Attack in the Highlands,
the Battle of Fort Montgomery
Louis V. Mills
Even as a small boy, I was fascinated by the events which occurred in the Hudson
Valley during the critical middle years of the American Revolution when our liberty was
very much in the balance. I was intrigued both by the famous heroes who played a role
in the struggle and by the people oflittle consequence, who, by living there at that time ,
became a part of history. One of these "little people" was my revolutionary grandfather, Jacob Mills, whose farm adjoined the Falls House which was the rallying point
after the battle for the returning militia under the command of the first governor of the
State of New York, General George Clinton. These rural homes were in Little Britain,
New Windsor, in what later became known, according to the "Orange County Post,"
as Liberty Square, because the residents there were fervent patriots. I
My grandfather was one of the volunteers serving in the New Windsor unit of the
Ulster County Militia who, at dawn, October 6, 1777, marched to the defense of the
twin forts on the Popolopen Creek as it entered the Hudson River at Fort Montgomery.
Here is how my Aunt, Elizabeth Stivers Mills, who lived into her lOOth year, wrote
about it, quoting directly from the nineteenth-century records of her grandfather, the
Reverend Samuel Wickham Mills, himself a grandson of Jacob Mills:
Jacob Mills came to Orange County , probably between twenty two and
twenty four years of age in 1768 or 1770.He bought land 4 miles from New
Windsor, built a house,and started a small tannery, conducting at the same
time farming . H e was not in the army during the Revolution as his trade
required him to furnish shoes for the soldiers . He belonged to a militia company and when the British were coming up the Hudson River to attack Fort
Montgomery , his company was suddenly ordered out the next morning to the
defense of the fort . He marched with the company after having worked all
night to make a pair of shoes for one of the men who was barefoot. The fort,
however, had been taken before the company reached it.
However, these recollections are not entirely accurate, not because Aunt Elizabeth or
the Reverend Samuel Mills were untruthful , but because the interpretation of an event
Attack in the Highlands , the Battle of Fon Montgomery
37
after 220 years tends to become blurred . I have yet to find Jacob Mills' name on the
official roster of the New Windsor unit of the Ulster County Militia. I don't consider
this particularly significant because the occupation of tanner and shoemaker would
have given him an exemption from serving in the militia. It is likely, however, that he
joined others in the vicinity of Liberty Square who rose to defend their homes from the
invaders. Second, it is only eleven miles as the crow flies from Little Britain to Fort
Montgomery, possibly fifteen by well-traveled paths through the Highlands to the
Hudson and south toward Manhattan . If the members of the militia stepped off at any
time near dawn, they would have arrived in the vicinity of the forts long before dusk
when the British troops overwhelmed the defenders. I suspect the militia arrived in the
Fort Montgomery area (coming down what is now the route followed by 9W from
Highland Falls) sometime during the afternoon. They would have heard the gunfire and
seen two thousand elite professional European troops gradually closing in on the forts.
Wisdom rather than valor probably prevailed, and the ragtag volunteers remained on
the fringe of the battle, hoping to help friends and neighbors who might escape from
within the forts.
The official military records show that after the forts fell, the patriot forces fell back
to the headquarters set up at the Falls House and awaited the return of their commander, General Clinton. He had slid down the bank of the Hudson during the melee as
the fort was being taken and escaped across the river, to meet late that night with
General Putnam , who was in charge on the eas t shore , to determine what to do next.
General Clinton returned to the Falls House the next day , and thereafter his reassembled colonial troops marched north in the hope of helping in the defense of the state capital, Kings ton, against the British forces coming up the river. They arrived too late, and
Kingston was burned to the ground. 2
The battle itself has been told many times, starting with the official reports from
the opposing commanders, but a fresh look at the event and the factors involved may
be of interest today.
October 6 falls close to the Equinox when the hours between dawn and
dusk are equal. Some years at this time, during the proper lunar cycle, there is a
brilliant h arvest moon, called by the Indians "the dying grass moon ." In the
Hudson Highlands, the sky at dawn in October is often obscured by a fog
brought on by the colder nights. It was in the heavy fog at dawn on October 6,
1777 that several thousand crack professional European troops were off-loaded
from some fifty British warships and bateaux at the southern entrance to the
Highlands. A diversionary force was landed on the eastern shore at Verplank's
Point below Peekskill and the major attack force of about 2,100 troops was land38
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
ed on the western bank just above a rocky promontory called Stony Point which
lies at the entrance to the Hudson gorge.
These were desperate times. In the preceding summer, the colonial army
under General Washington h ad barely escaped capture by the British forces on
Long Island and had gradually retreated up Manhattan Island into lower
Westchester County where they crossed the Hudson River to move south
through Jersey to provide a defensive screen for the capital of the colonies in
Philadelphia. General Washington himself had stood on the veranda of what
was later called "the Morris/Jumel mansion" and observed the burning of
Manhattan below his Washington Heights Headquarters.
From the British point of view the time had come in the summer and fall
of 1777 to split off New England from the other colonies and to deliver a
knockout punch to the revolutionary armies. These plans h ad been laid out in
the military headquarters in London with the overall objective of cutting off
New England, and especially its supply sources, from the rest of the East Coast.
This division, plus the dispersal of the colonial armies, would presumably then
lead to the end of the insurrection. The British plans became operative when
troops already stationed in Manhattan along with reinforcements recently
arrived from England were ordered aboard transports to sail up to Haverstraw
Bay for the planned attack on the Highlands. They were then to link up with
General Burgoyne's Redcoats and Indians coming south from Montreal and
with a similar force coming east from the Great Lakes under the command of
Lt. Colonel St. Leger.
O ne of the remarkable aspects of the eight-year Revolutionary War is the
fluidity of the action. U nlike the C ivil War where so many of the major battles
took place in the ninety miles between Washington and Richmond, or World
War I, where trench-warfare victories were measured in yards, the conflicts of
the Revolutionary War ranged from the cliffs of Quebec to the barrier islands of
Georgia. Desp ite an almost total lack of long-distance roadways, the military
focus would shift from the British occupation of Boston to their invasion of Long
Island and Manhattan thro ugh N ew Jersey and Pennsylvania to the eventual
colonial victory at Yorktown in Virginia.
The King's forces were led by prominent and experienced members of the
nobility. G eneral Sir Lord William Howe was commander in chief of British
forces in America. His brother, Admiral Viscount Richard Howe, was the Fleet
Commander, and Major General Sir Henry C linton was the British Commander
in Manhattan in charge of the advance up the Hudson River. As events unfolded, however, it became apparent a centralized command did not exist in the
Attack in the Highlands, the Battle of Fort Montgomery
39
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royal army. London was at least six weeks away under the best of sailing conditions. Burgoyne and St. Leger were hundreds of miles to the north, somewhere
in the vast forests of upstate New York, and Generals Howe and Clinton, as it
turned out, did not see eye to eye on the strategies to be followed. Each commander, in fact, was jealous of the others and acted almost entirely on his own.
The colonial officers were professionals and they did not underestimate the
leaders opposing them. General Israel Putnam, commanding on the east side of
the Hudson, had fought at Bunker Hill in 1775, and was with Washington during the Long Island retreat in 1776. General James C linton, older brother of the
governor, had fought at Quebec and Montreal with Arnold (later he was with
Washington's army when it rece ived the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown).
The Colonial governor, George C linton (later he served as Governor of New
York State and as Vice President of the United States), took command at the
beginning of the battle. George Washington, the overall colonial commander,
was highly respected as a military leader, not only by his own men, but also by
the British. He had already spent much of his adult life as a surveyor and army
officer on the frontier fighting Indian tribes, and had led the efforts to extricate
General Braddock's ambushed troops in the disastrous campaign in the 1760s.
Washington was at that moment with the army in desperate conflict with
General Howe's far larger forces that had occupied Ph iladelphia in September.
In spite of the travails of his own troops, as they retreated to Valley Forge west
of Philadelphia, Washington kept in constant written contact with his commanders in the Hudson Valley and further north in the Saratoga region.
It is inappropriate to visualize portly, elderly, and effete British generals
lead ing incompetent lackeys from the London prisons supplemented by drunken German mercenaries. The British regulars were first rate , and the Hessian
mercenaries, who may have been drafted unwillingly, were nevertheless skilled
soldiers. It would not be overstating the case to say that the special forces,
including the Hessian mercen aries, who landed at the top of Haverstraw Bay at
dawn on October 6, 1777 were among the finest military units in the world at
that time.
The colonial troops deployed against them were of two categories. In the
regular army the commissioned officers, of course, came from the gentry; soldiers
in the lower ranks generally served for several years and came from the lower
classes. They had lit tle training, altho ugh th is was being rectified in
W ashington's Valley Forge winter quarters during the winter of 1777-78. And
they were badly paid. A surprising number of these troops were Blacks, freed
from slavery. The local militia regiments from New Windsor and other areas of
Attack in the Highlands, the Battle of Fore Montgomery
41
the Hudson Valley were another matter. These troops were called up for short
periods of time to meet a variety of threats to the region. They were principally
from the yeoman class-according to Webster's Third Edition, members of "the
first or most respected class of common people." The intense patriotism of the
colonial yeoman in the Hudson Valley in 1777 was associated with a yearning
to leave the class system of Europe.
They were untrained militarily and inadequately armed, but they were both
patriotic and resourceful. This is not to say that they were model soldiers. Their
officers complained that they were unreliable, often going AWOL to tend their
cows or fields or to see their girlfriends. Nonetheless, they constituted the only
police force around in those stirring times. The New Windsor Militia, which
reported to the then counry seat in Kingston, was called out over twenty times
to respond to various threats in the early years of the war.
The majority of the population in the Hudson Valley, unlike Manhattan
whose residents were staunchly royalists throughout the war, increasingly
stood for liberty and actively supported the efforts of the colonial defenders.
There were those from the region who marched to the defense of the forts,
but for various reasons did not serve in the militia. Some, with special skills,
were exempt from service, for example tanners and shoemakers and probably
meat processors.
In virtually all respects but one, the British had the stronger hand militarily, but that one element proved overwhelming in the end. They were unable to
break away from their source of supply and this meant tidewater access. Because
of this weakness, General Washington and his commanding generals were able
to monitor the enemy's actions effectively by developing an early warning system and communications network. Signal towers were erected under the direction of Washington's associate, Lord Sterling, upon which fires were lit at night
at sixteen-mile intervals. These towers were on mountain tops and ridge lines all
the way from the Navasink Atlantic Highlands at the tip of New Jersey and Todt
Hill on Staten Island up the Hudson Valley to Mt. Beacon and then on west as
far as Goshen. It is possible to this day to sit in Washington's office in his
Newburgh Headquarters (1782-1783) looking directly across the river to Mt.
Beacon where the signal tower stood and visualize the orders given to the some
thirty members of his honor guard who were in the courtyard outside ready to
serve as express messengers to carry instructions to the troops stationed throughout lower New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. At last the imminent attack
was announced by the firing of cannon shots. At Fort Montgomery, these shots
would have echoed throughout the gorge.
42
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Both the British and the Americans recognized the critical importance of
the Hudson Valley. Washington described it early in the war, "The importance
of the river in the present contest and the necessity of defending it, are so well
understood that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them. It is the only passage by
which the enemy from any part of the coast can ever hope to cooperate with an
Army from Canada. And further, upon its security, in great measure depends our
chief supply of flour."
The problem for the Americans was the shortage of volunteers, who could
not be kept on constant duty at the forts. The problem was exacerbated by
General C linton's having been forced to dispatch some of his troops to General
Putnam, others to General Schuyler near Saratoga, and still others to General
Washington near Philadelphia. The famous iron chain and boom across the
river to Anthony's Nose had been completed in November 1776, and fortifications and artillery emplacements had been constructed on Constitution Island
and at Plum Point (still visible). The western fortifications at Fort Montgomery
were still under construction in October.
The British fleet had made several exploratory moves up the river the preceding summer, firing at the crowd which had assembled at Haverstraw to
watch. Several days later the King's ships moved further up the river and shelled
Fort Montgomery, but then sailed back to Manhattan. During the advance,
small landing parties were temporarily sent ashore at Haverstraw. The October
6th landing, however, was a total commitment and both sides knew it.
As the elite British and Hessian units filed ashore above Stony Point and
marched off toward the Timp Pass on the west slope of Dunderberg Mountain,
frantic efforts were being made by the short-handed patriot forces at the twin
forts just to the north. Governor Clinton had rushed from his gubernatorial
duties in the capital at Kingston on the 5th to take command. His brother,
James, took charge at Fort C linton. Urgent messages were exchanged with
General Putnam on the east bank above Peekskill. With only 600 troops available to man the battlements, General Clinton nonetheless ordered 50 militia
men across the river to Anthony's Nose to help intercept what they still believed
was the primary British intention , to march past Fishkill and on north to the
Albany region and Saratoga.
In little Britain, the messengers were galloping through the night to sound
the alert and to bring whatever remaining support could be found to oppose the
invading force. These reinforcements who were serving on a thirty-day on-andoff cycle in the militia began their march to the forts some fifteen miles away as
the sun rose to the East.
Attack in the Highlands , the Battle of Fort Montgomery
43
On the British side, Lt. C olon el Mungo Campbell was in command of the
regiment of British regulars who were to march to the west and around Bear
Mountain (Bear Hill at that time ) and attack Fort Montgomery from the rear.
His second in command was C olonel Beverly Robinson who had raised a corps
called "the loyal American Regiment." Included, too, were N ew York volunteers. The second contingent of regular British infantrymen and Hess ian chasseurs was commanded by Major G eneral John Vaugh an. It would be their assign ment to capture Fort C linton from the south.
By 8 a.m., the red-coated regulars and green-clad loyalists h ad reached the
narrow Timp Pass which required them to march three abreast. They then
descended to Doodletown, a tiny mining village which vanished from history
early in this century with the establishment of the Palisades Park System. (It has
been speculated that the famous marching song "Yankee Doodle Dandy" was
sung by the British to mock the inhabitants.) At Doodletown, the invaders
divided into two groups. A defensive screen sent out by G eneral C linton to slow
the advance opened fire n ear Doodletown and then fell back. The gunfire
sounds would h ave echoed from one side of the river to the other. It was surely
heard by General Putnam on the east bank, but he still feared a joint land and
water attack, and therefore delayed sending reinforcements across the river until
it proved to be too late.
The British regulars in their five-mile flanking movement around the
rear of Bear Mountain came down the valley now traversed by Ro ute 6 as it
approaches the Bear Mountain Bridge. They engaged the defen sive forces
sent out to meet them at Tome Hill on the approach to the Forest of Dean
Mine and followed the Popolopen Creek down to the approach before the
western redoubt at Fort Montgomery. General Vaughn's troops remained at
Doodletown until they h eard gunfire fro m the ir counterpart to the west and
then advanced over what are n ow the playing fields surrounding the Bear
Mountain Inn and awaited orders from their commander to storm the ramparts at Fort Clinton.
By 2 o'clock both forts were effectively surrounded and the battle raged on
for three h ours. A s the exhausted and outnumbered colonial militia time after
time repulsed the charges of the royal forces, three ships of the British N avy
were moved into position on an ebb tide with the use of sweeps and commenced an artillery barrage of the forts. At 5 o'clock, C olonel Campbell went
forward with a white flag to confer with the fort's defenders. G eneral Clinton
sent out Colonel Livingston who rejected the demand for surrender and instead
told the British officer that the British would be well treated if they surrendered.
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The Hudson Valley Regional Rev iew
Ten minutes later, the assault on Fort Montgomery resumed and the final
charge against Fort C linton took place.
By nightfall, the British had smashed the lines and streamed into the two
forts. According to the account of the situation by William Carr and Richard
Koke, "there was a tumultuous melee of struggling men, savagely contesting the
ground from redoubt to redoubt. The British crushed the garrison everywhere
and the defense crumpled like a deck of cards. It was no longer a struggle to
retain the forts, but one of escape, with the defenders slashing their way through
the opposition and stumbl ing out of the forts to lose themselves in the night."
(Carr and Koke, 1937). Many of the bodies of those who died were thrown into
what is now called Hessian Lake beside the Bear Mountain Inn. The tiny
American fleet, stationed to patrol above the chain and boom at Fort
Montgomery, apparently played no other role in the battle, and, being unable to
move upstream because of the ebb tide, was put to the torch and destroyed.
We can only speculate what dismay the troops sent by General Putnam to
the ferry on the east bank, as well as those who had come down from Little
Britain, must have felt as they heard and saw the slaughter. While many of
the Fort Clinton survivors fired one last round and then surrendered, General
James Clinton escaped with a bayonet wound and returned during the night to
New Windsor. His brother, the Governor and Commanding General, slid down
a bank and crossed the river in a boat to meet at midnight with General Putnam.
A joint decision was made for General Putnam's forces to retreat from the
Highlands and set up a defensive line near Fishkill. General Clinton then
returned across the river to Little Britain to reorganize his shattered forces gathering at the Falls House and to then lead them north in hopes of supporting the
defense of Kingston.
The British reported that the Americans had lost 100 men, with 263 taken
prisoner and confined to the infamous prisoner ships moored down-river. Many
died there while others, in some cases after years of confinement, were released
in prisoner exchanges. The British suffered similar losses, totaling about 188
men, including Colonel Campbell and Count Grabowski, a polish nobleman
who served as aide-de-camp to the British Commander.
Two days later, the British invaders dismantled the chain and boom and
began to demolish Fort Montgomery. Following the American evacuation of
Fort Constitution situated on the island opposite West Point, the British occupied the fort, and thereafter sent a fleet of thirty vessels and 1,600 troops north
to assist General Burgoyne who had found himself surrounded near Saratoga.
Easily breaking through a chevaux-de-frise at New Windsor, the British force
Attack in the Highlands, the Battle of Fort Montgomery
45
moved on to Kingston, but they were too late. Their messenger carrying the
news to Burgoyne that they were on the way was captured, and the message,
concealed in a bullet which h e swallowed, was extracted with a "strong emetic."
On the 16th, referring to the community as "a nursery for every villain in the
county," General Vaugh an ordered Kingston burned to the ground. On the following day, General Burgoyne surrendered himself and his whole Army to the
Americans. The elaborate campaign h ad come to an end.
And so, too, had the advance of Sir Henry Clinton and his force of British,
Hessian, and Loyalist troops. Learning that Burgoyne h ad failed eighty miles to
the north, the royal forces boarded their transports and sailed back to
Manhattan , never again to advance above the Hudson gorge.
In retrospect, the battle raises several questions. What would h ave h appened if General Putnam had dispatched those 500 reinforcements before it was
too late ? The defenders would still h ave been outnumbered two to one, and
coming up the banks of the river against the incoming British forces would h ave
been daunting. Despite General Clinton's report to Washington that these reinforcements plus "the militia who were in the mountains on their march to join
the defenders in the fort" would have made the difference, I have my doubts.
But, had C linton fortified the Timp Pass, he could h ave blocked the British
flanking movement around Bear Mountain. Whatever his reason (he only h ad
600 men), he failed to cover this approach route .
For the British, the problems were strategic. Their attack was brilliantly
executed. They shattered the enemy forces, captured the forts, destroyed the
chain, and burned Kingston. Their victory, however, became a footnote to history, when Burgoyne surrendered his whole army at Sarataoga a week later. Sir
Henry Clinton blamed General Howe, who h ad just taken Philadelphia, for not
sending reinforcements to exploit the breakthrough on the Hudson. But,
General Howe was at that moment closer to ending the colonial insurrection
than at an y other time in the war. Only Washington's husbanding his tiny forces
at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777/1778 kept the Revolution alive.
Here, according to Douglas South all Free man, is h ow General
Washington responded to the loss of the forts in the Highlands:
He took pains to make clear the circumstances in which he felt compelled to recall troops fro m General Putnam (2500 troops after the
Battle of the Brandywine) and did not blame that officer for the reverse
on the Hudson. Neither did he attempt to minimize the possible consequences for which both Congress and he were held to be responsible.
46
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
No record exists as to what happened to Jacob Mills after Fort Montgomery fell at
dusk on October 6, 1777. Presumably, he was among those troops who drew back to
Little Britain and the Falls House , but whether he went on with General Clinton and
his regrouped forces to try to help defend Kingston, is not known to us today. He did
playa second "walk-on" role in Revolutionary War history, however, most likely during the winter of 1782/1783 when General Washington and his troops were stationed
in Orange County. Either at the General's Newburgh headquarters or at the New
Windsor Cantonment within sight of Jacob's home , he and a neighbor, James Bohanan,
delivered firewood in the deep snow to George Washington's quarters. According to the
Reverend Samuel Mills, a servant ordered them to move the wood to a different location . An argument broke out, and Jacob knocked the servant to the ground. Another
servant then ordered them into the headquarters where General Washington met and
thanked them and proceeded to serve them drinks from a nearby sideboard .
Fact or fancy, the story illustrates the tact and diplomacy of General Washington
in his dealings with the local populace and , in particular, with the suppliers to his Army.
This was for good reason since the suppliers were normally paid in continental money
which was so questionable in value that it led to the saying, "not worth a continental. "
Jacob Mills was a fourth-generation member of a family who emigrated to eastern
Long Island from Yorkshire in England in the 1630s. He was born at Mills Pond in
Smithtown where the famil y homestead still stands under the ownership of the
Smithtown Arts Council and is now on the Federal Historic Register.! As a young man ,
he shipped out on several whaling expeditions to Greenland via Nantucket (his logs of
those trips were unfortunately destroyed some years ago). In 1768 or thereabouts, he followed his uncle to Orange County where he built a tannery in New Windsor.
After the Revolution , Jacob Mills purchased over 2000 acres in wes tern Orange
County, much of it acquired at auction from the confiscated estate of the British
General, Sir Henry C linton . Here he built a new tannery and handsome stone residence in 1791. The property was owned by five generations of his family until Mrs .
Grace Mills Smith and her husband Victor sold it and retired to Massachusetts. 4
Jacob had a family of twelve children and over ninety grandchildren , a surprising
number of whom never reached maturity. Some of his belongings are held by members
of the family today, including a classic desk, a full tea service of English silver, and the
historic cobbler's bench on which he made the shoes for the soldiers who marched to the
defense of Fort Montgomery.
He died in his nineties and was buried in the Presbyterian Church graveyard on
the crossroads in Scotchtown ,. attended by the officers of his Masonic Lodge all
attired in black.
Attack in the Highlands , the Battle of Fort Montgomery
47
Notes
1. November 23, 1967.The Falls House, once located at the point where the Thruway crosses Rte.
207, was demolished early in this century. The Mi lls House, a half mile closer to Stewart Field,
still stands on Rte. 207 and is called the 1770 house .
2. The Jacob Mi lls story is strikingly similar to the Tunis VanArsdale story (he lived in Neely town,
now Montgomery; Neely town is about three or four miles n orthwest of Little Britain) as reported in a Centennial Jubilee publication called "Evacuation Day" by John Riker in 1883:
For most of the night the good wife was occupied in baking and putting up ptovisions
for Tunis and his two apprentices to take with them, while these were busy cleaning their
muskets, molding bullets, etc. that naught might be wanting for the stern business before
them. Toward morning, taking one or two hours rest, they arose , equipped themselves,
and made ready for the journey to the fort, which was a fu ll twenty miles distant.
3. Actually, the Mills Pond Homestead was built in the 1830s on the foundation of an earlier family home.
4. Jacob Mills's 1791 house and tannery, in Orange County, sit on the Collabar Road two miles east
of Scotchtown; the house is now a restaurant.
Selected References
Because this account is based on a lifetime of read ing about the American Revolution, it is
impossible for me to footnote eve ry reference. I have followed close ly several accounts of the battle. First, of course, is General George Clinton's own report as quoted in The History of Orange
County by E.M. Ruttenber (1 88 1). In addition, I should mention the seminal accounts: Twin Forts
of the Popolopen by William Carr and Richard Koke (1 93 7), the more recent Forts of the Highlands
by Dr. H erbert Donlan, and Reliving the Battle of Fort Montgomery by County Historian Donald
Clark (1972) .
I am indebted to man y who have given me information, and I thank them as well for the ir interest. These include, among others, Bob Binnewies and Ken Krieser of the Palisades Park System, Jack
Focht, Director of the Trailside Museums, New Windsor Historian Glen Marshall, Highlands
Historian Stella Bailey, Orange County Historian Ted Sly, Paul Dolan of ABC NEWS, Joyce
Weissert of the Orange County Genealogical Society, Jean and John Wort of the Fort Montgomery
Battlesite Association, Colonel Jim Johnson, USA (who led a group of us through the battlesite),
John Thomas, head lecturer at the Morris/Jumel Mansion, and Mary Flannery Climes, of the
Middletown{Thrall Library.
Carr, William H. and Richard ]. Koke. Twin Forts of the Popolopen: Forts C linton and Montgomery,
New York, 1775-1777. Historical Bulletin No. 1. Bear Mountain: Commissioners of the
Palisades Interstate Park and The Scen ic and Historic Preservation Socie ty, 1937.
C lark, Donald F. Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton: Several Contemporary Accounts of the Battle,
Monday, 6 October 1777: 175th Anniversary, 1777- 1952 , Monday 6 October 1952. Fort
Montgomery, N.¥.: Town of Highlands, 1952.
C lark, Dona ld F. Reliving the Battle of Fort Montgomery. 1972
Dempsey, Janet. Washington's Last Cantonment: "High Time for a Peace." Monroe, N.¥.: Library
Research Associates, 1987.
Diamont, L. The Chaining of the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution. New York:
Catol Publishing Group, 1989.
Donlan, Herbe rt. Forts of the Highlands. (A collection of articles)
Eager, Samuel. An O utline History of Orange County. 1840s.
Ellis, Joseph J. American Sphinx , the C haracter of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Knopf, 1996.
48
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Figliomeni, Michelle P. The Flickering Flame: Treachery and Loyalty in the Mid-Huds on during the
American Revolution. Washingtonville, N.¥.: Spear Printing, 1976.
Freeman , Douglas Sou thall. Washington : an abridgement in one volume by Richard Harwell of the sevenvolume George Washington, by Douglas Southall Freeman. New York: Scribner's, 1968.
Kaminski, John P. G eorge Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the N ew Republic. Madison, Wisc.: Madison
House, 1993.
Ketchum, Richard M. Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War. New York: Holt, 1997.
Koke, Richard J. C orridor through the M ountains: Smith's C ove, Wartime Line of Communication and
Passageway for the Continental Anny, 1776-1783. Arden, N .¥.: O range County Historical
Society, 1998.
Ru ttenber, E.M. The History of Orange County. 188 l.
Seese, M.P. O ld O range Homes. 1930s.
Stalter, Elizabeth . Doodletown: Hiking through History in a Vanished Hamlet on the Hudson. Bear
Mountain, N .Y. : Palisades Interstate Park Comm ission Press, 1996.
Tuchman, Barbara W. The First Salute. N ew York: Knopf, 1988.
Wallace, Margaret. " 'Big' Little Britain." O range County Post, 1967.
(And, as a boy, Rabble in Anns by Kenneth Roberts and Drums Along the M ohawk by Walter
Edmunds. )
Attack in the Highlands , the Battle of Fort M ontgomery
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