Fort Montgomery
Text from William Wade
From Stony Point to Fort Montgomery was only a short distance; but the route
which Clinton determined to pursue, in the hope of taking the Americans by
surprise, was one of the roughest and most laborious that can be conceived:-it
was impassable to artillery, and therefore no guns were brought; though they
were marching against fortified places. It was a path across the Dunderberg,
steep, winding, and so narrow that in many places not more than three men could
march abreast. Two hundred resolute Yankees, posted across the path, and on the
hills and rocks above it, might have checked and even destroyed the two thousand
British; but the daring Putnam was away on the other side of the Hudson, and the
garrisons of Forts Montgomery and Clinton never conceived it possible that
regular army would take so dangerous a road. The British thus got to the crest
of the mountain, and began to descend it on the other side before they were
discovered, though they were many hours in performing that toilsome march. At
the foot of the mountain the advanced guard stumbled upon an American
detachment, which was advancing much too late for the defense of the pass. This
detachment quickly retreated to the forts, and destroyed Clinton's hope of
capturing them by surprise, at the approach of night; he resolved, however, to
go on and trust to his muskets and bayonets. 
He divided his forces into two
columns, one of which he sent under Colonel Campbell against Fort Montgomery,
while he advanced in person to storm Fort Clinton. The attacks were made upon
the two forts about sunset, at the same time, and precisely as agreed upon. The
garrison of Fort Montgomery made a short resistance, in which Colonel Campbell
was killed, and then abandoned their works. . . .
The enemy had advanced to the charge in the dusk of the evening, and before
they had completed their conquest it was night. But the darkness was soon
partially dispersed by a most brilliant illumination, which proceeded from two
frigates, two galleys, and a sloop, which the Americans had drawn up in a little
inlet under the guns of the fort, and to which the crews now set fire, to
prevent them from falling into the hands of the conquerors. It was a part of
Clinton's plan, that Hotham should have secured this flotilla while he was
engaged in storming the forts; but his scheme was baffled by another exercise of
the ingenuity and great industry of the Americans, from which he suffered so
much during the war.
They had contrived to throw right across the Hudson, there six hundred yards
wide, chevaux-de-frise, and, behind them, a most enormous boom, which was
strengthened by vast rafts of timber connected by strong cables, and by an
immense iron chain. The British shipping were close at hand; but it required
time to remove these obstructions; and ships on fire with powder in their holds,
and their guns shotted, were too formidable to be approached by any of the men
under commodore Hotham. 'Thus they were left to make a brief but magnificent
spectacle, and then blow up into the air between the lofty echoing banks of the
Hudson. When the boom was removed, Sir James Wallace, with a flying squadron of
small frigates, ascended the Hudson still higher, and destroyed several American
vessels.
In April 1776, Fort Montgomery was named for General Richard
Montgomery who had been killed in the battle of Quebec. The attack on Forts
Montgomery and Clinton was led by Sir Henry Clinton on October 6, 1777. About
six hundred Americans defended the forts but they were vastly outnumbered by
British and German forces. They refused British offers to surrender and repelled
the British until nighttime when the British overran the fort. Both British and
American armies suffered many casualties. It was after this battle that the
British broke the first chain across the Hudson, the one stretching from Fort
Montgomery to Anthony's Nose.
In 1997 The Fort Montgomery Battle Site Association was
chartered by New York State to further a plan to preserve and promote the site.
Archeological studies carried out in the 1970's by the Palisades Interstate Park
Commission uncovered many artifacts from the Revolutionary period. Anyone
interested in finding out more about this Association may write to the Fort
Montgomery Battle Site Association, Box 376, Fort Montgomery, NY. 10922.
Membership is ten dollars per year.
Fort Clinton
Text from William Wade
The other fort (Fort Clinton) was much better defended. It was built upon a
rocky ridge, the only approach to which was over a bare open space about a
hundred yards long, with a lake on one side, and a precipice and the Hudson on
the other. Felled trees had been thrown across this space, so that the enemy
could advance neither rapidly nor in order, and the advance was to be made in
the mouth of the artillery of the fort, while they had not a single gun to
respond or to cover their movement. Clinton ordered them, for the sake of
expedition, to rush on without firing to the fortifications, and enter them by
the embrasures through which the American guns were pointed. His order was
literally obeyed. With a most determined bravery they came on, sometimes on
their feet, sometimes crawling on all-fours over the trunks of trees, all the
way under a fire such as Americans only can give, until they got to the foot of
the works. They had no ladders, no implements of any kind, so they climbed on
one another's shoulders up into the embrasures, pushed aside the warm cannon,
and charged the garrison with the bayonet. The defense was still gallantly
maintained. The garrison, who only numbered between three and four hundred,
gradually retired across the rampart, but they rallied at its head. The whole
British force was by this time in the fort, and the garrison was dislodged by
superior numbers. They retired across the esplanade, and discharged a murderous
volley of musketry; but further defense would have been useless, and they soon
after submitted. Many, however, escaped under cover of the night by swimming
over the creek between the two forts, or mixing with the British soldiers. They
lost but three hundred men in all, and of these the prisoners were by far the
most numerous class. Governor Clinton, who was in the fort that bore his name,
passed the river in a boat, and escaped as did his brother General James
Clinton, though wounded in the thigh by a bayonet. At the storming of this fort,
Count Grabowsky, a Polish nobleman, who fought for king George, and acted as aid
to Sir H. Clinton, was slain. He fell at the foot of the works, having received
three wounds. In no instance during the whole war was there more determined
resolution exhibited, than in the attack and defense of Fort Clinton.
Stony Point Battlefield
- Park Road - Stony Point, 10980 - Rockland
County - (845)786-2521 - State Historic Site - By 1779, four years after the Battles
of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution had developed into an expanded
conflict. In addition to fighting the colonists, the British were also at war
with the French and the Spanish, and had been compelled to evacuate
Philadelphia, the nation's capital, the previous winter. Sir Henry Clinton,
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was ordered "to bring
Mr. Washington to a general and decisive action".
The British had captured the peninsula of Stony Point in May 1779, and began
to fortify it by cutting down trees, and by erecting an earthen fort and two
barriers called abatis. In addition, two British ships offered extra protection,
and the newly captured fort at Verplanck's Point, across the river, could be
signaled by rocket for reinforcements. The commander of the garrison at Stony
Point field certain that his defenses were secure, calling the new fort his
"little Gibraltar."
Washington responded to Clinton's move by marching his troops north from
Middlebrook, NJ, to protect the American fortifications at West Point. Clinton
garrisoned Stony Point and Verplanck's Point with about 1,000 men to protect the
King's Ferry, which crossed the Hudson River between the two posts. Clinton then
launched raids against Connecticut coastal towns, in the continuing attempt to
lure Washington into battle. Clearly, the British could not be allowed to remain
unopposed at Stony Point, and by early July, Washington observed the enemy works
himself from nearby Buckburg Mountain and devised a plan.
Brigadier General Anthony Wayne would lead a surprise midnight assault
against Stony Point. Wayne commanded the Corps of Light Infantry, a select force
which probed enemy lines, fought running skirmishes, and defended the army
against sudden attack. The Light Infantry was comprised of the very best
soldiers, each regiment producing one company, which then served on detached
duty.
On July 15, 1779, Wayne's troops began their march from Fort Montgomery, near
the present-day Bear Mountain Bridge. For eight hours they struggled over narrow
mountain trails, arresting civilians they encountered en route to avoid
detection. When the soldiers arrived at Springsteel's farm, two miles from Stony
Point, they were told for the first time about their mission. three columns
would form the Continental force. One column of 300 men would wade through the
marshes of the Hudson River from the north. A second column, led by Wayne, would
wade through the waters of Haverstraw Bay and approach from the south. Each of
these two columns would consist of three parts: twenty men called "the
forlorn hope" who would enter the enemy lines first, overcome sentries and
cut through the abatis; an advance party which would enter the fort and seize
its works; and the main body, which would continue around the unfinished back of
the fort and approach it from the river.
Soldiers in these two attacking columns wore pieces of white paper in their
hats to avoid confusion in the darkness, and were armed with unloaded muskets
and fixed bayonets, so that an accidental shot would not reveal their presence
and reduce the element of surprise. When they entered the enemy fort, they would
shout the watchword "The Fort's Our Own" to signal their
comrades-in-arms. Finally, twenty-four artillerymen would accompany the Light
Infantry, so that captured enemy cannon could be turned against the British
ships and their other fort at Verplanck's Point.
To create a diversion, a third column of two companies of Light Infantry
would be positioned near the center of Stony Point peninsula and in front of the
fort's defenses, where they would divert the enemy's attention by firing musket
volleys. On a dark and windy midnight, the northern and southern attacking
columns forded the marshes separating Stony Point from the mainland. The two
columns swept up the treeless slopes, arriving in the fort within minutes of
each other.
The heaviest fighting lasted half an hour, and by 1am, the garrison had
surrendered. Fifteen Americans had been killed. Twenty British had also died,
and the remainder were taken prisoners. "Our officers and men behaved like
men who are determined to be free," reported Wayne, who received a slight
head wound. three days later, Washington abandoned Stony Point because he knew
it could not be defended against the combined might of the British army and
navy.
Although they returned to Stony Point and rebuilt the fort, British troops
were withdrawn in October because of insufficient reinforcements, and never
again threatened the Hudson Highlands. The victory at Stony Point was the last
major battle in the north, and boosted American morale. Clinton's plan to defeat
the continentals and end the war had failed.
Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site offers musketry, artillery and camp life
demonstrations, narrated evening tours featuring characters in period
dress, other guided and self guided tours, picnic sites, river views and the
oldest lighthouse on the Hudson River. Open mid April thru mid October,
Wednesday to Saturday from 10 to 5, Sundays from 1 to 5. Admission FREE. -
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