170 THE BOROUGH OF THE BRONX 



ing much absorbed in military duties, Van Cortlandt was chief 

 executive and civil magistrate during a greater portion of the 

 Revolution. So obnoxious was he to the British government that 

 it set a bounty on his head. His undismayed faithfulness when 

 driven from his estates, and when adverse clouds darkened the 

 entire horizon proved a source of inspiration among all classes in 

 the State of New York. He died in Cortlandt Manor, May 1, 1814. 



Philip Van Cortlandt, son of Pierre, was born September 1, 

 1749, and died unmarried at the Van Cortlandt manor-house, No- 

 vember 21, 1831. He was graduated from King's College in 1758 

 when he became a land surveyor. When the war broke out he was 

 elected to the Provincial Assembly which met in New York City, 

 May 23, 1775, to choose delegates to the Continental Congress. He 

 was later appointed lieutenant-colonel in the American army, and 

 he commanded the regiment detailed to guard the public stores 

 at Peekskill. In the spring of 1776, he was on duty at Ticonderoga, 

 and a member of a court-martial for the trial of Moses Hazen, 

 charged by Benedict Arnold for disobedience of orders. "I re- 

 mained," he wrote in one of his letters, "long enough to discover 

 the vile conduct of Arnold in procuring a vast quantity of goods 

 from the merchants of Montreal, which he intended for, and which 

 I believe was appropriated to his own use. For this, and also for 

 improper conduct before the court, he would have been arrested 

 himself, but escaped by procuring an order from General Gates 

 to send me the morning after the court adjourned, to Schenes- 

 borough (Whitehall) by which means the court was dissolved and 

 Arnold escaped." 



Philip Van Cortlandt fought gallantly at Bemus Heights and 

 at Saratoga. The Battle of Saratoga, which resulted in the sur- 

 render of Burgoyne, October 17, 1777, was a decisive battle in the 

 war, for henceforward the Americans were no longer "rebels" but 

 patriots fighting against oppression and wrong. The British were 

 beginning to fear imminent disgrace, and the talk of reconciliation 

 became prominent in Parliament. 



In 1778, he was sent to protect the New York frontiers against 

 the Indians under Brant, and in 1780 he was one of the Court- 

 martial convened in Philadelphia to try Benedict Arnold for im- 

 proper conduct. Arnold had been living in high style and gave 

 sumptuous entertainments at a time when his accounts with the 

 government were as yet unsettled. He was known to have made 



