THE TOWN OF BEDFORD. 75 



is said to have been the most important secret agent employed by Wash- 

 ington during the war." 



On one occasion the American officer commanding at Bedford, where 

 there was a depot of provisions, received a note signed E. H, warning 

 him that an attack was about being made by the British forces. The 

 officer sent the paper to Washington who was stationed near the Hud- 

 son, who returned it with the endorsement, " Believe whatever E. H. 

 may tell you. George Washington." This paper fell into the hands of a 

 British officer who sent it to Sir Henry Clinton. Sir Henry sent for " E. H." 

 and after some conversation on other topics showed him his own note 

 with Washington's endorsement, and said, "whose handwriting is that?" 

 The man replied, "It is that of Elisha Hadden, the spy whom you 

 hanged yesterday." The calm self-possession of the man quieted Sir 

 Henry's suspicions ; and E. H. left the presence of the British Com- 

 mander, and never visited him again. It was from a citizen of Bedford, 

 Mr. Jay, that Fenimore Cooper, during one his visits to our town, learned 

 the simple facts in the career of Enoch Crosby, upon which our great 

 novelist based his " Harvey Birch, the spy of the neutral ground." a 

 romance which has been translated into the languages of modern Europe, 

 and also, it is said, into Turkish and Arabic. 



His informant had been a member of the New York Committee of 

 Safety, in the beginning of the revolution ; and Enoch Crosby had been 

 the most skillful and faithful of his agents, passing with the Americans 

 as a British Spy and incurring constant and great dangers. This mem- 

 ber of the Committee of Safety hawing been appointed to a foreign mis- 

 sion, reported to Congress before his departure the important sendees 

 rendered by this agent, and a sum of money was voted as a compensation. 

 When in a secret interview at night he was offered the gold, he declined 

 it with the remark, " that it- was not for gold that he had served his 

 country. Thus it appears that Bedford did her part in her heroic days. & 



A short distance only from the middle Patent road are some singular 

 rocks, one of which from its peculiar shape is called the "Turtle Rock." 

 Looking beneath this curious freak of nature, a beautiful view may be 

 had of the Cohaumag hills, while far off in the West the hill Nonama 

 rises in' great splendor. The hilly road West of the village, leading to 

 Mount Kisco, or "Bedford New purchase," passes "Lounsberry Hill" 

 (laid down in General Washington's military map as "Knapp's Hill") 

 the top of which is said to be the highest ground in Westchester County. 

 From the summit of this hill the prospect is uncommonly extensive and 



a Heath's 31 emoirs, page 274. 



6 Address of HonUe Jolm Jay, July 7th, 1ST6.— The Recorder, Katonan. 



