Editing West Point, New York (section)

====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.]]