The tradition is probably false, but it made its impression on Hawthorne, who continues, "I could wish that the grave might be opened; for I would fain know whether either of the skeleton soldiers has the mark of an axe in his skull.

The story comes home to me like truth.

Oftentimes, as an intellectual and moral exercise, I have sought to follow that poor youth through his subsequent career and observe how his soul was tortured by the blood-stain, contracted as it had been before the long custom of war had robbed human life of its sanctity, and while it still seemed murderous to slay a brother man.

This one circumstance has borne more fruit for me than all that history tells us of the fight." There are souls so callous that the taking of a human life is no more than the killing of a beast; there are souls so sensitive that they will not kill a living thing.

The man who can relate without regret so profound it is close akin to remorse the killing of another--no matter what the provocation, no matter what the circumstances--is next kin to the common hangman.
From the windows of the "Old Manse," the Rev.William Emerson, grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson, looked out upon the battle, and he would have taken part in the fight had not his neighbors held him back; as it was, he sacrificed his life the following year in attempting to join the army at Ticonderoga, contracting a fever which proved fatal.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery lies on Bedford Street not far from the Town Hall.