[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] was killed at the spot and buried in the immediate vicinity. Shortly before the beginning of the Civil War a human skeleton was discovered in a sand-bank which was being removed from the premises of Har-rison Smith, with a cannon-ball lying beside it, which was declared by the old residents to be the body of this luckless soldier. Tradition says his name was Nathan Brown. The destruction of these stores, called " the unhappy affair at Peekskill," opened the eyes of the military authorities to the possibilities of the case. Knox and Greene, with McDougall, George Clinton and An-thony Wayne, made an inspection of the defenses of the Highlands. They recommended the obstruction of the navigation of the river with a boom or heavy iron chain stretched from Fort Montgomery to An-thony's Nose, with batteries to cover it. These were Fort Montgomery and Clinton, on the west banks of the river, and Fort Independence,1 on the east side. The latter stood on a gravel bank, immediately in front of which the hotel was afterwards built. The gravel banks have been removed in recent years. May, 1777,2 Major-General Futnam, whose courage was superior to his judgment, was placed in command, and his first duty was to complete these defenses. The chain especially gave him congenial occupation. During the entire period that he was in command he had in mind an attack on New York. Washington himself suggested it.