MANY LITTLE FALLS STREETS NAMED AFTER LOCAL HEROES
— Nan Ressue, POP Chair
Gansevoort Street is one of the longest and most beautiful streets in Little Falls and takes its unusual name from Colonel Peter Gansevoort who was the young but determined officer in command of Fort Stanwix in August of 1777 when it suffered a ferocious siege mounted by the British and their Mohawk allies.
It was General Herkimer and our local militia who set out to relieve the siege but were ambushed on the way to the fort. When the word was delivered to the British commander that Benedict Arnold and a large relief force was moving west through Mohawk Valley , the three week siege was withdrawn and enemy forces pulled back to Oswego. The fort never surrendered. Gansevoort’s success was recognized by the Continental Congress and due honor paid.
Colonel Gansevoort continued his military career by turning Fort Stanwix over to the `1st New York Regiment, establishing a new headquarters at Schuylerville, and was soon leading his soldiers in the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. . With the downsizing of the New York line in 1781, Gansevoort returned home to the Albany area to become Brigadier General of the Albany County Militia where he spent the rest of his life involved in military and civic pursuits This colonial patriot was truly dedicated to the welfare of his country.
