Verplanck’s Point

In preparation for a grand review by the French Army and General Rochambeau, the Continental Army practiced marching on this open ground in front of Washington’s tent. Continental Army surgeon James Thacher remarked that “Several of the principal officers of the French army who have seen troops of different European nations, have...declared that they had seen none superior to the Americans.”

Across the Hudson River from Verplanck’s Point is a small peninsula called Stony Point. The British captured an American fort there in May 1779, but lost it two months later during a night attack led by Continental Army Brigadier General Anthony Wayne.

About 700 soldiers from the 1st and 2nd New Jersey Regiments encamped here near the King’s Ferry landing. In 1782, many New Jersey and New York soldiers wore captured British red coats that had been dyed brown. The captured coats improved the uniform appearance of the regiments during their review by the French.

The Hudson River ferry crossing here, called King’s Ferry, served as a critical spot for the movement of the Continental Army’s troops, supplies, and communications between New England and the mid-Atlantic states. In August 1781, the French Army and the Continental Army crossed the Hudson at King’s Ferry on their march to Yorktown, Virginia.

Some of the old American fortifications at Verplanck’s Point were reused during the Continental Army’s encampment in 1782. Fort Lafayette, which had been captured and abandoned by the British Army in 1779, is visible here.

A tall wooden colonnade made of tree branches is visible in line with the tents of the New York troops. A 12-year-old drummer in the 1st New York Regiment named Alexander Milliner and Private James Selkirk of the 2nd New York Regiment were two of the nearly 1,000 New York soldiers present for the encampment. Selkirk described the “elegant appearance” of his brigade’s camp: “All our tents and the officers’ marquees were arched in front, and finely adorned with laurel, evergreens and boughs of other trees.”