Prodded by General George Washington’s directive on 25 January 1778 to have the works in the Hudson Highlands "in a respectable State before the Spring," on the 27th, General Israel Putnam, the commander there, ordered Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb’s Additional Continental Regiment (Connecticut) from Fishkill across the ice at Fort Constitution to the west point. Quartermaster Sergeant Simon Griffin of the regiment described that first day: "a cold morning but clear . . . marched over the River on the ice marched back a gain for there was no Place to Loge theor on the West side of the Rever So we had go into the woods and mack fiers and mach ouer Beds on the snow we mad a hut that 15 of us Lay Prity worm considering the wether being so very cold." He would report that on 1 February he "Lay at west point" in his hut, indicating that the troops had firmly established themselves on the west shore of the Hudson. Thus, they became the first garrison at West Point, which remains the longest continuously occupied post in the U.S. Army.

The reenactment was a collaborative effort involving the Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College, the Constitution Island Association, the Putnam County Historical Society and Foundry School Museum, and the 5th New York Regiment. The re-enactors passed through an honor guard from the Loyalist unit, the Loyal Americans, commanded by Colonel Beverly Robinson during the Revolution, who owned the land nearby, and ventured out onto the frozen Hudson River. A camera crew producing a documentary for PBS about the chaining of the Hudson in the American Revolution recorded the "crossing" for posterity and hopefully for your future viewing.

COL James M. Johnson, US Army, Retired

USMA 1969

Military Historian of the Hudson River Valley

Executive Director, Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College

photographer, HRVI Intern, Kristin Miller.