Friends of Fort Crailo Annual Meeting and Lecture

The Friends of Fort Crailo Annual Meeting and Lecture will be held at the East Greenbush Community Library on Sunday, January 27th at 2:00 PM. The East Greenbush Community Library is located at 10 Community Way, East Greenbush, NY 12061. A brief business meeting will begin at 1:30 PM. At 2:00 PM, Interpretive Programs Assistant Sam Huntington will deliver the lecture, "When Albany Banned Alexander Hamilton: Crossing the Hudson at Rensselaer & Albany in the Age of the American Revolution”

The talk will focus on two historic Hudson River crossings near Rensselaer and Albany during the era of the American Revolution. The American Revolution hung in the balance during Henry Knox’s 1777 crossing of the Hudson with the train of artillery that eventually dislodged the British from Boston, Massachusetts. Then amidst political controversy and personal conflict in September 1793, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton was briefly barred from crossing the Hudson and quarantined in Greenbush before crossing the river and entering Albany. These separate events at the beginning and end of the American Revolutionary Era were rife with intrigue and historical drama. Both were also telling episodes were in the centuries-long relationship between the communities on either side of the river, Albany in the west and Greenbush (current day Rensselaer) in the east. Throughout that relationship, the Hudson River has acted as both a bridge of connection and as a dividing line separating these two communities. This lecture program will explore the connections between these two historically significant crossings of the Hudson and examine the ways that the Hudson River has served as both bridge and barrier between Albany and Rensselaer.