Before dawn on November 20, 1776, a British invasion force of 5,000 British and Hessian troops under Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson River in 200 flatboats and landed at Lower Closter Dock, now known as Huyler’s Landing, just south of here. Guided by Bergen County residents John Aldington, Isaac Perkins, and Joseph Hawkins, who were loyal to the Crown, they climbed the rough road to the top of the Palisades and marched south toward Fort Lee, hoping to end the American Revolution early. By that time, only two months after the July 4 Declaration of Independence, British forces had defeated George Washington’s army on Long Island, occupied New York City, and on November 16 captured Fort Washington, the Americans’ last outpost on Manhattan Island. As the sun rose on November 20, Lieutenant John Clifford of Heard’s Brigade, New Jersey State Troops, saw the British crossing and rode to warn the American garrison at Fort Lee. Fearing entrapment between the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers, General Nathanael Greene ordered an immediate retreat. General George Washington joined the withdrawal and marched at the head of the troops as they crossed the New Bridge over the Hackensack River on their way toward the relative safety of Pennsylvania. The escape from Fort Lee helped keep the struggling rebellion alive, and Thomas Paine, who accompanied the retreat, later wrote in The American Crisis of the “times that try men’s souls” to rally support for the American cause.