Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot was formed to advocate for the preservation, study, and proper interpretation of the Fishkill Supply Depot and Encampment. Declared as “the last of the important Revolutionary War sites yet to be properly explored,” the Fishkill Supply Depot remains so today: a one-of-a-kind site of national importance that has never gotten its due.
Located in Fishkill, New York, the Fishkill Supply Depot was a key strategic center of the American Revolution, established and visited repeatedly by George Washington. Known as the “Military nerve center of the Continental army,” the Depot was one of three major encampments along with Morristown and Valley Forge. Hallowed history happened here – hundreds of the original soldiers who fought to found the nation died and were buried here in unknown graves.
The site, the Fishkill Supply Depot, has been listed for decades in the National Register of Historic Places and consists of more than 70 acres on the East and West sides of southern Route 9. Here more than two centuries ago, thousands of Continental Army soldiers weathered the winters of 1776 to 1783 and blocked the British strategy of advancing unopposed up both sides of the Hudson to secure a line of communication from New York City to Canada. If the patriot forces had failed in this effort, it could have spelled defeat for the patriots and assured the ultimate victory of the Royalist cause in North America.
Reflecting the site’s importance, the Fishkill Supply Depot and Encampment was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1974. But subsequently, at that time, plans were thwarted to make the Depot a national park and open it up to serious archaeological investigation. Now, once more, land belonging to the encampment and supply depot, which has never been properly assessed by experts in the field of military archaeology, is being seriously threatened by a new round of commercial development on land east of the highway. As a result, the archaeological and historical record of what remains of the encampment will be further jeopardized, depriving future generations of a direct link to a remarkable past.