Revolutionary War Army Continental Major General. He was the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton; was elected to the New York senate, and was one of the state's first US senators (1789-1791 and 1797-1798). He lost his father at the age of 7 and was forced to be educated at home. In 1748 his education became the responsibility of Peter Stouppe - a French Protestant (Huguenot) minister in New Rochelle, New York. Because of the loss of several family members, he was groomed to be the family leader. Returning home in 1751, Philip began to show symptoms of gout and pleurisy that would plague him for the rest of his life. But that summer, he undertook a traditional rite of passage with a trip into the Mohawk country. In 1755, Philip was commissioned a Captain and empowered to raise a militia company that would build fortifications north of Albany. In 1756, he accompanied Colonel John Bradstreet, a British officer in Albany, to Oswego where he learned the business of military supply and also experienced disillusionment when that outpost fell to the French. In Albany, in 1756 Schuyler was elected to the common council as assistant alderman for the first ward and was able to obtain the contract to operate the ferry that connected Albany with Greenbush. He also held a provincial appointment as commissioner of the excise (import tax) and procured supplies and provisions for Bradstreet as well. Philip Schuyler returned to active service. As an officer in the British supply train, he took part in an attack on Ticonderoga and in Bradstreet's capture of Fort Frontenac. Stationed for the most part at Albany, he served in Bradstreet's quartermaster's department for the remainder of the French and Indian War. Philip Schuyler was elected to the New York General Assembly in 1768. He served until that colonial body disbanded and was replaced by an extra-legal Provincial Congress in 1775. It was in the Assembly that Philip Schuyler began to emerge as a leader of the opposition to post-war British restrictions and strictures. During that time, his business involved the harvesting of farm and forest products on his extensive Hudson Valley estates and shipping them to New York on his own sloops and schooner. Trading on his inherited real estate and family credit, by the eve of the Revolution, the 43-year-old American had emerged as one of the wealthiest landholders in the region. However, his success rested on already functional estates that needed more independent access to markets and resources to develop further. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress that convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, by which he was placed on a committee with George Washington to draw up rules and regulations for the army. In June 1775, he was appointed one of the four Major Generals of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress. He served until he was replaced in 1777 and finally resigned his commission in April 1779. He accompanied Washington from Philadelphia and was assigned by him to the command of the northern department of New York. Proceeding to Albany, he at once engaged in the difficult task of organizing an army for the invasion of Canada. Troops were collected, but lack of arms, ammunition, and pay delayed any movement. There was also considerable ill feeling between the commanders of the colonial forces as to questions of relative rank, particularly at first between Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. In August, he went to Ticonderoga with the object of placing that fort and Crown Point in a state of defense. Subsequently, the failure of Schuyler's health led to his transferring the command to General Richard Montgomery. He then returned to Albany, where he continued his exertions in raising troops and forwarding supplies to the army. After the death of Montgomery, he made every effort to re-enforce the American army. Early in 1776, he directed an expedition to Johnstown, where he seized the military stores that had been collected by Sir John Johnson. Jealousy existed among the officers at the front, and the New England contingent, especially, was dissatisfied with its leader, in consequence of which General John Thomas was directed by Congress to take command of the army in the field, while Schuyler was continued in Albany exercising the general direction of affairs, and especially the duties of quartermaster-general and commissary-general. During the early part of 1776, he was kept continually busy by the movements of Sir John Johnson and other Tories in the Mohawk Valley, and he was also considerably embarrassed by complaints that were sent by his enemies to General George Washington and Congress. Schuyler's per-feet knowledge of the situation, the topography of the country, and the available supplies led him to doubt the expediency of continuing the American forces in Canada, but, in opposition to his recommendation, congress persisted in its action, and the weak army under Thomas, suffering with smallpox, oppressed with want, and lacking in discipline, was kept on the frontier. Meanwhile a strong British force, under General John Burgoyne, had arrived in Canada, and the American army had fallen back on Crown Point greatly reduced in numbers. Schuyler occupied himself at, this time in negotiations with the Six Nations, in virtue of his office of Indian commissioner, and in fitting out a fleet for operations on Lake Champlain. General Horatio Gates was not satisfied with the action of Congress and began to intrigue for the removal of Schuyler, who, on September 14, 1776, formally offered his resignation, but congress declared that it could not dispense with his service, and its president, John Hancock, requested him to continue in command. Gates took command of the army in virtue of a resolution passed by congress on August 1 When this action was taken, Gates had been for some time absent from the army in Philadelphia, using his influence to injure Schuyler, whom he charged with neglect of duty in permitting the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga. In an effort to clear his name after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, he requested trial in a military court. He knew he would be proven innocent, and he was. (in October 1778, a court-martial was convened, which declared itself unanimously of opinion that Schuyler was "not guilty of any neglect of duty" and acquitted him "with the highest honor"). His acquittal, however, did not completely repair his reputation. He then returned to the Continental Congress. He was the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. He was selected to the New York State Senate in 1780 and was appointed one of the first two United States Senators for New York in 1788. He served until 1791 when he was defeated in one of the earliest clashes between Hamilton and Aaron Burr -- the 1791 battle for one of New York's seats in the U.S. Senate. Later he served as New York senator from 1797 to January 1798, when another attack of gout forced him to resign.

There is some uncertainty about whether or not Schuyler is interred in this plot or if this monument is a cenotaph. The Cemetery's plot diagram does not indicate the presence of a grave; it is very possible his remains are still within the Van Rensselaer family vault in the same Cemetery and were not able to be identified at the time this monument was erected, and his grave was supposed to have been moved. His coffin plate and other items were stolen from his coffin when it was entombed in the previous Van Rensselaer family vault on the grounds of their estate.