Peter Gansevoort (July 17, 1749 – July 2, 1812) was a Colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is best known for leading the resistance to Barry St. Leger's Siege of Fort Stanwix in 1777. Gansevoort was also the maternal grandfather of Moby-Dick author Herman Melville.
Early life
Peter Gansevoort was born into the Dutch aristocracy of Albany in the Province of New York. His parents were Harman Gansevoort (1712–1801), the third generation of his family to live in America, and Magdalena Douw (1718–1796).
Gansevoort's paternal ancestors had been in Albany since 1660, when it was the Dutch colony of Fort Orange, and Harmen Harmense Gansevoort owned a brewery and farms. Through his mother, he was related to New York's Van Rensselaer family as her mother, and Gansevoort's maternal grandmother, was Anna Van Rensselaer (1696–1756), a daughter of Hendrick van Rensselaer, the director of the Eastern patent of the Rensselaerswyck manor. In addition, his first cousin, Leonard Gansevoort (1754–1834), an Albany lawyer and alderman, was married to Maria Van Rensselaer (1760–1841), the daughter of Col. Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1717–1781), the granddaughter of Hendrick van Rensselaer and the sister of Henry Van Rensselaer (1744–1816), Philip Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1747–1798), and Killian K. Van Rensselaer (1763–1845). The siege was lifted on August 22, after word arrived that Benedict Arnold was leading a large relief force up the Mohawk Valley. In 1800, he ran for US Senator from New York but was defeated by Gouverneur Morris of the Federalist Party.
- Leonard Herman Gansevoort (1783–1821), who married Mary Ann Chandonette (1789–1851)
- Peter Gansevoort (1788–1876), who married Mary Sanford (1814–1841), a daughter of Chancellor Nathan Sandford. he is buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.
Descendants
His grandson through his son Leonard was Guert Gansevoort, who had a distinguished naval career that spanned 45 years. Through his daughter Maria, he was the maternal grandfather of author Herman Melville (1819–1891). The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Further reading
- Alice P. Kenney; The Gansevoorts of Albany: Dutch Patricians in the Upper Hudson Valley; 1969, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, .
- Alice P. Kenney; Stubborn for Liberty: The Dutch in New York; 1975, Syracuse University Press, . (1989 Paperback: )
- David A. Ranzan and Matthew J. Hollis, eds.; Hero of Fort Schuyler: Selected Revolutionary War Correspondence of Brigadier General Peter Gansevoort, Jr.; 2014, McFarland and Company, Jefferson, NC, .