The 250th Retreat Day Begins on the Cliffs and Leaves Fort Lee on Foot

Before dawn on November 20, 1776, in cold rain, boats began scraping against a stone jetty at the base of the Palisades. British regulars and Hessian troops climbed off and started up a rough road to the top of the cliffs. That's how Eric Nelsen describes the opening of the invasion of New Jersey in a Palisades Interstate Park history essay. By the end of that day, the garrison had marched off toward the Hackensack River and the fort that gave Fort Lee its name had been abandoned.

Two weeks from tomorrow, on Friday, November 20, is the 250th anniversary. Fort Lee Historic Park marks it with Retreat Day, running Friday, November 20 through Sunday, November 22. The weekend follows the order of what happened. It opens with a British camp below the cliffs north of town, spends most of Saturday in Fort Lee, and then walks out of Fort Lee to the Hackensack River. You can watch the Saturday battle and go home, but you'll have seen only the middle of the story.

What Fort Lee Actually Lost on November 20, 1776

The park's own account of the fort explains why the weekend is laid out this way. Fort Washington, across the Hudson, fell on November 16, and more than 3,000 American troops were captured. With Fort Washington gone, Washington decided Fort Lee was of little military value and told General Nathanael Greene to start preparing to evacuate.

There wasn't time to do it in order. Four days later, General Howe sent General Charles Cornwallis across the Hudson with 5,000 men, several miles north of Fort Lee. When Washington heard they were coming, he ordered an immediate retreat so the garrison wouldn't be cut off. The park's history notes that most of the American supplies and artillery were left behind.

Those days led Thomas Paine to write the line every American history textbook carries:

"These are the times that try men's souls…"

The Bergen County Historical Society notes that The American Crisis was first published on December 23, 1776, about a month after the retreat. So Fort Lee's place in the Revolution is the moment of loss that the famous comeback at Trenton and Princeton came out of.

Friday Night Starts in Two Places

The British part of the story opens Friday evening, away from Fort Lee. From 7 to 9 p.m., British reenactors set up camp at the Kearney House in Alpine Picnic Area. These are the same reenactors who will climb the Palisades the next morning. The Kearney House sits at the north end of the picnic area, down on the riverfront.

At the same time, the park auditorium in Fort Lee covers the American side. At 7 p.m., two Tenafly High School students present "History Happened Here: Tenafly and the American Revolution." It's about the British and Hessian march through Tenafly in November 1776, and their proposal to add anniversary signs with QR codes linking to historic maps and documents. At 7:15 p.m., historian Todd Braisted gives an illustrated lecture called "The Mud Rounds: The British Invasion and the Great Retreat Across the Jerseys." Braisted is a past president of the Bergen County Historical Society. He also wrote the 2017 National Park Service Battlefield Studies Preservation Report for Fort Lee, so the man giving the talk has written a report on this exact ground.

Nobody is fully sure where Cornwallis landed. Nelsen's 1998 park essay argues for Lower Closter Landing, later called Huyler's Landing, rather than the traditional Alpine landing. The name Huyler comes up again all weekend: the Huyler Trail on Saturday and Huyler's Landing Road on Sunday.

Saturday Climbs the Cliffs, Then Settles Into Fort Lee

At 8 a.m. Saturday, the British reenactors leave the Kearney House and hike the Huyler Trail up to Alpine Lookout, climbing the face of the Palisades. The public can join at the back of the line, and the hike returns to the Kearney House afterward. If you want to know what the climb involved, this is the closest you can get.

After that, everything takes place in Fort Lee. The park's posted schedule for November 21:

• 9 a.m.: "Fort Lee on the Palisades, 1776," living history with both British and Continental reenactors who are taking part in the marches
• 12 p.m.: Parade from Fort Lee Historic Park to Monument Park, with representatives from the towns along the retreat route
• 2 p.m.: Revolutionary-era music played on period instruments, on the patio
• 2:24 p.m.: Artillery demonstration by the huts
• 4 to 4:45 p.m.: Battle reenactment, watched from a distance
• 5:30 p.m.: A mock court martial staged by the 5th Connecticut by the Soldier's Hut
• 6 p.m.: Public historian Francesca Costa's lecture on the magical beliefs common in the colonies on the eve of the Revolution
• 6 to 8 p.m.: Tours of the military encampment

The noon parade is the one part of the weekend that leaves the park and goes into town. Just before it, the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution holds a separate wreath-laying at Fort Lee's Monument Park, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, according to the society's event listing. If you're spending the day downtown, you can catch the wreath-laying and then watch the parade arrive.

The evening encampment tours feature reenactors who will march across several towns the next morning. Saturday night is the camp before the retreat.

Sunday Morning, Fort Lee Is the Starting Line

On Sunday the weekend leaves town. At 8 a.m., Continental reenactors set out from Fort Lee Historic Park, retracing the 1776 retreat. At 8:30 a.m., Loyalist reenactors start from Huyler's Landing Road in Cresskill, following the British pursuit. Both groups head for New Bridge Landing in River Edge and are scheduled to arrive around 11:15 a.m.

The Bergen County Historical Society runs that end of the route. Its Retreat to Victory, 250th event is Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Historic New Bridge Landing, 1201 Main St. in River Edge. Past president Jim Smith opens the day by reading The American Crisis at the New Bridge. John Koopman plays George Washington, and General Greene and other generals ride on horseback leading American troops across the bridge, recreating the crossing of November 21, 1776. Some of the troops walk in from Fort Lee and others come from the Liberty Pole in Englewood. Tickets cost $10.50 to $15.50.

The weekend opens with a camp in Alpine and finishes in River Edge, and Fort Lee is the point the whole route passes through. Revolution NJ lists the weekend as "Fort Lee Retreat 250," the first of the state's anniversary events running from 2026 through 2033. The park says this year's event is partly funded by the Palisades Parks Conservancy and the Town of Fort Lee.

Parking, Hours and the Bridge Detour

The park entrance is on Hudson Terrace, just south of the George Washington Bridge and across from Bruce Reynolds Boulevard. From November 1 through March 31, the Visitor Center is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and the grounds are open daily from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The weekend's schedule includes programs after 7 p.m., so check event-night access with the Visitor Center at 201-461-1776.

The two main parking areas follow different rules, according to the Palisades Interstate Park parking page:

The posted weekend rate is $2.50 an hour for the first four hours, $1.50 an hour for hours four to eight, and $20 maximum per day. The page also says signs on site and instructions from park staff take priority over what's posted online. Alpine's riverfront areas aren't served by public transportation, so plan to drive to the Saturday hike.

If you're driving near the bridge, the Port Authority closed the right lanes and sidewalk of the northbound Center Avenue bridge, plus two connected ramps, for rehabilitation starting August 14. The work runs through December 2026, with two travel lanes open and detours for drivers and pedestrians, according to the Port Authority's travel advisory. Allow extra time on Saturday morning if your route usually uses those ramps.

If you plan to follow the Continental reenactors out of Fort Lee on Sunday morning and want to talk about the Palisades streets they march past, Daniel Chamoun is glad to hear from you. Schedule a Free Consultation.