DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. -- George Washington could not tell a lie, but a bunch of fibs about him and his men are etched in stone on his monument high above the Hudson River.
"If this monument were a true-false test, the first four answers would be 'false,"' says Robert Stackpole, president of the New York chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.The organization, which erected the monument in 1894, is a bit embarrassed by it and wants to mark this year's bicentennial of Washington's death by somehow correcting the mistakes.
The 10-foot-high marker, nestled in a grassy grotto in Dobbs Ferry, claims to mark the site of Washington's headquarters late during the Revolution.
"That's false," says Stackpole, a retired investment banker from White Plains. "The house they said was his headquarters wasn't even built until after the war."
Washington was actually stationed a couple of miles away in what is now Ardsley, Stackpole says, brandishing a Frenchman's contemporaneous maps to prove it. The monument also claims:
"Here, July 6, 1781, the French allies under Rochambeau joined the American army."
"Here, August 14, 1781, Washington planned the Yorktown campaign."
"Here, May 8, 1783, Washington and Sir Guy Carleton arranged for the evacuation of American soil by the British."
"False, false, false," says Stackpole. He and Bill Blanck, president of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, agree that none of the events took place in what is now Dobbs Ferry. Rochambeau's troops joined up in Hartsdale, the Yorktown campaign was planned in Connecticut and Ardsley, and the evacuation was arranged across the river in Rockland County.
Stackpole is not taking credit for turning up the errors.
"When this was erected, anybody who knew anything knew it was wrong," Stackpole says.
In fact, his organization was taken to task in the Tarrytown Argus of May 23, 1895, just a few months after the monument was dedicated. The editor wrote: "It is curious if not astonishing that in view of the unquestioned facts . . . the Sons of the American Revolution should have been a party to such a stupid monumental blunder."
Stackpole suspects greed may have had something to do with the hijacking of history.
"People were crazy for American history at that time," he says. "If you could sell the area as historic, that these events happened here in Dobbs Ferry, that made this a great place to live."
Mayor Brian Monahan says he would be delighted to see the monument corrected, especially since the Sons of the American Revolution are willing to foot the bill.
"Anybody interested in the subject knew it was wrong and thought we were trying to take credit for something," the mayor says. "Which we weren't, at least not now."
As for a remedy, that's still to be decided. Some think the flawed monument is now historic itself and should be left alone, with perhaps a nearby explanation of the truth. Stackpole and Blanck seem to lean toward sandblasting away the misinformation, if that's not too expensive.
Stackpole says the monument could then be rechiseled with the only statement now on the monument that hasn't come under attack:
"Opposite this point May 8, 1783, a British sloop of war fired 17 guns in honor of the American commander in chief, the first salute by Great Britain to the United States of America."
Is that really true?
"Probably true," Stackpole says. "True enough."