Newtown Battlefield State Park, formerly known as Newtown Battlefield Reservation, was the site of the

Battle of Newtown The Battle of Newtown (August 29, 1779) was a major battle of the Sullivan Expedition, an armed offensive led by General John Sullivan that was ordered by the Continental Congress to end the threat of the Iroquois who had sided with the British ...

fought in August 1779, during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. It was the only major battle of the

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...

, an armed offensive led by General John Sullivan that was ordered by the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

to end the threat of the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

who had sided with the British in the

. In the battle, the Iroquois were defeated decisively. A portion of the battlefield is today managed as a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

. The entire battlefield (about ) was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965.

Description and history

The Newtown Battlefield is located along the eastern bank of the

Chemung River The Chemung River ( ) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 in south central New York and northern ...

, in western New York southeast of Elmira. Its main focus is Sullivan Hill, a wooded hill that was fortified by the

in a bid to ambush Sullivan's column. The main trail followed by Sullivan's troops had to pass near the steep hillside, which was only from the river. Sullivan's advance forces discovered the Iroquois works, and Sullivan set up his artillery on a rise to the south, from which it could command not just Sullivan Hill but also another hill to the east. After cannonading the Iroquois position, Sullivan sent troops up Baldwin Creek, which skirts the hill to the east. These forces eventually formed a battle line that drove the Iroquois from the position. The state acquired of land, covering most of Sullivan Hill, which it managed first as a state reservation, and then as a state park. A narrow column of white granite known as the Newton Battlefield Monument was erected on top of Sullivan Hill in 1912. On January 19, 2010, New York State Governor

David Paterson David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...

proposed closing the park to reduce the state's growing

budget deficit Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...

. However, the park was allowed to remain open after budget adjustments were made throughout the state's park system.

References

External links

New York State Parks: Newtown Battlefield State Park
{{authority control New York (state) in the American Revolution National Historic Landmarks in New York (state) American Revolutionary War sites State parks of New York (state) Parks in Chemung County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Chemung County, New York American Revolution on the National Register of Historic Places

Description and history

See also

References

External links