THE GREAT ESCAPE

OR...
A SWORD IN THE DARK

This tale begins with the fall of Fort Montgomery, and the capture of Captain Johann Snedeker and his son, Garret by the perfidious British.  Johann and Garret had been bodyguards to George Washington (sort of the first Secret Service), and when the Fort surrendered, all its inhabitants became prisoners.

    Johann and Garret were taken to the infamous Sugar House Prison in New York City.  The prison was run by a sadistic person by the name of Major William Cunningham.  Cunningham was so bad that the Brits eventually hanged him.  Major Cunningham had a poisonous hatred of the "Jonathans", and would execute them, while continuing to carry them on his roster in order to continue to collect the money to feed them.  This, incidentally, was the cause of his eventual demise at the hands of his superiors.

    Life was harsh in Sugar House Prison, and on September 28, 1778, Captain Johann Snedeker passed away from disease.  Major Cunningham decided that it would be nice to finish off the rest of the family, so he decided to hang Garret.

    While New York was largely Tory, it was still rather awkward politically to march young men down to the tip of Manhattan Island to hang them in broad daylight... so to avoid difficulties, Cunningham always did it very late in the day -- in the gloom of twilight.

    So here we see our 24-year old hero, marching hobbled down Broadway, escorted by six Hessian soldiers and Major Cunningham.  They turned into the Place Of Justice (aka:  gallows yard and cemetery) right at the water's edge at the tip of Manhattan.

    There on the gallows in the gloom, hanging gruesomely from the night before, was one of Major Cunningham's previous victims.

    "Cut him down, and we will hang this one!"  Cunningham barked.

    Now we must step aside for a moment and observe something quite out of the ordinary:

    A very close friend of Garret's (his name, unfortunately, lost in the mists of Time) had heard about the impending execution, and had sneaked across from Staten Island in a canoe.  He had hidden himself in the only empty grave in the cemetery, trying to figure out a method to rescue his friend.

    As luck would have it, when the Hessians cut down the previously hanged individual, they kicked the body into the grave where Garret's plucky pal was hiding.

    "Very well," says Cunningham to Garret, "you have three minutes to pray, and then I will hang you."

    Garret knelt down in front of his grave-to-be.  As he began to pray, he heard a familiar voice:

    "Hist!  Garret!  It's me!  When your three minutes are up, stand up and turn around right here by the edge.  I'll cut your hobbles and we'll run for it!"

    "Sounds like a better plan than I have," Garret answered.

    The three minutes were soon up.  Garret stood, and turned around in place.  His friend jumped up with his hanger (sword) in hand.

    The result was spectacular.  All the Hessian soldiers and Cunningham saw was that they had dumped that creepy, very dead corpse in the grave.  Then the young soldier had prayed for a bit over that grave, and suddenly, up jumped a wild figure in the gloom with a sword waving!  All seven ran away in terror.

    Garret and his friend made it to the canoe and escaped.