Offered here is a group of relics recovered around Verplanck, New York, by author/publisher Dean Thomas. He and Wendell Lang metal detected this area in the 1980s.

This group includes an iron two-tine fork, a musket ball, a shoe buckle, two buttons, a well-worn coin, brass escutcheon, a home-made fishing sinker, and a piece of green glass. A fine sampling of Revolutionary War relics from this significant, yet largely unknown site.

KING’S FERRY, LENT’S COVE, AND FORT LAFAYETTE AT VERPLANCK, NEW YORK

King’s Ferry was a major crossing point on the Hudson River. It connected Verplanck’s Point on the east side of the Hudson with Stony Point on the west side. Since the British controlled New York City for most of the war, King’s Ferry was the southernmost crossing point for American soldiers and supplies. It was also a very important communication line; therefore, Kings Ferry was a very strategic target for the British.

In March of 1777, five hundred British soldiers landed at Lent’s Cove on their way to attack Peekskill where the British burned military supplies and destroyed quite a bit of property. In October 1777, Clinton again dispersed the American forces at Verplanck’s Point and landed 3,000 troops to secure the area for an attack up river. On the highest ground at Verplanck, just east of Kings Ferry, Fort Lafayette was begun in the spring of 1778 and finished in May 1779 as a modest four-gun earthwork. The British landed 6,000 troops and captured it in June of 1779 in connection with operations at Stony Point.

In 1781, the Continental Army of General George Washington encamped at Verplanck's Point as a staging area for crossing the Hudson River at Kings Ferry. Pursued by the army of British General William Howe, it crossed to Stony Point on the west bank, enroute to Fort Lee, New Jersey. From there it headed south, beginning the long march to Yorktown, Virginia, where Washington received the surrender of General Charles Cornwallis on October 19, 1781.  [jet]   [ph:jet]

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