Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade traveled to George Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, N.Y., where the legendary general and future U.S. president lead the rebel forces of the Continental Army against the greatest fighting force that the world had ever known.
Now, in its fourth season, the Fox Nation series "What Made America Great," explored the places where American history was made and unearthed the secrets that have been buried by time.
General Washington spent more than 16 months at his Newburgh headquarters following the colonists' defeat of the British at Yorktown. The site gave him a commanding view of the Hudson River Valley, which was considered to be the key to the continent.
"New York City thinks it's the center of things. But when you're trying to win our first war, the Revolutionary War, this was vitally important," said Kilmeade.
"Why was this the perfect spot to put George Washington's headquarters?" he asked Paul Banks, an interpretative program assistant at Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site.
"The largest contingent of British troops remaining in North America was in New York City," said Banks. "Washington] had good fortifications in the highlands just south of us, including West Point."
At the time in the late 1770s, West Point was a fortified compound. It was not until 1802 that Congress established the United States Military Academy there.
"[Washington] had the sentry points just across the river on Mount Beacon. He had the ferry crossing -- one of the main ferry crossings -- of troops and supplies from New England, coming right to his front door. And he was ready should he need to bring his army down to face the British."
Among the Continental Army's defenses throughout the valley was a massive chain that they stretched across the width of the river to prevent British vessels from traveling north from New York City.
"They got like a huge chain and they just put it from shore to shore?" asked Kilmeade.
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"They had logs to keep it afloat. It was one of our nation's very first strategic defense initiatives," Banks explained.
"The 'boom and chain' was designed to stretch across the Hudson to be an impediment to British shipping so that the [British warships, also known as the] Men-of-War, who had come up in October of 1777, could never come up the river again."
Brian Kilmeade explores George Washington's Revolutionary war headquarters, overlooking New York's Hudson River Valley.
Brian traveled next to Saratoga, N.Y. to learn about the battle that was the turning point in the Revolutionary War and considered to be among the most important battles ever fought in world history.
In "What Made America Great," Kilmeade investigated the hidden chambers of Mount Rushmore, examined the rarest artifacts from the Battle of the Alamo and gone inside NASA's Kennedy Space Center. To watch all of that are more, go to Fox Nation and sign up today.
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