The Greatest Highway in the World: Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.New York Central Railroad Company
History
The Greatest Highway in the World: Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
New York Central Railroad Company
New York (State) -- Guidebooks; Ohio -- Guidebooks
After Congress moved elsewhere, Trinity was used as a hospital,
and the Dutch church, being constructed of stone, was converted
into a prison. Its most famous prisoner was Enoch Crosby (who
served as the original for Cooper's hero in _The Spy_), a patriot
who twice escaped with the help of the Committee of Safety, the
only persons who knew his true character.
Across the river Newburgh is visible rising above the Hudson. From the
Spring of 1782 to Aug. 1783 Washington made his headquarters in the
Jonathan Hasbrouck house* (to the south of the city), built between 1750
and 1770. The house, a one story stone building with a timber roof, has
been purchased by the State of N.Y. and is open to visitors. It contains
many interesting Revolutionary weapons, documents and other relics. Here
in May, 1782, Washington wrote his famous letter of rebuke to Lewis
Nicola, who had written in behalf of a coterie of officers suggesting
that he assume the title of king.
Washington's reply was peremptory and indignant. They could not
have found, he said, "a person to whom their schemes were more
disagreeable," and charged them, "if you have any regard for
yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these
thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself
or any one else, a sentiment of like nature." Here also he made
his reply to the so-called Newburgh addresses written by John
Armstrong and calling for action on the part of the army to
redress its grievances.
Newburgh was still his headquarters when Washington by the force of his
influence secured the quiet disbandment of the Continental Army at the
close of the war. Upon the occasion of the centennial celebration (1883)
of this event, a monument called the Tower of Victory, 53 ft. high with
a statue of Washington, was erected.
Newburgh is the center of a rich agricultural region, but it is a
manufacturing center as well; its output comprises machine shop
products, plaster, cotton, woolen and silk goods, felt hats, furniture,
flour, lumber and cigars. Above Newburgh can be seen the lighthouse (on
the west bank) called the Devil's Danskammer, or Devil's Dance Hall,
recalling the time when Henry Hudson and his crew landed here to witness
an Indian pow-wow. The Dutch, who were considerably startled by the
affair, thought that it could be nothing less than a diabolical dance;
hence the name.
[Illustration: Robert Fulton's First Steamboat
(_From Fulton's own Sketch_)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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