Creating a Third Establishment 3rd New York Regiment

This chapter focuses on the creation of a third establishment of the 3rd New York Regiment. By the fall of 1776, the War for Independence, recently declared in July, was in serious trouble. To keep an army in the field, George Washington had persuaded the Continental Congress in September to raise a third establishment of the Continental Army, this time consisting of men enlisted to serve until the end of the war, however long it should last. To command the new regiment, Congress appointed the newly promoted twenty-eight-year-old Colonel Peter Gansevoort. Gansevoort's second-in-command would be the newly promoted thirty-seven-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett, while the third-ranking field officer would be Major Robert Cochran. So far in his career, Gansevoort had gained valuable experience dealing with many of the same problems that he would encounter at Fort Stanwix, except for defending against a siege. In addition to facing supply problems, desertions, illness, difficulty communicating with higher authority, and negotiations with Indigenous people, he had also dealt with fort construction and repair problems like those he would soon encounter at Fort Stanwix.