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. It was almost daylight before the horses deposited the cannon where it could be dragged into position under cover of the underbrush and thickly wooded peninsula. As soon as the Vulture could be sighted off shore in the semi-darkness before dawn, a flash and a roar startled the British marines from their slumber. The first shot of the cannon splintered a spar of the warship. Major Andre had been rowed ashore before midnight and had arrived already at Joshua Smith's "treason house" above Haverstraw. History says that he was much agitated when he heard the echo of heavy firing down around Teller's Point, but he was too far away to see the Vulture had weighed anchor and disappeared down the River around the Point. The Croton army hitched the heavy farm horses to the light artillery and went home to brag about how they had licked the English navy. But they were wholly unaware that they had thwarted Arnold and Andre. It was days, even, before they learned of the treason plot. In front of the Van Cortlandt Manor House was Croton Bay, into which flowed the rushing waters of the Croton River. It is difficult for the last three generations of Americans to realize that the marshes with their tall reeds, the farm land and meadow dotted with aged apple trees, the Albany Post Road that runs between Harmon and the Ossining side of the Croton River bridge are all on "made" land caused by the great flood that swept the Croton valley in 1841.