- Historic Sites 1780 225 Years Ago August/September 2005 |
Volume 56, Issue 4 On September 23, three Continental guerrillas
stopped a mounted man riding south near Dobbs Ferry, New York.
He gave his name as John Anderson, and he seemed nervous and
confused, so the men searched him. Hidden in his shoes they
found information about the Continental Army’s planned maneuvers
and a detailed description of the construction and defenses of
its fort at West Point. The captive was Maj. John André of the
British army, and he was in big trouble. Under normal
circumstances, he would have been treated as a prisoner, but
since he was wearing civilian clothes, he was considered a spy
and thus subject to execution. After being handed over to a
colonel in the Continental Army, he wrote a desperate letter to
Gen. George Washington, explaining his actions and begging for
mercy. It was to no avail; André was hanged on October 2. The
information André had been carrying came from the Continental
general Benedict Arnold—the command