**** The garrison consisted of five hundred infantry, forty light horse, a company of artillery, with two twelve-pounders under Captain Horton, and Captain Crafts with a howitzer.
* (v) This view is from the bank immediately above the rail-way station, looking northwest. In the foreground is seen the wagon-road, passing by, on an arch of masonry, over the rail-way. On the left is the wharf. Toward the right, in the distance, is seen the long pier and village of Piermont; and at the extreme right, in the distance, is the mountain near the foot of which Andrè and Arnold first met. Piermont is the port of Tappan, the place where Andre was executed. The sketch here presented was made when I visited Dobbs's Ferry in the autumn of 1849, after the rail-way was finished.
Old Fort at Dobbs's Ferry.—The Livingston Mansion.—Rendezvous of the British.—The Palisades.—Tappan.
up in the vicinity, remains of which are still visible. One, a little southwest of the residence of Mr. Stephen Archer (the ancient mansion of Van Brugh Livingston), appears to have been equally strong with the one just mentioned.
A few rods north of this mansion, in a locust grove, on the west of the post-road, are very prominent re mains of a strong redoubt. They extended through the adjoining garden, but there the mounds have been leveled and the fossé filled up. These forts commanded the ferry to Paramus (now Sneeden's) landing on the Jersey shore, and also the passage of the river. They often greatly annoyed the British shipping while passing and repassing.
In this vicinity the British portion of the enemy rendezvoused after the battle of White Plains, (a) before marching against Fort Washington; (b) and at Hastings, one mile below, a British force of six thousand men, under Cornwallis, embarked in boats, and, crossing over to Paramus, marched to the attack of Fort Lee, and then commenced the pursuit of Washington and his broken army through the Jerseys. Here, in January, 1777, the division of the American army under Lincoln was encamped for a brief space. Here was the spot selected by Arnold for his first conference with Andre in 1780; and here, on the night of the 3d of August, 1781, while the American army lay in the neighborhood, and the chief's head-quarters were at the Livingston mansion, a skirmish ensued between some guard-boats of the enemy and the little garrison of the fort on the river bank.
a October 28, 1776.