When I was a boy I worked on a farm in Little Neck, Queens in New York City. It was the only working farm left in Queens. The land was originally settled by a Dutch family. Every morning I would awake and bike from one side of Queens to the other. There I would feed ducks, cows, till, gather eggs, and eat my lunch under a huge tree or when it rained in the barn. Read more
Orange County
Our Newest Contributor A.J. Schenkman
Please join all of us here at New York History in welcoming our newest contributor A.J. Schenkman. Schenkman teaches in the Lower Hudson Valley and has a particular fondness for teaching history to hard to reach or at-risk adolescents.
He writes about the history of Ulster and Orange counties (which he’ll be covering here on this site) and is the author of two books and numerous articles on Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh. He writes a monthly column for the Shawangunk Journal focusing on places such as Kerhonkson, Stone Ridge, Shawangunk, Rosendale, Ellenville, and Cragsmore.
Washingtons Headquarters Holiday Event
Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is hosting a open house at Washington’s Headquarters, in Newburgh on Sunday, December 11th, from 12 PM until 4 PM. The event is free and sponsored by the Friends of the State Historic Sites of the Hudson Highlands.
Participants will be able to chat with historic interpreters, enjoy seasonal music performed by the Salmagundi Consort, and snack on hot cider and cookies by an outdoor fire for an afternoon that recreates the mood of warmth and hospitality the Washingtons extended to their war-weary guests.
Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is a registered national landmark. It is located at the corner of Liberty and Washington Streets, within the city of Newburgh’s East End Historical District. For more information call (845) 562-1195.
Photo: Washington reenactor in his office (provided).
Knox’s Headquarters Holiday Programs
For two Christmases, John and Catherine Ellison shared their home with the officers and soldiers of the Continental Army. Over the winter of 1780-81, General Henry Knox, his wife Lucy and the young Henry and Lucy were there, while two years later it was General Horatio Gates and his military family of aides de camp who shared in the season’s festivities. From 5:00 to 8:00 PM on Friday December 16th & Saturday December 17th tour the elegantly appointed 1754 Ellison house decorated for Christmas and staffed by Revolutionary War era costumed interpreters.
In December 1774, Colonel Thomas Ellison of New Windsor, John’s father, received a letter from a grandson in New York City wishing him greetings of the season: “May you and yours see the return of many happy Christmasses & New Years & may each bring you an occasion of joy and peace – especially of that peace which passeth understanding & which this world can neither give or take away.”
On Monday December 26th, Tuesday December 27th & Wednesday December 28th Open House at Knox’s Headquarters. The Ellison mansion is open for tours at 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM & 2:00 PM each day. Tour the elegant 1754 historic house decorated for the season in 18th century fashion.
Knox’s Headquarters is located at 289 Forge Hill Road, in Vails Gate, New York, three miles southeast of the intersection of I-87 and I-84. The bridge over Moodna Creek, just east of Knox’s Headquarters, was damaged by Hurricane Irene, so access to the site is from State Route 94 only. For more information please call (845) 561-1765 ext. 22.
Photo: The 1754 John Ellison house, Knox’s Headquarters, viewed from the 18th century bridge over Silver Stream (provided).
Cowboys in the American Revolution Lecture
Fort Montgomery State Historic Site will offer a lecture entitled “Samuel Wire and the Cowboys: An Exercise in Research Frustration” on Thursday, December 1, at 7 P.M. Samuel Wire, a young Dragoon from Connecticut, was on a break from “Hunting Cowboys” when a door to a small house popped open. The green-clad Loyalist officer who stood in that doorway pointed his firelock and pulled the trigger. Revolutionary War researcher and historian Phil Weaver will detail his discovery of this remarkable story and the winding road he took to document it. You will not only hear the narrative story, but learn who the “Cowboys” were, that chasing leads is not always a linear process, and that historical research can be fun and frustrating.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Thursday Night Speaker Series seating is by reservation only and is limited to the first 50. You may reserve seats by calling 845-446-2134. Please leave your name, phone number and number of people in your party.
Fort Montgomery State Historic Site is located at 690 Route 9W, in Fort Montgomery, NY.
Illustration: A Cowboy depicted in Uniforms of the American, British, French, and German Armies in the War of the American Revolution, 1775-1783, by Lt. Charles M. Lefferts, 1926.
General Horatio Gates Event in New Windsor
Saturday, November 5, from 2:00 – 3:00 PM visit this Revolutionary War headquarters and meet General Horatio Gates, who was none too happy to be billeted in this house. This is a cooperative program of the National Temple Hill Association and the New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site. Free admission. Edmonston House is located at 1042 Route 94 in New Windsor, New York, just ? mile west of the 5 corner intersection. For more information please call (845) 561-1765 ext. 22.
The home of James Edmonston has stood for over 250 years. Rescued in the 1960’s, by the National Temple Hill Association, the house by that point had become a junkyard showroom, filled with old car parts. Nicely restored, the house serves as the headquarters for this local historic organization.
When General Horatio Gates was assigned the Edmonston home as winter quarters for 1782-83, only the small western section of the house existed. Disgusted with the pitifully small house, he wrote General George Washington: “Your Excellency’s Dog kennel at Mount Vernon, is as good a Quarter as that I am now in”. Eyeing the much larger and far more refined Ellison House, he expected to be billeted at that nearby property. To please Gates, the senior ranking Major General, in the Continental Army, Quartermaster General Colonel Timothy Pickering had to evict Surgeon General John Cochran from the Ellison house. Angered by his removal, Cochran challenged the beleaguered Pickering to a duel.
Despite his utter defeat and shameful flight from the battlefield of Camden, South Carolina, in 1780, he still remained as arrogant as ever. An intriguer and schemer, he used friends in Congress to wrest the command of the Army that would eventually defeat and capture a British Army at Saratoga, in 1777. Many of his contemporaries and later historians, believed that the victory was the result of the efforts of the man he replaced- Philip Schuyler. He was implicated in a plot, with the same Congressional partisans who helped him supersede Schuyler, to supplant Washington as commander-in-chief. While at the Ellison house, he was involved in a conspiracy, in March 1783, which threatened the very freedoms the country had fought to achieve.
Organized in 1933, The National Temple Hill Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic sites related to the last encampment of Washington’s Continental Army. New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site is part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission administers 27 parks, parkways and historic sites for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in New York as well as the Palisades Interstate Park and parkway in New Jersey.
Mary McTamaney:Archive Month, The Economy, and Irene
October is Archive Month in New York State. The celebration raises several issues regarding the meaning of archives in state history: financial, technological, and promotional. Read more
New Windsor Blast From The Past
Over 7,000 Continental Army soldiers and 500 of their family members encamped at New Windsor, New York, during the winter of 1782-83. “A Blast from the Past” will recall that encampment at the New Windsor Cantonment & Knox’s Headquarters, on Saturday September 24th, Museum Day & a Hudson River Valley Ramble Weekend
At 2:00 PM, Revolutionary War soldiers perform a military demonstration and fire a cannon. A gallery tour will follow the demonstration. From 3:30 to 4:30 PM tour the nearby 1754 Ellison House, Knox’s Headquarters. New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site is co-located with the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor on Route 300, 374 Temple Hill Road, in New Windsor, NY, just three miles south of the intersection of I-87 and I-84. Knox’s Headquarters is located at 289 Forge Hill Road in Vails Gate, New York. For more information please call (845) 561-1765 ext. 22.
When 300 soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Continental Artillery Regiments established a winter encampment at New Windsor, New York, in November 1780, American fortunes were at their lowest ebb. The previous spring, their southern army had surrendered to British forces at Charleston, South Carolina and a second army sent from the north was routed at Camden, northwest of modern Columbia. In September, Benedict Arnold’s treason shook what little confidence Americans still had in the nation’s leadership. The alliance with France produced little, but discord, the country’s finances were in shambles and the growing number of mutinies exposed the fact that the American soldiers’ often-praised perseverance was starting to waver.
When the artillerymen marched out of New Windsor, in June 1781, some of their number would assist in compelling over 8,000 British soldiers and sailors at Yorktown Virginia to surrender, in October. American joy following the victory at Yorktown was short-lived, however, because the British still controlled Maine, New York City, Wilmington, Charleston and Savannah. At the end of October 1782, the Continental Army returned to New Windsor with 7,500 soldiers. They built a city of log huts which they occupied until June 1783. American finances remained precarious. Resentful of past mistreatment and the nation’s unfulfilled promises, the officers and soldiers looked to the future with growing uncertainty. Only by a personal appeal to his officers, at New Windsor, did Washington prevent a possible mutiny.
New Windsor: A Revolutionary Camp at Night
Saturday, August 13 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, at the re-created huts, administered by the Last Encampment of the Continental Army, on the west side of Route 300 and on the north side of Causeway Road, visitors will be able to interact with soldiers and their family members as they prepare, in the late spring of 1783, for the end of the encampment. After 8 years of war, most of the army will finally be allowed to go home, but some soldiers had to remain under arms until the British evacuated New York City. There was tension in the air. Knowing that their time was short, soldiers lashed out at their officers. One, they hung in effigy. Causing further resentment, the soldiers would not receive their long overdue pay, only certificates for three months pay, redeemable in six months.
Visitors will be bale to tour the encampment grounds by the glow of tin lanterns. See military drills and musket firings, maybe even join-in a demonstration with wooden muskets. Following the capture of British forces by the allied armies of France and America, at Yorktown, Virginia, in the fall of 1781, the northern Continental Army returned to the Hudson Highlands. The destruction of the principal British field army in the south broke England’s will to continue the struggle. In the fall of 1782, near New Windsor, 7,500 Continental Army soldiers built a city of 600 log huts near New Windsor. Along with some of their family members, they braved the winter and kept a wary eye on the 12,000 British troops in New York City, just 60 miles away.
The event is co-sponsored by the National Temple Hill Association and New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site. The National Temple Hill Association administers the Last Encampment of the Continental Army for the Town of New Windsor and owns the historic Edmonston House. New Windsor Cantonment State Historic Site is part of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission administers 27 parks, parkways and historic sites for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in New York as well as the Palisades Interstate Park and parkway in New Jersey. For more information about New York State parks and historic sites. Visit their website at www.nysparks.com and follow the links for historic sites.
Photo: Two Soldiers of the Massachusetts Line, in a Hut, at the Last Encampment of the Continental Army, New Windsor, New York.
Millbrook Carriage Road Restoration Project Complete
The Millbrook Carriage Road, a multi-use carriage road that is used for hiking, biking and horseback riding in Minnewaska State Park Preserve, has reopened following completion of the first of several carriage road restoration projects in the Shawangunk Mountains. The project was made possible in part from a $300,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Fund and a substantial individual donation.
The Palisades Interstate Park Commission, the Palisades Parks Conservancy, the Mohonk Preserve, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation have launched an joint initiative to rebuild the historic Smiley family carriage road network in New York State’s Shawangunk Mountains. Many of the 83 miles of hand-built broken stone are in stages of disrepair, some causing closure.
The Minnewaska State Park Preserve carriage roads offer guests easy access to lakes, steep ravines, and scenic lookouts. The intention of the carriage roads was and still is to be both aesthetically pleasing and functional, while providing access to previously inaccessible and rugged terrain. T
To support the Palisades Parks Conservancy reach their goal of restoring the entire 35 mile carriage road network at Minnewaska State Park Preserve (which is expected to costs more than $4 million) visit their website.