Reprint of the original, first published in 1871.

This biography of Britain’s spy chief during the Revolutionary War sheds new light on his conspiracy with Benedict Arnold—and his mysterious capture. John André was head of the British Army’s Secret Service in North America as the Revolutionary War entered its most decisive phase. In 1780, he masterminded the defection of the high-ranking American general Benedict Arnold. As the commander of West Point, Arnold agreed to turn the strategically vital fort over to the British. André and Arnold also conspired to kidnap George Washington. The secret negotiations between Arnold and André were protracted and fraught with danger. Arnold’s wife Peggy acted as go-between until September 21st, 1780, when the two men met face to face in no-man’s-land. But then André was captured forty-eight hours later, having broken every condition set by his commanding officer: he was within American lines, wearing civilian clothes, and carrying maps of West Point in his boots. When he announced himself as a spy, the Americans had no recourse. Tried by a military tribunal, he was convicted and hanged. André’s motives for his apparent sacrifice have baffled historians for generations. This biography provides a provocative answer to this mystery—explaining not only why he acted as he did, but how he wished others to see his actions.

This biography of Major John André, who served as Adjutant-General to the British Army in America during the Revolutionary War, provides a detailed account of his life and career, including his ill-fated involvement in the plot to capture American General Benedict Arnold. Based on contemporary accounts and documents, this book offers a window into the intrigue and danger of the American Revolution. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book details British Major John André's negotiations with Benedict Arnold for West Point during the Revolutionary War. Instead of handling his mission with diplomacy and contrary to the orders of his mentor, General Henry Clinton, Andre crossed enemy lines and was captured carring incriminating papers. André was hanged by the Americans.

John Andre (1750 - 1780) was a British Army officer hanged as a spy by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York to the British. According to Tallmadge's account of the events, he and Andre conversed during the latter's captivity and transport. Andre wanted to know how he would be treated by Washington. Tallmadge, who had been a classmate of Nathan Hale while both were at Yale, described the capture of Hale. When Andre asked whether Tallmadge thought the situations similar, he replied "Yes, precisely similar, and similar shall be your fate"-a reference to Hale's hanging as a spy by the British. In 1779, Andre became Adjutant General of the British Army in America with the rank of major. In April of that year, he took charge of British secret intelligence. By the next year (1780), he had begun to plot with American General Benedict Arnold. The story of Andre is one of those episodes of history which are most widely known and longest remembered. There is a pleasant tinge of romance about the man himself, for he was young, handsome, and possessed of many accomplishments, clever, agreeable, popular and the hero of a love-affair which has crept into a corner of English literature with enough sentiment and controversy attached to it to interest curiosity, and perhaps to touch the heart of succeeding generations. About this youthful and gallant figure gather suddenly the inexorable conditions which shut him in as relentlessly as the hand of Fate leads Orestes or Hippolytus or (Edipus to the doom which has awaited them since the beginning of years. The favorite of his commanders, a trusted staffofficer, advancing easily along the road of promotion, beloved among his fellows, popular in Society, he passes suddenly out of the sunshine of a young prosperity into the darkness of a desperate enterprise, becomes the paymaster of treason, a disguised fugitive, a prisoner, a convicted spy, and dies at last by the hangman's hands. The contrast between his life filled with a soldier's work and relieved by idle hours of music and flowers, of pageants and verse-making, and his miserable end, is hardly sharper than that which separates the grim gallows by the Hudson from the monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Romance, desperate adventure, and dark tragedy are all there in the story of Andre. Andre was portrayed by Michael Wilding as an eloquent and dignified idealist in the 1955 Hollywood film The Scarlet Coat. He is portrayed by JJ Feild in the TV series Turn: Washington's Spies."