Beginning early in 1777, the situation changed radically in the Highlands. British commanders in London and America well knew the value of the Hudson River line and one of them, General John Burgoyne, while in London in 1776, developed a plan to strike south from Canada along the Lake Champlain-Hudson River route toward Albany in conjuction with a supporting attack along the Mohawk River by Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger. If all went well, the British commanders would crush the Patriot forces between them.

At right: Washington (top) and Clinton (bottom).

Unfortunately, the British government did not coordinate the armies of Burgoyne and Howe in 1777. In London, Lord George Germain, the Colonial Secretary, actually approved three different plans submitted by Howe, none of which considered a coordinated movenient with Burgoyne toward Albany. When Germain finally sent an order calling for Howe to support Burgoyne, it arrived after the British Commander-in-Chief had already begun a previously approved campaign and was at sea enroute to Philadelphia.

Before sailing for Chesapeake Bay and Philadelphia, however, Howe could have defeated the Americans in the Highlands if he had moved vigorously against them. In early January 1777, only 156 soldiers remained on Constitution Island and reportedly as few as six remained at Fort Montgomery. These hardly formed a strong defense force. While American militiamen came and departed at will, some troops continued to work in the Highlands to keep the British out. Also, local Tories, rounded up and formed into labor details, built underwater obstacles between Plum Point and Pollepel Island. At the same time a young engineer, Thomas Machin, worked diligently to solve the problem of securing the chain before the ice broke and once again opened the river to navigation. If the river obstacles had been emplaced and if Forts 'Montgomery, Clinton, Independence, and Constitution bad been completed, perhaps the Patriots in the Highlands might have foiled British plans for 1777.

Such was not to be the case. In March, the British quickly and efficiently raided the American collection point and magazine at Continental Village near Peekskill, triggering feverish activity farther north as American regiments manned Constitution Island and Fort Montgomery. The British, however, retired to New York and the threat to the area seemed to diminish. About this time, in Westchester County, a vicious civil war erupted between Patriot "skinners" and Tory "cowboys".

In April, having solved his engineering riddle, Thomas Machin finally installed the chain across the Hudson under the guns at Fort Montgomery while Governor George Clinton supervised the completion of the underwater obstacles at the north end of the Highlands between Plum Point and PollepeI Island. Even the construction of the forts progressed. But life did not improve in the Highlands, as British-feints and bluffs against Peekskill and Continental Village kept the Patriots stirred up.

Meanwhile at Morristown, Washington pondered the situation in the Highlands. American leaders in the Highlands had not distinguished themselves in reacting to the British raids or at constructing defenses. Something had to be done to improve the performance of the troops and to complete the important fortifications. To remedy the situation, Washington considered appointing the combative Benedict Arnold who had fought so bravely at Quebec, Valcour Island, and Danbury to command the forces in the Highlands. Arnold was not available, though, so Washington ordered Major General Israel Putnam ("Old Put") to command the Highlands.* [*Major General Israel Putnam was a renowned Indian fighter. appointed Colonell 3d Connecticut on 1 May 1775. then a brigadier general of Connecticut millitia troops the next month. Putnam became one of the first major generals of the Continental Army on 19 June 1775. He was one of the senior officers in the Continental Army. He had a lackluster record during the war. For many months he commanded the forces in the Highlands.]

Then he sent Major General Nathanael Greene to the area to inspect the Highland defenses and make sure that they were prepared to meet British attacks from any direction, particularly an attack from the west. Greene and his associates-Brigadier Generals Henry Knox and Anthony Wayne-inspected the defenses, recommended the construction of a boom to protect the chain, concluded that the river obstacles were sound, and generally ignored the problem of overland attack from the west because the ground was so difficult. Brigadier General George Clinton, one of the group, soon reaped the reward of this inadequate appraisal.

When General Putnam arrived in the Highlands in May 1777, the American defenses were still riot in order. The Americans lacked the armed galleys needed to back up the chain at Fort Montgomery as well as the boom which was to cushion the shock on the chain. The Patriots were finally called to account for their inefficiency when British troops, aided by the Royal Navy, advanced up the Hudson to the aid of General Burgoyne.

In June 1777, General Burgoyne, marching south from Canada, maneuvered Patriot forces out of Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. Washington immediately sent Arnold to upper New York to assist General Philip Schuyler, the American commander there; then he marched his main army toward the Hudson and sought a position from which he could respond to any possible move by General Howe. At this time, Washington was completely in the dark about the British commander's intentions, and it was not until he finally learned that the Englishman had sailed for the Chesapeake Bay area that he moved toward Philadelphia. But even though Washington had been fooled by the movement south, Howe doomed Burgoyne's campaign plan for 1777 and gave the Americans in the Highlands another chance to complete their preparations.

Not surprisingly, when the threat diminished, the Patriots relaxed, and recently mobilized militia went home in early August. As the summer came to an end, the Americans still had not completed the fortifications. To make matters even worse, after suffering defeat at Brandywine in early September, Washington ordered Continental forces from the Highlands to join him. Barely two weeks later, 1700 British and Hessian troops arrived to reinforce the initial garrison left by Howe in New York, and set the stage for the great event in the Highlands in 1777 : the capture of Forts Montgomery and Clinton.* [*Three Clintons participated in the Hudson Campaizns- Brigadier General George Clinton (Governor of New York) and Brigadier Gcn,ral James Clinton. his older brother. served the American cause with distinction. Ironically their chief opponent throughout most of the war was Sir Henry Clinton who was a -local" full general. Sir Henry, eventually the British Commander-in-Chief in North America. later wa~ involved in the Arnold treason.]

On the same day that the British defeated Washington at Brandywine, General Sir Henry Clinton, Howe's deputy in New York, informed Burgoyne that he might attack Fort Montgomery and move north to assist the northern column. The message reached "Gentleman Johnny" on 21 September just after he had fought the indecisive Battle of Freeman's Farm - the first Battle of Saratoga - and caused the British commander to withhold his attack against Major General Horatio Gates' American forces.

Sir Henry planned to attack with three divisions. These he would land at Stony Point, sending them west through Timp Pass and Doodletown. Then, splitting the force, he would march one column around Bear Mountain to attack Fort Montgomery from the rear while the main attack force would move north along the riverbank and attack Fort Clinton from the south. To deceive the Patriots about his true intentions, Sir Henry decided to feint toward the east before he landed his troops at Stony Point. This ingenious and sophisticated plan was based upon the advice of Colonel Beverly Robinson, an American Loyalist who was also an old friend of Washington's and whose family homestead still stood on the east shore of the Hudson, just north of Anthony's Nose.

On October 3rd Clinton moved, and on the 6th, British soldiers landed at Verplanck's Point. Later, the naval force demonstrated against Fort Independence and Peekskill, occupying the former when the Patriots withdrew. These moves so confused the Americans that Israel Putnam finally decided, as Clinton wished him to, that the British were headed toward Peekskill.

Clinton, however, landed his main forces at Stony Point on the other side of the river at 6 a.m., October 6th and pressed his soldiers forward rapidly. Splitting his forces into columns as planned, Clinton sent them north, one to the east and one to the west of Bear Mountain. Patriot scouts detected the move, but believing that their orders did not call for engaging the British, they withdrew, giving up Timp Pass, a critical bottleneck in the rugged mountains. This allowed Sir Henry's two columns to advance unhindered until they converged on Forts Clinton and Montgomery from the south and west. Battle was joined in mid-afternoon when the western-most British column, eventually commanded by Beverly Robinson, attacked George Clinton's force of 300 in Fort Montgomery and the other column of 1200 attacked James Clinton's force of 300 in Fort Clinton. Sir Henry's troops fought without cannon, but even without them, British soldiers bested the American forces and cracked their Highland defenses by dark. Victory came after a determined thirty-minute assault which was distinguished by great gallantry and fearful use of the bayonet. As the Americans surrendered, George Clinton and his wounded older brother escaped in the darkness.

Israel Putnam and George Clinton tried to stop the British advance northward, but they failed. Sir Henry's men first took Fort Constitution without a fight on 8 October; then prepared to move against water obstacles near Pollepel Island. With little difficulty, the British forces moved farther north, burning and pillaging as they went, in an attempt to join Burgoyne. But without firm word from "Gentleman Johnny" they were uncertain of what lay ahead and did not press on quickly to Albany. Word finally reached the British on the Hudson that Burgoyne had surrendered at about the same moment that Howe, who had taken Philadelphia, called for reinforcements to the south. There was nothing left to do but fall back to New York City. Abandoning the Highlands because he did not have enough men to hold them, Sir Henry ordered his men to destroy Forts Constitution, Clinton, Montgomery and Independence.

While 1777 had brought disaster to the Highland forts, the American victory at Saratoga and Washington's determined resistance in the Philadelphia area impressed all of Europe. France soon declared war on England, tipping the scales in favor of the colonies. Presently new forts would appear in the Highlands, creating a formidable obstacle, better attacked by treachery than by bayonets.

More History of West Point

Introduction
1775: Constitution Island
1776: Twin Forts of the Popolopen
1777: Defeat in the Highlands
1778: Fortifications of West Point
1779: Stony Point
1780: Treason
1781-83: Yorktown to Peace
1802: US Military Academy