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HRVR U.S. Postage The Hudson River Valley Institute P A I D Marist College Poughkeepsie, NY 3399 North Road Permit No. 34 Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-1387 Summer 2003 Volume 20, Number 1 Number 20, Volume 2003 Summer REVIEW VALLEY RIVER HUDSON THE A Journal of Regional Studies Regional of Journal A Hudson River Valley River Hudson the in Revolution The American RIVER VALLEY THE HUDSON Published by the Hudson River Valley Institute atMarist College Institute Valley Hudson by the River Published A Journal of Regional Studies of A Journal REVIEW SUMMER 2003 THE HUDSON RIVER VA LLEY REVIEW A Journal of Regional Studies MARIST 50812 HRV Review i 7.9.03, 3:26:06 PM Editors Reed Sparling, Editor in Chief, Hudson Valley Magazine Christopher Pryslopski, Program Director, Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College Creative Director Leslie Bates Art Director Richard Deon Business Manager Jean DeFino The Hudson River Valley Review is published twice a year by the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College. Thomas S. Wermuth, Director James M. Johnson, Executive Director Erin Gilhooly, Research Assistant Amy Mathason, Research Assistant Copyright © 2003 by the Hudson River Valley Institute Post: The Hudson River Valley Review c/o: Hudson River Valley Institute Marist College 3399 North Rd. Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-1387 Tel: 845-575-3052 Fax: 845-575-3560 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.hudsonrivervalley.net Subscription: The annual subscription rate is $20 a year (2 issues), $35 for two years (4 issues). A one-year institutional subscription is $30. Subscribers are urged to inform us promptly of a change of address. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College, 3399 North Rd., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-1387 The Hudson River Valley Review was founded and published by Bard College, 1984-2002. Founding Editors, David C. Pierce and Richard C. Wiles ii 50812 HRV Review ii 7.8.03, 11:17:47 AM Call for Essays The Hudson River Valley Review is interested in considering essays on all aspects of the Hudson Valley—its intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural history, its pre-history, architecture, literature, art, and music—as well as essays on the ideas and ideologies of regionalism itself. Submission of Essays and Other Materials HRVR prefers that essays and other written materials be submitted as two double-spaced typescripts, generally no more than thirty pages long, along with a computer disk with the clear indication of the operating system, the name and version of the word-processing program, and the names of documents on the disk. Illustrations or photographs that are germane to the writing should accompany the hard copy. Otherwise, the submission of visual materials should be cleared with the editors beforehand. Illustrations and photographs are the responsibility of the authors. No materials will be returned unless a stamped, self-addressed envelope is provided. No responsibility is assumed for their loss. An e-mail address should be included whenever possible. Under some circumstances HRVR will accept materials submitted as an e-mail attachment ([email protected]). It will not, however, open any attachment that has not been announced and cleared beforehand. Since HRVR is interdisciplinary in its approach to the region and to regional- ism, it will honor the forms of citation appropriate to a particular discipline, pro- vided the forms are applied consistently and provide full information. Endnotes rather than footnotes are preferred. In matters of style and form, HRVR follows The Chicago Manual of Style. iii 50812 HRV Review iii 7.8.03, 11:17:48 AM From the Director It is with great pleasure that the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College, by special agreement with Bard College, begins publishing The Hudson River Valley Review. For many years, the journal was published by Bard under the expert editorial direction of Richard C. Wiles, David C. Pierce and William Wilson. The goal of the Review is much the same as in the past: to present the most recent scholarship on all aspects of the Hudson River Valley’s unique history and culture. The Review will continue to publish issues twice a year, with one issue each year built around a special theme. This premier issue focuses on the American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley. Future special issues will be devoted to Hudson Valley architecture and the Hudson River School of art. Thomas S. Wermuth Director, Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College Contributors Edward Countryman is the author of several books on the American Revolution, including the Bancroft Prize–winning A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760-1790. He is a contributing author to The Empire State and University Distinguished Professor in the Clements Department of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. James M. Johnson, the author of Militiamen, Redcoats, and Loyalists, is the Military Historian of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and Executive Director of the Hudson River Valley Institute. Barnet Schecter is the author of the critically acclaimed Battle for New York: City at the Heart of the American Revolution. He resides in New York City. Kenneth Shefsiek is the Museum Curator at the Huguenot Historical Society in New Paltz, New York. Gregory Smith is the Historic Preservation Program Analyst for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Thomas S. Wermuth is the Dean of Liberal Arts at Marist College and author of Rip Van Winkle’s Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley. iv 50812 HRV Review iv 7.8.03, 11:17:48 AM THE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY REVIEW Vol. 20, No. 1, Summer 2003 The American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley Split Wide and Split Deep—The Revolutionary Hudson Valley Edward Countryman.......................................................................1 The American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley—An Overview Thomas S. Wermuth & James M. Johnson ..............................................5 Interpreting the Battle for the Hudson River Valley: The Battle of Fort Montgomery Gregory Smith & James M. Johnson ................................................... 15 A Suspected Loyalist in the Rural Hudson Valley: The Revolutionary War Experience of Roeloff Josiah Eltinge Kenneth Shefsiek .......................................................................... 27 Saratoga, Philadelphia, and the Collapse of Britain’s Grand Strategy Barnet Schecter ........................................................................... 53 “The Women! in this place have risen in a mob”: Women Rioters and the American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley Thomas S. Wermuth ..................................................................... 65 Regional History Forum Mount Gulian Historic Site, Beacon ................................................. 73 Commemorating the Revolution in Pawling Through the Years ................ 77 On the cover: The Battle of Fort Montgomery. Painting by Dahl Taylor Courtesy of New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation v 50812 HRV Review v 7.8.03, 11:17:49 AM (Painting by Mead; Jack (Painting courtesy of NYS Offi Panorama of the Twin Forts, Montgomery and Clinton, on the Hudson Hudson the on Clinton, and Montgomery Forts, Twin the of Panorama ce of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation) Historic and Recreation Parks, of ce vi 50812 HRV Review vi 7.8.03, 11:17:50 AM Split Wide and Split Deep— The Revolutionary Hudson Valley Edward Countryman The American Revolution was the real thing, fully as disruptive, painful, and transforming as any revolution in the modern world. But despite generations of historians’ hard work, it remains difficult to convince Americans that this was so. Somehow, we think the Founding Generation was different. They escaped all the misery and conflict that plagued the English in the 1640s, the French in the 1790s, and twentieth-century people from China to Cuba. United and harmoni- ous, they faced an external enemy, abandoned the monarchy, and experimented with republicanism until they found a solution to whatever problems they faced. What they wrought—the United States Constitution—has endured. A remark- able elite led them into the conflict with Britain and then led them out. Our revolution was unique. Or so it seems. I certainly thought that way when I began the doctoral project that led to my own New York book.1 But as I encountered the evidence that Revolutionary New Yorkers left behind, I grew more and more puzzled. Their actual record just did not fit this perceived image. Finally I realized that the great Cornell historian Carl Becker had been correct all along. Writing nearly a century ago, Becker described New York’s revolution not just as a struggle for independence, but also as a pro- found internal conflict.2 Becker dealt only with the period prior to independence, and mostly with New York City. Carrying the subject through the war, the cre- ation of the state government, the disputes about what kind of place independent New York should be, and the movement for the U.S. Constitution—as I sought to do—only bore out his insight. I wrote then about white men. Now we can see that, one way or another, the Revolution transformed everybody it touched: white, Native American, and African-American; downstate and upstate; urban, rural, and frontier; female and male. We can see as well how all these different kinds