Snyder's Regiment of Militia was known officially as The First Regiment of Ulster County Militia. It was the first regiment of four created in Ulster County, New York as ordered by the Provincial Congress of New York. It was also referred to as the Northern Regiment[by whom?] since its members were from the Northern section of Ulster County towns including Kingston, New York (then also called Esopus) and Saugerties, New York (then called Kingston Commons)
Johannes Snyder was given his commission and officially took his post as Colonel on May 1, 1776. At that time the 1st Ulster County Militia was reported [by whom?] to have 472 officers and men. In April of that year, he was elected to the Provincial Congress as a Delegate, and thus did not start active duty until September 1, 1776, when he was directed to proceed to Fort Montgomery in the Hudson Highlands and take command. He arrived on September 27.
The three months for which the Regiment had been called out expired on November 30. In the following year, 1777, he was with his regiment at Ft Montgomery as early as June 4. On July 30, he took his seat as a member of the Assembly in the first legislature chosen in New York State. His activity was said to be "untiring!" [by whom?] He was at the head of his regiment in the Highlands, and was assigned to every court-martial convened by General George Clinton to try Tories who were active everywhere, and whom his Regiment seized on every hand. He was also a member of the Council of Safety in Ulster County. Colonel Snyder was thus in Kingston when Major General Vaughan landed to destroy Kingston, New York State's first Capital. He could only muster 5 small cannons and about 150 men. The rest of the 1st Ulster were either with General, now Governor, George Clinton on their way to Kingston from the defeat at Fort Montgomery or as part of Colonel Graham's Levies from Dutchess and Ulster counties which were facing John Burgoyne at Saratoga. Colonel Snyder along with Colonel Levi Pawling threw up a hasty earthwork at Ponckhonkie overlooking the Hudson River and the mouth of the Rondout Creek, and a second one at the hill near O'Reilly's Woods—the present site of Kingston's City Hall, and placed his cannons. The British, numbering over 2,000, drove the defenders out and commenced to torch the city on October 16, 1777. As General Vaughan wrote, "Esopus [Kingston] being a nursery for almost every Villain in the Country, I judged it necessary to proceed to that Town...they fired from their Houses, which induced me to reduce the Place to Ashes, which I accordingly did, not leaving a House." After this, Governor Clinton assigned Colonel Snyder and a part of the regiment to assist and help rebuild the ruined city. He energetically took hold of the work with his men, and the town rapidly arose from the ashes. In 1778, and through the remainder of the war, Colonel Snyder was credited that no enemy descent was made upon exposed settlements in the northwest Catskills frontier where Governor Clinton committed its defense to him and his regiment. Part of the regiment was usually stationed at Little Shandaken to watch the approach through the valley of the Esopus Creek. Scouts constantly covered the territory from Hurley woods to the Palentine Clove along the foot of the Catskills. On at least three documented occasions, marauding Indians and Tories were turned back by finding their movements watched.
The Early History of Saugerties by Benjamin Brink (1902)
An Account of the British Expedition Above the Highlands of the Hudson River, and of the Events Connected with the Burning of Kingston in 1777, by George W. Pratt (1860)
Fort Montgomery was a fortification built on the west bank of the Hudson River in Highlands, New York by the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Erected in 1776, Fort Montgomery was one of the first major investments by the Americans in strategic construction projects.
Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster.
Ulster is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 12,660 at the 2020 census.
George Clinton was an American soldier, statesman, and Founding Father of the United States. A prominent Democratic-Republican, Clinton served as the fourth vice president of the United States from 1805 until his death in 1812. He also served as the first governor of New York from 1777 to 1795 and again from 1801 to 1804. Along with John C. Calhoun, he is one of two vice presidents to hold office under two consecutive presidents. He was also the first vice-president to die in office.
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park, a 700,000-acre (2,800 km2) forest preserve protected from many forms of development under New York state law.
Charles DeWitt was an American statesman and miller from the U.S. state of New York. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress.
Major General James Clinton was an American Revolutionary War officer who, with John Sullivan, led in 1779 the Sullivan Expedition in what is now western New York to attack British-allied Seneca and other Iroquois villages. They destroyed 40 villages, as well as their winter stores of wheat and other produce. He obtained the rank of brevet major general.
Esopus Creek is a 65.4-mile-long (105.3 km) tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries extend its watershed into neighboring Greene County and a small portion of Delaware County. Midway along its length, it is impounded at Olive Bridge to create Ashokan Reservoir, the first of several built in the Catskills as part of New York City's water supply system. Its own flow is supplemented 13 miles (21 km) above the reservoir by the Shandaken Tunnel, which carries water from the city's Schoharie Reservoir into the creek.
New York State Route 212 (NY 212) is an east–west state highway located entirely within Ulster County, New York, in the United States. It runs for 21.92 miles (35.28 km) from an intersection with NY 28 in the interior of the Catskill Park to a junction with U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) and NY 32 on the west bank of the Hudson River, providing a key interchange with the New York State Thruway along the way. The mostly rural two-lane route serves the communities of Woodstock and Saugerties while passing Cooper Lake, Kingston's reservoir. NY 212 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York.
Beverley Robinson, was a Virginia-born soldier who became a wealthy colonist of the Province of New York and is best known as a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War. Robinson married Susanna Philipse, heiress to a significant share of the roughly 250 square miles (650 km2) Highland Patent on the lower Hudson River in the Province of New York.
The Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery was an American Revolutionary War battle fought in the Hudson Highlands of the Hudson River valley, not far from West Point, on October 6, 1777. British forces under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton captured Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery and then dismantled the first iteration of the Hudson River Chains. The purpose of the attack was to create a diversion to draw American troops from the army of General Horatio Gates, whose army was opposing British General John Burgoyne's attempt to gain control of the Hudson.
Dunderberg Mountain is a 1,086-foot (331 m) mountain on the west bank of the Hudson River at the southern end of the Hudson Highlands. It lies just above Jones Point, New York, within Bear Mountain State Park and the town of Stony Point in Rockland County, New York.
Hurley is a hamlet in the Town of Hurley, Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 3,346 at the 2020 census.
Hurley is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 6,178 at the 2020 census. The town is in the northeastern part of the county, west of the city of Kingston. Much of the town is inside the Catskill Park. Located within the town is a hamlet and census-designated place, also named Hurley. The Town of Hurley comprises the hamlets of Hurley, West Hurley and Glenford.
Kingston is the only city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is 91 miles (146 km) north of New York City and 59 miles (95 km) south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United States Census Bureau. The population was 24,069 at the 2020 United States Census.
Saugerties is a village in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 3,899 at the 2020 census, showing a slight decline from the 3,971 counted at the 2010 census.
Saugerties is a town in the northeastern corner of Ulster County, New York. The population was 19,038 at the time of the 2020 Census, a decline from 19,482 in 2010. The village of the same name is located entirely within the town.
George Watson Pratt was an American politician and Union Army officer from New York.
The Burning of Kingston, New York, took place on October 16, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War as part of the Saratoga Campaign.
Major Christopher Tappen was an American politician from New York State. During the American Revolution, Tappen served as a member of the New York Provincial Congress, New York's Secret and Safety Committees, New York's Council of Safety and later in both the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. He also safely relocated and preserved the state's records and documents from destruction before the burning of Kingston by the British on October 16, 1777.
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