On that eventful September day in 1780, two Croton men, Moses Sherwood and John Peterson (the latter a colored man who had served in General Van Cortlandt's Westchester militia) , were making cider on the land now known as Orchard Hill and about where the Edward Howard Griggs residence stands. Although the Croton countryside was not occupied by troops, it was, like the rest of Westchester, troubled by the pests that kept farmers awake nights and demanded caution all day long--those two marauding bands of men, the "Cowboys" and the "Skinners." Prepared for them, Moses Sherwood and John Peterson had their muskets leaning against the nearest apple tree. As they worked, they espied the British warship's boat being rowed toward the Croton shore. All day long the Croton neighbors had discussed excitedly the strange

ship at anchor above Teller's Point, knowing that it was a ship of His Majesty's Navy. Moses and John dropped their cider making, grabbed their muskets and powder horns, and ran down into the tangled growth among the trees which lined Croton's shore. Without waiting for the barge to get nearer, both men blazed away. The seamen, apparently deciding immediately that Croton was not Tory Ground, put hard about, bent to their oars and retreated to the Vulture. Yet this was not victory enough for the black and white army of Croton. They assembled all the neighbors available to throw harness and trappings on several horses and rode as fast as they could up the Post Road, out the King's Ferry road, to Verplanck's Point where the little fort under Colonel Livingston's command stood sentinel over the Hudson. Colonel Livingston listened to their story, agreed to loan them a four-pounder; and before dark, the farm horses were dragging down the Post Road to Croton and out on to Teller's Point the light artillery which had an effect upon the destiny of America.