Philipsburg Encampment, Part I

     Recently I went on a little expedition through what is often called the Philipsburg Encampment, the area in which the combined armies of General Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau passed much of the summer of 1781.  Rochambeau landed on the Rhode Island coast (the Royal Navy was interdicting the Long Island Sound) and marched westward across Connecticut to Westchester County, with the main body of his army arriving around July 4th.  For the next six weeks, the two armies staid put, the French doubtless suffering under the heat and humidity.
     During this period, Washington launched the "Grand Reconnaissance," a forceful probing of British strength in and around New York City, which Washington intended to seize.  Rochambeau, fearing that the city would prove too costly a prize, preferred to move southward, and when the Reconnaissance met stiff resistance, Washington began to come round to Rochambeau's line of thought.  Once word reached Washington of Admiral de Grasse's movement towards Virginia, the matter was settled, and the allied armies broke camp around 19th August, crossed the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry, and marched South to Yorktown and victory.
     What was then known as Philipsburg is now part of the town of Greenburgh.  The town, Westchester County and the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route have erected signs at various points on the site of the former encampment.

      Here is a map, posted at the Odell House, of the various points of interest in the Town of Greenburgh.  (Please note that the numbered dots indicate signs, not separate locations - this confused me at first).  

     The first stop on the route (signs 1 and 2) is the Odell House.  Built in the 1730s, it was in 1781 the headquarters of the Comte de Rochambeau, who also entertained the allied generals at dinner parties in a barn that stood nearby.  The Odell family, formerly an old and important family in Westchester County acquired the house shortly before 1800 (during the Revolution it belonged to a man called Bates) and kept it until the 1960's, at which point it was given to the County.  Like so many historic buildings, it is in rather poor repair thanks to our County Executive's decision that it is not the place of the government to look after such sites, which should be maintained by public donation only.

     The front elevation of the Odell House, taken from Ridge Road.

                        The rear of the house - here the poor state of the house is readily seen.

     One of the signs at the Odell House.

      The next stop was the site of the American Encampment, the bulk of which stretched on both sides of Heatherdell Road from approximately Sprain Brook to the Saw Mill River.  Outposts were also established in Ardsley and in Dobbs Ferry overlooking the Hudson, under the command of colonels Scammel and Sheldon respectively.  The encampment is commemorated in McDowell Park by a small sign (sign 3).

      Sign 4 is at the western end of the encampment, on Concord Road just north of the center of Ardsley.

      Signs 5 and 6 are in Ardsley proper and give a general picture of the campaign and a more detailed description of Washington's "grand reconnaissance" against the British in New York City and South Westchester.

     Curiously, the French encampment is not included in the Washington-Rochambeau Route's list of noteworthy places.  Its approximate location is marked by a sign on Underhill Road, and I presume it occupied what are now the grounds of the Sunningdale Country Club.

For Part II I hope to pin down the locations of the encampments East of the Bronx River.