01/30/01

It was said that just before Claudius Smith was hung on the gallows in Goshen in 1779 he kicked off his boots, said his mother had predicted he would die like a trooper’s horse---with shoes on. Now with this final act of defiance, so goes the tale, he would prove his mother was a liar.

In school years ago they taught us Claudius Smith was an outlaw, a cold-blooded killer--- a 7-foot tall monster. Now some people are saying there’s no evidence found that he himself killed anyone. As far as the legend that he was 7-feet tall--- they say now the only document found listing his height has him only at 5’-9”. He was a little fucker!

Percy said if the British had won the war old Claudius would probably be celebrated as a great hero. He said they certainly wouldn’t be calling Claudius a notorious thief or Cowboy of the Ramapos. Instead they’d might say in the history books: “Smith’s daring confiscation of cattle and booty from the rebels of the Hudson Valley to supply the King’s army in New York City proved to be a major contributing factor in the crown’s quelling of the 1776 Rebellion.”

Percy said the Revolutionary War was really our first civil war. He said in Orange County during those times brother was pitted against brother and neighbor against neighbor much like folks would later see in the border states during the Civil War. It was time of high anxiety and paranoia. How could you really be certain your closest friends and family members weren’t conspiring against you as spies for the other side?

As we know, even the commander at West Point--- the hero of Fort Ticonderoga---couldn’t be trusted. Had Benedict Arnold succeeded in turning over West Point to the enemy, the British could have easily gone on to seize the full length of the Hudson to succeed in the goal of dividing and conquering the colonial territory.

Pretty wild shit really that the great struggle that resulted in the foundation of the nation played out upon the very soil beneath my feet here.