{"id":11110,"date":"2024-08-14T07:45:05","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11110"},"modified":"2024-09-12T08:05:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T12:05:53","slug":"whats-upstate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11110","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up(state)?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our recent trip to Glens Falls, New York, included a number of interesting stops. We\u2019d never visited West Point<\/a>, perched high above the Hudson River and embracing more than 200 years of history. Not only was it picturesque, it was crammed with interesting monuments and memorabilia. The photo shows part of the Great Chain, which the Continental Army strung across the Hudson to keep British ships from sailing upriver from New York during the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Point was strategic then, located above a spot where the river narrows and bends sharply, forcing ships to slow down\u2014better targets! And it\u2019s strategic now, ever since the US Military Academy was established there in 1802. Even as far north as West Point, the Hudson is a tidal river and the shifting tides made that stretch of water all the more difficult to navigate. The 65-ton chain forced them to do more than slow. They had to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Fort Ticonderoga situated at the foot of Lake Champlain (visited last year<\/a>) and Fort William Henry, which we visited this month, at the foot of Lake George (named for the King\u2014we were still British subjects when the fort was built, of course. The builders were \u201cmanaging up,\u201d the guide said), the strategic value of these several waterways was certainly recognized by the early colonists.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Fort William Henry <\/a>is best known for its role in the French and Indian War. It was besieged by French general Louis-Joseph Montcalm. Despite being well provisioned, after a certain point the fort, commanded by Lt. Col. George Monro could not hold out. It surrendered, and Montcalm let the several thousand British troops, their families, and hangers-on walk out, destined for Fort Edward downstream. Denied the plunder they\u2019d been promised, the native tribes who were allied with the French attacked the retreating columns, killing and wounding about 200 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this all sounds familiar, it may be because you\u2019re recalling James Fenimore Cooper\u2019s novel, The<\/em> Last of the Mohicans<\/em>, which centers on this episode. I must have thrilled to the movie version<\/a> featuring Daniel Day-Lewis at least a dozen times! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our third notable history pilgrimage was to the cottage where Ulysses S. Grant died<\/a> in the hills above Wilton, New York. Dying of throat cancer, his doctors wanted him out of New York City in the summer heat, and Grant wanted the chance to finish his memoirs (considered by historians one of the best books written by a former President, and one of the best-selling books of the 19th century). Having surrendered his military pension on becoming President, he hoped the book would create income for his family to live on after he died. It did. He finished the memoir, The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant<\/em><\/a>, on July 18, 1885, eight days before his death. His friend Mark Twain, who had a publishing company, published it and hit upon a novel marketing scheme: he had veterans of the Civil War sell it door-to-door. His funeral train pictured below.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our recent trip to Glens Falls, New York, included a number of interesting stops. We\u2019d never visited West Point, perched high above the Hudson River and embracing more than 200 years of history. Not only was it picturesque, it was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"In upstate New York you can imagine what it was like in colonial times, when unbroken forest stretched \"forever.\" The waterways were key.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[266,104,78],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-11110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Tc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11114,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11110\/revisions\/11114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}