THE TOWTSf OF GREENBURGH. 299 



was for several years a resident of this place, and lies interred in the 

 grave yard at Sleepy Hollow. 



Tarrytown is far famed as the place where Major Andre, adjutant 

 general of the British army, was captured by Paulding and his associates 

 upon the 23rd of September, 1780. The circumstances which led to 

 the arrest of the spy were as follows : 



Major John Andre had been long negotiating with the American gen- 

 eral, Arnold, to put the British general, Clinton, in possession of West 

 Point. " This post," says Major General Greene, (who, it must be remem- 

 bered, was president of the court that tried Andre,) " is a beautiful little 

 place lying on the west bank of the Hudson, a little below where it 

 breaks through the chain of mountains called the highlands. Its form 

 is nearly circular, in half of its circumference defended by a precipice of 

 great height, rising abruptly from the river, and on the other by a chain 

 of rugged, inaccessible mountains. It is accessible by one pass only 

 from the river, and that is narrow and easily defended; while on the land 

 side it can be approached only at two points — by roads that wind through 

 the mountains and enter it at the river bank on the north and south. 

 Great importance had always been attached to this post by the Ameri- 

 cans, and great labor and expense bestowed upon fortifying it. It has 

 been well called the " Gibraltar of America." The North river had long 

 been the great vein that supplied life to the American army, and had 

 the enemy obtained possession of this post, besides the actual loss in 

 men and stores, the American army would have been cut off from their 

 principal resources in the ensuing winter, or been obliged to fall back 

 above the Highlands, and leave all the country below open to conquest, 

 while the communication between the eastern and western States would 

 have been seriously interrupted if not wholly excluded. Arnold there- 

 fore well knew the bearing of this post upon all the operations of the 

 American army; and afterwards avowed his confident expectation, that 

 had the enemy got possession of it, the contest must have ceased, and 

 America been, subdued. 



The British general, Clinton, also appears to have appreciated the 

 value of this post, and it is probable that the purchase of it had been 

 arranged with Arnold some months prior to the detection of the plot. 

 It was when Washington marched to Kings-bridge, with a view to the 

 attempt on New York, and When he had mustered under him every man 

 who could carry a musket, that he placed Arnold in command of a corps 

 of invalids at West Point. 



The commander-in-chief had offered him a command suitable to his 

 jrank and reputation in the army ; but he made the unhealed state of his 



