Van Cortlandt served in the colonial forces during the
American Revolution in spite of efforts by British officials to ensure his loyalty to
Great Britain. On October 19, 1775, he was appointed colonel of the Third Regiment of Westchester County Militia. He remained colonel of the regiment until June 28, 1778, when he was replaced by John Hyatt. Pierre was also a colonel in Westchester's patriot militia. He remained in command of the Westchester Regiment until June 28, 1778, with the rank of colonel and later general, when he was replaced by John Hyatt. By that time Pierre had been elevated to the role of lieutenant governor. He is referred to by the rank of general at the New York Constitutional Convention.
1776 The war for American Independence came to New York City in June 1776 upon the arrival of a flotilla of warships carrying British regulars and Hessian soldiers. Despite Washington's best efforts, between late June in mid September 1776, British forces occupied Long Island and the major portion of Manhattan Island. By the end of 1776, the British Army, aided by loyalist groups, control Manhattan, Long Island, and lower Westchester County, while American forces were stationed in the region north of the Croton River around Peekskill. The area between the two armies became a no-man's land, called the "Neutral Ground". The military reality belied this designation; the region was not neutral. The area was really a battleground for both armed forces and for marauding bands operating independently. Local farmers were subjected to periodic forays by both sides. Valuables were buried or sent away, and cattle and sheep had to be protected day and night. Farmers developed a clandestine cattle trade New York City, where such animals brought a high price in specie or in British notes rather than in questionable trouble paper. During most of the period from about 1777, the family of Pierre Van Cortlandt were absent from their home at Croton. Pierre first moved his family out of the Croton Manor House in 1776 to another family home, the Upper Manor House he built in
Peekskill in 1756. However, by 1777, the Upper Manor House, too, had become an unsafe home for the family of one of the state's most prominent patriot officials. Prowling bands of Tories had gathered and were "very busy riding about and combining to provide arms, and the Tories from the eastward were coming continually down, to the number of two or three hundred, who all assembled at N. Merritt's and A. Crouk's with fife and drum." They were dispersed by the minute-men and "parts of Colonel Thomas' regiment, and the troops of horse of Captain N. Trendwell, were ordered to scour Rye Neck. I hear the intent of the Tories was, at Peekskill, to have taken the committee [Committee of Safety] and sent them on board of the 'Asia'. I go to-morrow to New York to the Congress – Thursday night were here to supper and breakfast of Colonel Hammond's Regiment, about three hundred men. They said they drank two Hogsheads of cider." The Neutral Ground was also an inviting target for militarily-led refugee Loyalists and for other loosely organized bodies, dubbed "Cowboys", if they were loyalist in sentiment, or "Skinners" if they supported the rebel cause. Pierre's daughter, Cornelia, married to
Gerard G. Beekman, Jr., saw the Cowboys as a cruel menace. She wrote her father in April 1777, while residing at the Upper Manor House near Peekskill, that one of the slaves had admitted to her that a scheme had been hatched by which a number of slaves would flee upon the appearance of the next raiding party. In October she and her husband reported on a visit that various units of the King's Rangers had made to their home. Yesterday 10 Clock Coll. [Edmund] Fanning and Coll [John] Byard with 200 of the New Levies March'd by this to destroy barracks No. 2 and the Village [Peekskill]. The soldiers immediately rush'd in the house and ask'd who liv'd hear, we told them Beekman they then passed by then Came others and began to use abusive Langguage and said that the house was theirs, and that I was the daughter of the damnest rebble in the Province. All the Sholdiers knew that much of me and Call'd me a damnation rebel bitch. Every moment, at that time Coll Fanning and Col Byard came to the house to bid them keep their abuse, but they would not mind. Fanning told me not to be frightened that he would Pertict me that I should not be hurt. Only once was she prevailed upon to leave her residence, being persuaded by her brother, Colonel
Philip Van Cortlandt, to retire with her family some miles back in the country for safety from a scouting party on their way from Verplanck's Point. A historian wrote that upon Cornelia's return: Not an article of furniture was left, except a bedstead; a single glass bottle was the only drinking utensil; and one ham was all that remained of the provisions, having by good fortune, been hung in an obscure part of the cellar. This disaster, and the inconveniences to which she was obliged to submit in consequence, were borne with fortitude, and even formed subject of merriment. Soon after, she was called upon by two of the American officers — Putnam and Webb — who asked how she had fared, not supposing she had been visited with annoyance, and were much surprised at her description of the state of the house on her return. The General promised, if she would be satisfied with army conveniences, to send her the next day a complete outfit to recommence housekeeping. On the morrow a horseman arrived, carrying a bag on either side, filled with all kinds of woodenware — a welcome and useful present for such things were not at that time easy to be obtained. Some of these articles were still in the house at the time of Mrs. Beekman's decease. A ferry was the only means of traversing the Croton until Van Cortlandt built a bridge. In 1781, Washington paused and wrote: "The new bridge on the Croton, about nine miles from Peekskill," mentioned by
Washington in his diary of July 2, 1781, superseded the ferry, and the brick-and-timber Manor Ferry-house was the temporary barracks for soldiers on their passage up and down the river.
2nd New York Regiment The locally raised
2nd New York Continental Regiment was commanded by Col.
Philip Van Cortlandt, Lt. Gov. Pierre Van Cortlandt's eldest son. This unit saw decisive battle action at
Saratoga, New York, in 1777, with the Army at
Valley Forge, on the
Sullivan Expedition and in battle at
Yorktown in 1781. The regiment was also in Peekskill during the March, 1777 raid by British naval and infantry forces. The
Upper Manor House is a gambrel roofed, brick house, built by Pierre Van Cortlandt. General
George Washington with his aides slept in this house many nights while making
Peekskill their headquarters in 1776, 1777 and 1778. While residing there, Cornelia (Van Cortlandt) Beekman refused to give a representative of the British spy
John André an American officer's uniform she had in safe-keeping. John Webb, familiarly known as "Lieutenant Jack", younger brother of Lt. Col. Samuel Webb, aide-de-camp to Gen.
George Washington, occasionally served as an acting aide in Washington's staff and was often at the Van Cortlandt house, as well as the other officers, during times the army operated on the banks of the Hudson. On one occasion, passing through Peekskill, Webb rode up and requested her to oblige him by taking charge of his valise, which contained his new uniform and a quantity of gold. He added, "I will send for it whenever I want it; but do not deliver it without a written order from me or brother Sam." He threw in the valise at the door, from his horse; and rode on to the tavern at Peekskill, where he stopped to dine. About two weeks or so after his departure Mrs. Beekman, Cornelia Van Cortlandt Beekman, saw an acquaintance, Joshua Hett Smith, whose fidelity to the whig cause had been suspected, ride rapidly up to the house. She heard him ask her husband, Gerard Beekman, for Lieutenant Jack's valise, which Mr. Beekman directed a servant to bring and hand to Smith. Mrs. Beekman called out to ask if Smith had a written order from either Lt. Webb or his brother. Smith replied that Webb had no time to write one, adding: "You know me very well, Mrs. Beekman and when I assure you that Lieutenant Jack sent me for the valise, you will not refuse to deliver it to me, as he is greatly in want of his uniform." She answered: "I do know you very well — too well to give you up the valise without a written order from the owner or the colonel." Smith was angry at her doubts, and appealed to her husband, urging that the fact of his knowing the valise was there, and that it contained Lieutenant Jack's uniform, should be sufficient evidence that he came by authority; but his representations had no effect upon her resolution. It was subsequently ascertained that at the very time of this attempt Major John André was in Smith's house. He and Major André were of the same stature and form; "and beyond all doubt", says one who heard the particulars from the parties interested, "had Smith obtained possession of the uniform, Andre would have made his escape through the American lines."
Washington, when in Peekskill, had his official headquarters in the village, but would spend evenings in the house which he used as a sort of "safe social" headquarters, doing his dining and entertaining in the house. While staying at the house he slept in the northwest bedroom on the second floor. The list of the famous who either stayed or were entertained in the house is long.
Benjamin Franklin stopped here on his way back from the mission to win Canada to the side of the colonies in 1776; the Methodist Bishop
Francis Asbury stopped here;
Lafayette;
von Steuben; General
Alexander MacDougall; General
Israel Putnam; General
Philip Schuyler;
Alexander Hamilton and
Aaron Burr all visited the house. It was here that Washington entertained the Count de
Rochambeau and his French officers. The house was also used as headquarters by General William Heath. Pierre Van Cortlandt always retained a most devoted attachment to
George Washington, and was constantly a guest at the dinners given by his Excellency, when the latter was in New York.
Fort Independence 's battle map of 6 Oct. 1777 In August 1776, at the foot of
Anthony's Nose,
Fort Independence was built on his father's land, on the north bank of the Annsville Creek as it empties into the Hudson River. It combined with Forts
Montgomery and Clinton to defend the Hudson River Valley. Forts Montgomery and Clinton were started in June. Fort Hill Park, the site of Camp Peekskill, contained five barracks and two redoubts. On the opposite side of Annsville Creek [north of Peekskill] at the point known as Roa or Roay and formerly Roya Hook, stood the old Revolutionary Fort Independence. In 1846 and for about three years subsequently some of the larger boats used to stop at this point. A large hotel had been built there about the same time by Pierre Van Cortlandt, known as the Fort Independence Hotel, and access to the village was furnished in 1845 by a wooden bridge across the mouth of the creek, fourteen hundred and ninety-six feet long. The bridge has long since rotted and been carried away." Cortlandt Bridge, across the mouth of Peekskill Creek, is 1,496 feet long. Upon the point at the mouth of the creek are the remains of Fort Independence. During the Revolution two British vessels were sunk opposite this point, and about 40 years since several cannon were raised from them by diving bells." The passage at the Hudson Highlands was guarded on the west by
Fort Clinton above, and
Fort Montgomery below, the estuary opposite Annsville at Anthony's Nose having stretched from Fort Montgomery a boom of huge trees fastened together, and below that a massive
iron chain; and in the river were sunk timber-frames with iron shod projecting points. Both Forts Clinton and Montgomery were over 100 feet above the water, and beyond effective bombardment from it. Though commanded by New York's governor, General
George Clinton and his brother
James Clinton, were poorly manned—less than 600 men in both, nearly all militia. Though he had no choice, Washington had drafted 2,500 men from
Israel Putnam's force, at Peekskill and the neighboring Fort Independence.
Evacuation Day The dramatic conclusion to the War for Independence came to New York in November, 1783, when General
George Washington was officially informed by Sir
Guy Carleton that the British troops were preparing to evacuate New York City. On November 25, 1783, this earnest patriot accompanied General Washington on his triumphant ride into New York City. He records it thus in his diary: I went from Peekskill Tuesday, the 18th of November in company with His Excellency, Governor
Clinton, Col. Benson and Col. Campbell — lodged that night with General
Cortlandt (his son, General Philip Van Cortlandt), Croton River proceeded and lodged Wednesday night at Edw. Couwenhoven's, where we met His Excellency General Washington and his aides. The next night lodged with Mr. Frederick V. Cortlandt (Pierre's first cousin) at the Yonkers, having dined with Gen.
Lewis Morris. Friday morning in company with the Commander in Chief, as far as the Widow Day's at Harlem, where we held a Council. Saturday I rode down to Mr. Stuyvesants, stayed there until Tuesday (
Evacuation Day), then rode triumphant into the City with the Commander in Chief." The day's dramatic events culminated with a grand feast at
Fraunces Tavern, at which the assembled throng of patriots and military leaders drank toast after toast to the memory of those who perished and to the brighter future awaiting the state and nation. The tavern was formerly the home of Pierre's aunt, Ann Van Cortlandt (1676–1742) and her husband Stephen De Lancey (1663–1741). Only once during his eighteen-year career as lieutenant governor did Van Cortlandt make public his ambition to assume the gubernatorial seat. In January, 1789, he announced in a public advertisement that he had been requested "by a number of my friends ... to offer myself a Candidate for Governor of the State of New York at the ensuing Election." Pierre thus added his name to the list of those who sought to unseat George Clinton, who led the New York forces opposed to ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787. For his role in opposing the Constitution, Clinton incurred the wrath of
Alexander Hamilton, who determined to unseat the long-reigning governor. Pierre apparently counted on some support from the state Federalist forces led by Hamilton, but Hamilton supported Robert Yates, and urged Pierre to withdraw, which he did. In addition to presiding over the Senate, Pierre performed other important governmental functions. From February to July, 1789, with George Clinton,
Egbert Benson,
John Hathorn,
Peter Gansevoort, Jr.,
Ezra L'Hommedieu, and Samuel Jones, Van Cortlandt met with a number of Chiefs of the
Cayuga Nation in an effort to legalize New York's claims to lands formerly held by the
Iroquois Confederation. ==Political career==