For more than two hundred years the great deep-worn war paths or traveling trails of the Indian Nations ran to and from its banks. And whether the fleet, moccasin warriors went westward over the Sacandaga trail to the big bend of the Hudson and so on to the Iroquois strongholds, or whether they came to Wahcoloosencoochaleva or the "Great Carrying Place", at what is now Fort Edward, through Lake Champlain and Wood Creek, or chose the trip through Lake St. Sacrament art the site of the future Glens Falls, down to Albany, or the west, all must cross this stream, ((Hudson) which thus became as familiar to the Adirondack and Iroquois Confederacies, as the alphabet is to us of today.
The
first recorded military expedition to have passed through the Great Carrying
Place, led by Major General Fitz-John Winthrop, occurred in 1690.
The following year another expedition was sent by the English against
Canada, this tine led by Peter Schuyler.
The
first fortification to have been built in Fort Edward was under the command of
Colonel Francis Nicholson in 1709, during a conflict known as the “Queen
Anne's War." Fort Nicholson
was garrisoned by 450 men, including sever companies of "regulars in
scarlet uniform from old England. A
crude stockade was built to protect storehouses and log huts.
John
Henry Lydius, a Dutch fur trader, came to the site of Fort Nicholson to
construct a trading post in 1731. Lydius
claimed this land under a title granted to the Rev. Dellius in 1696.
According to a 1732 French map, the trading post may have been surrounded
by storehouses and fortified. Lydius
may also have built a sawmill on Rogers Island.
It is unknown whether the Lydius post was destroyed and reconstructed in
1745 when many French and Indian raids were being conducted on the Hudson River.
Many
Provincial troops arrived at the Great Carrying Place during July and August of
1755. Among these were the
celebrated Rogers Rangers. Rogers
Island became the base camp for the Rangers for about 2 1/2 years during the
French and Indian War. Many Ranger
huts, a blockhouse, a large barracks complex, and a large smallpox hospital were
constructed on Rogers Island between 1756 and 1759. The smallpox hospital was
constructed in late 1757, and it not only served smallpox and other disease
victims but also victims of the Ticonderoga battle 0£ July 8, 1758.
Major Duncan Campbell of the "Black Watch" was one of the many
Highland Regiment troops seriously wounded during this battle and taken to the
hospital on Rogers Island. Campbell
died after nine days and was interred near the fort.
Many
men of Revolutionary War fame were stationed in Fort Edward during the French
and Indian War. Men such as
Schuyler, Putnam and Revere would hone their skills as officers and soldiers at
Fort Edward and Rogers Island.
Fort
Edward was garrisoned until 1766, when it was ordered evacuated and the stores
moved to Fort Crown Point. With
Fort Edward now evacuated, more settlers were beginning to move into the area.
A former soldier of the regulars, Hugh Munroe received a land grant to
Rogers Island on August 5, 1766.
During
the time of the American Revolution, Fort Edward once again saw many
troop movements.
General Schuyler, Benedict Arnold, Knox, Howe, Burgoyne and others all
passed through Fort Edward.
Fort
Edward was evacuated once again in the 1780s.
The Island has seen little activity since then, other than some farming
and artifact-collecting. The 1991 excavations will be the first professional
archaeology conducted on the Island.