In looking for a place to land his blow and to maximize the effect of his limited forces, Clinton’s gaze turned inevitably up the Hudson River. Thanks to the presence and active cooperation of the Royal Navy, he knew he could move a strike force quickly along the waterway, virtually ensuring himself local superiority wherever he landed.

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Twenty miles north of Manhattan the Hudson broadened enough that the locals called it the Tappan Zee. It narrowed quickly after another twenty miles, pinched by a pair of promontories: Verplancks Point on the eastern shore and Stony Point on the western side. Between them ran Kings Ferry, marking the principal crossing point between the New England states and the rest of the colonies. It was also an invaluable staging area for any effort against the principal American fortification along the river — West Point.

A strike at Verplancks Point and Stony Point, Clinton reasoned, was a move that Washington could not ignore. From past experience, the British commander expected Washington to react by moving some or all of his army north from its encampments in New Jersey. Such an operation thus would have the double benefit of disrupting the rebel supply chain and possibly drawing Washington’s army into the open. As an added spur, the Americans had been busy strengthening both posts: There was a finished strongpoint called Fort Lafayette at Verplancks, and working parties were putting the last touches on a log blockhouse atop Stony Point.

Once he had determined his objectives, Clinton organized an expedition that left little to chance. Numbering perhaps six thousand British, Hessian, and Loyalist soldiers transported on seventy sailing vessels and 150 flat-bottomed boats, Clinton’s force departed Kingsbridge on May 30 and landed, virtually unopposed, the next day. Major General John Vaughan and fifteen hundred men came ashore on the Hudson’s eastern side at Tellers Point, eight miles south of Verplancks Point. The rest, led personally by Clinton, landed on the west bank near Haverstraw before marching against Stony Point. Only a token American party of forty men garrisoned Stony Point, and as the powerful British column drew near, the Americans set fire to the blockhouse before fleeing north over Dunderberg Mountain. There was a subtlety in the British plan, as Vaughan’s men — on the eastern side — did not move directly against Fort Lafayette, but instead secured the roads leading from it. During the night, British soldiers and sailors, displaying what one of their officers termed infinite fatigue and labor, hauled several cannons up Stony Point’s rugged slopes to bear on Fort Lafayette. On the morning of June 1, the American garrison of seventy-four men (mostly North Carolina Continentals) was shelled from Stony Point and menaced by the sight of the sloop-of-war Vulture choking off any river escape. An effort made to evacuate toward Peekskill was blocked by Vaughan’s men, leaving the isolated soldiers no option but surrender, which they did to Clinton’s aide-de-camp, Major John André. Sir Henry had taken both strategic outposts with the loss of just one casualty.

Not knowing whether this move was the extent of the British effort or if it portended an even deeper thrust into New York’s interior, Washington put his army in motion, as Clinton had anticipated. Also as Clinton had foreseen, Washington moved defensively, not directly challenging the move but positioning his forces to protect West Point and to prevent any less than full-scale advance the enemy might attempt from its newly won outposts. Washington’s own headquarters were first at Smith’s Clove and then at New Windsor.

A brief waiting game ensued while Clinton maintained his positions on the off chance that Washington would rise to the bait, so the British commander might, as he wrote, avail myself of any false move he may make. Clinton’s soldiers used the time to improve their defenses, especially at Stony Point, where the rebel works had been rudimentary at best. An American officer who observed them toiling at long distance thought that they labored like a parcel of devils. Clinton had been hoping for reinforcements from England that would make Washington’s situation even more difficult. When they did not appear, however, he still decided to continue his program of disrupting the region in the hope of catching Washington out of his defenses.

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