This powerful position was established under the direction of Col. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish military engineer and volunteer in the patriot cause, and it proved to be the key to the American strategy against Burgoyne in 1777.
Patriot infantry and cannons posted here, supported by cannons and fortified lines along the flats and the riverbank, closed off the Hudson Valley route to Albany. That forced the British to stop moving southward along the Hudson River and to move inland, to the west. This led to the fighting on September 19, on John Freeman's farm.