Anthony Van Corlaer

Who is Anthony Van Corlaer?

Anthony Van Corlaer was a trumpeter for the garrison in New Amsterdam. According to legend, in 1642 Peter Stuyvesant, having learned of an English expedition on its way to seize the colony, ordered Van Corlaer to rouse the villages along the Hudson River with a trumpet call to war. It was a stormy evening when Van Corlaer arrived at the upper end of the island, and as no ferryman was available Van Corlaer vowed to swim across the river "in spite of the devil", but drowned in the attempt. There is also the possibility of Anthony being attacked and eaten by a bull shark. The Spuyten Duyvil, an inlet between Manhattan and The Bronx is named after this incident.

The 1838 painting Dance on the Battery in the Presence of Peter Stuyvesant by Asher B. Durand depicts Van Corlaer with his trumpet. Van Corlaer's prior endeavors on behalf of Stuyvesant are mentioned several times in Washington Irving's book A History of New York. Irving also wrote the most popular account of the trumpeter's last deed, ascribing his death to being grabbed by a huge moss bunker.

Anthony Van Corlaer, 1858. Painting by Charles Loring Elliott. The Walters Art Museum.