lands and view the banks of the Hudson River there; and report to this Congress the most proper place for erecting one or more fortifications, and likewise an estimate of the expense of erecting the same.' This Committee made a report on the 13th of June, 1775, in which they suggested the erection of what were afterwards known as Forts Constitution, Clinton, and Montgomery. In their report they also say: "Your Committee begs leave to observe, that they are informed that by means of four or five Booms, chained together on one side of the river, ready to be drawn across, the passage can be closed up to prevent any vessel passing or repassing."+ On the 18th of August, 1775, the Provincial Congress passed the following resolution : "Resolved and ordered, That the Fortifications formerly ordered by the Continental Congress [May 25, 1775], and reported by a Committee of this Congress, as proper to be built on the banks of Hudson's River, in the Highlands, be immediately erected. Mr. Walton dissents. And that Mr. Isaac Sears, Mr. John Berrien, Colonel Edward Flemming, Mr. Anthony Rutgers, and Mr. Christopher Miller, be Commissioners to manage the erecting and finishing the fortifications. That any three or more of them be empowered to act, manage, and direct the building and finishing thereof." POSSESSION CHAPTER II. ENTRANCE TO THE UPPER HIGHLANDS.-MARTELAER'S ROCK.-AR- OCCUPY THE Hudson River, in passing the upper Highlands, flows south through the gorge between abrupt and lofty mountains for a distance of nearly eight miles; the channel then changes east about one-fourth of a mile, and, thence changing, again pursues its southerly direction. Projecting half way across the river, and forming the left bank opposite West Point on the north, between the two right angles made by the channel, is an island; its west and northwestern sides are formed of bold and inaccessible precipices, while on the east is a large flag meadow, partially drained by ditches recently cut through it. This island, nowhere more than one hundred and thirty-four feet high, is probably two miles in circumference, and half a mile in width from north to south. It is covered with timber of an inferior description, and uncultivated, except on its southern and eastern edges. The marsh meadow on the east, separated now from the island by the Hudson River Railroad, contains about three hundred acres, and the island probably two hundred and fifty. Previous to, and at the commencement of the Revolution, this island was known as Martelaer's Rock Island, and otherwise as Martler's Rock, or Martyr's Cliff. The name is derived from a French family named Martelaire, who resided upon, or in its vicinity, about the year 1720. After the erection of the fortification known as Fort Constitution, the island received, and has retained to the present day, the name of Constitution Island.* "The Commissioners appointed by the Provincial Congress, accompanied by an escort of twenty-four men and Col. Bernard Romans, as an engineer, arrived at the *Hist. Putnam Co. Bernard Romans was born in Holland, but early in life removed to England, where he studied the profession of an engineer, and was employed as such by the British Government in America some time before the Revolution. Subsequently he was employed as a botanist, under the auspices of the same government; and while in New York, engaged in the publication of a Natural History of Florida, he was offered a position as military engineer by the New York Committee of Safety. In this capacity he submitted to Congress, on the 18th September, 1775, plans for fortifications to be erected in the Highlands opposite to West Point (Am. Archives, III.). Colonel Romans remained in service (Captain Pennsylvania Artillery, Feb. 8, 1776) until near the close of the war, when he was captured at sea by the British, en route from New Haven or New London to Charleston, S. C. He is reported to have died about 1783. island on the 29th of August, 1775, and immediately commenced the erection of the first of the Fortifications in the Highlands.'" The "Fortifications in the Highlands" embraced not only the works to be erected on Constitution Island, but those also on Fort Hill, directly east of "Garrison's Station," known as the North and South Redoubts [the latter afterwards called Middle Redoubt]; one on Sugar-loaf Mountain, and the two Forts, Montgomery and Clinton, on the north and south sides of Pooplopen's Kill. The New York Committee of Safety, to whom had been intrusted the management of public affairs during the recess of the Provincial Congress, transmitted to the Continental Congress, on the 19th of September, the plans, estimates, and report, prepared by Colonel Romans, of the works then in process of construction at Martelaer's Rock Island. From the accompanying report it appears that Colonel Romans proposed to erect five block-houses; barracks, eighty by twenty feet; store-houses and guard-room, sixty by twenty feet; five batteries, mounting sixty-one guns and twenty swivels; a fort with bastions, and a curtain two hundred feet in length; a magazine,—and the whole was estimated at £4,645 4s. 4d. On the same day the Committee forwarded the plans of Mr. Romans to Congress, the following note was addressed to Colonel Beverly Robinson, with a view to the purchase of the island, of which he was reputed to be the owner: "IN COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, "SIR:-By order of the Continental Congress, founded on the necessities of the present times, the Provincial Congress of this Colony has undertaken to erect a fortification on your land, opposite to the West Point, in the Highlands. As the Provincial Congress by no means intend to invade private property, this Committee, in their recess, have thought proper to request you to put a reasonable price upon the whole point of dry land, or island, called Martelaer's Rock Island; which price, if they approve of it, they are ready to pay you for it. "We are, Sir, your humble servants. "TO BEVERLY ROBINSON, ESQ., at his seat in the Highlands." "IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, NEW YORK, 6th October, 1775. "A letter from Beverly Robinson, Esq., was read and filed, and is in the following words, to wit: "SIR-Your letter of the nineteenth of September I received a few days ago, in answer to which I must inform you that the point of land on which the fort is erecting does not belong to me, but is the property of Mrs. Ogilvie and her children. Was it mine, the public should be extremely welcome to it. The building a fort there can be no disadvantage to the small quantity of arable land on the island. I have only a proportion of the meadow land, that lays on the east side of the island. 66 66 "I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "TO JOHN HARING, Esq., "Chairman of the Committee of Safety, at New York." In the mean time the Commissioners, Bedlow, Grenell, and Bayard, writing from Fort Constitution, Sept. 25, 1775, strongly urged upon the Committee of Safety, that Romans's plan was not sufficient, and being but a temporary expedient, the ruin of the Province would be insured if the position were permitted to fall into the possession of the enemy. |