Both before and after the battles, these heights were farmed by John Neilson, who joined the American troops opposing Burgoyne's advance. Today, his restored home looks much as it did when American staff officers used it for quarters in September 1777.
The house stands atop a ridge known more recently as Bemis Heights. At the time of the battles, it was known as "The Summit". Bemis Heights was the ridge of bluffs overlooking the Hudson River, about a mile east of the house (slightly to the right and straight back, as you view this picture). Those bluffs proved a crucial area for American fortifications, as positions there gave American defenders an extremely tight hold over the Hudson River Valley below.
White marker posts with blue tops trace the fortified American line. Standing in front of the house, that line of posts can be seen to run from Bemis Heights westward to about 150 yards behind the house, and turning south, run southwest (the picture is taken from the line of posts just west of the house).
The sites of General Gates' headquarters and the American field hospital are about a quarter of a mile to the south --behind you and to your right, from this picture angle.
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This is the Neilson House, built by John and Lydia Neilson
around 1775 or 76. About 30% of the house is original to its construction,
basically the frame and part of the foundation.
John and Lydia were here less than two years when they, in like their neighbors, heard the British were invading southward down the Hudson River Valley -essentially through their back yard. John took Lydia to stay with her parents in Stillwater, a mile south of the house, and he went serve with his militia regiment, the 13th Albany County Militia Regiment. |
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On the 12th of September, 1777, the American army under General
Horatio Gates moved into the area. This house was used as a brigade-level
headquarters.
As you step onto the porch... |
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...you can see inside.
Basically, what you see is all there is to see. It's a simple, one-room house with a small loft, a lean-to style pantry, and it would have had a small root cellar. |
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| The above pictures show a "wide angle" view of the interior. We don't know what the house contained when it was being used as a brigade level headquarters by the American army, so the furnishings we have here are typical of what staff officers traveling with an army would have used. | |
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We know for sure one of the American generals quartered here
was Enoch Poor of Exeter, New Hampshire. As such, this travel trunk bears
his name.
It's unclear who was the other officer quartered here. Accounts differ in identifying him: General Benedict Arnold, General Ebenezer Learned, or Colonel Daniel Morgan. Arnold, still on the American side in 1777, seems perhaps more likely. |
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As a brigade-level headquarters, the Neilson House would have witnessed many activities, most of these involving keeping track of soldiers and their preparedness for duty and keeping records of general orders. |
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Officers would enjoy several comforts not afforded to common
soldiers, including:
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After the battles, John and Lydia returned to their house and would
continue with the farm, and their family. They would have
eight children, and the 1790 census records show
11 people living in the house. Family records say
the children weren't all born by 1790, so it's likely they had
other family members living there.
Still, that's a lot of people for one small house, and for everyone sleeping in this equally small loft! |
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Possibly in the last decade of the 18th century, or the first
decade of the 19th century, the Neilsons added onto their
house, encompassing the older part in a two-story structure.
A small sign on the near corner of the house tells of the historic nature of the earlier part of the house. |
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Around 1890, the Neilsons would push back the original part of the house
around 24 feet and add on a carriage barn.
The original part is visible at the center, while the carriage barn is visible to the right. |
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In 1926, New York State would purchase the Neilson farm and three others
here to create a state historic site. It would be managed by the Conservation
Department, Division of Lands and Forests.
The state would remove the newer, larger portion of the house, move the original portion some 30 yards south of its initial foundation and turn it facing east. |
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| It was here, also, that the state would construct a
copy of a blockhouse (the Americans never had one here) and a
"period house" (park headquarters).
Across the road, to the west, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a monument to the American dead, a pavilion, and a hedgerow around a conjectural "American Cemetery" (actual burial sites unknown). |
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In 1938, New York State gave this state historic site,
often called simply "The Battlefield", to the National Park
Service.
The NPS would, using archaeological data from 1957, return the Neilson House to its original foundation. The Blockhouse and Period House were eventually removed. |
