Media Monday: Hudson River in the American Revolution

French map of the Allied Armies camp at Philipsburg, 1781. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress

Happy Fourth of July! For today's Media Monday, we thought we'd share this amazing series of videos with leading historians on the American Revolution in the Hudson River Valley, centered on Dobbs Ferry. 

Two major turning points of the American Revolutionary War occurred in the Hudson River Valley - the American victory at Saratoga (October, 1777) and the bold decision of Washington and Rochambeau to march from Westchester County, NY, to Virginia (August, 1781). 

In 2009 the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society received a grant to record a series of interviews with leading historians of the American Revolution as part of the creation of the Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail (now known as the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route). These excerpts are just a few of the ten part video series! 

​Interview with Pulitzer Prize winning historian, David Hackett Fischer: During the American Revolutionary War Washington and Rochambeau, while encamped in Westchester County, NY, made the decision that would win the war. Dr. Fischer speaks about this decision and about Dobbs Ferry, starting point for Washington's 1781 march to victory at Yorktown, Virginia. Congress recognized the great historic significance of the march by establishing the Washington Rochambeau National Historic Trail in 2009. Dr. Fischer explains why Washington chose lower Westchester (Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont and White Plains) for the side-by-side encampment of the American and French armies and why he deployed the light infantry and light dragoons in Dobbs Ferry.

In this interview Thomas Fleming, past president of the Society of American Historians, speaks about the 1781 encampment of the American and French armies in lower Westchester (Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale, Edgemont and White Plains) and about the the march of the American army from Dobbs Ferry to victory at Yorktown, Virginia. ​

Dr. Mary Sudman Donovan, author of George Washington at 'Head Quarters, Dobbs Ferry', discusses topics relating to the Washington Rochambeau encampment of the allied American and French armies in Dobbs Ferry and neighboring localities (July and August, 1781).

You can watch all ten videos on the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society YouTube Channel! 

Watch the whole series

To learn more about the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, visit the National Parks Service. 

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