(Fair Haven, Vt.)—Whitehall—Hudson Falls—Schuylerville—Troy—Junction with US 20; US 4.
Vermont Line to Junction with US 20,84.9 m.
Two-lane concrete.
Delaware & Hudson R.R. parallels route between the Vermont line and Fort Edward; Boston & Main R.R. between Schuylerville and Waterford.
US 4, paralleling the Champlain Canal and the upper Hudson, follows the trail of Burgoyne’s invasion of 1777 through what is now a dairy region and past papermaking villages that grew up around Revolutionary forts at strategic points in the valley.
The route crosses the NEW YORK-VERMONT LINE, 0 m., 3 miles west of Fair Haven, Vermont. From WHITEHALL, 8.2 m. (see Tour 20), US 4 runs in common with State 22 (see Tour 20) for 7.2 miles along the Champlain Canal.
After taking Ticonderoga (see Tour 20), Burgoyne’s full force reached Whitehall on July 10, 1777; the much smaller American Army was only 20 miles south and might have been destroyed by a sudden attack. But Burgoyne, worried about provisions and slowed up by heavy artillery and cartloads of personal belongings, took three weeks to cover those 20 miles. In the meantime General Schuyler destroyed bridges, felled trees across the road, and ordered farmers to burn their grain before the advancing enemy.
FORT ANN, 19.5 m. (150 alt., 389 pop.), on the low divide between the Hudson River watershed and Lake Champlain, was the site of a series of Colonial and Revolutionary forts. A brief encounter between an advance British force and the Americans on July 8, 1777, is called the Battle of Fort Ann.
Right from the village on a country road 0.1 m. to the PIKE HOME (R), on the site of Fort Ann. A well on the grounds has been in use since 1690.
The COLONEL GEORGE WRAY HOUSE (L), 1 m., erected soon after the Revolution by the paymaster of the British Army, is a well-preserved post-Colonial dwelling.
KANE’S FALLS (R), 2 m., is the site of the blockhouse used during the Revolution; the falls furnished power for the first sawmill erected here in 1690.
HUDSON FALLS, 29.3 m. (280 alt., 6,440 pop.), a papermaking center, is at the sharp bend in the Hudson where the river changes its course from east to south. The village shares with Salem (see Tour 20) the county seat functions of Washington County.
The first white settlers came in the 1760’s and built gristmills and sawmills on the 70-foot falls; but at first the Burgoyne campaign delayed development, and then in 1780 Sir Guy Carleton burned the settlement. In the nineteenth century, pulpwood, floated down the Hudson River from Adirondack forests, established paper manufacturing as the dominant industry.
The UNION BAG AND PAPER PLANT (open; apply at office), its mills extending a mile along the river, employs 1,100 of the 1,700 village workers and produces the heavy paper used in making paper bags and wrapping paper, waterproofing material, and twisted and gummed paper products.
The IMPERIAL PAPER AND COLOR PLANT (open; apply at office), River St., originated and manufactures washable wallpaper and is one of the largest American producers of pigment colors. Color-splashed employees in grotesque protective masks work under colored lights.
FORT EDWARD, 31.3 m. (147 alt., 3,850 pop.), is another papermaking village, half the working population being employed in the mill of the International Paper Company, which stretches along the river.
As the Great Carrying Place, where Indians and whites toted their canoes between the Hudson and Lake Champlain, the site of Fort Edward was fortified throughout the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. In July 1777, when Burgoyne was advancing a mile a day from the head of Lake Champlain, the American forces were stationed here, and, as the enemy approached, Schuyler retreated across the river. Burgoyne dallied here for another two weeks; on August 16 his Hessians were defeated on the way to Bennington; in the same week General Horatio Gates superseded Schuyler; on September 13 Burgoyne finally crossed the Hudson.
Just inside the gates of the UNION CEMETERY (L), on Broadway, is the GRAVE OF JANE MCCREA (L), enclosed by a high iron picket fence and marked by a six-foot white marble slab. Jane McCrea, on her way to the British lines to visit her fiancé, David Jones, a young Loyalist officer, was murdered and scalped by Indians in British employ who were over-eager to earn the bounty for American scalps. The atrocity was used by the Patriots as a weapon of anti-British propaganda. Feeling in this section had been lukewarm, but this event roused so many to join the Patriot army that some historians have asserted the Revolution was won by the murder of Jane McCrea.
At 35.3 m. a low white stone (R) surrounded by a shin-high rail marks the original burial place of Jane McCrea and the site of an American camp at the time of her murder.
Photograph by courtesy of the Farm Security Administration
Photograph by Daniel V. Nero
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
Photograph by courtesy of Farm Security Administration
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
CHAPEL, HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON
Photograph by W. Lincoln Highton
Photograph by courtesy of the U.S. Military Academy
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
HOME, SWEET HOME’, EAST HAMPTON, LONG ISLAND
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
INFIRMARY, SHAKER SETTLEMENT, MT. LEBANON
Photograph by William F. Winter
Photograph by courtesy of Chautauqua
Photograph by John J. Vrooman
The route crosses the river at 41.7 m. On STARK’S KNOB (R), 42.6 m., Colonel John Stark set up his artillery after the second Battle of Saratoga, thereby gaining command of the river to prevent Burgoyne’s retreat and compel his surrender.
The MARSHALL HOUSE (R), 43.3 m., built before the Revolution, is sometimes called the Riedesel House after the German Baroness Riedesel, whose husband commanded the Hessians under Burgoyne and who here found shelter with her children during Burgoyne’s retreat.
Revolutionary shrines in and around SCHUYLERVILLE, 43.9 m. (139 alt., 1,411 pop.), attract thousands of tourists. The original settlement, dating from 1689 and known as Saratoga, was destroyed by the Indians in 1745. The village was incorporated under the name of its illustrious patron, General Philip Schuyler, in 1831.
On Ferry St. (L), in the center of the village, is the FIELD OF GROUNDED ARMS, where the British forces stacked their arms and surrendered.
The SARATOGA MONUMENT (adm. 10¢, children under 16 free), McCoyne Ave., standing 155 feet high on the hill where the British made their last stand, was dedicated on the centennial anniversary of the surrender. From the uppermost windows is a magnificent view of the Taconics and Green Mountains in the east and the Adirondacks in the west. In the base are four niches, three containing statues of Generals Schuyler and Gates and Colonel Daniel Morgan, and the fourth vacant, to symbolize Arnold’s betrayal of the Colonial cause. A square room within the base contains Revolutionary relics, statues of Revolutionary heroes, and 16 tablets depicting memorable events in the Revolution. Legend has it that a mason, believing that nothing on this mortal sphere should be perfect, deliberately incorporated a palm leaf in place of a rosette in Schuyler’s niche.
In Schuylerville is the junction with State 29 (see Tour 13).
At 44.9 m., just outside the village limits, is the junction with a dirt road leading across a bridge.
Left on this road 0.1 m. to the SCHUYLER MANSION (L), a simple two-story-and-attic frame building set in a grove of trees. Built after 1777 by General Schuyler, it took the place of an earlier structure burned by Burgoyne. In its day the house sheltered Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette. In the rear of the house are the fields where Catherine Schuyler, the wife of the General, burned the ripening wheat to prevent its falling into British hands.
VICTORY MILLS, 45.1 m. (200 alt., 473 pop.), is a ghost town. Cotton mills, 29 in number, established here in 1846, furnished employment for the village and countryside. In 1929 the owners closed the mills and shipped 328 carloads of machinery to Alabama. The huge mills and the company houses stand vacant by the side of the road.
The SARATOGA BATTLEFIELD STATE PARK, 51.9 m., borders the road for about two miles. The parking space, on an elevation, offers a fine view across the Hudson River to the Green Mountains. In 1940 the battlefield was taken over by the Federal Government to be developed as a National Park.
The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolution. Here the Americans checkmated the major movement in the British plan to occupy the Hudson-Champlain Valley and cut the rebellious Colonies in two. Burgoyne’s slow advance gave the ‘rabble in arms’ time to organize themselves into an army. General Gates, reinforced by Morgan’s famous Rifle Corps, entrenched at Bemis Heights upon the advice of Kosciusko. On September 19, 1777, the Americans, led by the fiery Benedict Arnold, attacked the enemy at Freeman’s Farm. The British, particularly the Hessians, suffered heavy losses but held their ground. On October 7 Gates attacked a reconnoitering force led by General Simon Fraser, who was mortally wounded. Arnold, relieved of his command, and in violation of what little military discipline existed, galloped on the field amid the cheers of adoring troops and led the attack on the Hessian redoubt, which gave way and forced the British to retreat. But Burgoyne was as slow in retreat as in advance, and the Americans were able to surround his forces at Schuylerville. Despairing of help from Sir Henry Clinton, tardily on his way up the Hudson, Burgoyne surrendered on October 17. This victory decided France openly to support the American cause.
Adjoining the parking place is (L) a period BLOCK HOUSE (open), erected on the site of Fort Neilson, American headquarters. It contains collections of guns, flags, and other relics. Just beyond is (L) the building occupied by Morgan, Learned, and Poor. Beyond is the reproduced ARNOLD HEADQUARTERS (L), a small white, gable-roofed building. Down the slope of the hill (L) is the rebuilt powder magazine.
Across the highway are (R): a monument to Brigadier General Thaddeus Kosciusko (1740–1817), Polish military engineer, who, under the command of General Gates, selected and fortified the American position on the battlefield; the battlefield cemetery, containing the graves of soldiers who were killed in the two engagements; a memorial pavilion erected by the State; a memorial erected by the D.A.R. to mark the grave of an Unknown Soldier of the Revolution; and a monument, erected in 1938 by the Saratoga chapter of the D.A.R., honoring the 16 generals who took part in the battle, on which for the first time the name of Benedict Arnold appears.
A dirt road leads north from the parking space to a picnic ground; the Great Redoubt, where Arnold and Morgan routed the Hessians; Freeman’s Farm, where the sharpest fighting of the first battle occurred; and the Arnold Monument on Breyman’s Hill, where Arnold was wounded. The stone shows a left boot, symbolizing the wound Arnold received in his left leg, and the epaulets of a major-general, the rank to which he was promoted after the battle; the inscription records his achievements but pointedly omits his name.
In MECHANICVILLE, 61.1 m. (105 alt., 7,444 pop.), are yards, roundhouses, and repair shops of the Delaware & Hudson and Boston & Maine Railroads and the book-paper plant of the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company, which employs about 800 persons. Other factories produce knit goods, dresses, and paper boxes. Italians comprise about one-third of the total population.
In the Hudson View Cemetery is the COLONEL E.E. ELLSWORTH MONUMENT, erected in memory of the first Northern officer killed in the Civil War. Ellsworth was shot while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. The body was taken to Washington and the funeral services were conducted in the White House with Abraham Lincoln as one of the mourners. Ellsworth had been active in the presidential campaign of 1860 and had accompanied the President-elect on his journey to Washington.
WATERFORD, 69.7 m. (38 alt., 2,921 pop.), is at the junction of the Champlain and Erie divisions of the Barge Canal; during the navigation season the water front is a maze of barges and tugboats. Textile mills and machine works provide local employment.
South from Waterford on State 32, following the west bank of the Hudson, to COHOES, 1.8 m. (100 alt., 21,947 pop.), industrial city manufacturing rayon products, knitted goods, and, on a smaller scale, boats, fire hydrants, paper boxes, and wallpaper. Fifty per cent of the population is of French-Canadian and 35 per cent of Irish stock, with small Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian groups.
Settled in 1665 by Gassen Gerritse Van Schaick, the city occupies part of Van Schaick’s Half Moon patent, a section of Rensselaerswyck, the northern boundary of which is marked by Manor Avenue, and part of the grant belonging to Illetie Van Slyck Van Olinde, a half-breed who received her land from the Mohawk in 1667.
At the intersection of Park and Van Schaick Aves. is the SITE OF CAMP VAN SCHAICK, where the Continental Army was encamped when General Gates took over command from General Schuyler before the Battle of Saratoga.
The VAN SCHAICK MANSION (open), Van Schaick Ave., was General Gates’s headquarters when he planned the Saratoga campaign. A two-story Georgian Colonial brick structure, it was built by Anthony Van Schaick, son of the first settler, in 1735. The central one of the five cannons on the grounds was captured by the Americans in the Battle of Saratoga. In the house is Colonel Daniel Morgan’s rifle, which the sharp-shooting patriot presented to his host as a token of appreciation.
Two hundred yards south of the house is the site of one of the first canals in this country, constructed in 1795 by the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company and known in its day as ‘Schuyler’s Ditch.’
COHOES FALLS, best viewed from School St. near the electric power station, was once a thundering 70-foot torrent about which Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, wrote a poem in 1804. But diversion of the water of the Mohawk River for canal and power purposes has reduced the flow to little more than a trickle.
At 3.4 m. is the junction with a macadam road; left on this road 0.8 m. to GREEN ISLAND (40 alt., 3,983 pop.), industrial village, its principal industry being the FORD MOTOR PLANT (open), head of George St., serving as an assembling and distributing point and manufacturing radiators, batteries, and springs.
On State 32, WATERVLIET, 5.1 m. (27 alt., 16,097 pop.), is at the junction with State 7 (see Tour 10).
The ALBANY RURAL CEMETERY (R), 8 m., contains the graves of Chester A. Arthur (1830–86), 21st President of the United States; Colonel Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812), defender of Fort Stanwix and participator in the Sullivan-Clinton campaign; Stephen Van Rensselaer (1764–1839), last of the patroons, patron of science, and founder of Rennsselaer Polytechnic Institute; William James (1771–1832), Albany merchant and founder of the distinguished James family; Erastus Corning (1794–1872), iron merchant, railroad pioneer, and politician; General Philip Schuyler (1733–1804); and James Hall (1811–98) and John M. Clarke (1857–1925), scientists.
ALBANY, 12.3 m. (18 alt., 130,447 pop.) (see Albany).
US 4 crosses the Hudson to TROY, 74.5 m. (34 alt., 70,117 pop.) (see Troy), at the junction with State 96 (see Tour 10) and State 7 (see Tour 11).
South of Troy the route runs along a shelf of land overlooking the Hudson, from which there is an impressive view of the skyline of Albany (R).
At 84.9 m. is the junction with US 20-US 9 (see Tours 8 and 21).
