Fort Lee Revolutionary War Monument
by Kevin Wright
The Fort Lee Revolutionary Monument Association unveiled its monument on Saturday, September 26, 1908. After considerable labors following the organization of the Fort Lee Monument Association, the State Legislature appropriated $6,000 in 1903 and immediate steps were then taken for the erection of a suitable memorial. It was designed by Carl E. Tefft, of New York, a famous sculptor, and finished the past summer. Tefft's design portrays a Continental soldier, his musket slung over his shoulder, climbing up the Palisades, while a drummer boy is aiding him. The figures are in green bronze, larger than life-size, and the base is fashioned from a solid piece of rock hewn from the Palisades. The monument is located in the park on a point where the original outworks of the old fort formerly stood. The monument also marks what was said to be the original camp occupied by General Lee as his headquarters and where Morgan's Virginia riflemen were encamped.
Fort Lee was thronged with thousands of visitors to witness the unveiling of the handsome monument. Soldiers, sailors, marines, militia, Grand Army and Spanish-American War veterans and a round dozen of brass bands were added attractions to help draw 7,000 visitors to the scene. At the request of Congressman William Hughes, the Secretary of the Navy ordered the Battleship New Hampshire to sail from Newport to the Hudson River, where it anchored opposite Fort Lee, firing a State salute of twenty-one guns at the unveiling of the monument. The parade, which marched from Leonia Heights to the monument on Palisade Avenue, included representatives of the three regular military services, the Bergen Troop, the Edgewater, Fort Lee and Leonia Fire Departments, the Second Battalion of The New Jersey Naional Guard Regment, Mayor John C. Abbott of Fort Lee and Borough officials, numerous civic organizations and a squad of white-clad school girls waving American flags, all under Carl L. Richter, parade marshall, with George F. Burdett and John N. Race as aides. The monument was formally presented to the borough by J. Fletcher Burdett, president of the Revolutionary Monument Association and a lineal descendant of Peter Bourdette on whose land the fort was built. His daughter Grace pulled the ribbon that released the flag draped about the monument and the school children sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Governor John Franklin Fort made the principal address. After several speeches, the celebration concluded with a band concert and fireworks.
