Light-House Near Caldwell's Landing [pp. 33]

THE
LADIES' REPOSITORY.
CINCINNATI, FEBRUARY, 1845.
LIGHT-HOUSE NEAR CALDWELL'S LANDING.
(SEE ENGRAVING.)
THE engraving is beautiful. To enjoy it, however, we must linger over it; not to scan its design
or its execution, but to arouse those trains of thought
and modes of feeling which it is calculated to excite. Its background, of mountain on mountain,
is sublime, and well calculated to fire the mind of
the poet with wild and majestic views, and fill his
heart with emotions of the grand and the beautiful.
To the merchant, in whom the cold calculations of
business and age have chilled the ardor of youthful
fancy, the middle-ground may be most attractive,
awakening, by its sails and steam, ideas of profitable bargains, and accumulated wealth, while to
the geologist, foreground, background, and middleground, will alike fill the imagination with splendid exhibitions of granite, felspar, gneiss, alluvion,
fossil remains, and heaving volcanoes. The historian will fix his eye on a few spots, particularly
one on the right and another on the left, which
are associated with most thrilling recollections.
Verplanck's Point, exhibited on the right in the
background of the picture, was for sometime, during the Revolution, the head-quarters of General
Washington. It is thus described in the translation of Chastellux:
"The American camp here presented the most
beautiful and picturesque appearance. It extended
along the plain on the neck of land formed by the
winding of the HIudson, and had a view of this
river to the south. Before it the lofty mountain,
covered with wood, formed the most sublime background that painting could express. In the front
of the tents was a regular continued portico, formed
by the boughs of the trees in full verdure, decorated with much taste and fancy. Opposite the camp,
and on a distant eminence, stood the tents of several of the general officers, over which towered
predominant that of Washington. I had seen all
the camps in England, from many of which drawings and engravings have been taken; but this was
truly a subject worthy of the first artist. The
French camp, during their stay at Baltimore, was
VOL. V.-5
decorated in the same manner. At the camp at
Verplanck's Point we distinctly heard-the morning
and evening gun of the British at Knightsbridge."
The hill surmounted by the light-house, called
Stony Point, is celebrated for one of the most brilliant actions of the Revolutionary war. In 1779
it was a strong military post, guarded by about six
hundred British troops. General Wayne was deputed, with twelve hundred men, to attempt its capture. On the fifteenth of July he set out on the
undertaking. Having halted within a mile or two
of the fort, and made the preliminary arrangements
for the attack, he marched his troops onward in
profound silence and regular order, with guns unloaded and bayonets fixed. To reach the fort they
were under the necessity of wading, waist deep, i
through a swamp, by which it was protected. As
they were emerging and advancing, a tremendous
fire from the British artillery and musketry spread
death along the van-guard. Of the twenty picked
men who guarded the front, only three survived.
As the Americans were entering the fort, a musketball cut a wound in the forehead of the gallant officer in command, which stunning him, brought
him to the ground. From the position of the
wound, he supposed it would prove fatal; but rising
on one knee, he cried out, in a firm and loud voice,
"Forward, my brave fellows, forward!" Then addressing once of his aids, who was near, he said in a
subdued tone, "Assist me: if I die, I will die in
the fort." The w6und, however, proved superficial, and in a short time was entirely healed. The
triumph of the Americans was perfect. They
took the surviving soldiers of the fort, who surrendered at discretion, and a large quantity of military stores, which were almost indispensable to
them for the further prosecution of the war. The
victory, however, was dearly purchased; for more
than one hundred valuable lives on the American
side were lost in the engagement. The loss of the
British was about sixty. The bravery and skill
displayed in this action by the gallant commander
of the American forces, were appreciated by Washington, and rewarded by Congress.