Anthony Van Corlaer

Anthony Van Corlaer was a trumpeter for the garrison at New Amsterdam. According to legend, 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." He drowned in the attempt.

[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6606] Myths and Legends of Our Own Land — Volume 01: the Hudson and its hills by Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery), 1852-1907