hamiltonsource:Happy Birthday, Peggy!On August 7 [1778], about twenty Tories and Indians barged into

hamiltonsource:Happy Birthday, Peggy!On August 7 [1778], about twenty Tories and Indians barged into the Schuyler mansion, overpowered the sleeping guards, seized weapons in the cellar, and surrounded the house. (Angelica had removed some weapons to the cellar when she found her little boy playing with them.) General Schuyler retreated to an upstairs bedroom, where, using a prearranged signal, he fired his pistol out the window to summon help. Mrs. Schuyler and her daughters were so horrified – “some hanging on [General Schuyler’s] arms and others embracing his knees in the most distressing terror and uncertainty,” reported one eyewitness – that the general was trapped by his clinging family. Then the women remembered that Mrs. Schuyler’s infant daughter, Catherine, had been left in a cradle by the front door. Since both Eliza and Angelica were pregnant, sister Peggy crept downstairs to retrieve the endangered child. The leader of the raiding party barred her way with a musket.“Wench, wench! Where is your master?” he demanded.“Gone to alarm the town” the coolheaded Peggy said.The intruder, fearing that Schuyler would return with troops, fled in alarm.Legend maintains that one Indian hurled a tomahawk at Peggy’s head as she trotted up the stairs with the baby in her arms; to this day the mahogany banister bears what are thought to be scars from the blade. (Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, p. 159-160) -- source link

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