The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-09-11
REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION
OF THE LOWER HUDSON.

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Just before it enters the broad basin
of Haverstraw and the Tappan sea be-
low, the Hudson has its course somewhat
rudely contracted, forty miles above New
York, by two of those rugged capes or
promonitories which at intervals shoot
out from its already massive banks, as if
still more securely to guard it's passage
through the Highlands. A noble seen
cry surrounds them. You can take your
stand at either point, and turning in any
direction, delight the eye with all the
charms OF varied country. Right above
on the west side, rises old Dunderberg,
the Thunder Peak-"that dangerous
mountain, the Donderberg," as General
James Clinton describes it-where in
imagination you may follow lrvlDg's
weird hobgobins as they chamber up
the tumbled rocks and hard ascent; or
looking across and beyond Peekskill,
there stands Anthony's Nose, pointing
straight up twelve hundred feet, and
proving it's right to its name, as being in
that vicinity the most prominent feature
on natures face or glancing north or
south, you can take in long stretches of
attractive river view or again, a combi'
nation of natural beauties, including wa
ter and land glimpses, of village and
wilderness, of slopes and sleeps, and
MANY ard pleasant vistas remind the
sipht.seeker that he has entered the ia
med Highlands of the Hudson. The
two projections from which be looks
over Stony Point on the west side and
VerplanCk's Point on the east.
The struggle of the Revolution In real
ity centered here, No strategic position
any where in the thirteen colonies was
more eagerly coveted on the one side, or
more sleeplessly watched on the other
than these same Highlands They form
ed. as it were, the covered way between
the strong New Eugland section and the
rest of the States to the southwark, by
which they all kept their chain of com
munication, sympathy and mutual assist.
ance unhroken. 1t was to capture and
occupy this position that Burgoyne mar
ched down with his formidable expedi-
ton from Canada in l777; and it was for
the same purpose that that Infamous
plot of treachery and desertion was con-
cocted between Arnold and Sir Henry
Clinton in 1880. Throughout the long
struggle the region was never for a
moment barred OF defenders. Here for
tifcations had been commenced as cary
az 1875, here troops marched and count
ermarched in every campaign and here
on the Hudson lay the last cantonment
of the army of the Revolution, where
the soldiers we're dismissed to their
homes at the close of the war.
Naturally such a spot musthav histor-
| ical associations almost without number
Hardly house, hamlet, road, or bypath
on either side of the Hudson, from the
Battery at New York to West Point, nor
hardly mile of the river itself but had
at that day some tale TO tell of the con
test. Just off Castle Garden, in the me-
tropolis, in 1875, that persistent genius
Bushnell afterward CaDtain of sappers
and miners, touched off his submarine
Contrivance-pionee Of all torpedoes-
to damage all except the enemy. At
Harlem Heights the remains of Fort
| Washington, with those of Fort Lee on
| the opposite side, recall a stunning blow
| the American cause received in the first
campaign around New York. To the
tramp of how many thousand soldiers
passing to and fro for eight years did
that little wooden affair of Kings Bridge
across the Spuyten Dnyvel creek re-
sound? How much Of WestGhester coun-
ty did not suffer from the raids from one
side or the other2 There, near Yonkers,
| CORVALLIS crossed unObserved one night,
and all but captured Greene at Fort Lee.
For miles along the river above, Tories
| lived to carry news to the British, or se.
cretly to enlist in the enemy's service,
and keep the Provincial Congress busy
ferreting out their Vaccinations. Here
tenders and galleys were burned, there
British frigates anchored, with no long
range Parrot guns to reach them. On
that spot Andre was arrested. Down
this road dashed the American arch
traitor to reach the Vnlture and save his
neck. Across are Forts Clinton and
Montgomery, and farther up impregna
Bile West Point. All along, on both sides
are camps and huts; and finally, lower
down, you will find Kings Ferry, often
crossed by Washington and his troops,
but never before on the part of the chief
with such a sense of the momentous
possibilities of the move he was about
to make as when he crossed in August
1881, with his brilliant French allies, to
outwit Clinton, and make that famous
march to Virginia, where be settled for
ever the question of our independence
by the capture of CORVALLIS at York.
town,-Harper'8 Magazine, July.