General James Clinton - Springfield, NY
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 42° 49.981 W 074° 49.761
18T E 513947 N 4742286
A monument on the route General James Clinton took during the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign of the Revolutionary War is located at the intersection of Route 20 and Continental Road, in Springfield, NY.
Waymark Code: WMMJB4
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 09/27/2014
Views: 2
On May 31, 1779, General George Washington instructed General John Sullivan to march three brigades of men from Easton, PA to the Susquehanna River and to follow the river upstream to Tioga, now Athens, PA. He also ordered Gen. James Clinton's brigade to march from Schenectady, NY, west up the Mohawk River Valley to Canajoharie, and then overland to Otsego Lake. On Sullivan's order, Clinton's forces were to march down the Susquehanna River, destroying all Indian villages on his route, and meet Sullivan at Tioga.
To accomplish this mission, Clinton made the river navigable by dammed the river's source at Otsego Lake. He then allowed the lake's water level to rise, destroyed the dam, and flooded the river for miles downstream, thus destroying all in its path.
On August 29, 1779, the combined forces defeated the Tories and Indians at the Battle of Newtown, NY. This became known as the "Sullivan-Clinton Campaign."
The granite monument is surrounded by a 4' high fence. It contains a bronze plaque with the left profile of General James Clinton and the inscription:
THIS MONUMENT IS
ERECTED TO THE
MEMORY OF
GEN'L JAMES CLINTON
BORN 1736 DIED 1812
& MARKS A POINT ON
THE LINE OF MARCH
OF HIS TROOPS FROM
MOHAWK RIVER TO
OTSEGO LAKE IN
JUNE 1779
GENERAL JAMES CLINTON
CHAPTER DAR AEDIFICAVIT