Redoubt Four
In 1778, Thaddeus Kosciuszko designed Redoubt 4 to protect Fort Putnam (visible in the foreground) against British fire from this hill (Rocky Hill). American soldiers built Redoubt 4 in 1779. In 1780, Benedict Arnold described it as “ . . . a wooden work about 10 feet high and fore or five feet thick, the west side faced with a stone wall 8 feet high and four thick, no bomb proof, two six pounders, a slight abattis, a commanding piece of ground 500 yards [west].” An estimated 100 soldiers, excluding artillerymen, were needed to man the fortification.
In 1975 and 1976, during the Bicentennial of the American Revolution, archeologists partially restored Redoubt 4. The shape of the fort resembles Ephraim Sargent’s sketch rather than Kosciuszko’s proposed plan.
The remains of West Points main Bastion, Fort Clinton (originally Fort Arnold), can be seen at the eastern tip of the plain below. To the left and across the river is Constitution Island, the site of the first fortifications in the area. The eastern redoubts were built on the high ground across the river; the western redoubts were built on the hills to the south and west of this redoubt.
Marker can be reached from Patrick Trail, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
