wing
Peace as stable as our hills,
Plenty like yon river flowing
To the sea from thousand rills.

_Mary E. Monell._

* * *

"Upon one of these hills, rising out of this mountain pass-way, very
distinct lines of earthworks are yet apparent. Near the residence of
Mr. Sidney E. Van Wyck, by the large black-walnut trees, and east
of the road near the base of the mountain, was the soldiers' burial
ground. Many a poor patriot soldier's bones lie mouldering there; and
if we did but know how many, we would be startled at the number, for
this almost unknown and unnoticed burial ground holds not a few, but
hundreds of those who gave their lives for the cause of American
independence. Some fifteen years ago, an old lady who had lived near
the village until after she had grown to womanhood, told the writer
that after the battle of White Plains she went with her father through
the streets of Fishkill, and in places between the Dutch and Episcopal
churches, the dead were piled up like cord-wood. Those who died from
wounds in battle or from sickness in hospital were buried there. Many
of these were State militiamen, and it seems no more than just that
the State should make an appropriation to erect a suitable monument
over this spot. Rather than thus remain for another century, if a
rough granite boulder were rolled down from the mountain side and
inscribed: 'To the unknown and unnumbered dead of the American
Revolution,' that rough unhewn stone would tell to the stranger and
the passer-by, more to the praise and fame of our native town than
any of us shall be able to add to it by works of our own; for it is
doubtful whether any spot in the State has as many of the buried dead
of the Revolution as this quiet burial yard in our old town!" Here
also on June 2, 1883, was observed "The Fishkill Centennial," and
few of our centennials have been celebrated amid objects of greater
revolutionary interest. Near at hand, to quote from the official
report of the proceedings, is "Denning's Point where Washington
frequently, while waiting, tied his horses under those magnificent
'Washington oaks,' as he passed backward and forward from New Windsor
and Newburgh to Fishkill. Near by is the Verplanck House, Baron
Steuben's old headquarters. On Spy Hill and Continental Hill troops
were quartered. At Matteawan Sackett lived, and there is the Teller
House built by Madame Brett, where officers frequently resorted, and
there Yates