John André

John André (May 2, 1750/1751 – October 2, 1780) was a major in the British Army and head of its intelligence operations in America during the American Revolutionary War. In that role he was assigned the task of negotiating Benedict Arnold's secret offer to surrender the fort at West Point, New York, to the British in September 1780. Through a series of mishaps and unforeseen events, André was forced to return from a meeting with Arnold through American territory while wearing civilian clothes. He was captured by Colonials, including Issac Van Wart, and soon identified. He was convicted of espionage and hanged as a spy by the Continental Army on the orders of George Washington.
André is typically remembered favorably by historians as a man of honor, and several prominent U.S. leaders of the time, including Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette, did not agree with his fate.
Early life and education
André was born on May 2, 1750 or 1751, in London to wealthy Huguenot parents Antoine André, a merchant from Geneva, Switzerland, and Marie Louise Girardot from Paris. He was educated at St Paul's School, Westminster School, and in Geneva. He was briefly engaged to Honora Sneyd. In 1771, at the age of 20, he joined the army, first being commissioned a second lieutenant in the 23rd Regiment (Royal Welch Fuziliers) but soon exchanging as lieutenant in the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fuzileers). He was on leave of absence in Germany for nearly two years, and in 1774 re-joined his regiment in British Canada.
Career
During the early days of the American Revolutionary War, before independence was declared by the Thirteen Colonies, André was captured near Fort Saint-Jean by Continental General Richard Montgomery in November 1775, and held prisoner at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He lived in the home of Caleb Cope, enjoying the freedom of the town, as he had given his word not to escape. In December 1776 he was freed in a prisoner exchange. He was promoted to captain in the 26th Foot on January 18, 1777. That same year he was aide-de-camp to Major-General Grey, serving thus on the expedition to Philadelphia, and served in battles at Brandywine and Germantown. In September, 1778, he accompanied Grey in the New Bedford expedition, and was sent back to Sir Henry Clinton as a despatch bearer. On Grey's return to England, André was appointed aide-de-camp to Clinton with the rank of major.
He was a great favorite in colonial society, both in Philadelphia and New York, during those cities' occupation by the British Army. He had a lively and pleasant manner and could draw, paint, and create silhouettes, as well as sing and write verse. André was a prolific writer who carried on much of the correspondence of General Sir Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of British armies in America. He was fluent in English, French, German, and Italian. André planned and managed the elaborate 13-hour festival called the "Mischianza," staged in Philadelphia in May 1778 to honor General William Howe, Clinton's predecessor, after Howe had resigned and was soon to return to England.
During his nearly nine months in Philadelphia, André occupied Benjamin Franklin's house, from which it has been claimed that he removed several valuable items on the orders of Grey when the British left Philadelphia, including an oil portrait of Franklin by Benjamin Wilson.
Intelligence work
Head of British Secret Service in America
In 1779, André became adjutant general of the British Army in North America with the rank of major. In April of that year, he took charge of the British Secret Service in America. By the next year (1780), he had briefly taken part in Clinton's invasion of the South, starting with the siege of Charleston, South Carolina.
Around this time, André took over secret British communications with U.S. general Benedict Arnold. Arnold was a much-admired field general who had been wounded twice in battle, and was considered an American hero for his actions at the Battle of Saratoga. He was also impetuous and hotheaded. Arnold had become bitter about the decline in his financial fortunes caused by the war, and the reluctance of the Continental Congress to grant him the promotions he believed he deserved.
Arnold's Loyalist wife, Peggy Shippen, was one of the go-betweens in the correspondence with André. Arnold steadily provided the British with vital intelligence on American troop movements and Washington's strategy. His ultimate goal was to be the key player in helping the British achieve such a knock-out blow against the Colonials that he would handsomely rewarded. In pursuit of this plan, he carefully maneuvered his way into the command of the critical Continental Army fortifications at West Point, secretly promising to surrender them to the British for £20,000 (approximately £3.62 million in 2021). Possession of the forts at West Point would deliver to the British effective control of the entire vital Hudson River waterway, and might very well serve as the death-blow that doomed the Continental cause.
As the summer of 1780 ended, Arnold had at last taken command of West Point, and was in a position to facilitate a British takeover of the forts. Major André traveled up the Hudson River on the British sloop-of-war HMS Vulture to meet Arnold. The presence of the warship on the upper Hudson, close to Patriot territory, was first discovered the following morning by two American privates, John Peterson and Moses Sherwood, on 21 September. From their position at Teller's Point, they attacked HMS Vulture with rifle and musket fire. Seeking greater firepower, Peterson and Sherwood headed to Fort Lafayette at Verplanck's Point to request cannons and ammunition from their commander, Colonel James Livingston.
During this pause in the shooting, a small boat furnished by Arnold was steered to the Vulture by Joshua Hett Smith. At the oars were two brothers, tenants of Smith, who reluctantly rowed the boat on the river to the sloop. Despite Arnold's assurances, the two oarsmen sensed that something was wrong. None of these men knew Arnold's purpose or suspected his treason; all were told that the purpose was to do good for the American cause. Only Smith was told anything specific, and that was the lie that it was to secure vital intelligence for the American cause. The brothers finally agreed to row after Arnold mixed threats of arrest with a bribe of fifty pounds of flour for each man. They picked up André from the Vulture and brought him ashore, where Arnold was waiting.
The two men conferred in the woods below Stony Point on the river's west bank until nearly dawn on September 22. Then, instead of returning to the Vulture, André decided to continue their conversation, and with the sun coming up, he and Arnold rode several miles to Smith's house (later named Treason House) in West Haverstraw, New York, owned by Thomas Smith, Joshua's brother.
That same morning, the Americans on Teller's Point, under the command of Livingston, launched a two-hour cannonade on HMS Vulture using heavy guns. The sloop, trapped by the Hudson's tidal currents, sustained many hits before it was finally able to escape downriver. The retreat of the British sloop stranded André on shore.
Taken into custody
Arnold persuaded André that his best option for returning to British territory was to travel overland, which meant that he would need to take off his British officer's uniform and put on civilian clothes. He bore six papers hidden in his stocking, written in Arnold's hand, that showed the British how to take the fort. In the event that André was met by American sentries, Arnold gave him a passport allowing him to travel under the name John Anderson. Arnold departed to return to his home, and Joshua Hett Smith escorted André a few miles north, where the two men crossed to the east side of the Hudson at King's Ferry André, who had expected to travel to and from the meeting by ship while dressed in full uniform, was now traveling by road, in civilian disguise. He was deep behind enemy lines, and risked arrest as a spy.
After spending the night in a local home, the two men continued on to the Croton River, the southernmost edge of the American lines. Here Smith left him and André continued south in hopes of coming into contact with one of the Loyalist bands who marauded through Westchester County.
André had been warned to keep inland, but instead he shifted west until he was riding down the Albany Post Road, which follows the edge of the Hudson. He rode on safely until 9 a.m. on 23 September, when he arrived at the crossing of a stream known as Clark's Kill (since renamed the André River). Here three young men: John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart and David Williams stopped him.
André believed that these three were Loyalists because Paulding was wearing a Hessian soldier's uniform. Paulding had himself escaped from a British prison only days earlier, aided by a sympathetic Loyalist who provided him with the uniform. "Gentlemen," André said, "I hope you belong to our party." "What party?" asked one of the men. "The lower party", replied André, meaning the British, whose headquarters were to the south. "We do" was their answer. André then declared that he was a British officer who must not be detained. To his surprise, Paulding informed him "We are Americans," and took him prisoner. André then tried to convince the men that he was a US officer by showing them the passport Arnold had provided to him. But the suspicions of his captors were now aroused; they searched him and found Arnold's papers and the plans for West Point hidden in his stocking. Only Paulding could read and Arnold was not initially suspected. André offered them his horse and watch to let him go, but they declined.
André later testified at his trial that the men searched his boots for the purpose of robbing him. Whether or not this was true, the laws of New York State at the time permitted the men to keep whatever booty they might find on a Loyalist's person. John Paulding suspected that André was a spy and took him to Continental Army's frontline headquarters in Sands Mill (in today's Armonk, New York, a hamlet within North Castle situated on the Connecticut border of Westchester County).
At first, all went well for André: the post commandant, Lieutenant Colonel John Jameson, unsure as to Arnold's role in the spy's mission, decided to send André back to Arnold's home and headquarters close to West Point. But Major Benjamin Tallmadge, head of Continental Army Intelligence, arrived and was considerably more suspicious of Arnold's part in the episode. He persuaded Jameson to send a rider to bring the prisoner back.
Jameson sent General George Washington the six sheets of paper carried by André, but he hedged his bets about Arnold; Jameson knew that his own career would be in jeopardy if he treated Arnold with suspicion and Arnold was absolved of guilt. In place of André himself, he sent Arnold a letter informing him of André's capture. Arnold received Jameson's note while at breakfast with his officers, made an excuse to leave the room, and rushed upstairs to confer with his wife. Soon after, he made his escape to the Hudson, where he boarded his personal barge and ordered the crew to row him to the Vulture, which had returned to its northerly position on the river. Arnold turned himself over to the British commander of the ship, who promptly sailed for New York City to deliver Arnold to General Clinton.
An hour or so later, Washington arrived at West Point with his party; he had not yet received Jameson's letter or the incriminating documents, and as yet knew nothing of Arnold's betrayal or his flight. Washington was disturbed to see the stronghold's fortifications in such neglect, part of the plan to weaken West Point's defenses. Washington was further irritated to find that Arnold had breached protocol by not being present to greet him. Finally, several hours later, Washington returned to Arnold's home and headquarters on the eastern side of the Hudson, where the documents taken from André were presented to him. Instantly grasping the meaning and significance of the papers, Washington quickly sent men to try to intercept Arnold, but it was too late.
André, meanwhile, was held in South Salem, New York, and then briefly at Arnold's home, before being transferred across the Hudson to the Army headquarters in Tappan, New York. According to Tallmadge's account of the events, he and André conversed during the latter's captivity and transport. André wanted to know how he would be treated by Washington. Tallmadge had been a classmate of Nathan Hale while both were at Yale, and he spoke to André of Hale's capture, and what Tallmadge considered to be Hale's cold-blooded execution. André asked whether Tallmadge thought the situations similar; he replied, "Yes, precisely similar, and similar shall be your fate."
Trial and execution
Washington convened a board of senior officers to investigate the matter. The trial contrasted with Sir William Howe's treatment of Hale some four years earlier. The board consisted of Major Generals Nathanael Greene (presiding officer), Lord Stirling, Arthur St. Clair, Lafayette, Robert Howe, von Steuben, Brigadier Generals Samuel H. Parsons, James Clinton, Henry Knox, John Glover, John Paterson, Edward Hand, Jedediah Huntington, John Stark, and Judge Advocate General John Laurance.
André's defense was that he was suborning an enemy officer, "...an advantage taken in war..." André told the court that he had neither desired nor planned to be behind American lines, but had been summoned ashore by Arnold and stranded there accidentally when the Vulture sailed away. He also asserted that, as a prisoner of war, he had the right to escape in civilian clothes. On 29 September 1780, the board found André guilty of being behind American lines "...under a feigned name and in a disguised habit..." and ordered that "Major André, Adjutant-General to the British Army, ought to be considered as a spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death."
Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in New York, did all that he could to save André, his favorite aide. But in their written negotiation, Washington demanded that in exchange for André, Clinton must give the Americans the traitor Arnold, who was now under British protection in New York City. Clinton personally disliked Arnold, but declined to hand him over to his former compatriots.
From the time of his arrest, André endeared himself to American officers, some of whom lamented his death sentence as much as the British. Alexander Hamilton in particular was thoroughly charmed by the young and erudite British spy. "He united a peculiar elegance of mind and manners, and the advantage of a pleasing person," he wrote. As the execution date approached, André appealed to Washington to be executed as a combat officer by being shot, rather than hanged as was customary for spies. "I trust that the request that I make to your Excellency at this serious period, and which is to soften my last moments, will not be rejected. Sympathy towards a soldier will surely induce your Excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor." Washington refused his request.
John André was hanged as a spy at Tappan, New York on October 2, 1780. André, according to witnesses, placed the noose around his own neck and tightened it.
The day before his hanging, André drew a likeness of himself with pen and ink, which is now owned by Yale College. A religious poem was found in his pocket after his execution, written two days beforehand.
Lafayette was reported to have wept at the execution of André. Alexander Hamilton wrote of him: "Never perhaps did any man suffer death with more justice, or deserve it less."
Eyewitness account
An eyewitness account of André's last day can be found in the book The American Revolution: From the Commencement to the Disbanding of the American Army Given in the Form of a Daily Journal, with the Exact Dates of all the Important Events:
October 2d.-- Major André is no more among the living. I have just witnessed his exit. It was a tragical scene of the deepest interest. During his confinement and trial, he exhibited those proud and elevated sensibilities which designate greatness and dignity of mind. Not a murmur or a sigh ever escaped him, and the civilities and attentions bestowed on him were politely acknowledged. Having left a mother and two sisters in England, he was heard to mention them in terms of the tenderest affection, and in his letter to Sir Henry Clinton, he recommended them to his particular attention. The principal guard officer, who was constantly in the room with the prisoner, relates that when the hour of execution was announced to him in the morning, he received it without emotion, and while all present were affected with silent gloom, he retained a firm countenance, with calmness and composure of mind. Observing his servant enter the room in tears, he exclaimed, "Leave me till you can show yourself more manly!" His breakfast being sent to him from the table of General Washington, which had been done every day of his confinement, he partook of it as usual, and having shaved and dressed himself, he placed his hat upon the table, and cheerfully said to the guard officers, "I am ready at any moment, gentlemen, to wait on you." The fatal hour having arrived, a large detachment of troops was paraded, and an immense concourse of people assembled; almost all our general and field officers, excepting his excellency and staff, were present on horseback; melancholy and gloom pervaded all ranks, and the scene was affectingly awful. I was so near during the solemn march to the fatal spot, as to observe every movement, and participate in every emotion which the melancholy scene was calculated to produce.
A Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Generals by James Thacher, a surgeon in the American Revolutionary Army contains:
Major André walked from the stone house, in which he had been confined, between two of our subaltern officers, arm in arm; the eyes of the immense multitude were fixed on him, who, rising superior to the fears of death, appeared as if conscious of the dignified deportment which he displayed. He betrayed no want of fortitude, but retained a complacent smile on his countenance, and politely bowed to several gentlemen whom he knew, which was respectfully returned. It was his earnest desire to be shot, as being the mode of death most conformable to the feelings of a military man, and he had indulged the hope that his request would be granted. At the moment, therefore, when suddenly he came in view of the gallows, he involuntarily started backward, and made a pause. "Why this emotion, sir?" said an officer by his side. Instantly recovering his composure, he said, "I am reconciled to my death, but I detest the mode." While waiting and standing near the gallows, I observed some degree of trepidation; placing his foot on a stone, and rolling it over and choking in his throat, as if attempting to swallow. So soon, however, as he perceived that things were in readiness, he stepped quickly into the wagon, and at this moment he appeared to shrink, but instantly elevating his head with firmness he said, "It will be but a momentary pang," and taking from his pocket two white handkerchiefs, the provost-marshal, with one, loosely pinioned his arms, and with the other, the victim, after taking off his hat and stock, bandaged his own eyes with perfect firmness, which melted the hearts and moistened the cheeks, not only of his servant, but of the throng of spectators. The rope being appended to the gallows, he slipped the noose over his head and adjusted it to his neck, without the assistance of the awkward executioner. Colonel Scammel now informed him that he had an opportunity to speak, if he desired it; he raised the handkerchief from his eyes, and said, "I pray you to bear me witness that I meet my fate like a brave man." The wagon being now removed from under him, he was suspended, and instantly expired; it proved indeed "but a momentary pang." He was dressed in his royal regimentals and boots, and his remains, in the same dress, were placed in an ordinary coffin, and interred at the foot of the gallows; and the spot was consecrated by the tears of thousands...
Aftermath
On the day of his capture, James Rivington published André's poem "The Cow Chase" in his gazette in New York. In the poem, André muses on his foiling of a foraging expedition in Bergen across the Hudson from the city. Nathan Strickland, André's executioner, who was confined at the camp in Tappan as a dangerous Tory during André's trial, was granted liberty for accepting the duty of hangman and returned to his home in the Ramapo Valley or Smith's Cove, and nothing further of him is known. Joshua Hett Smith, who was connected with André with the attempted treason, was also brought to trial at the Reformed Church of Tappan. The trial lasted four weeks and ended in acquittal for lack of evidence. The Colquhon brothers who were commanded by Benedict Arnold to bring André from the sloop-of-war Vulture to shore, as well as Major Keirs, under whose supervision the boat was obtained, were exonerated from all suspicion.
A pension was awarded by the British to André's mother and three sisters not long after his death; and his brother William André was made a baronet in his honor in 1781 (see André baronets). In 1804 a memorial plaque by Charles Regnart was erected in the Grosvenor Chapel in London, to John's memory. In 1821, at the behest of the Duke of York, his remains, which had been buried under the gallows, were removed to England and placed among kings and poets at Westminster Abbey, in the nave, under a marble monument depicting Britannia mourning alongside a British lion over André's death. In 1879 a monument was unveiled on the place of his execution at Tappan.
The United States Congress gave each of André's captors: Paulding, Williams, and van Wert, a silver medal, known as the Fidelity Medallion, and a pension of $200 a year. That came close to the annual pay of a Continental Army's infantry ensign in 1778. All were honored in the names of counties in Ohio, and in 1853 a monument was erected to their memory on the place where they captured André. It was re-dedicated in 1880 and today is located in Patriot's Park on U.S. Route 9. The memorial is along the boundary between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. One of the buildings in the towns' unified school district is today known as the John Paulding School.
In popular culture
The 1798 play André, based on Major André's execution, is one of the earliest examples of American tragedy. Clyde Fitch's play Major André opened on Broadway in November 1903, but was not a success, possibly because the play attempted to portray André as a sympathetic figure.
In Washington Irving's famous short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the townspeople describe the site of the capture of Major John André, in particular a tulip-tree, as one of the haunted locations in Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane later passes the tree himself just before he encounters the Headless Horseman.
The young adult fiction book Sophia's War by Avi is about a young girl becoming a spy and foiling his plot.
André has been portrayed several times in film and television:
by Michael Wilding as an eloquent and dignified idealist in the 1955 Hollywood film The Scarlet Coat; by JJ Feild in the TV series Turn: Washington's Spies
by William Beckley in season 4, episode 26 of the sci-fi TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
by Eric Joshua Davis in the TV series Sleepy Hollow
by John Light in the movie Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor.
Notes
See also
Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War
John Champe (soldier)
Jane Tuers
References
Bibliography
An Authentic Narrative of the Causes Which Led to the Death of Major Andre, Adjutant-General of His Majesty's Forces in North America, Joshua Hett Smith (London 1808)
Cray, Robert E. Jr., "Major John Andre and the Three Captors: Class Dynamics and Revolutionary Memory Wars in the Early Republic, 1780–1831", Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 17, No. 3. Autumn, 1997. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (1858), vol vi, which contains a comprehensive essay by Charles J. Biddle
Andreana, H. W. Smith (Philadelphia, 1865)
Two spies, Lossing (New York, 1886)
Life and Career of Major John André, Sargent, new edition (New York, 1904)
The Secret is Out: True Spy Stories, T. Martini (Boston, 1990)
The Execution of MAJOR ANDRE, John Evangelist Walsh (New York, 2001)
Local History: British Agent Detained in Tarrytown, Executed in Rockland
Further reading
External links
"The Capture of Major John André" by A.C. Warren (1856)
Letters from André, including coded interchange between André and Arnold
More on his early life
1751 births
1780 deaths
18th-century executions by the United States
American Revolutionary War executions
British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War
British Army personnel who were court-martialled
English people of French descent
Executed people from London
Executed military personnel
Executed spies
Burials at Westminster Abbey
British people executed abroad
British military personnel killed in the American Revolutionary War
British spies during the American Revolution
Cameronians officers
Benedict Arnold
Huguenot participants in the American Revolution
People executed by the United States military by hanging
Royal Welch Fusiliers officers
People educated at St Paul's School, London