Leaving it here at Fort Montgomery for someone else to find. This location is near where Forts Montgomery (which was right across the creek near the museum) and Fort Clinton (near where the west end of the Bear Mountain Bridge is located). The Hudson River was a vital location for both sides of the American Revolutionary War. If the British controlled the river, they could split the colonies in half and easily defeat them. On October 6, 1777, British forces attacked the two forts. The British had over three times the amount of men that the Patriots had (around 2,100 to 600), and they won the battle. With 75 Americans killed or wounded and another 263 captured, the British razed both forts, themselves losing 41 men, with another 142 wounded. Things were looking low for the Americans until news came back that British General Burgoyne lost at Saratoga and were driven out of New York. The war raged on until 1781, when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, officially ending the War for Independence. The war didn’t officially end until September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed by the British and the Americans.