The day following the legendary taking of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775, Lt. Col. Ethan Allen reported the successful mission to New York’s Albany County Committee of Safety, as well as plead for their immediate assistance: I have the inexpressible satisfaction to acquaint you that at day-break of the tenth instant, pursuant to my […]
Marinus Willett was born the son of a Quaker, Edward Willett, on July 31, 1740, in Jamaica, Long Island (now part of Queens). After spending his early years on a farm in Jamaica, he relocated to a place known then as Cedar Grove, along the East River and now part of New York City. This […]
During the American Revolution, some of the hardest-fought and most bitter battles occurred in the land of the Six Nations, the Iroquois lands stretching from the Hudson River on the east to Lake Erie in the west of what is now upstate, central and western New York State. Both the Americans and British were campaigning […]
It is often believed or reported that the 2nd New York Regiment of 1775, commanded by Col. Goose Van Schaick, morphed into the 1st New York that started late in 1776 as part of the third establishment of the Continental Army. This unit would continue through the derangement (better known today as “downsizing”) of the […]
The coming of the American Revolution traumatized the North American frontier, and many old orders were left shattered in its wake. While historians often focus on the establishment of a new nation, few recognize the destruction of one of the continent’s oldest superpowers. The battle of Oriskany in New York’s Mohawk River Valley stands out […]
