in the tract transferred, "which having originally been, and still is, for 

 the use of a cemetery or burying place," should be held out and reserved 

 for such use to him, his heirs and assigns. This is the little old burying 

 ground on the shore of the lake, to the east of the Van Cortlandt Man- 

 sion. There are a few old tombstones in it now, almost undecipherable, 

 but some can be yet distinguished as those of Tippett's ancestors and de- 

 scendants. 



The present Van Cortlandt Mansion was erected by Frederick Van 

 Cortlandt in the year 1748. He also built a vault and family burying 

 ground, located on what is now known as Vault Hill in the Park. His 

 will (probated in 1751) directs that his body should be buried there. 

 This vault was used during the Revolution to hide away certain papers 

 and documents and public records from the British ; Augustus Van Cort- 

 landt being at that time Clerk of the City of New York. 



Practically every foot of land in the park was fought over during 

 the Revolutionary War. First occupied and ranged over by the Ameri- 

 can Troops as they maneuvered and fought for the passes at Kings- 

 bridge, and afterwards occupied by the British, as they, by weight of 

 numbers, gradually forced the American Defenders back. 



During one period of the Revolution the Mansion was the head- 

 quarters for the Hessian Jaegers. In one of the rooms Captain Rowe, of 

 the Pruicsbank Jaegers, expired in the arms of his bride-elect, having 

 been mortally wounded in an engagement with the patriots in the Tippett 

 Valley. 



In the northeastern part of the Park is Indian Field. An impressive 

 cairn of stones and a tablet mark the spot where, on August 31, 1778, 

 a British cavalry squad under Simcoe, defeated a party of Stockbridge 

 Indians who were fighting on behalf of the patriots. Eighteen of them, 

 including their- chief, Nimham, were buried almost where they fell. 



In 1781 Washington built camp fires on Vault Hill to deceive the 

 British, while he was withdrawing his troops to Yorktown. The Van 

 Cortlandt Mansion is credited with having harbored General Washington 

 on two occasions. First in the year 1781, when Washington was examin- 

 ing the ground about Kingsbridge and directing its fortification and de- 

 fense; and on the second time, on the 12th of November, 1783, a far 

 more auspicious occasion, as the next day he rode victorious across 

 Kingsbridge on his way with his troops to repossess the City, from which 

 he had been forced to retreat several years before. 



Close by the Mansion to the east is to be seen an old window, taken 

 from the "Sugar House," the old warehouse in Duane Street, which was 

 built in 1673, and which was used during the Revolutionary War by 

 the British as a prison for the American soldiers. 



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