Crosby The Patriot Spy

: THE HUDSON AND ITS HILLS
: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land

It was at the Jay house, in Westchester, New York, that Enoch Crosby met

Washington and offered his services to the patriot army. Crosby was a

cobbler, and not a very thriving one, but after the outbreak of

hostilities he took a peddler's outfit on his back and, as a

non-combatant, of Tory sympathies, he obtained admission through the

British lines. After his first visit to head quarters it is certain that

he always ca ried Sir Henry Clinton's passport in the middle of his pack,

and so sure were his neighbors that he was in the service of the British

that they captured him and took him to General Washington, but while his

case was up for debate he managed to slip his handcuffs, which were not

secure, and made off. Clinton, on the other hand, was puzzled by the

unaccountable foresight of the Americans, for every blow that he prepared

to strike was met, and he lost time and chance and temper. As if the

suspicion of both armies and the hatred of his neighbors were not enough

to contend against, Crosby now became an object of interest to the

Skinners and Cowboys, who were convinced that he was making money,

somehow, and resolved to have it.



The Skinners were camp-followers of the American troops and the Cowboys a

band of Tories and renegade British. Both factions were employed,

ostensibly, in foraging for their respective armies, but, in reality, for

themselves, and the farmers and citizens occupying the neutral belt north

of Manhattan Island had reason to curse them both impartially. While

these fellows were daring thieves, they occasionally got the worst of it,

even in the encounters with the farmers, as on the Neperan, near

Tarrytown, where the Cowboys chased a woman to death, but were afterward

cut to pieces by the enraged neighbors. Hers is but one of the many

ghosts that haunt the neutral ground, and the croaking of the birds of

ill luck that nest at Raven rock is blended with the cries of her dim

figure. Still, graceless as these fellows were, they affected a loyalty

to their respective sides, and were usually willing to fight each other

when they met, especially for the plunder that was to be got by fighting.



In October, 1780, Claudius Smith, king of the Cowboys, and three

scalawag sons came to the conclusion that it was time for Crosby's money

to revert to the crown, and they set off toward his little house one

evening, sure of finding him in, for his father was seriously ill. The

Smiths arrived there to find that the Skinners had preceded them on the

same errand, and they recognized through the windows, in the leader of

the band, a noted brigand on whose head a price was laid. He was

searching every crack and cranny of the room, while Crosby, stripped to

shirt and trousers, stood before the empty fireplace and begged for that

night to be left alone with his dying father.



To hell with the old man! roared the Skinner. Give up your gold, or

we'll put you to the torture, and he significantly whirled the end of a

rope that he carried about his waist. At that moment the faint voice of

the old man was heard calling from another room.



Take all that I have and let me go! cried Crosby, and turning up a

brick in the fire-place he disclosed a handful of gold, his life savings.

The leader still tried to oppose his exit, but Crosby flung him to the

floor and rushed away to his father, while the brigand, deeming it well

to delay rising, dug his fingers into the hollow and began to extract the

sovereigns. At that instant four muskets were discharged from without:

there was a crash of glass, a yell of pain, and four of the Skinners

rolled bleeding on the floor; two others ran into the darkness and

escaped; their leader, trying to follow, was met at the threshold by the

Smiths, who clutched the gold out of his hand and pinioned his elbows in

a twinkling.



I thought ye'd like to know who's got ye, said old Smith, peering into

the face of the astonished and crestfallen robber, for I've told ye many

a time to keep out of my way, and now ye've got to swing for getting into

it.



Within five minutes of the time that he had got his clutch on Crosby's

money the bandit was choking to death at the end of his own rope, hung

from the limb of an apple-tree, and, having secured the gold, the Cowboys

went their way into the darkness. Crosby soon made his appearance in the

ranks of the Continentals, and, though they looked askant at him for a

time, they soon discovered the truth and hailed him as a hero, for the

information he had carried to Washington from Clinton's camp had often

saved them from disaster. He had survived attack in his own house through

the falling out of rogues, and he survived the work and hazard of war

through luck and a sturdy frame. Congress afterwards gave him a sum of

money larger than had been taken from him, for his chief had commended

him in these lines: Circumstances of political importance, which

involved the lives and fortunes of many, have hitherto kept secret what

this paper now reveals. Enoch Crosby has for years been a faithful and

unrequited servant of his country. Though man does not, God may reward

him for his conduct. GEORGE WASHINGTON.



Associated with Crosby in his work of getting information from the enemy

was a man named Gainos, who kept an inn on the neutral ground, that was

often raided. Being assailed by Cowboys once, Gainos, with his tenant and

stable-boys, fired at the bandits together, just as the latter had forced

his front door, then stepping quickly forward he slashed off the head of

the leader with a cutlass. The retreating crew dumped the body into a

well on the premises, and there it sits on the crumbling curb o' nights

looking disconsolately for its head.



It may also be mentioned that the Skinners had a chance to revenge

themselves on the Cowboys for their defeat at the Crosby house. They fell

upon the latter at the tent-shaped cave in Yonkers,--it is called

Washington's Cave, because the general napped there on bivouac,--and not

only routed them, but secured so much of their treasure that they were

able to be honest for several years after.