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Experience a virtual tour of the Neilson House. Before and after the Battles of Saratoga John Neilson farmed these heights. Today his restored home looks much as it did when Generals Arnold and Poor used it for quarters in 1777. Ways to Explore
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Guided, audio-described tour through the Neilson House. Object Transcript with Photo Descriptions Below are the Neilson House Virtual Tour captions for stops and stop photo descriptions. The tour contains 14 descriptions. Each object caption is followed by a stop photo description.
Written tables, lists, and correspondence to other officers were important parts of an officer's duties and activities both in semi-permanent headquarters and in camp while on military campaign. Certain extant letters to General Philip Schuyler from General Arnold and Colonels Richard Varick and Henry Livingston (assistants for Arnold) were written in this house. The yellowed pages shown here represent such correspondence.
Papers covered in cursive handwriting and blank pages sit on a wooden table.
Leather-bound or marbled paper bound "Orderly Books" like this were universal for military command in the American War for Independence. General and divisional orders of the day were written down and maintained by an adjutant, a lower-ranking officer in charge of record keeping.
A leather bound book with a marbled pattern on the cover sits on a wooden table.
Worn under the coat, over the right shoulder and diagonally across the torso, a purple ribband like this would have been the key indicator of Arnold's rank as a Major General.
A purple piece of cloth is displayed on top of a jacket laying on a cot.
A general's jacket is displayed on the top of the cot. A dark blue coat with gold buttons and off-white trim on the collar, cuffs, and under the buttons would have been the uniform centerpiece for a General like Benedict Arnold.
A blue jacket with white accents and gold buttons is displayed on a cot.
All officers in wartime were supposed to carry a sword. It was both a defensive weapon and a symbol of officer status. All the military personnel that occupied this house in 1777 would certainly have carried a sword, perhaps not unlike this one.
A sword with gold accents is inside a black sheath with gold accents.
From the private soldier to the commanding general, a hat was an essential part of the military uniform. A high-quality black felt hat like this would have been worn by Generals Gates, Arnold, and Poor.
A black felt hat with a folded up brim that resembles a triangle sits on a cot.
At least some of the exposed framing timbers of this post-and-beam house are original to the house's construction around 1775. The whitewashed brickwork of sun-dried brick, called 'nogging,' replaces the original nogging between the house timbers. Not structural, it was in fact insulation.
A white wooden ceiling with large, white wooden beams covers the room.
This oval-shaped, cylindrical leather box was the suitcase of its day. Officers on campaign traveled hundreds of miles from home, and what they packed and brought with them was all they had. Of course, they might also have wooden travel trunks and storage chests, but a portmanteau like this could hold a fair bit of clothing and was light, durable, and highly portable.
A oval-shaped, cylindrical leather bag with clothes hanging out of it sits on a cot.
Officers traveling on campaign, like the whole army, left behind many comforts. Some higher-ranking officers assigned a wagon for personal baggage might bring a folding camp bed. Others, either without a baggage allowance or opting to travel lighter, could use a specialized, light-duty folding camp cot, built in 3 sections, similar to the folding camp stools. Perhaps a bit narrow, it was still somewhat comfortable…critical for men who needed to be reasonably well rested for decision making that would affect the lives and futures of many.
A cot with bedding sits in the corner of the room.
How do you make important choices? The fate of a nation hung in the balance of that question here in the autumn of 1777. American forces under General Horatio Gates started fortifying this area September 12, 1777, as they awaited General John Burgoyne's southward-invading British army. The area was a natural defensive choice due to its hills, ravines, and closeness to the nearby Hudson River and main road headed south to Albany. Like other locals, John and Lydia Neilson had time to pack up and get out of harm's way. While American General Horatio Gates had his headquarters about ¼ mile south of here, the Neilsons' little farmhouse became headquarters for American Generals Benedict Arnold and Enoch Poor. This house witnessed many important decisions that helped shore up the insecure future of the newly-declared United States.
A overview of the room shows a couple wooden tables with supplies for writing on top of them, a few chairs, a wooden boxes, a couple cots with clothes and bags around them, a fireplace, and a ladder going up to the attic.
This simple little block of red wax was actually an important part of the writing process. Letters in the 18th century used no envelopes; the page was folded, and the overlapping corners or edges sealed with a blob of wax heated over a candle, dripped on the paper, and impressed with a small metal stamp. It was both a closure and a security measure: a broken seal could mean prying eyes read the letter.
A wooden table with writing supplies, a candle, and a mug on top of it is surrounded by two chairs.
Command-level officers and their staff on campaign would have relied on folding, portable writing desks like this. Paper, quill pens, an ink bottle, and sealing wax would all be stored in compartments in the desk. From here and elsewhere, a number of original documents help chronicle important decisions of this military campaign.
A folding, portable writing desk sits on a wooden table. Paper, quill pens, an ink bottle, and sealing wax can be stored in compartments in the desk.
Folding, wood-frame, cloth-seat camp stools like this were a relatively light and portable seating option for military officers in the field.
Camp stools with a wood frame and a cloth seat are placed by a wooden table.
Water on campaign couldn't necessarily be trusted to be clean. Alcohol was preferred as a safer alternative. An officer on campaign, especially a higher-ranking one, often had a cellarette (storage box) like this for bottles of alcoholic beverages. The checkerboard-like internal wooden compartments separated the square, glass beverage bottles and kept them from hitting or bumping against each other.
Glass bottles sit on top of and in wooden boxes.
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Last updated: September 13, 2023