Editing West Point, New York (section)

==History==

===American Revolutionary War===

====Construction====
The site for West Point was originally picked because of the pronounced S-curve in the [[Hudson River]] at that point during the [[American Revolutionary War]], and was the subject of a committee reporting on fortifications in the Hudson River in November 1775, which first recommended occupying the land.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=West Point |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/west-point/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705190333/https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/west-point/ |archive-date=July 5, 2023 |access-date=July 5, 2023 |publisher=George Washington's Mount Vernon |language=en}}</ref> Construction of the fort was begun under Captain Louis de la Radiere<ref>{{cite book |author=J. E. Kaufmann |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780306812941 |title=Fortress America |date=2004 |publisher=Da Capo Press |others=Tomasz Idzikowski (illus.) |isbn=978-0-306-81294-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780306812941/page/117 117] |quote=de la radiere. |url-access=registration}}</ref> as chief engineer of the fort, however, New York Governor [[George Clinton (vice president)|George Clinton]] thought that Radiere was "lacking" in the knowledge needed to hold his position.<ref name=":2" /> Thus it was completed under Polish Colonel [[Tadeusz Kościuszko]] between 1778–1780; it was a key defensive fortification, overlooking the turn in the Hudson River and the [[Hudson River Chain|Great Chain]].<ref name=":3">{{cite web |title=West Point |url=http://www.revolutionaryday.com/usroute9w/westpoint/default.htm |access-date=February 11, 2009 |publisher=A Revolutionary Day |archive-date=March 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311074209/http://www.revolutionaryday.com/usroute9w/westpoint/default.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 27, 1778, Brigadier General [[Samuel Holden Parsons]] and his brigade, including elements of [[Connecticut Colony]]'s [[Patriot (American Revolution)|patriot militia]], crossed an iced over Hudson River and climbed to the plain on West Point.<ref name=":1">Crackel (1991), p. 41.</ref>

General [[George Washington]] watched the construction of the fort closely and considered the fort to be General [[Alexander McDougall]]'s "first priority".<ref name=":2" />

In 1778, Major General [[Israel Putnam]] wrote, "The place agreed upon to obstruct the navigation of Hudson river was at West Point." A fort there, Fort Clinton, named after the [[Governor of New York|governor]]'s brother, Colonel [[James Clinton]]{{Efn|Fort Clinton was originally named Fort Arnold, however, with Benedict Arnold's defection to the British Army, the fort was renamed to Fort Clinton.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Fort Clinton |url=https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/fort-clinton |access-date=July 7, 2023 |website=American Battlefield Trust |language=en-US |archive-date=July 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707162019/https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/fort-clinton |url-status=live}}</ref>}} (whose brigade built the main fort), was built as well. The southern and western walls were nine feet high and twenty feet thick. Three redoubts and batteries on the south were named Forts Meigs, Wyllys, and Webb.<ref name="Storozynski">Storozynski, A., 2009, The Peasant Prince, New York: St. Martin's Press, {{ISBN|9780312388027}}</ref>{{rp|53,55}}
[[File:Plan des forts, batteries et poste de West-Point, 1780 (2674338525).jpg|left|thumb|Map of West Point, 1780.]]

==== After construction ====
West Point was staffed by a small garrison of Continental Army Soldiers from early in 1776 through the end of the war. A great [[Hudson River Chain|iron chain]] was laid across the Hudson at this point in 1778 in order to prevent British Navy vessels from sailing further up the Hudson River, which was never tested by the British.<ref>Diamant, ''Chaining the Hudson'', p. 122</ref> The site comprised multiple [[redoubt]]s, as well as [[Fort Putnam]], situated on a high hill overlooking the river. Named after its builder, Revolutionary War General and engineer [[Rufus Putnam]], the fort is still preserved in its original design.<ref>Hubbard, Robert Ernest. ''Major General Israel Putnam'', pp. 157–158, McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1476664538}}.</ref><ref>Livingston, William Farrand. ''Israel Putnam: Pioneer, Ranger, and Major-General, 1718–1790,'' pp. 373–375, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1901.</ref>

[[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] sent instructions to General [[Henry Clinton (British Army officer, born 1730)|Sir Henry Clinton]] to force George Washington out of West Point. Clinton decided to capture the strategically important posts Stony Point and Verplanck's Point,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of Stony Point |url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-stony-point/ |access-date=July 7, 2023 |website=George Washington's Mount Vernon |language=en |archive-date=July 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707162539/https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/battle-of-stony-point/ |url-status=live}}</ref> which were twelve miles south of West Point. Clinton captured the forts on June 1, 1779. To block the British advance, Washington moved his troops further up the Hudson.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Philbrick |first=Nathaniel |title=Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution |publisher=[[Penguin Random House]] |year=2016 |isbn=9780143110194 |edition=6th |pages=247–249}}</ref>

Early on in May 1779, General [[Benedict Arnold]] had met with a Philadelphia merchant named Joseph Stansbury. Afterwards, Stansbury had gone to Sir Henry Clinton, to whom he offered Arnold's "services". Clinton had been pursuing a campaign to take control of the Hudson River, so he had been interested in the plans and information of the defenses of West Point and other defenses on the Hudson River. Arnold wrote a series of letters to Clinton, one of which was written on July 12, making explicit the offer to surrender West Point to the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British]], later for a finalized offer of [[Pound sterling|£]]20,000. On August 3, 1780, Arnold obtained command of West Point, which also gave him command of the American-controlled portion of the Hudson. Arnold then intentionally started weakening the fort's defenses, and through a letter sent to Clinton, proposing a meeting with British Major [[John André]] to discuss information on West Point. A meeting was set for September 11, however, Arnold and André did not meet until September 21. Carrying the plans for West Point, André was captured on September 23 by three militiamen, and the information to West Point was found.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Randall |first=Willard Sterne |title=Benedict Arnold: patriot and traitor |date=1990 |publisher=Morrow |isbn=978-1-55710-034-4 |location=New York, N.Y}}</ref> After Arnold's betrayal, the fort, which was also known as Fort Arnold at the time, was renamed to Fort Clinton after General James Clinton.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Benedict Arnold |url=https://www.ushistory.org/ValleyForge/served/arnold.html |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=www.ushistory.org |archive-date=February 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227034253/https://www.ushistory.org/ValleyForge/served/arnold.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Post-war ===
After the conclusion of the American Revolution, West Point was used as a storage facility for cannon and other military property used by the [[Continental Army]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875 |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=016/llsp016.db&recNum=51 |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=memory.loc.gov |archive-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230223003510/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=016%2Fllsp016.db&recNum=51 |url-status=live}}</ref> and until November 28, 1779, was used as the temporary headquarters to George Washington, who called it "the most important Post in America" in 1781. Viewing a standing army as "dangerous", Congress demobilized American forces but left fewer than a hundred men at West Point.<ref name=":2" /> <!-- More specific information was originally here stating "For two months in 1784, the United States Army consisted of only about 80 soldiers under the command of Brevet Major John Doughty at West Point." However, this did not have a citation attached where the less specific information now in the article does, so the more specific version is omitted until a citation is found for it. -->However, it was still the largest post in the army in the immediate years after the Revolutionary War.<ref>Ambrose, pages 9–10.</ref>[[File:West Point, from Fort Putnam. (3990857882) crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|View of the West Point area from Fort Putnam, {{Circa|1865}}]]Favoring West Point due to its location and defenses, [[Henry Knox]] and [[Alexander Hamilton]] made the first official recommendation to establish a military academy at West Point in 1790. However, [[United States Congress|Congress]] rejected the proposal, although earlier in 1790, New York merchant and American Revolution patriot Stephen Moore sold his estate (known as "Moore's Folly") to the United States, following an Act of Congress that solidified the sale<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Agnes |date=1952 |title=Owner of West Point |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23153463 |journal=New York History |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=303–312 |jstor=23153463 |issn=0146-437X |access-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-date=February 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218160721/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23153463 |url-status=live}}</ref> on September 10, 1790, for $11,085,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boynton |first=Edward Carlisle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpU-AAAAYAAJ&q=west+point+ny&pg=PA5 |title=History of West Point: And Its Military Importance During the American Revolution: and the Origin and Progress of the United States Military Academy |date=1871 |publisher=D. Van Nostrand |language=en}}</ref> which meant Congress had gained full possession of the fort.<ref name=":2" /> The [[United States Military Academy]] was established at West Point in 1802.<ref>McDonald (2004), p. 184</ref><ref name="founding">Ambrose (1966), p. 22.</ref> It is the nation's oldest service academy,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wolf |first=Zachary |date=June 6, 2019 |title=West Point has an outsize importance in US history |work=[[CNN]] |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/west-point-history/index.html |access-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-date=July 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711045238/https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/west-point-history/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> and is metonymically called "West Point" as well.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wire |first=S. I. |title=Army unveils new name, uniforms and logo in athletics rebrand |url=https://www.si.com/college-football/2015/04/13/army-football-new-uniforms-logo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401120741/https://www.si.com/college-football/2015/04/13/army-football-new-uniforms-logo |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |access-date=July 11, 2023 |website=SI.com}}</ref> West Point has the distinction of being the longest continuously occupied United States military installation.<ref name=":0" />