[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] which subsequently, with the whole property, was owned for many years by his son, the Rev. Alexander Van AYart. The house was in the present Town of Mount Pleasant, just beyond the Greenburgk border. " Youngs's House,'' being at an important cross-roads and on elevated ground, and having a number of outbuildings attached to it, which, with the dwelling, afforded accommodation for many men, was a principal station for the American troops quartered " on the lines " — the lines at that time being maintained as far south as Dobbs Ferry. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomson, at the period of which we write, was in chief command on the lines, subordinate, of course, to General Heath at Peekskill. His orders were " to move between Croton River and the White Plains, Hudson's River and Bedford; never to remain long at any one place, that the enemy might not be able to learn their manner of doing duty or form a plan for striking.them in any particular situation." During this winter, with 250 men, he took a position at the Youngs House, and, contrary to instruc-tions, stopped there so long that the enemy conceived and executed the precise project that General Heath apprehended.