This Independence Day, increase your appreciation by realizing that the ground we stand on in New York was the site of some of the most pivotal battles of the Revolutionary War.

Imagine in the heart of Times Square a corn field dotted with stone walls where the island’s two main dirt roads converged. That is where George Washington rode on horseback to meet one of his top generals, Israel Putnam, along with his aide Aaron Burr, to discuss the British invasion of Manhattan at Kips Bay after they launched from Newtown Creek, which now divides Brooklyn and Queens. Remember that on September 11, 1776, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin met with British Admiral Richard Howe on Staten Island for a conference to try to avert further escalation of the war. The first fleet of French soldiers who came to aid the cause of American liberty landed at what is now Sandy Hook. Later, major battles were fought at Throgs Neck in the Bronx and Harlem Heights and northern Manhattan.

That is where I met Barnet Schecter – historian, tour guide, and author of “The Battle for New York”-for a tour of one of the Revolutionary War’s pivotal battle sites. On Broadway and 117th Street, against the Columbia University School of Engineering there is a plaque set into the stone wall commemorating the Battle of Harlem Heights, where Washington’s Continental Army turned back the British on September 16, 1776 Across the traffic of Broadway, where Barnard College now stands, was a buckwheat field between two farms where some of the heaviest fighting occurred before the British fled. The battle continued to spill along what is now Grant’s Tomb and Riverside Church, a broad plateau be fore the valley that runs along 125th Street, which in the Revolutionary War era was called “The Hollow Way.” Much of New York was a battlefield during the Revolutionary War.

“If you understand the story of the British invasion of New York – how the entire area was a great strategic prize at the mouth of the Hudson River – you do not necessarily need to be in the middle of a grassy field to be reminded that that you are in the midst of a battlefield,” said Mr Schecter. “You can get a sense that the waterways are the same; the islands are in the same configuration. The masses of the landscape are basically intact. They even peek through that concrete surface occasionally through the parks and cemeteries of the city.”

The past is very much alive in New York, especially our revolutionary past. And while enjoying the city this weekend before the fireworks, it may be comforting to note that you are walking where many of our revolutionary forefathers walked.

Much of the budding revolutionary movement began in the taverns of Lower Manhattan, where men like Isaac Sears and the renegade Sons of Liberty began to debate the growing demand for liberty on the continent that would become known as the United States. Washington’s initial headquarters were at the tip of Lower Manhattan, at what is now 1 Broadway, but when the British armada arrived in July 1776, the protracted and often mismatched local war began.

The British moved slowly at the beginning of their invasion in July 1776, coming first onto Staten Island, then Brooklyn, where after the Battle of Brooklyn, George Washington made a hasty escape after suffering extensive losses. They evacuated across the river from Brooklyn Heights, East to Manhattan and escaped northward. The British occupied New York for seven long years.

Washington and his army retreated to the relative safety of upstate New York. Last weekend, I drove along the Hudson River to Newburgh – 12 miles north of West Point – to visit the headquarters where Washington operated out of for 16 months during the war. The lonely stone farm building stands in the middle of a fenced-in park on a dramatic bluff overlooking the Hudson. The buildings around it are beautiful, but the city has fallen on hard times. Many of the historic structures are boarded up, covered in graffiti: An 1891 public school up the road has ornate brickwork depicting roses beside the words “Public School No.6,”but the building has been long abandoned The town’s character is diverse and deeply influenced by new immigrants. Nearly a quarter of the city’s 28,000 population lives below the poverty line. Nonetheless, the previous historic prominence of the town shines through: The soldiers of the continental army might not recognize their surroundings, but this was where Washington lived and the revolutionary cause that became our country was created. Not insignificantly, this is the first location designated a national historic site by the United States government.

Further down the Palisades, on a smaller scale is the town of Tappan, the site of another operational headquarters used by Washington on four separate, if shorter, occasions. In the town itself stands the Old ’76 House. Built in 1668, it is one of the oldest taverns in the United States, and the food is still excellent amid the Revolutionary-era surroundings. It was here that continental troops held court and where the British spy, Major John Andre, was held before his execution. His opposite number, American spy Nathan Hale, was hanged outside of another tavern known as the Sign of the Dove, which stood on what is now East 66th Street and Third Avenue.

Toward the end of the war, in November 1783 as the British abandoned New York, Washington and what remained of his continental army made their way victorious down the length of Manhattan. Much of the island was still farmland and wilderness, but the statue of Washington at the southern tip of Union Square Park marks roughly where the celebrating citizens of the city of New York met him. It was this same piece of land where New Yorkers gathered after the attacks of September 11, 2001, outside the immediate evacuation zone which ended at 14th Street. It is now mostly a place for youthful congregation and celebration, the statue of Washington impassively overseeing the crowds. But with a bit of reflection that space – like so many throughout New York – can provide an opportunity to commune with the founding spirit of liberty.