On October 6, 1777, during the Saratoga campaign, British forces commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton launched a coordinated assault on Forts Clinton and Montgomery in New York’s Hudson Highlands. The American strongpoints, positioned on the rugged west bank of the Hudson near the Popolopen Creek, protected a chain-and-boom barrier intended to deny British warships passage upriver. They were defended by roughly 600 to 700 Continental soldiers and New York militia under Brigadier Generals George Clinton—also the governor of New York—and his brother, James Clinton.
Clinton’s larger purpose was strategic. By forcing the Hudson Highlands and threatening the interior of New York, he hoped to relieve pressure on Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s army farther north and support Britain’s broader effort to seize the Hudson River corridor. After a feint that helped keep American troops under Major General Israel Putnam on the river’s east bank, Clinton landed approximately 2,000 British regulars, Hessians, and Loyalists on the west bank and marched through difficult terrain toward the forts.
The fighting was sharp and close at both positions. The undermanned American garrisons resisted fiercely, but they were overwhelmed by the attackers’ superior numbers. More than half of the American defenders were killed, wounded, or captured; estimates commonly place American losses at roughly 338, while British casualties included 41 killed and 142 wounded.
The British victory opened the river temporarily. Clinton’s troops captured and destroyed the forts, dismantled the Hudson River chain-and-boom obstacle, and subsequently raided upriver as far as Kingston. Yet the success did not achieve its larger strategic purpose. Clinton’s advance came too late to save Burgoyne: the British suffered a decisive defeat at Bemis Heights on October 7, and Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga ten days later, on October 17.
