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If only I had known

Some­times, when you pub­lish an his­tor­i­cal nov­el, read­ers send in cor­rec­tions (I had the wrong gear shift sequence in the Mod­el T Ford, in The Secret School). Some­times you get addi­tion­al  infor­ma­tion. Here is such a one for Sophia’s War. As I wrote my cor­re­spon­dent, “Oh! If only I had known about this par­tic­u­lar sol­dier’s name and that the can­non still exist­ed!!!!!” Maybe in the sec­ond edition.

Peterson markerThis hard-to-find mark­er, with a plaque that reads “The Grave of John J. Peter­son, Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War, Westch­ester Mili­tia (1746 – 1850)” is the grave of a lit­tle-known African Amer­i­can sol­dier, who played a small but cru­cial role in a piv­otal event of the war. On Sep­tem­ber 21, 1780, Peter­son, along with Moses Sher­wood, brought a can­non from Fort Lafayette at Verplanck’s Point to Cro­ton Point. There they fired on the British frigate Vul­ture which was wait­ing to pick up Major John André, who at the time was plot­ting with Amer­i­can Gen­er­al Bene­dict Arnold for the sur­ren­der of West Point. The Vul­ture aban­doned its riv­er posi­tion, forc­ing the spy André to move over­land on horse­back. He was cap­tured in Tar­ry­town a few days lat­er car­ry­ing plans of West Point. André was hanged in the tiny Rock­land Coun­ty ham­let of Tap­pan on Octo­ber 2, 1780. Today, the can­non used by the patri­ots sits in front of the Peek­skill Muse­um. Sher­wood is buried in Ossining’s Spar­ta Cemetery 

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