Beacon's Cannonball

One of the most picturesque historic spots in the Mid-Hudson Valley is the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, located off of Route 9W just across the Bear Mountain Bridge. Fort Montgomery has easy hiking trails, excavation sites with restored stone walls of the fort's ruins, and a visitor's center where you can learn more about the American Revolution and the Battle of Fort Montgomery where the Americans were defeated by the British on this site on October 6, 1777.

Among the Revolutionary War artifacts displayed in the visitor's center, is a British cannonball that has a direct connection to Beacon. The ball was one of two found in Fishkill Landing in 1875, when workers were digging the foundations for the Dutchess Hat Works factory located on lower Main Street, near the Hudson River. The two cannonballs discovered (one a 12-pounder, the other a 18-pounder) were part of a volley shot at the Fishkill shoreline by British ships on or about October 13, 1777, as the fleet sailed northward on its way to Kingston, where they would burn much of that city to the ground.

But why did the British fire on Beacon? From the sea journal of Thomas Farnham, British commander of the brig Diligent, he records: "At 8 [am] came to small bower off Fishkill Flatts, Fired at by several companies of armed rebells [sic]. Had two men slightly wounded. Fired several three pounders shotted at them as we passed."

From local lore, Beacon has its own story about the skirmish with the British: "Shibboleth Bogardus fired his Queen Anne musket in derision of the fleet as it passed up the river. Although they were so far away it was impossible to reach them, yet the insult was appreciated, and the compliment returned by a partial broadside from one of the fleet--some of the balls tearing the shade trees, striking and glancing along the railing of the Bogardus tavern, upon which was assembled a crowd of people witnessing the unwelcome display of that hostile fleet." --From the Fishkill Standard newspaper of October 1878.

The two cannonballs found in the 1875 excavations were donated to Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh. And according to Elyse Goldberg, director at Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, one of the cannonballs is in storage, the other--the 12-pounder--has been loaned to Fort Montgomery and is in the Weapons Showcase on display at the visitor's center there ... a worthwhile trip to go see it!