Peter Gansevoort

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, New York. His parents were Harman Gansevoort (1712–1801), the third generation of his family to live in America, and Magdalena Douw (1718–1796). His younger brother was Leonard Gansevoort, who was more active politically, serving in the state assembly and senate, as well as the Continental Congress. 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). Career