noon
`` The loss of these forts was a grief to Washington , and he determined to make an effort to recover them , for their loss endangered West Point . He soon ordered an attack upon them by the Americans under the command of Generals Wayne and Howe . Wayne had his quarters at Sandy Beach , fourteen miles from Stony Point , and on the morning of July 15 all the Massachusetts light infantry was marched to that place . It was an exceedingly sultry day , and the march -- begun at noon , taking them through narrow defiles , over rough crags , and across deep morasses -- must have been hard indeed ; they moved in single file and at eight in the evening rendezvoused a mile and a half below Stony Point . They rested there while Wayne and several other officers reconnoitred the enemy 's works . Then they formed into column , and moved silently forward under the guidance of a negro slave belonging to a Captain Lamb living in the neighborhood . '' `` New York was a slave State at that time ? ''