Bemis Heights, New York
Bemis Heights, New York
BEMIS HEIGHTS, NEW YORK. The bluff on the west side of the Hudson River, three miles north of the village of Stillwater, was named for Jotham Bemis, a local farmer and tavern keeper. The American Northern Army under Horatio Gates created field fortifications on its broad, thickly wooded plateau to block the advance of John Burgoyne's army. As Richard M. Ketchum notes, from the top of the bluff the Americans had "an unobstructed view for miles in almost every direction. Below it, the bottomland, cleared of trees, narrowed down into a defile no more than five or six hundred feet wide between the string of bluffs and the Hudson. Through this defile passed the only road to Albany on the west bank of the river" (Saratoga, pp. 337-348). The name of the bluff was attached to the second battle of Saratoga (9 October 1777), Burgoyne's failed final attempt to break through the barrier.
SEE ALSO Saratoga, Second Battle of.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ketchum, Richard M. Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War. New York: Holt, 1997.
revised by Harold E. Selesky