[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] the contending armies did not once take a direction east of the Hud-son River. And like the Rhode Island expedition, the various British attacks on Connecticut (with one minor exception) proceeded by water from New York, accomplishing nothing but local results. Con-sequently although Westchester County was continually exposed to the enemy at the south, and suffered terribly and without cessation from his incidental occupation and aggression, it was nor similarly exposed at the east, and, on account of the choice of other sections of the country than New England for the formal military campaigns, was almost wholly exempted, after the experience of 1776, from the presence of the foe in any pretentious array. Peekskill was no less clearly indicated as the vital post for the Americans, to be maintained at all hazards, than Kingsbridge was for the British. Lying just below the Highlands and just above the point on the Hudson River where its waters, previously confined be-tween closely approaching banks, suddenly spread out into a broad sea, it commanded equally the passes into the mountains, the navi-gation of the whole upper river, and the communication with the western shore, and consequently with all the middle and southern States.