[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] This place, in common with Verplanck's Point, was not fortified at the beginning of the Revolution; but some time after the building of Fort Lafavette, on Verplanck's Point, works were begun on Stony Point, which, before their completion, were seized by the British, who then erected the famous citadel which Anthony Wayne stormed. Finally, above the chain, on an island opposite West Point, was Fort Constitution, to be depended on as a last resort in case the works below should prove insufficient. This fort, like Montgomery, Clinton, and Independence, dates from an early period. After the ultimate disposition of the two opposing forces was effected— the Americans at Peekskill and the British at Kingsbridge —Westchester County assumed at once the character of a Neutral Ground. Wherever the term, "the Neutral Ground," occurs in gen-eral histories of the Revolution, it applies exclusively to Westchester County— and to substantially the whole of the county. It is generally considered that the Neutral Ground proper embraced only the dis-trict between the Croton River at the north and a limit at the south about identical with the present city line of New York— that north of the Croton the Americans held undisputed sway, and in the south-ern strip adjacent to Kingsbridge the British were unquestioned masters. But in truth there was no Neutral Ground proper.