During the American Revolution, Fort Dayton protected residents of this area from a site bounded by North Main, East German, North Washington, and Court Streets. The Third New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Army built the fort in the summer of 1776 under Colonel Elias Dayton. In 1777 General Nicholas Herkimer mustered the Tryon County Militia here to march west to aid Fort Stanwix, but they were fatally ambushed at Oriskany five miles short of their goal. By 1781 Fort Dayton had become the westernmost military outpost in New York State, and it was dismantled shortly after the close of the American Revolution. Elias Dayton, a veteran of earlier frontier wars, had directed the rebuilding of Fort Stanwix before constructing Fort Dayton, and his son Jonathan later served under George Washington and speculated in western lands, including what is now Dayton, Ohio. Across the wider Mohawk Valley, nearly half of New York State's military actions during the war took place along this strategic corridor. In 1777 British, Native American, and Loyalist battalions attacked from the west and north, and defeats at Fort Stanwix and elsewhere forced a British surrender at Saratoga, the war's turning point. Fighting in the region, including the bloodshed at Oriskany, often pitted former neighbors against one another and divided European and Native American families and communities. Many who remained loyal to the British king were forced to move and forfeit their property, while others took up arms or tried to remain neutral. For seven years enemy raids terrorized the Mohawk Valley and periodically burned the fertile farms that formed New York's bread basket, and by 1783 the region had been reduced to little more than fortified homesteads, militia posts, and abandoned fields.