Washington Really Did Sleep Here

   Early on the morning of the 27th [1848] I made the sketch from Peekskill landing and then walked up to the village on the slopes and hills, by a steep winding way that overlooks a deep ravine, wherein several iron foundries are nestled. The town is romantically situated among the hills, and from some of its more prominent points of view there are magnificent prospects of the river and Highland scenery in the vicinity. Here, spreading out south and east for miles around, was the ancient manor of Cortlandt, stretching along and far above the whole eastern shore of Haverstraw Bay, and extending back to the Connecticut line. The manor house, near the mouth of the Croton River, is yet standing. Within Peekskill village, opposite the West Chester Bank, is the old Birdsall residence, a part of which, as seen in the picture upon the next page, is a grocery store.

   This building was erected by Daniel Birdsall, one of the founders of the village. His store was the first one erected here. The owner and occupant, when I visited it, was a son of the first owner, and was then eighty years of age. His lady, many years his junior, kindly showed me the different apartments made memorable by the presence and occupancy of distinguished men in the Revolution. It was occupied by George Washington when the head-quarters of the army were here; and in the parlor where Whitefield once preached, I sat and sketched one of the pieces of this venerable furniture. This old mansion, projecting into and marring the regularity of the street, is an eyesore to the villagers, and when the present owner shall depart, no doubt this relic will be removed...the desecrating hand of improvement.
   On leaving the Birdsall House, I proceeded to visit another octogenarian named Sparks, whose boyhood and long life have been passed in Peekskill. I found him sitting in the sun, upon his stoop, reading a newspaper without glasses, and his little grandson, a fair-haired child, playing at his feet.
   For an hour I sat and listened to his tales of the olden times, and of scenes his eyes had witnessed. He had often seen Washington and his suite at the Birdsall House, and well remembers Putnam, Heath, McDougall, and other officers whose quarters were at Peekskill. He never became a soldier, and saw only one battle during the war. That occurred near the Van Cortlandt House, two miles east of Peekskill, between some American pickets at the foot of Gallows Hill, and a picket guard of the enemy at the base of the eminences opposite. They were too near each other to keep quiet, and a skirmish at length ensued. "They made a great smoke and noise," said Mr. Sparks, "but nobody was hurt except by fright."
   Pointing to a huge oak standing near the Peekskill Academy on Oak Hill, and in full view of our resting-place, he related the circumstance of the execution of a British spy, named Daniel Strang, upon that tree. He was a Tory, and was found lurking about the American army at Peekskill with enlisting orders sewed up in his clothes. I left the vigorous old man to enjoy the warm sunlight and his newspaper alone, and procuring a conveyance, rode out to Van Cortlandt's house; the church yard, where rest the remains of one of Andre's captors; Gallows Hill, famous as the camping ground of Putnam for a short period during the revolution, and to Continental Village, the scene of one of Tryon's marauding expeditions.

The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution...Vol.2 by Benson John Lossing.