Anxiety and boredom motivated George Washington to travel through northern New York and the Mohawk Valley in 1783.

This weekend, the Fort Plain Museum will sponsor a reenactment of General Washington’s trip of 225 years ago. The festivities were previewed this past Sunday in the Gazette in an article by Ed Munger. There is information on the events at www.fortplainmuseum.com

The Mohawk Valley had been devastated during the Revolutionary War. Colonel Samuel Clyde, for example, reported on the aftermath of a British and Indian attack in 1780 that "such a scene as we beheld since we left the river, passing dead bodies of men and children most cruelly murdered, is not possible to be described."

By the summer of 1783, the last battle had been fought but the peace treaty would not be signed for some months. It was an uneasy time. Many soldiers wanted to go home but there were fears of Iroquois raids on the Upstate New York frontier.

Washington wrote the Continental Congress from his headquarters in Newburgh, in the Hudson Valley, that he was "teased with troublesome applications and fruitless demands." He told the Congress that he would "wear away a little time in performing a tour of the Northward." After the trip, he made recommendations to improve local roads and fortifications.

A book about this trip -- General George Washington in the Mohawk Valley: Summer 1783 -- was published in 2002. A collection of source materials compiled by Deborah J. Skivington of Fort Plain, the book is based on a teaching guide that Skivington and her daughter Beth Skivington prepared in 2000.

Washington's entourage included New York Governor George Clinton. Skivington said Washington and Clinton even tried to buy some land in Saratoga but the locals wouldn't sell.

Washington left Newburgh on July 18. According to a bill for the trip, he traveled north to Saratoga and Ticonderoga, was in the area of Schenectady and traveled through the Mohawk Valley west to Fort Schuyler. He returned to Newburgh August 5.

Among those accompanying Washington was an Italian nobleman, Count Francesco dal Verme, who kept a journal. Dal Verme had arrived in America in June and attached himself to his hero Washington. The count's journal remained with the papers of his family in Milan until it was edited by Elizabeth Cometti and published in 1969 by the University of Virginia Press.
Dal Verme wrote that the group was near Schenectady on July 27, 1783: "Here two Indians, an ambassador and his interpreter of the two nations (Oneida and Tuscarora) who supported the Americans, presented to General Washington a letter in a form of a memorial requesting rum, powder and ammunition for hunting; these supplies they obtained. Thunderstorm, then clear."

Washington's account book documented a visit to a tavern in Fort Johnson. Both the account book and dal Verme's journal stated that the party visited Fort Rensselaer in the Mohawk Valley on July 28. Built in the late 1770s, Fort Rensselaer was an irregular quadrangle with two small blockhouses, according to a 1947 local history by Nelson Greene.

"Fort Plain" was the local name for this facility while "Fort Rensselaer" was the official name, in honor of General Robert Van Rensselaer.

Dal Verme described Washington's visit to the fort as follows: "Thick fog. On our way to Fort Rensselaer, we went into a house that had been used as a fort. The commander explained to the General that the small cannon which saluted us did not fire thirteen shots for lack of powder. When we arrived at Fort Rensselaer we received a 13-gun salute. The troops presented arms. After maneuvers we dined with the officer corps in a group of 25. The echo in these mountains is very clear. Lodged in a nearby house. Cloudy."

Local tradition has held that Washington spent the night of July 28 in a stone house owned by Peter Wormuth, north of what is now Nelliston.

On July 29, the group "went to see many houses that had been burned and replaced with others constructed of thick beams fortified on all sides" and then traveled west, probably to Fort Herkimer.

By August 2, Washington was on his way back from the west. He visited the Cherry Valley and returned to a location dal Verme called Canajoharie. Although some have suggested that the night of August 2 was spent near Fort Plain, some say that the travelers stayed in a tavern owned by Johannes Roof in what is now Canajoharie.

Dal Verme wrote of the Canajoharie visit: "All the dignitaries were present. Slept here. Clear."

Skivington's book on Washington's trip also contains documents on the importance of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution, plus biographical information on Washington, including his relationship with Indians and his views on slavery.

“General George Washington in the Mohawk Valley: Summer 1783” by Deborah J. Skivington is available from the Fort Plain Museum.