Fort Lee was rendered defenseless after Continental Army troops holding Fort Washington were defeated and captured on November 16, 1776. The Royal Navy controlled the Hudson River. General William Howe ordered Charles Cornwallis to "clear the rebel troops from New Jersey without a major engagement, and to do it quickly before the weather changed." The force included Hessian units commanded by Colonel Carl von Donop. The invasion of New Jersey began the night of November 19–20, when 5,000 British troops were ferried across the Hudson on barges. British military Commander Lord Cornwallis landed a force of between 2,500 and 5,000 at what was sometimes known as the “Lower Closter Landing” (later known as Huyler’s Landing or "Huyler's") on November 20, 1776. In an effort to ambush American General George Washington and crush the rebellion in the wake of the rebel's defeat in the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Fort Washington, Cornwallis marched his men up the cliffs of the Palisades via a rough path, and southward through the Northern Valley. The landing was long erroneously thought to have taken place at the Closter Landing in Alpine, then known as "Upper Closter Landing", and now the site of the Alpine Boat Basin and picnic area. The actual path used by the British later became a road used to bring farm goods from the Northern Valley to a dock at river level ("Huyler’s"), where there were also buildings until later in the 20th century. The Park trail follows the old farmers' road from the Shore Trail at the bottom to the top, where it connects with the Long Path.