--Detail from 'View from
Misses Masters School' by J. C. Cropsey, c.1890 |
Jack loved history so...No one
will ever know everything about Jack. But history made Jack
what he was ... this little boy, sick so much of the time, reading
in bed, reading history ...for Jack history was full of heroes.
Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis
History is philosophy, teaching by examples. Thucydides I view it as a noble undertaking to rescue from oblivion those who deserve to be eternally remembered. Pliny |
| Video Interview with
David Hackett Fischer May 22, 2009, at Brandeis University |
|
Noted Historians Reveal
Dobbs Ferry's Historic River Connections
These interviews have been made possible through a
grant awarded to the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society by
the New York Council for the Humanities |
| The Era of the Revolutionary War The American Cause |
WELCOME...
Thank you for visiting this website. To learn about Dobbs Ferry's remarkable history, please consider the following options:
Persons who wish to conduct in-depth scholarly research regarding Dobbs Ferry's history are invited to schedule a visit to the archives of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, which is located at the Mead House, 12 Elm Street-- telephone: (914-) 674-1007. These archives contain an extensive collection of historic documents, correspondence, artifacts and maps, historical publications, books, paintings, films and oral history recordings relating to Dobbs Ferry. The historical society also publishes The Ferryman, a lively and attractive historical newsletter, which appears quarterly. Please see the website of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society for additional guidance on ways to search for historical information about our village.
Historic Treasures of Westchester County is an initiative of "Virtual Archives," a collaborative effort of the Westchester County Archives and The Westchester County Historical Society. Access their web page, Historic Treasures of Westchester County , for a beautiful display of historical material from many of Westchester's towns and villages. On the web page relating to Dobbs Ferry, you will find exceptional picture postcards and other pictorial artifacts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Dobbs Ferry and neighboring localities played a vital role during the Revolutionary War and are important sites on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (W3R). Early in 2009, Congress passed legislation to establish the W-R Revolutionary Route as the Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail, and the legislation was signed by the president on March 30, 2009. Information about the role of Dobbs Ferry during the Revolutionary War is posted on the web site of the National W3R Association.
The website which you are currently visiting includes a pictorial account of the 1781 encampment of the allied American and French armies in Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale and Edgemont. The strategic decisions made at the encampment in mid-August, 1781, led to a dramatic turnaround in the military fortunes of the United States at the Battle of Yorktown, in Virginia, two months later, to the end of the Revolutionary War and to remarkably favorable peace terms for our country.
Additional sections on this website include:
The historic maps
web page
and
The
notable quotations web page,
which contains passages from articles and books which describe Dobbs
Ferry of yesteryear.
Please feel free to contact me. I welcome your observations and feedback.
Richard Borkow, M.D.
Village Historian of Dobbs Ferry
Trustee, Dobbs Ferry Historical Society
January, 2008
NOTES ON AUGUST 1, 2008, SCARSDALE INQUIRER ARTICLE REGARDING DOBBS FERRY'S REVOLUTIONARY WAR HISTORY
SOURCE 1--Louis-Alexandre Berthier's map of the New York City/Westchester County region in 1781 (Library of Congress website):
The portion of the map which shows the encampment of the allied
American and French armies in the Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale,
Edgemont and White Plains area can be easily located by using the
"Zoom tool" and the "Navigation tool" of this Library of Congress
map. The encampment portion of the map is also reproduced on page 1 of our
On the Berthier map, two American units are shown as deployed in Dobbs Ferry,
a light infantry unit (commanded by Col. Alexander Scammel) and a
light dragoons unit (commanded by Col. Elisha Sheldon).
Scammel's unit was encamped at location 6 on Berthier's map, and
Sheldon’s at location 7. Both position 6 and position 7 are, beyond
any dispute, located within the present-day boundaries of Dobbs
Ferry.
SOURCE 2 - Dr. Robert Selig’s 2001
study,
THE
SOURCE 3 - James Thacher’s
Military Journal of the American Revolution (a primary source):
http://www.americanrevolution.org/t1781.html
Scroll down to Dr. Thacher's August 20 entry.
Dobbs Ferry’s three-year appeal to the National Park Service (NPS) for
historically accurate recognition on the proposed
Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail has been discussed in
articles that have appeared in the
Journal News (July 12,
2008) the
Rivertowns Enterprise
(July 25, 2008) and the Scarsdale
Inquirer (August 1, 2008).
Several questions
that were raised in these articles, and highlighted in the
Inquirer article
will be discussed below.
The discussants in the Scarsdale Inquirer article (Local Historians Debate Role of Dobbs in Revolution) asked whether the statement that Dobbs Ferry was the starting point of Washington’s 1781 march is a new historical claim.
Actually, it is not a new historic claim. Dobbs
Ferry has long been recognized by historians as the starting point
of Washington’s march. An NPS map, prepared in 2001 for the
American Revolution at a
Glance project, conspicuously shows Dobbs Ferry as the starting
point of Washington’s 1781 march to
Other topics mentioned in
Local Historians Debate Role of Dobbs in
Revolution are best addressed with documentary evidence.
Three topics in particular will be of great interest to the
discussants who were quoted in the article: (1) What evidence
confirms that Dobbs Ferry was part of the 1781 encampment of the
allied American and French armies?
(2)
What evidence confirms
that American troops were paraded for the march on
To answer these questions, let us examine both primary sources and
modern historical scholarship.
1. What
evidence confirms that Dobbs Ferry part of the 1781 encampment of
the allied American and French armies?
In a 2001 scholarly
study by Dr. Robert Selig,
THE
Berthier's superb map of the New York City/Westchester County region shows the entire encampment. On Berthier’s map, two American units are shown as deployed in Dobbs Ferry, a light infantry unit (commanded by Col. Alexander Scammel) and a light dragoons unit (commanded by Col. Elisha Sheldon).
Scammel's unit was encamped at location 6
on Berthier's map, and Sheldon’s at location 7. (There are two
locations with the 7 designation.) Position 6 and both 7 positions
are located within the present-day boundaries of Dobbs Ferry.
2.
Addressing the second topic: What evidence confirms that
American troops were paraded for the march on
Dr. Selig’s study indicates that on the morning
of
Dr.
Selig’s
wording, "to the surprise of
some of its officers and men" is clearly based on another
highly respected primary source,
Dr. James Thacher's Military Journal of the American
Revolution.
In his Military Journal
Dr. Thacher writes that he was assigned to Col. Scammel’s unit
during the time of the 1781 encampment, and in his entry for
“According to orders,
we commenced our line of march yesterday, a party of pioneers being
sent forward to clear the road towards King's-bridge,
and we expected immediately to follow in that direction; but an army is
a machine, whose motions are directed by its chief. When the troops
were paraded for the march, they were ordered to the right about,
and, making a retrograde movement up the side of the North river, we have reached
King's-ferry, and are preparing to cross the Hudson at this ferry.”
Thacher says that the
men were paraded for the march at the same intersection where they
were given the surprising orders to turn right and head north “up
the side of the North (Hudson) river.” In other words, they were
paraded for the march at the intersection of present-day
Here are
It is clear that Col.
Scammel had instructions to supplement his forces with appropriate
troops (i.e., any troops that could serve as light infantry) from
all of the army's corps. Why did
On Sunday morning,
August 19, the various units started to march. Scammel’s light
infantry unit broke camp at location 6, within the present-day
boundaries of the
Scammel's unit had to
be incorporated into the forces marching out of Ardsley. When the
men were paraded for the march at the Ashford Avenue-Broadway
intersection in Dobbs Ferry, one of the principal requirements must
have been the integration of Scammel's unit with the rest of the
army.
3. Now to address the third topic:
What evidence confirms
that 2,000 or more troops marched in Dobbs Ferry on
A map of Washington's 1781 march to Virginia
(scroll down, and click on 'Operations in Virginia')
clearly shows that 2,000 American troops marched from Dobbs Ferry to
the Battle of Yorktown.
Another relevant
document, posted by the W3R organization on its website, states
that: On August 19, the
Continental Army, some 2,700-strong, marched through Dobbs Ferry on
its way to crossing sites on the
Rather,
Historians
emphasize that it was was
the destination that
involved a 'cloak and dagger operation,' not the march itself. John Ferling, in his 2007 book,
Almost a Miracle,
writes that
In
Local Historians Debate Role of Dobbs in
Revolution one of the discussants asked whether Dr.
James Thacher’s Military
Journal can be viewed as a reliable primary source. Historians
who specialize in the Revolutionary War period consider Dr. Thacher to be an superb and highly
credible source. Dr. Selig, for example, in his 2001 study, relies
heavily on Dr. Thacher’s account. In the example cited above Dr.
Selig relies on Thacher, in particular, when they both describe the
events at Dobbs Ferry’s Ashford Avenue-Broadway intersection on
DAVID HACKETT FISCHER AND THOMAS FLEMING
Two of the most
highly respected historians in the
Dr. Fischer and Mr.
Fleming stand at the very highest tier in the historical community.
They are not simply two more historians. Their expertise in the
Revolutionary War era is very widely recognized and very widely
respected. Dr. Fischer, University Professor and Earl Warren
Professor of History at
After reading the
historical documentation Dr. Fischer suggested to me that it would
be desirable to draw a map of the convergence of forces in Dobbs
Ferry on Aug 19, 1781, and advised me to prepare the map of the
‘parade for the march,’ which now appears
on this web site. Thomas Fleming also read the documentary
evidence and concluded from that evidence that
We are very appreciative
the W-R legislation in the Senate |
|
Faxes from the citizens of Dobbs Ferry, including all of those who responded to the mayor’s newsletter, and all of those who responded to e-mails from the leaders of both political parties, and from the citizens and supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, were extremely helpful at the time of the Congressional alert in June, 2007. Your intervention changed the course of events! Thank you! |
DOBB'S FERRY'S RETURN TO THE HUDSON
QUADRICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION:
AUGUST 16, 2009
On Sunday, August 16, we welcomed Sheldon's Horse, the first
cavalry unit of the United States, back to Dobbs Ferry 228 years
after its deployment by General Washington in our village. In July
and August, 1781, Sheldon's Horse, while stationed at the Dobbs
Ferry Redoubt, defended the Hudson River from attacking British
warships. Sheldon's Horse was reconstituted as a ceremonial unit of
United States armed forces in the 1980s.
We also welcomed Iron Feather
Singers to Dobbs Ferry. The members of Iron Feather Singers come
from many Indian nations. On August 16 they represented the Lenape nation, residents of Westchester in 1609, when Henry Hudson
and the crew of the Half Moon sailed past Dobbs Ferry. There
was a large Lenape settlement at Wicker's Creek in 1609, and a
partially preserved oyster shell midden commemorates the site today.
The August 16 celebration was part of the Tenth Annual Dobbs
Ferry Summer Music Series, and featured outstanding musicians,
including Rock & Soul Revue, Chrysalis, Joe Duraes and Milton.
Dobbs Ferry's Return to the Hudson Quadricentennial
celebration was an initiative of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society,
the Friends of Wickers Creek Archaeological Site and the Village of
Dobbs Ferry.
The festivities began with the Road to Freedom walk, which was led by George Washington (re-enacted by Hugh Francis) on horseback and fife and drum.
Activities on August 16 included demonstrations of primitive technology by Barry Keegan, discussions about Native American archaeology by Tom Lake and a presentation on Revolutionary War medicine and surgery by Dr. Joe Gagliardi.
We are grateful to our sponsors, the Board of Legislators of
Westchester County & Tom Abinanti, Westchester County legislator,
Half Moon Restaurant and the Tensor Foundation. Thank you for your
generous support!
Event flyer in pdf format
MEAD HOUSE PRESERVATION FUND
The Dobbs Ferry Historical Society is requesting contributions to the Mead House Preservation Fund. There is an urgent need for funds to save and preserve the Mead House, a source of village pride and a tremendously valuable asset for Dobbs Ferry. Please see www.DobbsFerryHistory.org for detailed information.