Vails Gate, New York
Children's, History, Library, Military, Park
New Windsor Cantonment breathes life into the onetime Continental Army post housing 7,500 soldiers and 500 women and children civilian war refugees. A small but talented staff authentically dressed and equipped as soldiers or soldiers' wives demonstrate the work and pastimes of life in a military community from weapons drill, woodworking, blacksmithing, medicine, cooking and laundry to celebrations and funerals, sports and games, and aspects of ordinary life in extraordinary times 60 miles above British-controlled New York City at the close of the Revolutionary War. Two new galleries introduce guests to the forgotten people behind the famous figures, and to a lost historic site nearby where the seeds of victory at the Siege of Yorktown were planted through intensive training. One original log hut and several recreated buildings provide a backdrop for living history presentations and programs, with plans for additional outdoor work areas and structures to widen the scope of the human story and to interpret the economic and political crisis that reached a head here in 1783. In 2006 the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor was established here to collect and share the stories of men and women wounded in combat in American military service. The Purple Heart was preceded by the Badge of Military Merit established by George Washington in 1782 and in 1932 over 100 World War I veterans received some of the first Purple Hearts 150 years later here in 1932.