In the adjoining field to the westward a flanking redan may yet be seen overlooking the Riverdale road.
Number Three stood where Warren B. Sage's house now stands, on the easterly brow of Spuyten Duyvil Hill and directly overlooking the post on the northerly end of Manhattan Island at King's Bridge, called Fort Prince Charles^ by the British. Numbers one, two and three were first garrisoned in 1777. In November, 1778, the three works had a garrison of one hundred and ten officers and men. They were abandoned by the British in the fall of 1779.
The creek near Johnson's foundry was crossed by a pontoon bridge, and a military road ran from it up the easterly side of the hill to and along Spring Street, where it branched off to the Redoubts One, Two and Three.
Number Four was the American Fort Independence, on Tetard's Hill, across the valley. The house of William Ogden Giles now stands on its site. It was built on the farm of General Richard Montgomery, and may have been laid out by him. It occupied a most commanding position overlooking the Albany road on one side and the Boston road on the other. It had two bastions at the westerly angles.
The British garrisoned it continuously from its capture until they removed its guns, August 16th, its wood-work, August 17th, and demolished its magazine, September 12, 1779. It was not garrisoned again during the war. A number of iron six-pounders were dug up inside its walls, by Mr. Giles, when excavating his cellar, about thirty years ago. Two of them are now mounted in a miniature fort on his grounds.