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Stony Point

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A township in Rockland (disambiguation)|Rockland county, New York, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Hudson river, containing a village of the same name which is 35 m. N. of New York City and 12 m. S. of West Point. Pop. of the township (1890) 4614; (1900), 4161; (1905, state census), 3862. Area, about 30 sq. m. The village is served by the West Shore and the New York, Ontario, and Western railways. Other villages in the township are Grassy Point, where, as in Stony Point, brick-making is the principal industry; Tomkins Cove, where there are stone crushing works; and Jones Point, which has a trade in gravel, building sand and crushed stone. The surface of the township is roughDunderberg (1090 ft.) and Bear Mountain (1350 ft.) are the principal eminences, and there is good farming land only at the margin of the river. The township was named from a rocky promontory which juts into the river in the north-east part of the township and rises precipitously on all sides to a height of about 140 ft. above the river. A small part of the promontory is under the jurisdiction of the United States Government which has erected a lighthouse here, and the remaining portion was bought by the state in 1897 for a state battlefield reservation, and has been laid out as a public park. At the entrance to the park is a Memorial Arch (1909), designed by H. K. Bush-Brown and presented to the state by the Daughters of the American Revolution. On Iona Island in the north part of the township is a United States naval magazine. The promontory guards the lower passage to the Highlands of the Hudson, and during the War of Independence, when the King's Ferry between it and Verplanck' s Point on the opposite bank was part of an important line of communication between the New England and the Middle States, it was of considerable strategic importance. The Americans occupied it in November 1776, and about two years later erected a blockhouse upon it. The garrison, however, was very small, and on the 31st of May 1779, it was taken by the British, who immediately erected much stronger fortifications. On the night of the 15th/16th of July it was recovered by General Anthony Wayne, in command of about 1350 picked American troops, the garrison (under Lieut.-Colonel Henry Johnson) losing 63 in killed, 70 in wounded, and 543 in captured. The American loss was only 15 killed and 83 wounded. The Americans, however, had no thought from the first of holding the place and evacuated it on the 18th of July. The British immediately reoccupied it, and erected stronger fortifications, but late in October they, too, abandoned it. In the "old Treason House" in the township General Benedict Arnold and Major John Andre met before daylight on the 22nd of September 1780, to settle upon plans for the surrender of West Point by Arnold to the British.

See H. P. Johnston, The Storming of Stony Point (New York, 1900); H. B. Dawson, The Assault on Stony Point (Morrisania, N. Y., 1863); E. H. Hall and F. W. Halsey, Stony Point Battle-Field (New York, 1902); and D. Cole and E. Gay, History of Rockland County (ibid. 1884).