5. It was the Site of a British Fort and Revolutionary War Battle
Once a site housing a colonial British fort with several cannons, Paulus Hook is a neighborhood located in downtown Jersey City, as well as a little known portion of Liberty State Park land on the other side of the Morris Canal.
On August 18th, 1779, 23-year-old Major Lighthorse Harry Lee of the Continental Army and 300 weary soldiers launched a pre-dawn attack there hoping to regain the fort. Lee took most of it in his “hit and run” maneuver directed by General Washington himself even though he suffered water damage to ammunition. His soldiers captured 159 British prisoners but ended up retreating to the Hackensack River before British soldiers in New York noticed anything.
Major Lee won a gold medal for his efforts and this small battle was considered a major exploit in the War and boosted American morale. This fort was abandoned by patriots in September of 1776, just after the Battle of Brooklyn the month prior, and before subsequent occupation by the British who were there until 1783. Paulus Hook was a strategic point for defense as it originally was an island in the Hudson River with views to the mouth of the harbor, Manhattan, and some distance northward. It was connected by a causeway to the mainland in the early to mid 1700’s, stretching over marshland and creek.
Paulus Hook derives it name from Michael Paulusen, an agent on behalf of the Dutch West India Company who oversaw Pavonia, a town originally a part of the New Netherlands (and what is now Northern central Jersey City). It was from Pavonia that Lee surprise attacked the British. A masonry fort, similar in design to Castle Clinton and Castle Williams at Governors Island, was intended to be constructed there in preparation for the War of 1812. The engineer of those fortifications, Jonathan Williams mentioned the structure in his plans but the infant federal governments coastal defense plan only included New York State in its budget and the fort at Paulus Hook was never built.