bumblebee
10-02-2006, 08:34 AM
On October 2, 1780, British intelligence officer Major John André was hanged as a spy in Tappan, New York. Captured on his return to New York City by American militiamen fighting in the War of Independence, Major André was found to have papers hidden in his boot concerning West Point, New York. General George Washington designated a board of officers to hear the case which, after finding André guilty of spying, sentenced him to death.
More disturbing news was uncovered during the process of the investigation. The papers carried by the British officer had been given to him by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold of the Continental Army, recently appointed commandant of the fort at West Point.
Since May 1779, Arnold, motivated by greed, by his opposition to the French alliance of 1778, and by his resentment towards authorities who had reprimanded him for irregularities during his command in Philadelphia, had maintained a secret correspondence with Major André. On September 21, Arnold had agreed to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for 20,000 pounds.
Upon hearing of André's arrest, Arnold fled to the Vulture, a British warship on the Hudson River. That same day, he wrote to General Washington, begging mercy for his wife, the young and beautiful Loyalist sympathizer Margaret Shippen Arnold:
I have no favor to ask for myself, I have too often experienced the ingratitude of my Country to attempt it: but from the known humanity of your Excellence I am induced to ask your protection for Mrs. Arnold from every Insult and Injury that the mistaken vengeance of my Country may expose her to. It ought to fall only on me. She is as good, and as innocent as an Angel, and is incapable of doing wrong.
Solicitous for a young lady's welfare and unaware of her participation in her husband's duplicitous dealings with the British, Washington provided an escort for Mrs. Arnold back to her family home in Philadelphia. There, authorities forced her to flee to her husband in New York.
During the remainder of the Revolutionary War, Arnold served as a brigadier general in the British army, leading raids on Virginia and Connecticut. After the war, he and his family moved to England, where he died in 1801, his name having become synonymous with traitor in the United States.