page_title: John André
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: John André / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: I took the picture myself today. Anyone can use the picture for any reason. Text of the inscription: (some punctuation illegible; may not be accurate) HERE DIED OCTOBER 2, 1780. MAJOR JOHN ANDRE, OF THE BRITISH ARMY WHO ENTERED THE AMERICAN LINES ON A SECRET MISSION TO BENEDICT ARNOLD FOR THE SURRENDER OF WEST POINT, WAS TAKEN PRISONER TRIED AND CONDEMNED AS A SPY. HIS DEATH THOUGH ACCORDING TO THE STERN CODE OF WAR MOVED EVEN HIS ENEMIES TO PITY, AND BOTH ARMIES MOURNED THE FATE OF ONE SO YOUNG AND BRAVE. IN 1821 HIS REMAINS WERE REMOVED TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY, A HUNDRED YEARS AFTER HIS EXECUTION. THIS STONE WAS PLACED ABOVE THE SPOT WHERE HE LAY, NOT TO PERPETUATE THE RECORD OF STRIFE BUT IN TOKEN OF THOSE BETTER FEELINGS WHICH HAVE SINCE UNITED THE NATIONS ONE IN RACE, IN LANGUAGE AND IN RELIGION, WITH THE EARNEST HOPE THAT THIS FRIENDLY UNION WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster
context_page_description: John André was a major in the British Army and head of its Secret Service in America during the American Revolutionary War. He was hanged as a spy by the Continental Army for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York, to the British.
context_section_description: 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 his mother and three sisters not long after his death, and his brother William André was made a baronet in his honour 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 names of André's captors were John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wert. The United States Congress gave each of them a pension of $200 a year and a silver medal, known as the Fidelity Medallion. All were honoured 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 along the boundary between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
  "He was more unfortunate than criminal." – from a letter of George Washington to Comte de Rochambeau, 10 October 1780
  "An accomplished man and gallant officer." – from a letter written by Washington to Colonel John Laurens on 13 October 1780
caption: Monument at the site of the hanging
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