It was also the scene of ceaseless ravages by those irregular bands, known as "Cowboys" and "Skinners." Most of the inhabitants went into exile, and were refugees within either the American or British lines. Their homes were desolated, their buildings, fences and orchards destroyed. The Tippetts were mainly Tories. In 1776, General George Clinton arrested Gilbert Tippett for " practices and declarations inimical to American liberty." Colonel James De Lancey had married a cousin, Martha Tippett. The Warners, Hadleys, Valentines, Bettses, Corsas, Posts and other old residents were nearly all stanch Whigs, and supplied some of the ablest guides and minute-men of the Revolution.

The Siege of Fort Ixdepexdexce. -- In .January, 1777, General Heath made a movement against the British outposts at King's Bridge. ^ His forces were chiefly Connecticut volunteers and Dutchess County militia. They moved down on the night of the 17th, in three divisions -- the right, under General Lincoln, from Tarrytown by the old Albany road, to the heights above Colonel Van Cortlandt's ; the centre, under General Scott, from below White Plains to the rear of Valentine's house, ^ on the Boston road; and the left, under Generals Wooster and Parsons, from New Rochelle and East Chester to Williams' on the east side of the Bronx above the bridge. The three divisions arrived simultaneously at the enemy's outposts just before sunrise on the 18th. General Lincoln surprised the guard above Van Cortlandt's, capturing arms, equipage, etc. Heath moving with the centre, as it ai)proached Valentine's house, ordered its cannonade by Cajjtain Bryant in case of resistance from the guard quartered there, and sent two hundred and fifty men at double-quick to the right into the hollow between the house and Fort Independence- to cut off the guard. Just then two British light horsemen, reconnoitering out the Boston road, came unexpectedly on the head of Wooster's column where the road descends to Williams' bridge.