Preparing to Relieve Elmore’s Regiment

This chapter addresses how, on March 8, 1777, Lieutenant Colonel Marinus Willett received orders to leave the makeshift rendezvous camp at Fishkill on March 12 and march his troops to Fort Constitution, near Peekskill on the Hudson River. Meanwhile, Colonel Peter Gansevoort received orders to take his Albany-based recruits west to Fort Stanwix. Willett's companies got their first taste of combat when the British raided the Continental supply depot at Peekskill just about ten days after they had arrived at Fort Constitution on March 23. After this small battle, recruiting continued. Manpower changes continued almost daily in the 3rd New York companies. Both Willett and Gansevoort still wondered when they would be able to unite their regiment and whether that union would take place at Fort Stanwix, where the troops with Gansevoort had been ordered.