Isaac Van Wart Isaac Van Wart ( 25 October 1762 – 23 May 1828 ) was a militiaman from the state of New York during the American Revolution . In 1780 , he participated in the capture of Major John André . Personal history . Born in the farm country of Greenburgh , New York , near the village of Elmsford , Van Wart ' s exact birthdate is not recorded , but his tombstone declares that he died at the age of sixty - nine . Van Wart married Rachel Storm ( 1760 – 1834 ) , a daughter of Elmsford ' s most prominent family ( from whom the settlement ' s original name , " Storm ' s Bridge " , was derived ) . He divided his time between his family , his farm , and his church ( in time , he became an elder deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church ) . Van Wart ' s body was buried in the cemetery of the Elmsford Reformed Church in Elmsford , New York . Revolutionary history . Despite his bucolic lifestyle , Van Wart joined the volunteer militia when New York was a battlezone of the Revolution . Overnight on 22 – 23 September 1780 , he joined John Paulding and David Williams in an armed patrol of the area . The three men seized a travelling British officer , Major John André in Tarrytown , New York , at a site now called Patriot ' s Park . Holding him in custody , they discovered documents of André ' s secret communication with Benedict Arnold . The militiamen , all local farmers of modest means , refused André ' s considerable bribe and instead delivered him to army headquarters . 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 Van Wart , Paulding and Williams 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 . Legacy . Van Wart died in Elmsford and is buried in the cemetery of the Old Dutch Reformed Church on Route 9 . A marble and granite monument was erected at his grave on 11 June 1829 , bears the single emphatic word " FIDELITY " , followed by this epitaph , The three militiamen were highly celebrated in their lifetimes : commemorations large and small abound in Westchester , and can be found in many disparate parts of the early United States . Among other honors , each of the men had his name given to a county in the new state of Ohio ( 1803 ) : Van Wert County , bearing a common alternate spelling of the name , is in the northwest corner of the state . Still , Van Wart 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 persuaded Congress to deny 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 to almost mythic status . 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 . Van Wart and his companions are honored on the monument erected at the site of the capture in Tarrytown , dedicated on June 11 , 1829 , by the Revolutionary general and congressman Aaron Ward of nearby Ossining . A Van Wart Avenue is located on the south side of Tarrytown , near the Tappan Zee Bridge . Three streets in the neighboring village of Elmsford , New York , are named for the militiamen , with Van Wart Street being one of the village ' s main roads . White Plains , New York , has a Van Wart Avenue in the southwest section of the city , off NY Route 22 .