John Paulding John Paulding ( 16 October 1758 – 18 February 1818 ) was a militiaman from the state of New York during the American Revolution . In 1780 , he participated in the capture of Major John André . Revolutionary history . While visiting his sweetheart and future wife , Sarah Teed , he was captured by Tories led by his future brother - in - law and imprisoned in the notorious " Sugar House " prison in New York City in 1780 . Escaping the prison by jumping from a window , he went to the livery stable of a friend and obtained a German military Jäger or Hessian coat , green with reed trim , which aided in his escape . As part of an armed patrol with fellow militiamen David Williams , and Isaac Van Wart , Paulding seized Major John André , who had left Benedict Arnold after discussing the defection and betrayal of Arnold . The site is now called Patriot ' s Park in Tarrytown , NY . Andre , seeing the Hessian coat Paulding was wearing , may have assumed him to be a member of the " cowboys , " or pro - British marauders who raided the Neutral Ground for cattle and supplies . Searching him for valuables , they discovered documents of André ' s secret communication with Benedict Arnold . The militiamen , all local farmers of modest means , refused his considerable bribe and instead delivered him to the Continental Army . Arnold ' s plans to surrender West Point to the British were revealed and foiled , and André was hanged as a spy . With George Washington ' s personal recommendation , the United States Congress awarded Paulding , Williams , and Van Wart the first military decoration of the United States , the silver medal known as the Fidelity Medallion . Each of the three also received federal pensions of $ 200 a year , and prestigious farms awarded by New York State . The celebrated trio became only more celebrated after the war : commemorations large and small abound in Westchester County ( see below ) , and elsewhere throughout the original colonies . By an Act of Congress , the new state of Ohio ( 1803 ) included the counties of Paulding , Van Wert ( anglicised spelling ) , and Williams . Paulding himself was held in particularly high regard by early American historians , as the standard 19th - century retellings of the event give prominence to Paulding , crediting him with the decision - making and initiative at the scene . Consequently , several villages and counties , in addition to Paulding County , Ohio along with its county seat , Paulding , are named in his honor : Paulding County , Georgia ; Paulding , Michigan ( site of the mysterious Paulding Light ) ; Paulding , New Jersey ; Paulding , Mississippi and Paulding , Missouri . Additionally , the villages of Tarrytown ( where there is also a John Paulding Elementary School ) , Cold Spring and Elmsford , along with the cities of Peekskill and White Plains , in New York , each have a street named for Paulding ( as well as ones for Williams and Van Wart ) . The Fire Department of Sparkill , New York , maintains the John Paulding Engine Co . , founded in 1901 . Though hailed as national heroes , Paulding and the others did see their reputations impugned by some . André at his trial had insisted the men were mere brigands ; sympathy for him remained in some more aristocratic American quarters ( and grew to legend in England , where he was buried in Westminster Abbey ) . Giving voice to this sympathy , Representative Benjamin Tallmadge of Connecticut , who had been present as an American officer in Westchester County in 1780 and had a low opinion of the three men and in general accepted Andre ' s account of the capture and search , persuaded Congress not to grant the men a requested pension increase in 1817 , publicly assailing their credibility and motivations . Despite the slight , the men ' s popular acclaim continued to grow throughout the 19th century , although opinion on their motives and actions remained divided . Some modern scholars have interpreted the episode as a major event in early American cultural development , representing the apotheosis of the common man in the new democratic society . Personal history . John Paulding was a self - sufficient farmer : a strong , sturdy man , he stood over six feet tall , unusual for the era . He married three times in his life , and was the father of nineteen children . He died in 1818 at Staatsburg , Dutchess County , New York of natural causes . His last words were reported to be : " I die a true republican . " He is buried in the cemetery of Old Saint Peter ' s Church in Van Cortlandtville , Cortlandt Manor , NY . The grave is marked by a large marble monument with the epitaph : " FIDELITY - On the morning of the 23rd of September 1780 , accompanied by two young farmers of the county of West Chester , he intercepted the British spy , André . Poor himself , he disdained to acquire wealth by the sacrifice of his country . Rejecting the temptation of great rewards , he conveyed his prisoner to the American camp and , by this noble act of self - denial , the treason of Arnold was detected ; the designs of the enemy baffled ; West Point and the American Army saved ; and these United States , now by the grace of God Free and Independent , rescued from most imminent peril . " Paulding ' s descendants are numerous but perhaps the best - known of them is his son Hiram Paulding ( b . 1797 - d . 1878 ) , who served in the War of 1812 and fought in the Battle of Lake Champlain ; he rose to become a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy and retired only after the end of the American Civil War . Commemorations . In 1853 , a monument was erected at the site of André ' s capture in Tarrytown . On the event ' s centenary in 1880 , it was topped with the statue of a minuteman . Carved by the sculptor William Rudolf O ' Donovan ( 1844 – 1920 ) , the statue is reputedly in the likeness of Paulding himself . It is located in Patriot ' s Park , which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 .