As they worked , they espied the British war- ship's boat being rowed toward the Croton shore . All day long the Cro- * Croton Journal , August 31 , 1906 ton neighbors had discussed the strange ship at anchor above Tel- ler'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 ol Croton . They assembled all the neighbors available to throw har- ness 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 Livingstone listened to their story , agreed to loan them a four - pounder ; and be- fore 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 - darkiness before dawn , a flash and a roar startled the British marines from their slumber . The first shot of the can- non splintered a spar on the war- ship .