Meanwhile, his famous son, Philip, was growing to manhood and duplicating his father's renowned career. Member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, lieutenant-colonel and colonel throughout the Revolution, he participated physically in battle after battle; and was made a special target by the Indian Chief Brant, on the Delaware, as he charged with the bayonet at the head of his troops; and was cited again and again for personal bravery. He was a member of the courtmartial that tried Benedict Arnold for misappropriation of money at Philadelphia. Commanding a regiment under his bosom friend, Lafayette, he was raised to the rank of brigadier general by Congress for his valor at Yorktown, Virginia. After the war, he retired to the old Manor House at Croton, only to be sent by his neighbors to sit in Congress for sixteen years more, serving as Commissioner of Forfeitures, supervisor, school commissioner and roadmaster, all of which offices he filled willingly and with honor and ability. He delighted to perform the duties of office, no matter how unimportant they seemed. Somehow office ceased to be unimportant when a Van Cortlandt filled it. After sixteen years of Congressional life, General Philip Van Cortlandt declined further renomination in 1811. One of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, his last years were spent in the full enjoyment of the honors he had earned. An outstanding joy of his later years was in 1824 when an express rider galloped up at midnight to the Manor House and awakened the General with the message from the Marquis de la Lafayette, who had landed at the Battery in New York for his farewell tour of America, and wanted his old army comrade to join him. Although the message was received at midnight in far off Croton, the energy and will of the Van Cortlandt showed itself by the old general setting off at daylight for New York where "he had the inexpressable satisfaction of embracing his old compatriot, and felt it one of the happiest moments of his life." Seven years later, on November 2, 1831, General Philip Van Cortlandt passed away, loved and revered by an affectionate people.