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"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction still read today. The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related". |
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The Headless Horseman is a fictional character from the short story by Irving. The Horseman was a Hessian soldier of unknown rank, one of many hired to suppress the American Revolution. Hessian soldiers were 18-century German regiments hired through their rulers by the British Empire. Though used in several conflicts, they are most widely associated with combat operations in the American Revolutionary War. During the war, the Horseman was one of 53 Hessians killed in a battle for Chatterton Hill also known as the engagement at White Plains, wherein his head was severed by an American cannonball. He was buried in a graveyard outside a church. Thereafter he appears as a ghost, who presents to nightly travelers an actual danger (rather than the largely harmless fright produced by the majority of ghosts), presumably of decapitation. He is said to roam Sleepy Hollow on the back of his horse, with his severed head resting upon the pommel of his saddle. He is therefore also called the 'Galloping Hessian'. The Horseman was also known to be incapable of crossing the bridge at the town entrance.
“The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance ... the body of the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak.” —Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
The headless horseman has appeared in many forms of literature throughout history and throughout the world. Many countries have their own unique version of the legend in which some form of the headless horseman appears. In the United States, various states have their own version of a headless horseman tale; Texas' version of the legend, written by Thomas Mayne Reid in 1865 or 1866, tells of ghosts of beheaded horse thieves, who roam the countryside.
Sleepy Hollow is a village in the Town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about 30 miles north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by the Philipse Manor stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line. Originally known as North Tarrytown, it was given its current name in 1996 when residents voted to have it changed to honor the Washington Irving story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." To the south of Sleepy Hollow is the village of Tarrytown, and to the north and east are unincorporated parts of Mount Pleasant.
The village is the location of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Washington Irving, the writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is buried. Philipsburg Manor House and the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow are located in the village as well.
The engagement at chatterton hill during the revolutionary war took place on the 28th of October 1776. A British attack led by British General William Howe was organized with Hessian regiments led by Johann Rall at the forefront of the assault against the General George Washington and the Americans located at White Plains. Rall was to charge the American right, while another Hessian battalion consisting of the Linsing, Mingerode, Lengereck, Kochler grenadiers, and a chasseur regiment was to attack the center. The fighting was intense, and both sides suffered significant casualties before the Continentals made a disciplined retreat. Howe's casualties numbered 214 British and 53 Hessians. The Americans losses are uncertain. |
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Washington Irving
(April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th
century. Best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip
Van Winkle" (both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey
Crayon, Gent.), he was also a prolific essayist, biographer and historian. His
historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and
Muhammad, and several histories of 15th century Spain dealing with subjects such
as Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving also served as the U.S.
minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846. |
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