The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!] - Haver Island - The Revolutionaries Last Stand and the Battle that Never Was

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Haver Island - The Revolutionaries Last Stand and the Battle that Never Was

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MoneminsCastle
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November 27 2008

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Posted - June 06 2009 : 10:30:02 PM

Things could have gone differently for British General John Burgoyne in 1777, who surrendered to Gen. Gates at Saratoga. Britian certainly had the resources on-hand. General Howe was in New York City but sailed off the capture Philadelphia. General Clinton sailed from New York captured Forts Montgomery and Clinton and was less than 100 miles from where the Battles of Saratoga were fought, but went no farther north. Had these forces coordinated their efforts things at Saratoga may have gone much different then they had and the British may have come knocking on the door of their objective, Albany. Had they taken Albany the British would have had a 300 mile iron curtain from Canada to New York City cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies. The French would never had joined in our the American's side and it would have just been a matter of time for the revolutionaries. The founding fathers would have all been hanged and all of today's money would have had QE2 on it.

If the British had been victorious in Saratoga they would have to simply march 15 more miles south and wade across a small stream onto a small Island, walk across the island and cross another small stream into Albany County. Of course, waiting on the island was a force of the American Revolutionary Army, armed to the teeth, manning 3 redoubts with as many as 11 cannons per redoubt. Had Saratoga gone badly for the Revolutionaries the forces at Saratoga could have retreated to these postions to make the war's last stand. The island was called Haver Island at the time.

The first two redoubts consisted of 5 hills or paraphets in a semi-circle to shield the cannon. Each was built on a huge pile of earth with ramparts and ditches and blockhouses and those nasty frasies sticking out. The western most redbout was the most formidable and was on the highest ground and held 11 cannon.

Thaddeus Kosciusko was the engineer who construction of the earthworks there. He also constructed the earthworks in Saratoga including the famous Bemis Heights. The Haver Island earthworks were considerably easier than Saratoga's because the Mahican Indians had built a fortress on the island sometime between the 16th and 17th centuries on top of huge mounds of earth. Kosciusko needed only to reshape the earth into his own designs. Kosciusko had found the Mahican's Monemins Castle and he shaped it into his own formidable fortification. If the British were to reach it's shores it would have rained death on them like Thermopylae did the Persians.

Of course, if Clinton's forces has sailed up the Hudson, they could have very well been caught in an engagement at Haver Island. The fortress was built for an assault from north, not from the south. Clinton had taken Fort Montgomery and it's six 32-pound cannon there, but Haver Island had at least three times more cannon than that. Who knows what would have happened.

But this was the battle that never was. And as a result, the earthworks were never disturbed and stand untouched to this day. The island is called Peebles Island today.

Two paraphets from the eastern redoubt. The rest of the redbout was destroyed when they built a bridge for the railroad.

The earth from the original Monemin's Castle would have been filled with frasies sharpened to a deadly point. This is the space between the western and center redoubts.

The western redbout. What looks like a furrow is a ditch that goes into a complete circle around where 11 cannon were mounted.

This is the center rebout with all five paraphets intact. It's anybody's guess how many pieces were behind them.

Gen. Winfield Scott in 1857 visited the site of General Schuyler's American fortifications, built by the Polish engineer, Thaddeus Kosciusko, on Haver Island, below Cohoes Falls, and on Bemis Heights in Stillwater. He considered that those redoubts occupied the most formidable position on the banks of the upper Hudson for the defence of Albany.

Excerpt from "The Hoosic Valley" Grace Greylock Niles

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