72
The road which the procession took makes a right angle to the west, a few yards
north of the tavern. The whole distance to the place of execution is exactly half
a mile, and the spot is almost ex-
actly due west of the building.1
Greene and the other gen-
eral officers, mounted, were drawn
up in line beside the road; and to
them, particularly to his judges,
the prisoner raised his cocked hat
as he passed. Washington and
his staff were alone absent, and
Russell2 notes the prisoner's appre-
ciation of the fact. Tallmadge
and Thacher walked close to him,
as did also Dr. Timothy Hall,3
of the Fifth Massachusetts, who
attended professionally.
Dr. Thacher says:
I was so near, during the
solemn march to the fatal spot,
as to observe every movement and
to participate in every emotion
the melancholy scene was calcu-
lated to produce. Melancholy and
gloom pervaded all ranks, and the
scene was affectingly awful. The
CP^^-H^
B It has been very difficult to decide who were the four officers; but an exhaustive search of all authorities, and
recent information received from descendants of some of those concerned, leads me to decide that Bowman
and Hughes walked arm in arm with him, while Van Dyk was on Bowman's left and Smith on Hughes'
right. Lieutenant King and Captain Allen were certainly present, and may have been close behind the
group, where Dr. Hall also probably walked.
8 Van Dyk says they played "lively(!) tunes"—but Dewees, who was himself a fifer, says the Dead March.
Some names of the band have been preserved to us: Alexander McKinley was the Drum Major, and Benjamin
Abbot (who died at Nashua, N. H., in 1851) was a drummer. "The late Dr. Horace Green, of New York,
while living in Rutland, Vt., was a skilful flute-player and frequently played to please an aged Revolu-
tionary soldier there. The veteran usually wished to hear a simple but plaintive air known as the
'Bluebird,' which he said he had heard played on the occasion."—Henry J. Raymond, 1880.
Following this due, I have been able, through the kind assistance of Dr. Green's daughter, Mrs. Anna G.
Loveland, of Proctor, Vt., and of the officials of the Lenox Library, New York, to find a part of the
" Bluebird." I am not aware that it has been published before.
For the other tune, " Roslin Castle," I am indebted to Mrs. Arthur H. Dyer, of Brooklyn, N. Y., great great-
granddaughter of Colonel Benjamin Hinman, who was a spectator of the execution, and handed down
the tune to his descendants. It is stated (Harvey, History Lodge 61, F. and A. M., Wilkes Sarre, Pa.)
that "Roslin Castle" was usually played as a funeral or dead march, in Washington's army, and was
played as especially appropriate when Washington's Farewell Address was read to the troops at Newburgh,
on their disbandment in 1783.
Benjamin Hinman was born in Woodbury, Conn., in 1739, and died there March 22, 1810. He was Colonel
of the Fourth Connecticut in 1775, and took part in the capture of St. John's—where he may have met
Andre\ Arnold quarrelled with him at Crown Point because ordered by Massachusetts to obey him.
Subsequently he was Colonel of the Thirteenth Connecticut, and left the army, on account of age and
ill-health, in January, 1777. He was present at Tappan as a spectator.
1 Sargent makes, 8 Benjamin Russell, 8 Timothy Hall, page 73.
