in Westchester's patriot militia. He remained in command of the Westchester Regiment until June 28, 1778, with the rank of colonel and later general, when he was replaced by John Hyatt. By that time Pierre had been elevated to the role of lieutenant governor. He is referred to by the rank of general at the New York Constitutional Convention. 1776 The war for American Independence came to New York City in June 1776 upon the arrival of a flotilla of warships carrying British regulars and Hessian soldiers. Despite Washington's best efforts, between late June in mid September 1776, British forces occupied Long Island and the major portion of Manhattan Island. By the end of 1776, the British Army, aided by loyalist groups, control Manhattan, Long Island, and lower Westchester County, while American forces were stationed in the region north of the Croton River around Peekskill. The area between the two armies became a no-man's land, called the "Neutral Ground". The military reality belied this designation; the region was not neutral. The area was really a battleground for both armed forces and for marauding bands operating independently. Local farmers were subjected to periodic forays by both sides. Valuables were buried or sent away, and cattle and sheep had to be protected day and night. Farmers developed a clandestine cattle trade New York City, where such animals brought a high price in specie or in British notes rather than in questionable trouble paper. During most of the period from about 1777, the family of Pierre Van Cortlandt were absent from their home at Croton. Pierre first moved his family out of the Croton Manor House in 1776 to another family home, the Upper Manor House he built in Peekskill in 1756. However, by 1777, the Upper Manor House, too, had become an unsafe home for the family of one of the state's most prominent patriot officials. Prowling bands of Tories had gathered and were "very busy riding about and combining to provide arms, and the Tories from the eastward were coming continually down, to the number of two or three hundred, who all assembled at N. Merritt's and A. Crouk's with fife and drum." They were dispersed by the minute-men and "parts of Colonel Thomas' regiment, and the troops of horse of Captain N. Trendwell, were ordered to scour Rye Neck. I hear the intent of the Tories was, at Peekskill, to