenth-century saltbox featuring unusually high ceilings and fireplaces and exposed framing of heavy timber, and activities such as flax spinning, weaving, and dye-making are demonstrated in season. Of great architectural interest is the Sherwood-Jayne House on Old Post Road, East Setauket, another property of the SPLIA about 3 miles from the Thompson House. This house, another saltbox, is in a rural setting that includes a sheep pasture. SPLIA website: www.splia.org; phone: (631) 692-4664.

Sharon Springs Battleground

Sharon Springs Battleground. U.S. 20 has two markers between Sharon and Sharon Springs indicating the location of the running battle in which about 150 Patriots under Colonel Marinus Willett defeated twice that number of Loyalists and Indians under John Doxtader. The region was a hideout for raiders, who offered a bounty of 50 acres for volunteers and $8 for Patriot scalps. Unable to get through the dense cedar swamp to surprise the enemy camp at night, and finding that Doxtader had moved the next morning (10 July 1781) to a good defensive position on higher ground, Willett resorted to an ancient tactical trick. Taking advantage of the cover provided by the dense woods that limited the enemy's visibility, Willett deployed his smaller forces in a crescent. Initially advancing his forces in the center and then having them fall back, the Patriot commander drew the enemy out of position and hit them with surprise fire from both flanks. He then counterattacked and drove the enemy off the field in confusion.

With a sketch of the battle and a large-scale map a visitor today can reconstruct the action. The terrain is still open farmland, and Cedar Swamp, where the Loyalist camp was located on 9 July 1781, survives a few hundred yards to the northwest of Sharon Center. South of the latter landmark at a distance of a few hundred yards is the draw into which Willett lured the Loyalists.

Shell's (Schell's) Bush

Shell's (Schell's) Bush, about 5 miles north of modern Herkimer. This settlement was the scene of a heroic defense by a Patriot family in August 1781 (see german flats).

Shoemaker House

Shoemaker House, Mohawk Valley, in the town of Mohawk on West Main Street, on N.Y. 5S. A large historical marker, conspicuous in the paved parking area in front of a modern tavern, indicates the survival of a two-story frame house with hip roof where Rudolph Shoemaker operated his tavern. The place was known for its hospitality to Loyalists as well as to Patriots. The notorious Walter Butler of Butlersbury was captured here in 1777 while holding a midnight meeting to spark a Loyalist uprising to support St. Leger's siege of Fort Stanwix. In this vicinity 450 Loyalists and Indians under Joseph Brant and Captain William Caldwell are said to have hidden in a ravine before launching their famous raid on German Flats in September 1778.

Skenesboro

Skenesboro. Now called Whitehall.

Smith (Claudius) Caves

Smith (Claudius) Caves, near Tuxedo. Seeramapo valley.

Smith (Joshua Hett) House Site

Smith (Joshua Hett) House Site, West Haverstraw, Rockland County. "The Treason House," as it is identified on the highway marker on U.S. 9W near the entrance to the New York State Rehabilitation Hospital, was the home of the man who played, innocently, a key role in revealing Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point. A successful lawyer from a distinguished family, Smith had directed the Patriot secret service in the Hudson Highlands for Arnold's predecessor and was asked by Arnold to continue these duties. Smith was Arnold's agent in meeting Major John André on the Vulture and bringing him to a secret conference with Arnold in the woods about 4 miles from Smith's house. He was supposed to escort André back to the Vulture. When the latter became impossible, Arnold and André were put up in Smith's house, within the Patriot lines. From this place they watched the next day as the Vulture was forced by Patriot artillery to withdraw. Arnold than gave Smith the mission of escorting André through the American lines on the east side of the Hudson.

Arnold had not taken Smith into his confidence, and Smith did not know the real identity of André or the true nature of his business. Smith left "John Anderson" to complete the last 15 miles of his journey alone, and the unfortunate André was captured at Tarrytown.

Acquitted of being involved in Arnold's treason, Smith was nevertheless jailed by state authorities on suspicion of being a Loyalist. In May 1781 he escaped from Goshen, took refuge with the British, spent eight years in England (1783–1801), and died in 1818 in New York City. His property had not been confiscated, but most of his fortune was lost because he had not been able to attend to his affairs.

The house site is on a steep hill alongside the highway. A visitor can drive onto the large reservation of the state hospital for a view of Haverstraw Bay, where the Vulture was supposed to retrieve Major André. The site of the secret meeting in the woods 4 miles from here is not marked.

Smith's Clove

Smith's Clove, near Monroe. Seeramapo valley.

Springsteel's Farm

Springsteel's Farm, about 1.5 miles west of Stony Point, Rockland County. In making their approach march for the storming of Stony Point, Anthony Wayne's troops began to arrive here about 8 p.m. on 15 July 1779. Extraordinary measures were taken to preserve secrecy, with the troops guarded so no traitor could slip away to warn the British. Wayne moved closer to Stony Point for a final reconnaissance, and while he was at Springsteel's he wrote a farewell letter in case he were killed in action. The Patriots resumed their advance about 11:30 p.m., generally following the line of today's Wayne Avenue (Route 77) but dividing into two columns soon after leaving Springsteel's.

The site of Springsteel Farm (as it is called on markers) is opposite the entrance gate to Camp Bullowa, a Boy Scout camp just 0.15 mile north of the intersection of the Crickettown-Franck Road with Wayne Avenue (Route 77). A direction marker on N.Y. 210 about 0.3 mile west of the junction of N.Y. 210 with U.S. 9W-202 in the village of Stony Point indicates that the site is about a mile north on a narrow road that winds and climbs through country only sparsely developed in modern times. No vestige remains of Springsteel's, but by visiting the spot one will see that it made an ideal "final assembly area." On the highest point along the present Wayne Avenue is the hill from which Wayne is alleged to have made his final reconnaissance; it is now occupied by a private residence.

Stark's Knob

Stark's Knob, just north of Schuylerville, upper Hudson Valley. The great Patriot victory at Bennington (see bennington battlefield) was due primarily to the fact that John Stark refused to obey orders and join the main American army under Horatio Gates at Saratoga. It is all the more ironic that this same Stark, when he did get around to obeying his orders and joining Gates, was the man who put the cork in the bottle and sealed Burgoyne's fate. This cork was the possession of the hill north of Schuylersville now known as Stark's Knob. Burgoyne had decided to make one last effort to extricate his army when he discovered that his escape route was blocked here.

The site is poorly marked, but a visitor can find it by driving 0.2 mile south from the Mohawk River bridge that is just north of Schuylerville. A dirt road climbs steeply to the west from U.S. 4, and to the right are open fields about where Stark deployed.

Staten Island

Staten Island. Seenew york city.

Steuben Memorial

Steuben Memorial, about 20 miles north of +Utica, on Starr Hill Road, about 2.5 miles west of the intersection of Routes 12 and 28, near Remsen, Oneida. This State Historic Site contains a replica of the log house in which Steuben spent his summers and where the old bachelor died. His grave is nearby. The house contains the general's uniform, some of his furniture and other possessions, and a replica of the Ralph Earl portrait.

Friedrich Wilhelm Augustus von Steuben (1730–1794) is credited with transforming the Continental army from an undisciplined crowd into a force of professionals. Of particular significance was his teaching of standards of professionalism to the army's officers.

Steuben is an important and a colorful figure in United States history. With a letter from Benjamin Franklin introducing him to Washington as a "Lieutenant General in the King of Prussia's service," knowing no English and having a limited command of French, Steuben was soon put to work training the army at Valley Forge. When the results were proved in battle a few months later, Steuben was made a major general in the Continental army and inspector general. The next winter, 1778 to 1779, he prepared his "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States." Later he set up a badly needed system of property accountability for the army.

He took part in the final military operations of the war in Virginia, commanding a division at Yorktown and giving Washington the benefit of his professional knowledge of siege warfare.

General Steuben became an American citizen, established residence in New York City after his discharge from the army in March 1784, and was a prominent social figure. In 1786 New York gave him 16,000 acres in the Mohawk Valley, and the Steuben Memorial is on this land.

Although fairly isolated in a picturesque rural region, the site is easily accessible from a nearby high-speed high-way and has great potential as a major historical attraction. In 2004 there were plans in the works for an expansion of the site. There are abundant picnicking facilities, no admission is charged, and the site is open daily from mid-May through Labor Day. Phone: (315) 768-7224.

Stone Arabia

Stone Arabia, Mohawk Valley, in Montgomery County, bisected by N.Y. 10 north of Palatine Bridge, at Thruway Exit 29. This name was originally applied to the area of some 20,000 acres of rich farmland granted to Palatine settlers in 1723. (In old records it is spelled "Stoneraby," and nobody knows how the picturesque later version evolved.)

The Battle of Stone Arabia, 18 October 1780, took place just to the northeast of Palatine Bridge. Major land-marks have been preserved, but a little prior knowledge is needed for today's visitor to appreciate them.

After devastating the Schoharie Valley, some 1,500 battle-tested raiders under Sir John Johnson were marching up the north bank of the Mohawk, burning settlements and pillaging. General Robert Van Rensselaer had scraped together a force of Patriot militia that was moving some distance to the rear and on the other side of the river. In a position to intercept the raiders was a small body of about 130 Massachusetts levies (and a few others) under Colonel John Brown at the fortified farm of Isaac Paris ("Fort Paris") in the village of Stone Arabia.

Van Rensselaer ordered Brown to march south and attack the head of Johnson's column while the main Patriot force closed up and hit them from the rear. Near the ruins of Fort Keyser the Massachusetts troops were decisively defeated. Brown and about forty of his men were killed, and the rest were routed; the raiders destroyed two old churches and many other buildings in the area before continuing the march toward Fort Klock.

The battlefield and the site of famous old Fort Keyser are indicated by highway markers in the picturesque farmland 2 miles north of Palatine Bridge on N.Y. 10. One sign points out the low, wooded ridge a few hundred yards to the south where the main enemy force was located initially. From the evidence of cannonballs and bullets found throughout the years in neighboring fields, Brown was advancing west along the general line of today's Route 10 when he walked into a well-planned ambuscade.

The site of Fort Keyser—built by Johannes Keyser in 1750—is indicated by a highway marker on Dillenback Road 0.3 of a mile east of Cook Corners (where N.Y. 10 makes its second 90-degree turn after leaving Palatine Bridge). This valley landmark disappeared in 1855, only a few years after a watercolor sketch was made by R. A. Grider; still to be seen is the place where it stood, now a weed-covered mound in a farm field about 300 yards south of the road. An inscribed stone of Fort Keyser has been identified in the foundation of the house nearby.

On N.Y. 10 north of Cook Corners 1.2 miles is the white frame Lutheran church rebuilt in 1792 after the older one was destroyed in 1780 by Sir John's raiders. It is on the site of the first log structure, which was erected in 1729.

About 100 yards farther north is a small architectural gem in a rural setting little despoiled by centuries of American progress. This is the Dutch Reformed Church, of luminous, light gray limestone, built in 1788 on the site of the one destroyed in 1780. Colonel John Brown lies in the ancient cemetery to the rear, and a monument to this colorful character, erected by his son in 1836, is in front of the church.

He was called John Brown of Pittsfield (Massachusetts) to distinguish him from all the others. Only thirty-six years old when killed in action—in fact, on his thirty-sixth birthday—he had packed a full life into those few years. After graduating from Yale (1771) and practicing law briefly in this area of New York, he had returned to his native New England. At the start of the Revolution he volunteered for a secret mission to Canada, charged with feeling out the spirit of rebellion in what the Patriots hoped to make "the fourteenth colony" and setting up an intelligence net. He is among those credited with suggesting that Fort Ticonderoga be captured by a surprise attack, and he took part in the Ethan Allen operation against the fort, though he abandoned Allen during a planned attack on Montreal. Later he was part of General Montgomery's column invading Canada along the Lake Champlain route, and had been promised a promotion to lieutenant colonel when Montgomery was killed at Quebec. Meanwhile, he had clashed with Arnold, who refused to recommend the promotion. Brown became Arnold's most dedicated enemy, using his lawyer's training to press formal charges of malfeasance and incompetence. Failing to remove Arnold, Brown resigned his military commission, returned to his civilian pursuits at Pittsfield, and published a broadside attack on Arnold.

The site of Fort Paris is indicated by a highway marker half a mile north of the stone church. It was on the slight rise about 200 yards east of the road. Colonel Isaac Paris, one of the regimental commanders who goaded General Herkimer into the ambush at Oriskany, was captured there and subsequently murdered by Loyalists.

Another 0.3 mile north is the site of Loucks Tavern, on Stone Arabia Road (County Highway 34). Here the Palatine District Committee of Safety met for the first time on 27 August 1774, "attended by a large number of the inhabitants," writes William W. Campbell in his Annals of Tryon County (1831). This spot is approximately the geographic center of the historic region then known as Stone Arabia, and now the Palatine Township of Montgomery County.

Stony Point

Stony Point, near the community of Stony Point on the Hudson River, about 25 miles north of New York City and 12 miles south of West Point, on U.S. 9W and 202.

This was a place of strategic importance, not only for its location at the southern edge of the Hudson Highlands but also because it covered Kings Ferry. A miniature of West Point, it is a rocky promontory protruding half a mile into the river toward Verplanck's Point.

The Americans had concentrated their fortification efforts a few miles farther north, and Sir Henry Clinton's forces easily captured Stony Point and Verplanck's Point on 1 June 1779 when they moved up the Hudson to support Burgoyne's invasion from Canada. Although it quickly became apparent that the enemy was not going to continue his offensive up the Hudson, Washington was worried about the fact that the British were fortifying Stony Point and Verplanck's Point. When he learned from good intelligence reports that the works at Stony Point were not being completed quickly, Washington ordered General Wayne to take them by a coup de main—a quick, surprise attack.

The Americans moved from near Fort Montgomery toward their final assembly areas on 15 July 1779, taking elaborate precautions to preserve secrecy along the 15-mile line of march. Wayne received valuable information about the British garrison, which included a number of African American troops, from a slave named Pompey Lamb who spied for the Patriots. Shortly before midnight on 15 to 16 July the "forlorn hopes" of the flank columns started forward from the swampy ground that separates the 150-foot peak of Stony Point from the mainland. A third force, in the middle, made a diversionary attack that accomplished its purpose of drawing about half of the enemy defenders down from the hill and away from the main fortification there.

The fight lasted only fifteen minutes after the two flank columns converged almost simultaneously on the British fort, shortly after midnight. The British commander reported the loss of 20 killed, 74 wounded, 58 missing, and the rest of his 624 officers and men captured. The well-disciplined Americans won praise for taking so many prisoners.

General Wayne, who received a head wound early in the attack but retained command, reported that of 1,350 actually engaged he lost only 15 killed and 83 wounded.

A fiery French officer, scion of a noble family from Provence, won the $500 prize offered by Wayne for being the first man to enter the enemy works. François Louis Teissèdre de Fleury, who had come to America as a volunteer, had immediately distinguished himself and been commissioned a captain of engineers in May 1777. After doing engineering work around Philadelphia he was honored by a resolution of Congress for gallantry at the Brandywine, and was wounded after serving six weeks in the siege of Fort Mifflin (see philadelphia, under Pennsylvania). He subsequently saw action at Monmouth and Newport before eclipsing all his previous accomplishments at Stony Point. Granted nine months' leave, he went to France, returned to America with Rochambeau, and was decorated by the French for his performance at Yorktown.

Congress voted only eight medals during the Revolution, and three were for Stony Point: a gold one for Wayne and silver ones for Fleury and Major John Stewart, who commanded the advance party of the left column. The French officer did not get his until 1783, when by some bureaucratic alchemy the silver medal had been transformed into gold.

The British reacted swiftly to Wayne's victory, sinking the galley that was taking most of the twelve captured cannon to West Point and securing Verplanck's Point before the planned American attack against that place got going. Washington wisely decided that the defense of Stony Point would not be worth the effort, so he ordered the fortifications destroyed and abandoned. The British reoccupied them on 19 July, the day after Wayne left. The operation had little strategic value, but it was a morale booster, and it was impressive evidence of the military qualities finally being developed within the American army. Edmund Burke's Annual Register for 1779 said the action "would have done honor to the most veteran soldiers." The French ambassador to Philadelphia, Gerard, studied reports of the battle carefully and wrote, "I am convinced that this action will … elevate the ideas of Europe about the military qualities of the Americans…."

Stony Point Battlefield is unspoiled. Within the state reservation there are extensive remains of the earthworks built during the Revolution, and historical markers identify the main points of interest in "Mad Anthony" Wayne's action. The rugged and heavily wooded promontory can be explored by trail (a road saves a climb to the top), and the view of the Hudson from there is splendid. There is a small but excellent museum. Featured is the oldest lighthouse on the Hudson River. Walking tours are provided, admission is free, and the site is open from 15 April to 31 October from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays). Phone: (914) 786-2521.

Suffern

Suffern. Seeramapo valley.

Sullivan-Clinton Expedition

Sullivan-Clinton Expedition. Starting at the Newtown Battlefield State Park, one may trace the operations of this punitive force against the Iroquois north into the Finger Lakes and west to the vicinity of Letchworth State Park. The latter place is of interest not only for the great natural beauty of the 15-mile Genesee River gorge but also for the vestiges of Seneca culture preserved there in the museum and the Seneca Council House.

About four thousand Patriot troops under General John Sullivan and James Clinton had the mission of "total destruction and devastation" of the Iroquois settlements. All organized resistance having been broken at Newtown, the invaders were impeded only by their own ponderous supply train. Burning Indian towns, destroying crops, and casting covetous eyes on this new land, the Patriots moved northward to Seneca Lake, westward from the area of modern Geneva to the ancient Indian town of Genesee (near modern Genesco).

Here a patrol of twenty-six men under Lieutenant Thomas Boyd was virtually wiped out on 13 September 1779, and the two survivors were cruelly tortured to death the next day.

Worth mentioning is the Sullivan Memorial between Groveland and East Groveland, southeast of Genesco. It lists the "heroic scouts" killed here in the ambush. The Boyd-Parker Memorial, a few miles west of Genesco on U.S. Alternate 20, is at the site of Little Beard's Town. Here the wounded Thomas Boyd was interrogated and then tortured to death. Although the story persists in patriotic circles that Boyd heroically refused to reveal information, the report of John Butler reads, "The officer who is a very intelligent person says their army consists of near 5,000 Continental troops … [who] intend, according to his account, to come no further than Genesee." The memorial indicates that the second prisoner killed here was Sergeant Michael Parker. Another prisoner slaughtered by the Indians, here or earlier, was the celebrated Oneida scout and marksman named Hanyerry.

Sullivan's expedition was supposed to be joined in this area by Colonel Daniel Brodhead's force of six hundred troops that had moved from Fort Pitt up the Allegheny Valley. In an advance of 400 miles this column burned ten villages, collected much booty, defeated the Indians in one skirmish, but turned back 50 miles short of its rendezvous with Sullivan because its guides were inadequate. The projected attack on Niagara was therefore not made, and Sullivan started back after burning Genesee.

Retracing his steps to Seneca Castle, or Kanadesaga, the site of which is covered by modern Geneva, the Patriots continued east to Cayuga Lake, moved south along both shores of this lake, and descended the Susquehanna to the Wyoming Valley (vicinity of modern Wilkes-Barre).

Sullivan had failed in his assigned mission of taking Niagara. He failed to destroy the ability of the Iroquois to continue their border warfare, the raids of 1780 and 1781 being more frequent and more vicious than in previous years. But in burning their crops and villages, Sullivan condemned the Iroquois to a winter of harsh starvation that had serious long-term consequences for their society.

If the Patriots showed little real military aptitude in this expedition, they revealed no lack of genius for real-estate development. Many of the Continental troops involved were New Englanders, who returned to their thin-soil and rocky home states with appetizing reports on the Iroquois country. "The Military Tract" was set aside by New York in 1782 to give bounties for service in the Revolution. It comprised more than 1.5 million acres of Iroquois country—all of the present Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Counties, and portions of Tompkins, Schuyler, Wayne, and Oswego. When drawing for lots started on the first day of 1791, many veterans had sold their claims to speculators. Meanwhile, New York and Massachusetts had settled their differences over control of western lands, and the rest of western New York was taken from the Indians so whites could move in. Today's tourist will find many historical markers and sites associated with post-Revolution land purchases and their development.

Five states participated in an elaborate celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Sullivan-Clinton campaign, locating the forty-eight campsites and erecting handsome bronze plaques along the route of march. The latter remain in place to guide today's tourist. Highway markers pertaining to the expedition have disappeared mysteriously as certain ninety-nine-year leases with the Indians of western New York came due for renegotiation.

Sullivan Memorial

Sullivan Memorial (State Historical Site). Seesullivanclinton expedition.

Tappan Historic District

Tappan Historic District, Rockland County. Two and a half miles west of the Hudson River landing opposite Dobbs Ferry, about midway between Kings Ferry and New York City, Tappan was an important camping area throughout the Revolution, and Washington's headquarters on several important occasions. The Tappan Patent was settled almost a century before the Revolution, and today it preserves much of its original character. Most of Tappan's historic sites lie within an 85-acre historic district established in 1966.

The little De Wint House at 20 Livingston Street, recently designated as a Washington Masonic Shrine and a National Historic Landmark, is a Dutch brick-and-sandstone structure built about 1700 by Daniel de Clark. John de Windt was a West Indian planter who later owned it. While using this building as his headquarters, Washington gave Benedict Arnold command of the Hudson Highlands, an assignment the turncoat had been angling for, and it was here that Washington made the hard decision that the charming young Major John André would suffer a spy's fate. While back in the De Wint House in May 1783 Washington met with General Sir Guy Carleton to arrange the peaceful British evacuation of New York City. In 1932 the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York bought the house and started restoring it.

The 1776 House, or Mabie Tavern, is on Main Street just south of Old Tappan Road. Around 1753 the house was sold to Casparus Mabie, who established a tavern there. The Orangetown Resolutions were signed here on 4 July 1774; this document was hailed by local historians as anticipating the Declaration of Independence by exactly two years, though it is difficult to determine any connection other than the date. The Old 76 House, as it is usually called, is an upscale eatery billed as "New York's Oldest Restaurant." Phone: (845) 359-5476.

John André was a prisoner in Mabie Tavern during his trial in the Dutch Reformed Church a short distance away. (The existing church structure is the third on its site, having been built in 1835; André's trial was in the second.) André's prison room was preserved for more than fifty years, then converted into a ballroom, but in 1897 the entire building was restored. It meets most of the criteria for registration as a National Historic Landmark.

The site of André's hanging and burial is marked by a monument on André Hill just south of Old Tappan Road. (From the Village Green in the center of town go 0.4 mile west on Old Tappan Road and turn south at the highway marker pertaining to the André Monument. Climb half a mile up a rather steep grade, through an attractive residential district, to the large polished stone monument within a circular fence.) André's remains were moved to Westminster Abbey in 1821 and placed near the monument previously erected there by George III (near Poets' Corner). In 1847 a small boulder was placed on the original grave. "A more elegant and durable monument should be erected upon the spot," Lossing commented after sketching it in 1850, and this has been done.

While at Tappan during this distasteful episode, Washington issued the instructions that led to the daring exploit of Sergeant Major John Champe. The plan was for a volunteer from "Light Horse Harry" Lee's legion to take on the role of a deserter, enter the British lines, and kidnap Benedict Arnold from his quarters on lower Broadway in New York City. Champe succeeded in being accepted as a volunteer in Arnold's legion, but was ordered off on an expedition to raid his native Virginia before he could make his attempt to capture Arnold. Unable to effect his escape from the British until Arnold's legion returned from Virginia, Champe eventually rejoined Lee in the Carolinas, and only then could the truth of his "desertion" from the Continental army be told. Tappan was the scene of Sergeant Major Champe's most hazardous feat, that of leaving the American lines. For further information contact the Tappantown Historical Society, P.O. Box 71, Tappan, N.Y. 10983. Phone: (914) 359-7790.

Tappan Massacre

Tappan Massacre. Under New Jersey Seebaylor massacre.

Tarrytown and North Tarrytown

Tarrytown and North Tarrytown, on U.S. 9 just north of Tappan Zee Bridge off Thruway Exit 9 (Tarrytown). Major John André was captured on the creek that separates the two towns, and here in Patriots' Park off U.S. 9 is a monument to his captors. In North Tarrytown is Philipsburg Manor. This is the Sleepy Hollow country made famous after the Revolution by Washington Irving, whose home, Sunnyside, is a mile south of the Tappan Zee Bridge near U.S. 9.

Ticonderoga

Ticonderoga and vicinity, on Lake Champlain at north end of Lake George. Natural beauty, historic importance, and a superlative reconstruction combine to make Fort Ticonderoga and its associated works a national landmark of the greatest significance and interest. No education is needed to appreciate the natural beauty. But the more one knows about the history of this site and the efforts of a few private citizens to preserve it, the more richly a visit will be rewarded.

"Between the waters" was the meaning of the Indian name for this place, and Ticonderoga is a corruption of their word "Cheonderoga," or "Tyeonderoga." In a position to control the 2-mile portage between Lakes Champlain and George as well as the entrance to Wood Creek (which led to the Great Carrying Place whose Hudson River terminus was Fort Edward), Ticonderoga was a critical spot on the natural route between Canada and the Thirteen Colonies.

During the Colonial Wars the French first fortified Crown Point (1731), about 12 miles north of Ticonderoga. (A visitor viewing the terrain, he might speculate on whether Crown Point is not a better strategic position than Ticonderoga for a fortress to control Lake Champlain.)

When the British built Fort William Henry on the south end of Lake George (see lake george village), the French in 1755 started fortifying Ticonderoga. One reason for pushing so far south was that their new fort at Crown Point had been started "on wrong principles." The French first put a military road along the 2-mile portage between the lakes (now Portage Road in the village of Ticonderoga). Then they started building a fort where the present reconstruction stands, first using oak logs and later replacing these with stone.

In the summer of 1758 the fort (named Carillon because water fell from Lake George with a sound like "a chime of bells") was almost finished when it was threatened by the largest British army yet fielded in North America. General James Abercromby was preparing to attack from the direction of Lake George with an expedition that numbered six thousand of Britain's finest regulars and nine thousand provincials.

The marquis de Montcalm reached Fort Carillon on 30 June 1758 to take command. He had fewer than four thousand troops, and reports indicated they would be attacked within a few days by up to six times that number. Montcalm sent strong detachments forward to detect and delay the enemy's approach, but he took another action that revealed his military genius. Instead of passively defending the fort, he deployed the bulk of his command in the woods about three-quarters of a mile to the west. Here his engineers laid out fieldworks on the forward slopes of a wooded hill, and his troops performed the prodigious labor of erecting abatis and a great wall of logs. All this was done in a few days—from decision to the issue of implementing orders to accomplishment.

Victory was on the side of the smaller battalions and the smarter leaders. Abercromby suffered one of the cost-liest defeats in British history, losing almost 2,000 in killed and wounded. The French had 377 casualties.

Today a visitor approaches Fort Ticonderoga along a paved road of the 1,000-acre reservation that has several monuments commemorating this French victory and the exceptional gallantry of the British and American battalions involved. The famous Black Watch (Forty-second Highlanders) and Royal Americans (now the King's Royal Rifle Corps of the British army) did the heaviest fighting. The present access road corresponds with the British axis of advance on the fort and gives a visitor an appreciation of Montcalm's wisdom in choosing his defensive position. Those casualty figures prove much more conclusively than any bronze plaques that this was one of the hardest battles ever fought on American soil.

Almost exactly a year later the French were forced to abandon Ticonderoga when its capture by Lord Jeffrey Amherst was imminent. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold were among the colonial officers in this operation (and sixteen years later they were to pay Ticonderoga another visit together). Amherst started repairs on the fort, which the French had tried to destroy on their departure by setting fires and leaving a slow match that exploded the powder magazine under the southeast bastion.

When the British won Canada, the military significance of Ticonderoga virtually disappeared. At the start of the American Revolution it was a military depot in the wilderness, guarded by a small garrison whose chief enemy was boredom. Stone forts of this period had the advantage of requiring less upkeep than wooden structures, which would rot away every few years and need rebuilding. But constant repairs are needed to keep up masonry walls in climates where frost works on the mortar. Stone masons were scarce in the American wilderness of two centuries ago, and as early as 1767 Fort Ticonderoga had been reported as being "in a very declining condition."

But a goodly supply of artillery was still there, and when the shooting started in 1775 this was one item the Patriots sorely lacked. Several men are credited with conceiving the plan of capturing this isolated and neglected British post. Massachusetts gave the mission to Benedict Arnold, but Ethan Allen of Vermont organized an expedition that moved out before Arnold's force could get on the scene. Arnold raced on to Castleton, Vermont, accompanied only by a servant, and tried to seize command from Allen. (Historians still disagree as to what command authority Arnold had, if any. None of his own troops were engaged, and Allen's Green Mountain Boys had flatly refused to take any orders from Arnold.)

There were delays in getting boats from Skenesboro (now Whitehall) and other places to Hand's Cove, Vermont. Surprise was essential, so the decision was made to use what boats were available to ferry as many men as possible across Lake Champlain for a dawn attack. With eighty-three men and a number of officers, Allen achieved complete surprise.

The dramatic scene of the surrender has been recreated by innumerable writers and artists. Rudely awakened, an officer appeared at the door of his quarters "with his breeches in his hand," as Allen reported it, and demanded by what authority these rowdies were calling for surrender of the fort. "In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress," was the stirring reply. Historians do not deny that an officer could have said this, but they seriously question that he actually did: no contemporary account records the phrase, and it was four years after the event that Allen first entered it into the historical record. Artists and popular writers also have neglected the point that it was not Captain Delaplace who stood trousers in hand to receive this oratorical thunderbolt, but a recently joined subordinate, Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham. "I asked a number of questions, expecting to amuse them [that is, play for time] till our people fired," he wrote in his report. Delaplace, meanwhile, got dressed, appeared at the head of the stairs, and quite sensibly surrendered the fort.

How to transport all this cumbersome loot to the Boston lines? Colonel Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old military amateur, was appointed commander of the Continental Regiment of Artillery and ordered by Washington to go to draw his equipment at Ticonderoga. Knox had previously submitted a plan for this undertaking, which called for the use of sledges hauled over the snow by oxen. (This is one reason why the cannon, captured on 10 May, were not moved sooner.) To summarize the story of his "noble train of artillery," as Knox called it, on 5 December 1775 Knox reached Ticonderoga, and the next day forty-three cannon and sixteen mortars were removed from the fort. By 9 December they had all been taken across the portage and loaded on scows. On 7 January 1776 the 120,000 pounds of matériel were assembled around Lake George Village for what should have been the worst part of the trip. But the 300 miles of difficult terrain were covered in less than three weeks. The route was from Fort Edward to old Saratoga (Schuylerville today), Albany, Kinderhook, and Claverack, then east through steep grades and heavy snows of the Berkshires to Framingham, 20 miles west of Boston. Emplacement of the guns on Dorchester Heights in March forced the British to evacuate Boston.

Ticonderoga was by now of great emotional importance to Patriots—the "Gibraltar of America," "Key to a Continent." Young John Trumbull (1756–1843), later famous as "Painter of the Revolution," and the Frenchtrained Polish military engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746–1817) were put in charge of the fortification work. But the place fell quickly to Burgoyne's expedition in July 1777. There were charges of gross incompetence and treason. Around campfires of New England troops the story of the "silver bullets of Ticonderoga" was circulated credulously: "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne had bought the fort with silver bullets fired over its walls. (In the museum at Ticonderoga there is indeed a silver bullet, but it has quite a different story. Messages were sometimes carried in hollow silver bullets that could be swallowed by the bearer if he were captured. This bullet was purged from the spy carrying Sir Henry Clinton's message of 8 October 1777 about his capture of Forts Clinton and Montgomery in the Bear Mountain area.)

Patriot commanders on the spot knew that Ticonderoga was untenable with the resources at their disposal. Trumbull had warned General Arthur St. Clair, the newly assigned commander at Ticonderoga, that British guns on Mount Defiance could hit the fort. This 800-foot hill had never been occupied in the military history of Ticonderoga, and on some maps it was marked "inaccessible." The defenders knew better. Benedict Arnold and Anthony Wayne walked St. Clair up the hill to show him how the British could emplace guns there. But St. Clair did not have enough troops to defend Mount Defiance. He did not have sufficient men even to defend properly the boom and bridge of boats connecting Ticonderoga to the Mount Independence works on the Vermont shore. He lacked "naval support" to counter the British ships and gunboats.

Faced with these realities, Schuyler and St. Clair decided that Ticonderoga was untenable, but that a show of resistance had to be made. The British forward elements took Mount Hope without any resistance from the outpost there. They wasted little time in getting four 12-pounders up Mount Defiance, and the Americans prepared to withdraw secretly from Fort Ticonderoga to consolidate their defenses around Mount Independence. The significance of the enemy guns on Mount Defiance was not that they could pound the fort into submission: the range was too great for precision fire, and, even more important, not enough ammunition could be supplied over the improvised road for a proper bombardment. The real value of these guns was that they could wreck the floating bridge and boats brought up to evacuate the garrison.

The well-planned American withdrawal turned into a comedy of errors. One of St. Clair's generals was a French volunteer with the splendid name Chevalier Matthias Alexis de Rochefermoy, "a worthless drunkard" in the judgment of at least one close observer. General Fermoy (as he was known in America) not only failed to give his troops on Mount Independence warning orders about the night withdrawal, but also, when he got ready to leave at about 3 a.m., for some reason set fire to his quarters. This illuminated the scene, gave away the plot, and prompted a vigorous reaction from the enemy. Four gunners posted to fire the length of the bridge of boats were found by the British to be in a drunken sleep, so Burgoyne's men crossed the quarter-mile water gap unimpeded.

When the news of Ticonderoga's fall reached King George III, he cried out: "I have beat them! I have beat all the Americans!"

Ticonderoga became a critical post on Burgoyne's overextended line of communications as he blundered farther and farther south to disaster at Saratoga. In late September 1777 a surprise attack on Ticonderoga was led by Colonel John Brown of Pittsfield. Brown achieved surprise, captured three hundred of the enemy, and liberated one hundred American prisoners. (The latter had been used for labor and kept at night in a barn some distance from the fort.) Lacking heavy artillery to attack the fort itself, Brown moved south along Lake George in captured boats with the idea of taking the enemy supply point on Diamond Island. When the wind turned against him and the enemy garrison was alerted before he could launch a surprise attack, Brown made for the east shore, burned his boats, and rejoined the Patriot forces under Benjamin Lincoln in Vermont.

After Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga the British abandoned Ticonderoga, burning the barracks and buildings on both sides of the lake. The place was never again garrisoned.

RECONSTRUCTION

Historic Fort Ticonderoga and surrounding lands were ceded to Columbia and Union Colleges by the state of New York in 1803. When Benson Lossing visited the spot in 1848 he wrote: "For more than half a century the walls of the fort have been common spoil for all who chose to avail themselves of such a convenient quarry; and the proximity of the lake affords rare facility for builders to carry off the plunder…. Year after year the ruins thus dwindle, and, unless … government shall prohibit the robbery, this venerable landmark of history will soon have no abiding place among us."

A New York merchant named William Ferris Pell leased the lands in 1816 and bought them four years later. In 1908 a descendant, Stephen Pell, started the remarkable job of reconstruction, which was continued by his son, John H. G. Pell. Today the Fort Ticonderoga Association, a not-for-profit organization, maintains the site, operates a superb historical museum, and publishes an historical quarterly. The Place d'Armes was covered with 6 to 7 feet of rubble, and the west bastions lay under twice that burden. But the debris had preserved the plan of the fort and vital details of its construction. At least 50 percent of the walls were rebuilt by putting back stones that had fallen into the moat. Hardware has been copied from examples found in the ruins. Tiles for the roof and floors have been made by the same methods as in the 1700s, stones have been reset in the same type of mortar as originally, and rough-hewn oak beams have been brought in from the Adirondacks. The wealth of objects found during excavations has been preserved in the fort museum.

The ramparts bristle with a remarkable collection of eighteenth-century artillery of all types. Only two pieces ever saw service at Ticonderoga, but the others were collected in America, from Europe, and from several West Indian islands. Fourteen large 24-pounders were presented by the British government, having been cast for use in America during the Revolution but never shipped.

In the south barracks is a museum on three floors, and the basement of the west barracks has an important gun collection. Highlights of the uncluttered and well-organized museum are: a waterway exhibit (canoes and a bateau); Indian trade goods; sixteen wall cases representing periods of the fort's history; an unusual collection of engraved powder horns, polearms, portraits, and uniforms; two reconstituted Indian graves; and many Indian artifacts. A scale model of Mount Independence includes models of the various vessels built for Arnold's Lake Champlain fleet at Whitehall and fitted out at Mount Independence.

From the previously mentioned model in the south barracks a visitor can see the site's appearance at the time of the Revolution, when most of its timber had been stripped off. The star fort on Mount Independence was more strongly garrisoned than Fort Ticonderoga itself, better provisioned and well outposted. The historic site offers public educational programs and reenactments and is open to the public 10 May to 24 October from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (518) 585-2821.

MOUNT DEFIANCE AND MOUNT HOPE

A toll road to the 853-foot summit of Mount Defiance provides a magnificent panorama for great distances in all directions. On a clear day one can see Mount Marcy, highest point in New York, some 37 miles to the northwest, and sometimes 60 miles down the lake to Westport. "The view from this lofty hill is one of great interest and beauty," wrote Benson Lossing after scrambling up its western slope in August 1848, "including almost every variety of natural scenery, and a region abounding with historical associations." The scene has changed little since his day, except that now one drives up and has the advantage of a taped narrative that explains what one is looking at. Called Sugar Loaf Hill before acquiring its present name, this is where the colorful British General William Phillips emplaced a gun battery within range of Fort Ticonderoga. "Where a goat can go a man can go, and where a man can go he can drag a gun," said this legendary hero of the Royal Artillery—and they went. Already promoted over the heads of many seniors for gallantry and "superlative practice" in Germany, he was Burgoyne's second in command in 1777 and was promoted to major general after the capture of Ticonderoga. Taken prisoner with Burgoyne's army and exchanged in October 1780, he led raids in Virginia and died of typhoid fever in Petersburg. He is buried there.

Mount Hope is owned and managed by the Fort Ticonderoga Association and has the same visiting hours as Fort Ticonderoga. This outpost position of Fort Ticonderoga changed hands many times between its establishment in 1755 by Montcalm and its final occupation by the Patriots in 1781. The existing blockhouse was built in 1776 by Colonel Jonathan Brewer's Massachusetts State Regiment of Artificers. An able artificer himself is the man who began developing the site in 1946, Carroll V. Lonergran. He grew up on a farm that included Fort Mount Hope, and did a great deal of its restoration. Lonergran recovered cannon, cannonballs, bar shot, and the ruins of a gunboat from Lake Champlain.

Unadilla Region

Unadilla Region. The Unadilla River, now the boundary between Chenango and Otsego Counties, was the dividing line between Iroquois country and the area open to white settlement by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1786). When the Revolution started there was a small place known as Unadilla where the river of that name enters the Susquehanna. The site is about 5 miles downstream from modern Unadilla. In June 1777 Joseph Brant showed up with about seventy-five Indian warriors and demanded that the white settlers furnish him with supplies. The Patriot element of the unprotected settlement started packing up, and for the rest of the war years Unadilla was a base for Indian and Loyalist raids against the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania. The meeting between Brant and Herkimer (see herkimer house) took place on the river flats about a mile and a half east of modern Bainbridge. The historical area marker pertaining to this event ("the Lost Peace") is found on N.Y. 51 between Mount Upton and Gilbertsville, and another marker ("Unadilla Region") is between Bainbridge and Afton on N.Y. 7.

From Unadilla, Joseph Brant launched his raid of 13 September 1778 on German Flats. The Patriots retaliated with a punitive expedition that destroyed Indian castles in the Unadilla area (2-16 October). Brant's base at Oquaga was among the places burned, and the Mohawk chief responded with his notorious Cherry Valley Massacre.

Even after the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition of 1779, which destroyed all major Iroquois settlements, including Unadilla and Oquaga, these places continued to serve as rendezvous points and bases for raids. At Unadilla the Indians under Brant and Cornplanter linked up with Sir John Johnson's forces from Oswego in September 1780 for the raid that devastated Schoharie Valley, and moving up the Mohawk Valley through Stone Arabia and Johnstown, inflicted more damage.

After the Catskill Turnpike was constructed early in the nineteenth century, the modern village of Unadilla began to grow.

Valcour Bay

Valcour Bay, west shore of Lake Champlain, 7 miles south of Plattsburgh. Benedict Arnold's amazing performance here in 1776 saved the northern frontier from British conquest and delayed Burgoyne's campaign of 1777.

When the American invasion of Canada in 1775 to 1776 failed, General Sir Guy Carleton undertook to gain control of Lake Champlain as the first step in a counter-offensive that could have fatally split the colonies along the line of the Hudson River. But because Arnold was fighting back with the few American ships on the lake and was building more, Carleton had to stop long enough to form a flotilla of his own. This delay probably was fatal because it did not leave him time to take Ticonderoga and push on to Albany before winter set in.

The site of the critical Battle of Valcour Bay has remained virtually unspoiled. Valcour Island is a high, rocky, and wooded island about 2 miles long and 1.25 miles wide. By 1972 the state of New York had purchased most of the island and included it within the Adirondack State Park. In many ways it has changed little in appearance since the October day in 1776 when Carleton's Indian allies climbed its trees to deliver harassing fire onto the decks of Arnold's improvised fleet. The channel between the island and the lake shore is three-quarters of a mile wide, divided into two bays by a high bluff that juts out from the island. The shore of the lake has been built up to some degree, but little damage has been done to the bay as a historical landmark.

In addition to the points already mentioned, the battle is remarkable for several other reasons. Lake Champlain is a most unusual place for a naval battle to take place because it is landlocked and very narrow. Ships were in constant danger of being bottled up and destroyed by attack from the shore. Most lake craft were of the small rowing type, with sails for use only when the wind was from the rear. Nobody knew much about shallow-water sailing craft in those days, and when an ingenious British officer of Carleton's invading force invented a centerboard (or drop keel), his superiors were not smart enough to approve its adoption.

Carleton tried to move schooners and a large gundalow from the St. Lawrence into Lake Champlain by using rollers to bypass the rapids of the Richelieu River, but this otherwise feasible operation was frustrated by soft ground. He therefore had to disassemble these craft, carry the parts overland, and put them back together at St. Johns. Gunboats and provision boats (bateaux) were likewise carried past the rapids, many of them having been received in frame from England. Others were built at St. Johns, including a 422-ton sailing scow, Thunderer, 92 feet in length and 33 in beam, carrying a complement of three hundred men and fourteen guns. Being unable to work to windward because of its flat bottom, Thunderer did not figure in the action on the lake.

When the Americans withdrew from Canada they had three vessels captured in earlier operations: the schooners Liberty and Royal Savage and the large sloop Enterprise. The schooner Revenge was being built at Ticonderoga, and frame timber was evacuated from St. Johns to build the cutter Lee at Skenesboro.

Arnold was an experienced seaman, having sailed his own ships to the West Indies and Canada before the Revolution. He was also a human dynamo, and even as he fought the desperate rear-guard action of the American army as the British drove it from Canada in June 1776, Arnold apparently was forming his own plans for building a fleet on Lake Champlain to challenge their further advance. Two months later, on 24 August, he had ten craft ready, and on this date he sailed north from Crown Point to start his own naval war with the British. On 4 October the British started south with a large flotilla, having gotten underway three weeks earlier with land operations.

Although Valcour Bay turned out to be the ideal place for the improvised American fleet to fight the vastly superior British flotilla, Arnold had moved into it on 23 September merely because it was a good anchorage. Carleton was sailing cautiously south when, on 10 October, he learned that the American fleet was somewhere in the vicinity of Cumberland Head. The next day he shot past Valcour Island with a strong wind and had gone 2 miles beyond his quarry before he realized it.

Arnold now had fifteen vessels under his command, three of the captured craft mentioned above (the Liberty was off on another mission) and twelve of those built by his superhuman efforts since June. Starting his troops working with available tools in an improvised boatyard at Skenesboro (now Whitehall), Arnold had called for and gotten craftsmen and materials from Albany and the coastal ports. More than two hundred men eventually showed up, commanding exorbitant wages but getting the work done. Critical naval supplies and armament were available because the shipyards in New York and Philadelphia were blockaded.

Knowing that his craft would be manned by inexperienced men, Arnold rigged his four galleys with short masts and lateen sails, giving them the minimum amount of canvas and cordage for his landsmen to fumble with. These galleys, all but one finished in time for the battle, were about 72 feet on deck, 20 feet beam, and a little over 6 feet in the hold. Their complement was eighty men. Although the armament was varied somewhat, the Washington mounted two 18-pounders, two 12-pounders, two 9-pounders, four 4-pounders, one 2-pounder, and eight swivel guns.

One of the eight gundalows in action at Valcour Bay was recovered in 1935 and is on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Built to carry one 12-pounder and two 9-pounders, the gundalows were essentially rowboats, although they were rigged with two square sails on a single mast and could be very fast in a favoring wind. Pointed at both ends, the gundalow Philadelphia as salvaged and now exhibited is 54 feet in length, 15 feet in beam, and approximately 5 feet deep. It was constructed almost entirely of oak, and the hull timbers were still in place when she was lifted 57 feet from the sandy lake bottom near the mid-channel of Valcour Bay. A cannonball remained lodged in the hull, and two shot holes are visible. The mast, nearly 36 feet high, had only the top section missing. In addition to its three cannon, the hull contained shot, cooking utensils, tools, buttons, buckles, and human bones. The Philadelphia and the schooner Royal Savage were the only American vessels left behind by Arnold at Valcour Bay, and the latter ship, which burned and exploded, was salvaged in 1934. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum has a working replica of the Philadelphia at Basin Harbor, Vermont.

The Battle of Valcour Bay, 11 October 1776, started with the British fleet coming about and heading for Arnold's little fleet in the south bay. Arnold's first concern was to lure the enemy into engaging him from this direction, against the wind, rather than sailing back around the island and entering the channel from the north. Ordering most of his vessels to form a line of battle across the channel just south of the high bluff on Valcour Island, Arnold had sent the schooner Revenge out to lure the enemy back. (He was not sure that they had detected the presence of the American fleet in the bay.) Four of his fastest vessels—Royal Savage and the galleys Congress, Trumbull, and Washington—sallied forth to do what damage they could to the British in the initial phase of the action, and also to draw the enemy into attacking from this direction. The stratagem succeeded, but the Royal Savage ran aground on the southwest tip of the island and was given a crippling broadside by the British schooner Carleton. The latter then got into trouble with the same treacherous winds of the narrow channel that had done in the Royal Savage, and to keep from being blown straight into the American line the Carleton had to throw out anchors. The other British sailing vessels could not work their way against the wind to support the Carleton, which was receiving the massed fire of the American line, but about seventeen British gunboats came up on line with it. At a range of about 350 yards the general engagement lasted from about 12:30 until dusk, which began to fall around 5 p.m. The British ships then withdrew to a line 600 or so yards farther south and continued their firing until dark.

By all rights the British should have been able to destroy the trapped American flotilla the next day, but Benedict Arnold again proved his military genius. Taking advantage of a dark, foggy night and a favoring wind, he slipped out in single file through the British fleet. The wind then turned, however, and, despite ten hours of backbreaking rowing and pumping, the last five of Arnold's battered craft had covered only 8 miles. The Enterprise, Revenge, and Trumbull made good their escape to Crown Point, where they joined the Liberty. The rest of Arnold's fleet was destroyed in a two-day pursuit. He beached his surviving craft, Congress and four gundalows, in Buttonmold Bay, near modern Panton, Vermont, and burned them with their colors flying. That night he led his two hundred survivors to Crown Point, about 10 miles away.

Van Alstyne House

Van Alstyne House, Mohawk Valley, in Canajoharie on Moyer Street near N.Y. 5S. Central location and solid construction of this long, low stone house made it a popular meeting place for Patriots throughout the Revolution. At least sixteen meetings of the Tryon County Committee of Safety took place here; Washington was a visitor in 1783. It is now a private clubhouse. Marte Janse (or Martin Gerritse) Van Alstyne built the one-and-a-half-story house in 1749 or 1750. It remained in good structural condition until the Fort Rensselaer Club restored and furnished it. The historic structure can be seen from the street, and the club will make special arrangements for public tours. Phone: (518) 673-3317.

Van Cortlandt Manor

Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson. Called the most authentic survival of the eighteenth-century Dutch-English manorial house of the Hudson Valley, this is a restoration on 173 acres of the original manor house, ferry house, and ferry-house kitchen. The manor house was built in 1639, remained for two centuries in the family, and is now part of Historic Hudson Valley and serves as a living-history museum. It is open to the public daily except on Tuesday; the hours change depending on the time of year. Phone: (914) 631-8200.

Van Cortlandtville

Van Cortlandtville, Westchester County, northeast of Peekskill on Oregon Road about 2 miles from U.S. 9. The village grew up around the Upper Van Cortlandt Manor House, which still stands, much altered, as the Cortlandt NursingHomeonOregonStreet.Washingtonoften stayed here. St. Peter's Church, an exceedingly simple brick structure built and opened in 1767 for the Van Cortlandt tenants, is a charming example of an eighteenth-century Anglican chapel. The cemetery contains the grave of General Seth Pomeroy, who died 19 February 1777 in Peekskill. This elderly veteran of the Colonial Wars, who had fought as a private on Bunker Hill, was on his way to join the army in New Jersey as a major general of Massachusetts militia when he died of pleurisy. There is a monument to John Paulding, a Peekskill man lionized for his role in the capture of André. The graves of fifty-four Revolutionary soldiers are here, and a monument to these Peekskill men is near St. Peter's. The site of Dusenbury Tavern, where André was put up when en route to Tappan (see tappan historic district), is marked on Oregon Road north of St. Columbanus Church. Gallows Hill Road leads north from the village to the hill where a tablet memorializes the hanging of a Loyalist spy. It continues to Soldier's Spring, where a Patriot was killed by the British on 9 October 1777 when they occupied Peekskill. This road is the colonial route to Albany and leads to the Continental Village Site. The Cortlandt Historical Society organizes tours of local sites if given proper notice. Phone: (914) 734-1110.

Van Schaick Mansion

Van Schaick Mansion, 1 Van Schaick Avenue, Van Schaick Island, Cohoes. Built in 1735 by Anthony Van Schaick, this house was headquarters during the Seven Years' Wars for Sir William Johnson, Lord Loudoun, General Abercromby, and Lord Jeffrey Amherst. In 1777 it was headquarters for Generals Montgomery, Schuyler, and Gates, and here took place the planning that led to the decisive American victory at Saratoga. In the War of 1812 the house again was a military headquarters. The house has been owned and maintained by the DAR since 2001 and is usually open to the public from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday and Sunday, although that schedule fluctuates for lack of available guides. Calling first is advised. Phone: (518) 235-2699.

Verplanck's Point (Fort Lafayette Site)

Verplanck's Point (Fort Lafayette Site), on Hudson River opposite Stony Point. The eastern end of strategic Kings Ferry, it was defended by Fort Lafayette until the small garrison of that place (one officer and seventy-two troops from North Carolina) surrendered to overwhelming British strength on 3 June 1779. The British built several earthworks on Verplanck's Point and tied them together with an extensive system of abatis. A year later the position was back in American hands.

In the interesting little river town now called Verplanck Point there are no vestiges of Revolutionary War works. The site of Fort Lafayette is covered by modern homes. To reach this spot, continue southwest on Broadway through the center of town and turn right on Third Street. Bear left on Lafayette Street and follow it a short distance to the top of the hill.

Washington Headquarters (Hasbrouck House)

Washington Headquarters (Hasbrouck House), 84 Liberty Street, in the center of Newburgh at the intersection of Washington Street. The commanding view of the Hudson is obscured by buildings, but the historic house stands in a 7-acre park that preserves something of its original setting. A two-story museum (1910) adjoins the exceptionally well-preserved house, and the park contains monuments and cannon. The site has special significance for preservationists, its acquisition in 1850 by local citizens having set a precedent for the establishment of historical house museums in America.

The house was used by Washington as a headquarters and residence for almost seventeen months at the end of the Revolution (April 1782–August 1783), longer than he remained anywhere else during the war. During this period he met the greatest challenges to his personal leadership and showed the qualities that earn him the title Father of His Country. First he flatly and candidly rejected the proposal that he head a monarchy in America. Then he met the so-called Newburgh Conspiracy head-on and flattened it (see new windsor cantonment). Finally, among the historic documents he drafted at Newburgh, his circular letter to the governors of the states outlined his views on how the new nation should be developed.

Here too he created the first American military award, the Order of the Purple Heart. This has attracted considerable interest, even though only three of the decorations are known to have been given out in Washington's time. The order was not revived until 1932, and it was subsequently awarded to all those wounded in action. (Posthumous award to those killed in action is automatic.)

Construction of the Hasbrouck House was started in 1725. The northeast portion was erected by Jonathan Hasbrouck in 1750, the year after his mother bought the property. Jonathan became a prosperous farmer-merchant and served during the first years of the Revolution as militia colonel. Forced by bad health to resign his commission in 1778, he died two years later. His widow reluctantly agreed to make the house available to Washington in 1782, and she lived temporarily with relatives on Huguenot Street in New Paltz. Having come to the house as a bride, she subsequently lived there until her death in the 1830s. In 1850 the state obtained possession and restored it to what is believed to have been its appearance in 1782.

A large central room has seven doors and a single window, the consequence of piecemeal enlargement of the house. Another curiosity of this room is a fireplace without jambs and with a chimney beginning at the level of the second floor. In the house's exceptionally large attic can be seen the maze of hand-hewn roof timbers.

The house and museum are open year-round for groups with reservations. It is open to the public April through October from Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Phone: (914) 562-1195.

Washington Masonic Shrine

Washington Masonic Shrine. Seetappan historic district.

West Canada Creek

West Canada Creek. The site where the notorious Walter Butler of Butlersbury met his death is lost beneath the waters of Hinckley Reservoir, probably where Black Creek entered West Canada Creek. In a rearguard action on 30 October 1781, at a spot known variously by the names Butler's Ford, Jerseyfield, Poland, and West Canada Creek, Captain Walter Butler was left mortally wounded after a six-hour skirmish. Many myths are associated with the death of this remarkable Loyalist leader. What seems reasonably certain is that his scalp was taken to Albany and his body was left near where he died, probably to feed the wolves. The legend that he was secretly buried by Loyalists at Schenectady beneath abandoned St. Paul's Church is more than even the most gullible has ever taken seriously. His executor probably was an Oneida, perhaps the part-African "Colonel Louis." (See fort klock.)

West Point Military Reservation

West Point Military Reservation, Hudson River, on N.Y. 218 off U.S. 9W. A relief map of the northeastern United States will make clear the strategic significance of the Lake Champlain, Mohawk River, Hudson River waterway. Somewhat less evident at first glance is that the major geographical barrier along this natural invasion route is formed by the Hudson Highlands, a mere 45 miles from the Atlantic. The narrow but deep estuary of the Hudson, navigable to oceangoing vessels for 150 miles (to Troy, 6 miles above Albany), winds between steep hills in the Highlands, and West Point is the ideal location for a fortress guarding the northern end of this 12-mile defile.

The first river fortification undertaken by the Patriots in the Highlands was on the island opposite West Point. Called Fort Constitution, it was never fully developed because in 1776 the decision was made to build Forts Clinton and Montgomery, about 10 miles down the river around Bear Mountain. But recent archaeology has discovered interesting remains of Revolutionary War works, and there are ruins of half a dozen or so little forts and redoubts on what is now called Constitution Island (then Martelaers Rock). The Warner House, built after 1836 on remnants of a stone cottage of colonial days, has been restored and preserved.

In the spring of 1778 the Patriots started making West Point into what Washington would later call "the key to America." Work was begun under the direction of General Israel Putnam and his cousin Rufus Putnam. Fort Putnam, the landmark that caps the rocky hill above the United States Military Academy today, was reconstructed in 1907, and extensive development of this picturesque site was started on the eve of the bicentennial. How much the Putnams had to do with designing the West Point fortifications is debatable, but European professionals soon took over. French-trained Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Pole serving as a colonel of engineers in the Continental army, was in charge from March 1778 until June 1780. Much of the planning was done by Colonel Louis de La Radiere.

Today's visitor to West Point will see many vestiges of the old fortifications. Accessible by trails in the rocky hills are four redoubts and a gun battery to the west and south of Fort Putnam. On lower hills are Redoubts Wyllis and Meigs. Trophy Point, on the north edge of the Plain, has cannon captured during the Revolution and several links of the 180-ton chain that stretched across the Hudson here. Forged at the Sterling Iron Works in the Ramapo Valley, the links are 2 feet, 9 inches long. (The chain was held up by log rafts.)

Kosciuszko's Monument is on the parapet of Fort Clinton, near the northeast corner of the Plain. Designed by a West Pointer, it was erected by the corps of cadets in 1828. (The Polish hero died in 1817, having remained in America until 1798. He spent the rest of his life striving, unsuccessfully, for the revival of Poland.) In 1913 the statue was added to the monument by the Polish Clergy and Laity of the United States.

Washington Monument, just east of Trophy Point, is a replica of the statue in New York City's Union Square.

The West Point Cemetery, off Washington Road and less than half a mile west of the Plain, contains the grave of "Captain Molly" in a prominent spot near the front of the Old Cadet Chapel. This heroine in the defense of Fort Washington (under new york city see fort tryon park) died in 1800 and was reinterred here in 1926. Inside the chapel (built in 1837 near the site of the present library, and reconstructed here in 1911) are black marble shields inscribed in gold letters with the name, rank, and dates of birth and death of senior American generals in the Revolution. One shield, high in the southeast corner, has all of the inscription chiseled out except "Major General" and "1741."

Major General Benedict Arnold, born in 1741, was one of the best troop leaders this country ever produced. Although General Washington fought to see that Arnold got the recognition he deserved for combat service, the Continental Congress had a way of leaving him off promotion lists. Arnold also was plagued by financial difficulties, and for these and other reasons he finally made up his mind to seek his military fortune on the British side. (See also mount pleasant, under philadelphia, Pennsylvania.) Arnold and the British agreed on a general plan of action. The Rebel general would arrange with his own authorities to get command of a large American force. He would then arrange with the British authorities to surrender this force, and the British would pay him for his services.

Command of the Hudson Highlands impressed Arnold as being the ideal assignment, and in August 1780 he got it. For the preceding fifteen months he had been dealing through intermediaries with Major John André, the talented young aide to the British commander in chief. Now the time had come for a personal meeting to settle final details.

André came up the river on the armed sloop Vulture and had a clandestine meeting with Arnold in the woods south of Stony Point. Before he could return to the sloop it was driven off by two cannon that the enterprising Colonel James Livingston moved into position below Peekskill. Arnold then arranged for André to be guided through the American lines on the east side of the Hudson, and the British officer was captured at Tarrytown.

Arnold was having breakfast at the Robinson House and expecting a visit from Washington when he learned that André had been seized with incriminating documents in his possession. Arnold gave his young wife Peggy the news, hurried to his barge on the pretext of rushing to West Point on urgent business, and headed down the river to the Vulture. Peggy had been intimately involved in her husband's negotiations with the British from the start, but she put on such a great act that the Patriots never suspected her complicity.

Not until about six hours after Arnold's departure did Washington and his officers learn the essential facts. They then moved hurriedly to reorganize the defenses of the Highlands that Arnold had so carefully weakened and to make sure that reliable officers were in key spots. But these precautions turned out to be needless: none of Arnold's subordinates had been involved in the plot, and no British expedition was en route to attack the Highlands. André was imprisoned, tried, convicted, and hanged as a spy at Tappan (see tappan historic district). In 1821 his remains were moved to Westminster Abbey. Reminders of his tragic story survive in many landmarks throughout the lower Hudson Valley.

Arnold's only monument, which refers to him as "the most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army" but does not mention his name, is the curious one at Saratoga (see saratoga national historic park). The British gave him pay, pensions, and a field command, but it was not enough for Arnold. After leading a number of destructive raids in Virginia and Connecticut, he went with Peggy and their children to London in December 1781. There he carried on an unsuccessful intrigue against General Sir Henry Clinton for an important military assignment in America. After the war he turned to commerce and died a broken and impoverished man in 1801. Peggy followed him to the grave only three years later. Their children were given British pensions, partly through the interest of Cornwallis, and gained considerable distinction in England. One son became a lieutenant general, and a grandson was a major general in World War I.

The West Point Military Reservation, the oldest United States military post over which the country's flag has flown continuously, is open to the public. Start at the visitors information center near the site of the former Ladycliff College Library. Call for an orientation and for current information on tour schedules. Phone: (845) 938-2638. Over three million people per year visit West Point.

Whitehall

Whitehall, Washington County. In a rocky ravine at the mouth of Wood Creek and at the southern tip of Lake Champlain, this place was called Skenesboro until after the Revolution. Although notoriously unhealthful, the site was perfect as a shipyard. Craft for American fleets on Lake Champlain were built here during the Revolution and the War of 1812, inspiring local boosters to call Whitehall the birthplace of the American navy. "Hardly a vestige of the Revolution is now left there," Benson Lossing found as long ago as 1848. But a detour off U.S. 4 to the grounds of the Skenesborough Museum (which has a model of the 1776 harbor) is recommended. On the grounds, under a long shed, is the giant hulk of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga (1814), and there is a picnic area alongside the lock of the Champlain Canal (which is active). Hours vary through the year; phone: (518) 499-1155.

White Plains

White Plains, Westchester County. A major engagement fought here on 28 October 1776 was another defeat for the Patriots, but Sir William Howe again failed to follow through on his tactical victory and force the showdown that might have ended the Revolution here by annihilating Washington's little army. After their easy successes on Long Island and in Manhattan, British and German regulars had advanced slowly from Pell's Point (now Pelham Bay Park) to reach New Rochelle on 21 October. Colonel Rufus Putnam had made a remarkable ride of more than 50 miles in twenty-eight hours to gather information that indicated the British were headed for White Plains. Vital supplies for the Patriot army were at that place, and Washington therefore put his entire force in march from around Kings Bridge (now in the Bronx) to White Plains. The Americans were moving into the little village (strung out along what now is Broadway, Tibbetts Park being the remnant of the village green) as the enemy occupied New Rochelle and vicinity. General Howe waited a week before resuming his leisurely advance, and during this time the Patriots dug in.

Chatterton's Hill was not part of their position initially. Washington's forces were deployed from the Bronx River, across Purdy Hill (Church Street and Park Avenue), through the village, over Hatfield Hill to Merritt Hill (in West Harrison on Lake Street, overlooking Silver Lake).

Additional German reinforcements joined General Howe while his army prepared to resume its advance, and on 28 October he massed his thirteen thousand regulars in the open area between today's Mamaroneck Avenue and Rochambeau School on Fisher Avenue.

Chatterton's Hill had been recognized belatedly by Washington as a critical piece of terrain, and it was not until the morning of the battle that Continental regulars started moving to reinforce the Massachusetts militia already on the hill. Howe's military mind told him that this was the key to the battlefield, and here the only real fighting took place. British military historian Sir John Fortescue concludes that Howe lost the Battle of White Plains by failing to execute his planned attack on the main American position simultaneously with the assault on Chatterton's Hill.

In a ridiculous contest between German and British commanders to exhibit the superior courage and discipline of their own regiments, the brightly uniformed European regulars finally took the hill. Two Continental regiments particularly distinguished themselves in repelling the first two attacks and delaying the final assault. These were the Third New York and the Maryland regiments, under Colonels Rudolph Ritzema (who defected to the enemy about a year later) and William Smallwood. Other Continental units withdrew in good order after their right flank was exposed by the panic-stricken flight of the Massachusetts militia. The latter fled along what is now Battle Avenue pursued by dragoons, crossed the wooden bridge where Main Street now spans the Bronx River, and straggled north along the riverbank to Purdy Hill.

Here Washington had watched the battle. It is thought that he had his quarters during the period 23 to 28 October 1776 in the Jacob Purdy House on Spring Street before moving back to the Miller House (below). During the summer of 1778 Washington used the Jacob Purdy House for almost two months. Saved from urban renewal in the 1960s, this wooden farmhouse, built in 1721, has since been restored and made the center of a park. The house, which is owned by the White Plains Historical Society, is located at 60 Park Avenue in White Plains. Tours are by appointment; phone: (914) 428-1776.

Having had to deploy through the village initially to assure evacuation of supplies, Washington now improved his defenses by dropping back from Purdy Hill and Broadway to Miller Hill and Mount Misery (as his cold and hungry troops soon dubbed it). The original positions on Hatfield and Merritt Hills were maintained. When the British moved field guns up to shell Hatfield Hill and Miller Hill, they were driven back by American fire, and Howe made no further effort to find a weak spot. The British withdrew south to capture the bypassed strong-point of Fort Washington (see under new york city).

Most of the landmarks of this important but neglected battle have been preserved within the highly urbanized area of modern White Plains. Local organizations have collaborated in publishing an excellent guide, in establishing a Heritage Trail that links twenty-four sites, in saving and restoring houses and pieces of the battlefield, and in staging an annual reenactment of the battle.

The Elijah Miller House, on 140 Virginia Road in North White Plains at the foot of Miller Hill, is a story-and-a-half frame structure that Washington used for two weeks after he left the Purdy House (above). It is among the eighty-eight "Sites Also Noted" by the National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. The old bake oven is still in working condition, and various housekeeping activities are demonstrated in the kitchen. A table and set of chairs used by Washington and his staff are on display in the council room. Owned by the county and maintained by the DAR, the Miller House is open to the public by appointment. Phone (914) 949-1236.

Miller Hill (the next numbered stop on the Heritage Trail) has restored earthworks, explanatory signs, and a panoramic view. Mount Misery (next stop) has restored earthworks. Merritt Hill, on Lake Street in West Harrison, overlooking Silver Lake, is a picturesque spot where several hundred men from patriotic colonial organizations reenact the battle each year on a Sunday near the 28 October anniversary date.

On Chatterton's Hill a monument marks the crest where Alexander Hamilton's battery of two guns supported the 1,600 Patriot defenders. A private residence on Whitney Avenue occupies the site, and the monument is a cannon of the Spanish-American War.

Other landmarks are along the 3.5-mile drive, which is marked with metal signs.

Contact the White Plains Historical Society (Jacob Purdy House), 60 Park Avenue, White Plains, N.Y. 10603. Phone: (914) 328-1776.

Young's House

Young's House, Four Corners, Westchester County, in Eastview on N.Y. 100C, in the triangle at the entrance to Grasslands Hospital. A memorial here marks the mass grave of soldiers from both sides killed nearby in a skirmish on the "Neutral Ground" on 3 February 1780. In violation of specific instructions not to remain long in any place with his patrol, a Patriot officer tarried in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant. The British sent out an expedition of crack troops, many of them mounted, and annihilated the American force in an action that lasted only a few minutes. The 450 Patriots lost 14 killed, 37 wounded, and 76 captured, their commander and 6 other officers being among the prisoners. The 550 attackers—British guards, Hessian infantry and jaegers, and Westchester Loyalists—had 5 killed and 18 wounded.