The Hudson River at Fort Edward, NY

The Hudson River at Fort Edward, NY. The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods. , The area on the Hudson River which is now known as Fort Edward was once positioned between the British Colonies to the south, and the colonies of New France to the north. In the mid-eighteenth century, tensions between the British and French were escalating and soon after the battle of Lake George in 1755, the British began their construction of Fort Edward and Fort William Henry. Fort Edward was named for the Duke of York and Albany, Edward Augustus, brother to King George III. Fort Edward and Fort William Henry, as well as smaller fortifications in the area, not only protected the portage routes to Lake George and Lake Champlain, but also protected the settlements further south on the river. , Fort Edward became Britain’s largest military encampment in the colonies, and America’s third largest city at the time. Fort Edward itself served as base quarters for British troops sent to battle at Fort Carillon, now known as Fort Ticonderoga. Rogers Island, located on the Hudson River in Fort Edward, became home to Rogers’ Rangers from 1757-1759. In total, from 15,000 to 16,000 British and Provincial soldiers were stationed at Fort Edward in the 1750’s. , With the conclusion of the war in 1763, the British moved their troops to Crown Point, leaving Fort Edward largely abandoned. A few years later, the American Revolution put the Fort Edward region in the limelight again, as General John Burgoyne brought a British south from Canada in the summer of 1777 and occupied the area north of Fort Edward. That July, a young woman colonist, Jane McCrea was killed and scalped here in Fort Edward by Native Americans who accompanied Burgoyne’s army. Soon after, American Patriots, incensed by the McCrea tragedy, defeated Burgoyne and his troops at the Battle of Saratoga.