Chapter V (4)

Clinton, on relieving Howe from the command in Philadelphia, was instructed to evacuate the city (Sparks, v. 548). This materially changed the plans for the campaign, which had been determined upon prior to the announcement of the French alliance (_Sparks MSS._, xlv. and lviii.). Washington meanwhile was considering an alternative of plans, and getting the opinions of his general officers;[947] but the movements of the British to evacuate Philadelphia soon changed all.[948]

From a plan in Hilliard d'Auberteuil's _Essais_, i. p. 270. KEY: The English had passed the night at _a_. Lee's advance showed itself at 3, when the British debouched from their position at 1, while their guns at 2 fired on the Americans. The Americans at 3 retired into the wood, and joined Lee's main body, which debouched from the wood at 4, their guns taking position at 6 and 7, while the British guns were at 5. The Americans (4, 8, and 10) retired and took position at 11; and while still further retreating, the British attacked at 12, and the Americans made a stand at 13, and before all could retire still farther the British again attacked at 14. The Americans again formed at 15, when Washington, coming up by way of the new Baptist meeting-house with the main body, formed at 16, Stirling and Greene in front, and Lafayette in the rear, while Lee's men at 15 passed to Washington's rear, a British reconnoitring force appearing meanwhile at 17, and Plessis-Mauduit's battery, supported by 500 men, taking position at 18. The British at 14 and 17, being repulsed, united at 19, whence they were further repulsed and took position at 20. They formed again at 21 after Washington's attack. They passed the night at 22.

This map was apparently engraved from an original, followed in two plans, differently drawn, but in effect the same, which are among the maps in the Sparks collection at Cornell University, and which were copied from Lafayette's own plan at Lagrange. It is called _Carte de l'affaire de Montmouth, où le général Washington commandait l'armée Américaine et le général Clinton commandait l'armée Anglaise, le 28 Juin, 1778_. The "legende" shows references from 1 to 22, with extra ones _a_ and _b_, the latter (_b_) being at the junction of the two dotted lines in the rear of 16, and is explained as the "movement of the second line, commanded by General Lafayette, which, as soon as the column at 17 was perceived, was detached to occupy the wood west of the meeting-house, which the column 17 was approaching; but when this column 17 was repulsed the line was restored."

There is also among the Sparks maps (Lafayette copies) a pen-and-ink sketch-plan,—differing somewhat, giving more detail,—made on the American side, and this more nearly resembles the plan given by Sparks in his _Washington_ (v. p. 430,—repeated in Duer's _Stirling_, ii. 196; and in Guizot's _Washington_. Cf. Irving's _Washington_, quarto ed.). The plan in Lossing's _Field-Book_ (ii. 356) is based on the one here engraved, and he also gives a view of the Freehold meeting-house (p. 359) and of the field (p. 362). Carrington (ch. 56) gives an eclectic plan with more detail than any other.

A view of the monument commemorating the battle is in the _U. S. Art Directory_ (1884).]

Sketched from a part of a MS. Hessian map in the library of Congress, called _Plan générale des opérations de l'armée Britannique contre les Rebelles_, etc. The lines (·—·—) represent roads. KEY: "79, Marche du général de Knyphausen de son camp devant Englishtown le 24 Juin. 80, Marche du général Cornwallis. 83, Retraite des enemis."

There is a copy of the map of the region of the march by Clinton's engineer in the library of the N. Y. Hist. Soc. (_Mag. of Amer. Hist._, Sept., 1878, p. 759).]

The battle of Monmouth, though in the end a victory for Washington, secured for the British what they fought for, a further unimpeded march toward New York. Washington's letters are of the first importance.[949] We have also accounts by Hamilton;[950] by Lafayette,[951] as given to Sparks; and statements by several other witnesses.[952]

The trial of Lee, and the papers produced by it, furnish abundant contemporary evidence. The trial was published at Philadelphia, 1778, as _Proceedings of Court-Martial held at Brunswick in New Jersey, July 4, 1778_.[953]

On the British side, Clinton's despatch is in _Lee Papers_, (1872), p. 461; Dawson, i. 415. A British journal kept during the march is in the _N. J. Hist. Soc. Proc._, i. 15; an orderly-book picked up on the field is in a transcript in the Penna. Hist. Society.[954]

The British retreat is commended in Baron von Ochs's _Betrachtungen über die neuere Kriegskunst_ (Cassel, 1817). Cf. Lowell's _Hessians_, p. 209.

Respecting the Conway Cabal, the best gathering of the documentary evidence is in an appendix to Sparks's _Washington_.[955] Sparks's conclusion is that the plot never developed into "a clear and fixed purpose", and that no one section of the country more than another specially promoted it. Mahon (vi. 243) thinks that Sparks glides over too gently the participation of the New Englanders, who have been defended from the charge of participation by Austin in his _Life of Elbridge Gerry_ (ch. 16). Gordon implicates Samuel Adams, and J. C. Hamilton is severe on the Adamses (_Repub. U. S._, i. ch. 13, 14). Mrs. Warren found no cause to connect Sam. Adams with the plot, and Wells (_Sam. Adams_, ii. ch. 46) naturally dismisses the charge. It is not to be denied that among the New England members of Congress there were strong partisans of Gates, and the action of Congress for good in military matters was impaired by an unsettled estimate of the wisdom of keeping Washington at the head of the army, though it did not always manifest itself in assertion (Greene's _Greene_, i. 287, 403, 411). Nothing could be worse than John Adams's proposition to have Congress annually elect the generals (_Works_, i. 263); and he was not chary of his disgust with what was called Washington's Fabian policy. Sullivan, in one of his oily, fussy letters to Washington (_Corresp. of the Rev._, ii. 366) finds expression of a purpose to revive the plot in William Tudor's massacre oration in Boston in March, 1779. The expressions of Charles Lee, that "a certain great man is most damnably deficient" (Moore's _Treason of Lee_, p. 68), like utterances of others, are rather indicative of ordinary revulsions of feeling under misfortunes than of a purpose of combination among the disaffected. Gates's refusal to reinforce Washington, and Hamilton's vain efforts to persuade him, naturally fall among the indicative signs;[956] and this apathy of Gates very likely conduced immediately to the loss of Fort Mifflin at the time it was abandoned (Wallace's _Bradford_, App. 12). The attempt to gain over Lafayette by the attractions of a command in invading Canada, can be followed in Sparks's _Washington_.[957]

THE TREASON OF ARNOLD.

A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE AUTHORITIES BY THE EDITOR.

JUST when and by what act Arnold was put in treasonable correspondence with the British is not clearly established. Bancroft[958] says it was towards the end of February, 1779,[959] but he gives no authority.

After the medallion, engraved by Adam, of a picture by Du Simitière, painted in Philadelphia from life. The original is in Marbois' _Complot d'Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton_ (Paris, 1816), where it is inscribed "Le Général Arnold, déserté de l'armée des Etats Unis, le 25 Sept^{bre}, 1780." The copy of Marbois in the Brinley sale (no. 3,961) had also the sepia drawing from which the engraver worked. The Du Simitière head had already appeared in the _European Magazine_ (1783), vol. iii. 83, and in his _Thirteen Heads_, etc.

A familiar profile likeness, looking to the right, was engraved by H. B. Hall for the illustrated edition of Irving's _Washington_, and is also to be found in H. W. Smith's _Andreana_. Another profile, similar, but facing to the left, is in Arnold's _Arnold_, and was etched by H. B. Hall in 1879. Cf. Harris and Allyn's _Battle of Groton Heights_.

Lossing has given us views of Arnold's birthplace in Norwich (_Harper's Mag._, xxiii. 722; _Field-Book_, ii. 36), and of his house in New Haven (_Harper_, xvii. 13; _Field-Book_, i. 421), and of his Willow (_Harper_, xxiv. 735).]

From the _Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser Europa, Eilfter Theil_, Nürnberg, 1778.]

Clinton, in Oct., 1780,[960] says it was eighteen months before, which would place it about April, 1779, and this is the period adopted by Sparks[961] and Sargent.[962] The latter writer thinks Arnold made the advances; the former believes them to have come from the British.[963] It has also been believed that the mutual recognition was effected in some way through a Lieutenant Hele, a British spy, who was in Philadelphia after Arnold took command. There might arise a suspicion that the understanding was induced through the Tory family of Miss Peggy Shippen, whom Arnold had married in April, 1779. There are stories of her maintaining correspondence with her British friends in New York, but we do not know of any letters remaining as proof of it, except one from André to that lady after her marriage to Arnold, and after the British correspondence with him under feigned names had begun, in which letter the gambolling Major André commiserated his fair friend of the previous winter on the difficulty she might experience in buying gewgaws in Philadelphia, and offering to find them for her in New York. Whether this language, like the commercial phrases in which Arnold was at this time conducting his correspondence under the name of "Gustavus" with one "John Anderson", a British merchant in that city, was likewise a blind is not probably to be discovered, and it might or might not involve a doubt as to the privity of Peggy Arnold in the rather lagging negotiations;[964] but the probability is that André wrote the letter in his own name in order that Arnold might, by the similarity of the handwriting, identify his _pseudo_ Anderson; for by this time the nature of information which inured to the advantage of the British, and which Gustavus communicated to Anderson from time to time, had pretty well convinced Clinton that the person with whom he was dealing was high in rank, and probably near headquarters in Philadelphia.

From Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the present War_, ii. p. 48.]

Arnold had warm admirers; and those who trusted him for certain brilliant merits in the field included, among others, Washington himself; but Congress did not confide in him with so unquestioning a spirit. That body had raised over him in rank several of his juniors, much to Arnold's chagrin[965] and Washington's annoyance; and it was only after a renewed exhibition of his intrepidity at Danbury that it had tardily raised him to a major-generalship. Though his commission of May, 1777, gave him equal rank, it made him still, by its later date, the junior of those who had been his inferiors.[966] The Burgoyne campaign had been fought by him under a consequent vexation of mind, and his spirits chafed, not unreasonably, at the slight. The wound he then received incapacitating him for the field, had induced Washington, as has been shown, to put him in command of Philadelphia after the British evacuated it. It was now observed that he more willingly consorted with the Tory friends of his wife than with the tried adherents of the cause. His arrogance and impetuosity of manner always made him enemies. The Council of Pennsylvania by a resolution (_Hist. Mag._, Dec., 1870), as we have seen, brought Congress to the point of ordering a court-martial to decide upon the charges preferred against the general, and to Arnold's revulsion of feelings at this time has been traced, by some, the beginning of his defection.[967] Certain it is that he was kept in suspense too long to render him better proof against insidious thought, for it was not till December, 1779, that the trial came on. Meanwhile his debts pressed, his scrutinizers were vigilant, and there seems some reason to believe that he sought to get relief by selling himself to the French minister,—a project which, if we may believe the account, was repelled by that ambassador. To add to his irritation, Congress did not find the accounts which he had rendered of his expenditures in the Canada expedition well vouched, and Arnold resented their inquiries as an imputation upon his honesty.[968]

Reduced from the fac-simile given in Smith and Watson's _Hist. and Lit. Curios._, 1st series, plate xlii.]

Sketched from a colored drawing in the _Moses Greenleaf Papers_ (Mass. Hist. Soc.).]

The trial at last resulted in his acquittal on two of the more serious charges; but being judged censurable on two others, he was sentenced to a public reprimand from the commander-in-chief.[969]

A profile cut by himself for Miss Rebecca Redman, in 1778, and given in Smith and Watson's _Hist. and Lit. Curiosities_, 1st series, pl. xxv.]

The burden of a public reproof, no matter how delicately imposed, was not calculated to arrest the defection of man already too far committed to retreat. If we may believe Marbois, not the best of guides, there was found among Arnold's papers, after his flight, a letter, undated and unsigned, in which he was urged to emulate the example of Gen. Monk, and save his country by an opportune desertion of what was no longer a prospering cause.[970] It soon became evident to Arnold that of himself, destitute of representative value, he was not a commodity that Clinton was eager to buy. Accordingly the recusant soldier sought to offer a better bargain to the purchaser by the makeweight of something that Clinton particularly longed for, and this was the possession of the Hudson Valley through its chief military posts.[971] To get a hold upon this, the time was opportune, for there was a change to be made in its commander. Arnold, however, did not get the coveted prize without some intrigue, for Washington, when he found that the wounded soldier professed eagerness for hotter work, proposed his taking the command of one of the wings of the main army. Arnold met the compliment by referring to his wounds as precluding work in the saddle, and induced Schuyler and R. R. Livingston to importune Washington to assign him to West Point.[972] The device succeeded, and Arnold reached West Point, as its commander, in the first week of August, and established his headquarters in the confiscated house which had belonged to Beverley Robinson, and which was situated on the east bank of the river, a little below West Point.[973] Clinton could have no longer any doubt of the identity of his correspondent, now that "Gustavus" wrote from the Robinson house.

The conspirators' first effort was to establish communications through Robinson, on business ostensibly having relations to this confiscated property; but Washington, to whom, for appearances, Arnold showed Robinson's application for an interview, told him that the civil, and not the military, powers should meet such proposals. Arnold could find at this time little difficulty in transmitting his clandestine letters, for there was constant occasion for the passage of flags from his own headquarters. To cover his proceedings from the officers of the American outposts, he only had to pretend that the expected messages or messengers were from his own spies in New York.[974]

From the _Political Magazine_, March, 1781, ii. 171. There is a modern reproduction of this engraving in the _Minutes of a Court of Inquiry_, etc., Albany, 1865. and in H. W. Smith's _Andreana_, Phila., 1865, who gives a full-length, of the origin of which we are left uninformed.]

Clinton was apparently not willing to commit himself to any bargain, unless Arnold would give a personal interview as an evidence of his sincerity; while Arnold, in according, on his part insisted that his interviewer should be the convenient Anderson. André, since he had become the adjutant-general of the British army, was now fully understood to represent that fictitious New York merchant. Arnold named Robinson's house for the meeting, and would make arrangements by which any flag should pass the outposts. This was objected to, and the neutral ground near Dobbs Ferry was settled upon. Here Arnold went in his barge; but the officers of the British guard-boats were not in the secret, and the meeting failed by reason of their chasing Arnold's barge up the river. Another attempt was planned, but this failed in the beginning, apparently by André's going up to the "Vulture", sloop-of-war, which was lying in the river, instead of landing lower down, as was expected. André was provided with full instructions, which if obeyed would have saved him the ignominy of a felon's death. He was not to put off his uniform, was not to go within the American lines, and was not to receive any papers. His bargain with Arnold was to have no written expression, and it involved on Sir Henry's part the dispatch of an ample force in a flotilla from Sir George Rodney's fleet, then in New York, where the men were already embarked, ostensibly for the Chesapeake, and the attack was to be made on the 25th of September, when it was supposed that Washington would have left the Hudson to go to Connecticut for an interview with Rochambeau. There was further to be made by André a promise that Arnold should have a commission in the British army and a sum of money. The American general, on his part, was so to dispose the forces in the works about West Point that the attack would, beyond doubt, end in a surprise and a mastery that would give color to the necessity of a surrender, which he was promptly to make.

This picture of André, by himself, was originally engraved in 1784 by J. K. Sherwin, and was reëngraved by Hopwood for J. H. Smith's _Authentic Narrative_, London, 1808, and from this second engraving the present cut is taken. It has of late years been engraved by H. B. Hall in Sparks's _Washington_, quarto ed., vol. iv.; H. W. Smith's _Andreana_; Sargent's _André_; _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, 1879, p. 745 (etched by H. B. Hall). What seems to be the same, but extended to include the thighs, is given in Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 197; _Two Spies_, 36. A picture by Reynolds (given in Harper's, lii. 822, and _Cyclop. U. S. Hist._, i. 46) is said to be preserved at Tunbridge Wells. A pen-and-ink sketch by himself, made during his confinement, is now preserved in the Trumbull gallery at New Haven. Sparks first engraved it, and it has since been reproduced by Lossing, in _Harper's Mag._, xxi. 4, in Smith's _Andreana_, and elsewhere.]

It now became necessary that some device should be practised to let Arnold know that André had reached the "Vulture." There had just happened some firing upon a boat of the "Vulture", in going to meet what the British captain supposed or pretended to suppose a white flag displayed on the shore. This gave the opportunity of dispatching a flag to the commander in the Highlands, to remonstrate against such perfidy. The British captain accordingly sent such a message, and André wrote the letter in a hand which he knew Arnold would recognize, and moreover countersigned it with "John Anderson, Secretary."

Arnold at once bent to the occasion. He engaged one Joshua Hett Smith, who lived in the neighborhood, to go by night to the "Vulture" in a boat, and bring to the adjacent shore a gentleman whom he would find on board, from whom Arnold expected to get information. How far Smith was a dupe or a knave has never been satisfactorily determined. The business would seem to have had a plain significance to a quick-witted man; but a court was not able later to convict Smith of knowing precisely what it all meant. Smith had also with him two oarsmen, and it was not apparently believed that they were in a position to know enough to render their patriotism doubtful. It was then by night, in a boat steered by Smith, that André, dressed in his uniform, but with an overcoat wrapped about him, was rowed ashore. According to Smith, the darkness and the outer garment so concealed Andre's dress that his steersman never suspected him to be an officer. Arnold was found waiting in the bushes, a little remote from the landing. Here Smith left the two conspirators alone and returned to his boat; but when the signs of dawn began to appear he returned to warn them. Arnold, who had brought along with him an extra horse, mounted André on it, and the two started to go to Smith's house,[975] which was two or three miles away on the hill, and within the American lines.

Reduced from a rough pen-and-ink sketch, three feet and eight inches long, preserved among the Sparks MS. maps in Cornell University library, and inscribed "To his Excellency George Clinton, Esq^r, Governor of the State of New York, this map of Hudson's River through the Highlands is humbly dedicated by his Excellency's most humble servant THOMAS MACHIN, iv. January, MDCCLXXVIII."]

If André is to be believed, he was not told that he was to go within the American outposts, and indeed there is no conclusive evidence to show why they went to Smith's house at all. Perhaps Smith or the boatmen refused, in the growing light, to take the risk of the return to the vessel. The general opinion has been that the conspirators had not concluded their negotiations, and needed more time. That Arnold had had a predetermined purpose to go to the house, if necessary, seems to be made clear from the fact that he had induced Smith to move his family away from their home temporarily, and on some pretext which Smith did not object to. André says that he first discovered Arnold's plan to get him within the American lines when, as they rode on their way, Arnold gave the countersign at the outposts. This was the first departure from Clinton's instructions. After they had reached the house the day broadened, and, the sound of cannon being heard, André went to a window, whence he could see the "Vulture" in the distance,[976] and saw that the Americans had dragged some cannon to a neighboring point, whence their fire became so annoying that the vessel raised her anchor and fell down the river. André became anxious lest this incident should preclude his return by water. The day had not far advanced when the bargain was completed, and Arnold prepared to leave for West Point to perfect the dispositions expected of him. He left behind sundry papers, mostly in his own handwriting, which André was to take to Clinton. Why another injunction of his superior was evaded by André in accepting the papers is not clear. They conveyed no information about the condition of the post which Clinton did not already possess or André could repeat to him. Possibly it was thought that, being in Arnold's autograph, the documents might serve as a pledge for what André was verbally to report to him.

Arnold seems to have made no certain provision for his fellow-conspirator's return to the "Vulture", but he left passes, which could be used either on the water or land passage, as circumstance might determine. André spent an anxious day after Arnold left. He was finally cheered by observing that the "Vulture", as if mindful of him, had returned to her previous moorings; but his hopes were futile. As night came on Smith showed no signs of arranging for a water passage to the ship, and made excuses.

After the original draft by Major Villefranche (1780) as reproduced in Boynton's _West Point_, p. 45. Sargent, in his _André_, gives a map "engraved from a number of original drawings by Villefranche and other engineers, and preserved by Major Sargent, of the American army, who was stationed at West Point as aide to General [Robert] Howe until that officer was relieved by Arnold."]

The fact probably was, that, after the cannonading of the morning, Smith had no desire to risk himself on the river in a boat. It was accordingly agreed that André should undertake to return to New York by land, and that Smith should accompany him beyond the American outposts, under the protection of Arnold's pass and of his own acquaintance with the officers of the lower posts. It now became necessary for André to disregard another of Clinton's directions, and exchange his uniform for common clothes.[977] This done, he put the papers which Arnold had given him under his soles and within his stockings. Thus arrayed, about dusk the two started, accompanied by Smith's negro servant. They crossed King's Ferry, and proceeding on their way were stopped once, but suffered to advance on showing Arnold's pass. After spending the night at a house, they had gone on some distance the next morning when Smith parted with André, and, going to Robinson's house, reported to Arnold that André had been conducted beyond the lines. André went on in better spirits than before, feeling sure now that he could encounter nothing more serious than some wandering cowboys, as the British marauders who infested the Neutral Ground between the two armies were called, and with whom he could easily parley to their satisfaction. The natural foes of the "Cowboys" were the "Skinners", who harried the unfortunate adherents of the British along the same roads, and wrestled with the Cowboys as opportunity offered.[978] As it happened, a party of the American prowlers were out to intercept some British marauders, and three of the number were ensconced close by a stream not far from Tarrytown, on the upper side. They were by name John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. Paulding was by force of character the leader, and was dressed in a refugee's suit, which not many days before had been put upon him in exchange for his own better garments, when he had come out from confinement within the British lines. This suit, as well as Paulding's profession that he was "of the lower party", given to André's inquiry when, as he came along, he was stopped by the men, led to André's revealing himself as a British officer. When the traveller found he had made a mistake, he showed Arnold's pass, and tried to enforce it by threats of the American commander's displeasure if the captors dared to disregard it. This failing, he tried bribes, and it was André's opinion that if he could have made the payment sure he might have got off, as money seemed to be their object. The men, on the other hand, said that they could have resisted any offer of money when, on searching their prisoner, they found the papers in his boots.[979] Paulding, who alone could read, saw the purport of the documents, and pronounced André a spy.

After a sketch taken by Colonel Trumbull, at the close of the war, and engraved in the _Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, prepared by himself at the request of his children_, New York, 1858. A portrait in his later years, painted by E. Ames and engraved by G. Parker, is in the _National Portrait Gallery_, Philadelphia, 1836, vol. iii.]

André was remounted and led under their combined guidance to the quarters[980] of Colonel Jameson, who commanded some dragoons at Northcastle. That officer recognized Arnold's handwriting in the papers found on the prisoner, but he seems to have been bewildered by the discovery, though it was afterwards urged that he thought the transaction was a plot of "John Anderson", whoever he might be, to implicate Arnold in some mischief. How far the prisoner himself may have prompted Jameson is not known, for it was clear enough to André that Arnold only could now extricate him from the gathering toils. Accordingly, events took a promising turn for him when Jameson dispatched the prisoner, under escort, to Arnold's headquarters, with a letter which informed his superior of what was apparent enough, that some dangerous papers had been found on Anderson, and that he had sent them to Washington. Major Benjamin Tallmadge, one of his officers, who was absent on a scout, returned before André had long been gone, and learning the particulars from Jameson saw at once the blunder, and persuaded Jameson to send a messenger to recall André and his escort. Jameson did so, but insisted that the letter to Arnold should go on, as it did.

The messenger with the papers sought to intercept Washington on the lower road from Hartford, which the commander-in-chief was supposed at that time to be traversing on his return from the interview with Rochambeau.

The next morning André was sent, for better security, in the charge of Tallmadge to Colonel Sheldon's quarters at New Salem. Here, getting permission to walk in the door-yard in the custody of an officer named King, André revealed his name and station, and being allowed pen and paper, he made the same avowal in a letter to Washington, which, when written, he handed to Tallmadge. Its contents confirmed that officer's suspicion that the prisoner was a military man, for he had shown a soldier's habit of turning on his heel as he paced his room.

Washington, returning by the upper road, had missed Jameson's messenger, who, retracing his steps, passed through New Salem, where he was entrusted also with the letter which André had just written, and then went on towards the Robinson house, where Washington was then supposed to be.

It was now the 25th, the very day when Rodney was to come up the river with his flotilla, and Arnold sat at breakfast at this same Robinson house,[981] not knowing what the day would develop. There were with him Mrs. Arnold, who had not long before (Sept. 15) come from Philadelphia, and two of Washington's aides, who had arrived a little in advance of their chief.

It was two days earlier than Washington had been expected back, and this was a serious perplexity in the mind of the conspirator. The suspense was soon ended, for Jameson's messenger to him shortly arrived, and the letter was put in Arnold's hands before the company. He read it, showed, as was remembered afterwards, a little agitation, but only a little, and in a few minutes left the table, saying that it was necessary for him to go to West Point. It seemed natural enough to his guests; but Mrs. Arnold observed his agitation more keenly, and followed him to their chamber, where all was revealed to her. She swooned; he kissed the infant lying there; descended the stairs;[982] stopped an instant to say to the breakfast party that Mrs. Arnold was not feeling well and would not come down again; mounted a horse which he had already ordered; hurried down the steep road to the river; entered his barge and seated himself in its prow; directed his men to row to mid-stream; and then priming his pistols, which he had taken from his holster, he ordered them to hurry down the river, as he had to go with a flag to the "Vulture", and must hasten back to meet Washington, who was shortly to reach his quarters. He tied a white handkerchief to a cane, and waved it as he passed Livingston's batteries at Verplanck's Point, and that officer recognizing the barge allowed it to pass on. In a few minutes more he was under the "Vulture's" guns, and then under her flag. His boatmen resisted his offers of recompense for desertion, and were not allowed to return to shore to spread the intelligence, which they now comprehended.[983]

Reproduced from the plan in Marbois' _Complot d'Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton_, Paris, 1816. A plate in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist_., 1879, p. 756, showing the route of André, is a portion of a map among the Simeon de Witt's maps (i. no. 66) in the library of the New York Hist. Society, and was made by Robert Erskine, the topographical engineer of the army, 1778-1780, and was for the whole length of it, from Staten Island to Newburgh, engraved for the first time in Irving's _Washington_, quarto ed., ii. 276.

There are other maps of the scene of the conspiracy and its attendant events in Sparks's _Washington_, vii. 216; Guizot's Atlas to his _Washington_; Irving's _Washington_, quarto ed., vol. iv.; Carrington's _Battles_, 512; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 148; and Boynton's _West Point_, 104.]

Not long after Arnold left the Robinson house, Washington arrived, and, learning that Arnold had gone to West Point, he passed over unsuspicious to that post, where he was surprised not to find Arnold.[984] While Washington was gone, Jameson's messenger with the captured papers and André's letter arrived, and Hamilton, left behind by Washington, opened them as his confidential aide.[985] As soon as Washington's boat approached on his return from West Point, Hamilton went towards the dock to meet his chief, whispered a word, and both later entered the house and were closeted. The plot was revealed. Hamilton was dispatched to Livingston to head off Arnold in his escape if possible, but on reaching that officer's post it was found that Arnold's boat had already passed. Before Hamilton was ready to set out on his return, a flag from the "Vulture" brought ashore a letter from Arnold, addressed to Washington, framed in lofty expressions of his own rectitude, and avowing the innocence of Smith, of his own wife, and his aides.[986] Before Hamilton's return, Washington had dined with his officers without revealing the secret, but he shortly took Knox and Lafayette into his confidence. There was naturally great uncertainty as respects the extent of the conspiracy, and of what preparations the enemy had made for an immediate onset. The anxiety of the moment was soon evinced by the great activity of aides and orderlies. Word was sent in every direction for arrangements to be made for any emergency.[987]

André was brought to West Point, and Smith was arrested and held for examination. Special precautions were taken to keep them apart and to prevent escape. André was then conveyed down the river, still under Tallmadge's care, to headquarters at Tappan, where he was closely guarded in an old stone house, still standing.[988]

A board of general officers was at once summoned to consider the case and recommend what action should be taken. The papers taken from André were laid before them.[989] André himself was brought into their presence, when he made a written statement, and answered questions. He acknowledged everything, but said nothing to implicate others. He affirmed that he did not consider himself under the protection of a flag when he landed from the "Vulture." The report of the board was that André was a spy, and merited the death of a spy. Washington ordered the execution, and sent a record of the proceedings to Congress and recommended its publication. Congress printed the record.[990]

Clinton was meanwhile informed of what had happened by the return of the "Vulture" to New York, and wrote to Washington that Arnold's flag and pass should save André from the character of a spy. Beverley Robinson wrote to a similar purport, and so did Arnold; but the latter added a threat of retaliation in case André was executed, which was not calculated to further the purpose of André's friends, and it is rather surprising they allowed the letter to proceed. Washington replied in effect that a flag must be used in good faith to preserve its character, and that the concealment of dress and papers was the action of a spy.

Gen. Robertson was sent by Clinton to make further representations, and Washington put off the execution till Greene could confer with that general at an outpost. A repetition of the arguments on the British side made no change in the aspects of the case; and when Robertson quoted Arnold as saying André was under a flag, Greene told him they believed André rather than Arnold. Robertson wrote again to Washington, who had now definitely fixed mid-day of Oct. 2d for the execution. Washington thought it also best to leave unanswered a note of André requesting to be shot rather than hanged. Further letters, amplifying the British arguments, were prepared,[991] but before they could be sent to Washington word came that the execution had taken place.

During his confinement in Tappan, and after he became aware of his fate, André conducted himself with a cheerful dignity that much endeared him to the gentlemen who came in contact with him. His servant had brought from New York fresh linen and his uniform, which André put on with evident satisfaction. He practised his ready skill in pen-and-ink drawing, and made several sketches, which he gave to his attendants as souvenirs.[992] As his hour approached, he said graciously to his escort, "I am ready", and went to the place appointed, surrounded by guards and through a large concourse of people. Of the general officers of the army at the post only the commander-in-chief and staff were absent; and as the sad procession passed headquarters the blinds were drawn, and no one was seen. When the gibbet came in sight, André shrank a moment, but instantly recovered, for he had nourished hopes that his request as to the manner of his death would not be denied. He bandaged his eyes himself; lifted the cloth a moment to say that he wished all to bear witness to the firmness with which he met his death; and when the cart was withdrawn died instantly.[993] When his uniform was removed and placed in his servant's hands, the coffin which contained the body was buried near the spot.

His remains were disinterred in 1821 and taken to England,[994] where they were deposited in Westminster Abbey, beside the monument which had been erected there to his memory shortly after his death.[995] Many years after the removal, a rude boulder,[996] on which a simple record was chiselled, was placed on the spot of his burial; but this had disappeared when a few years since a plain monument, with an inscription by Dean Stanley of the Abbey, was made to perpetuate the record of his grave.[997]

NOTE.—A reduced sketch is placed opposite from a plan by Villefranche, made in 1780, and given in fac-simile in Boynton's _West Point_, p. 86. He also (p. 79) gives Villefranche's plan (1780) of Fort Arnold, built 1778 on the eastern limits of West Point. On Villefranche see _Ibid._, p. 160. Boynton also gives a long folding panoramic view of West Point in 1780 from the eastern bank of the river, which shows the batteries and camps on both banks. Cf. illustrated paper, by Lossing, in _Scribner's Mag._, v. 4.]

Arnold received the price of his desertion,[998] was made a general in the British service, and turned his sword, both in Connecticut and Virginia, against his countrymen. Afterwards he went to England, was treated with an enforced respect in some places, and scorned in others.[999] He lived for a while in New Brunswick, but he never escaped the torments which the presence of honorable men inflicted upon him. His descendants live to-day in England and in Canada, and some of them have attained high rank in the British army; and no one of them, as far as known, has disgraced the good name of the old Rhode Island family, whence Benedict Arnold descended.[1000]

The report of the court respecting André, with its appendix (already referred to), and the trial of Smith were the first public sifting of the evidence about the conspiracy. Smith was acquitted by the military tribunal,[1001] and was then turned over to the civil authorities for a further trial; but, succeeding in escaping in women's clothes, he reached New York, and England, where several years later he published a narrative, which it is not easy to reconcile with all his evidence in his trial,—the supposition[1002] being that he was addressing injured Americans in the one case and disappointed Britons in the other.[1003] Marbois, the secretary of the French legation at Philadelphia at the time, wrote a _Complot d'Arnold et Clinton_, which was not published till 1816 at Paris. Sparks says, that what came under Marbois' personal observation is valuable; but otherwise the book, as most students think, should be used with caution.[1004]

The earliest comprehensive treatment of the subject—and it has hardly been surpassed since—was in Sparks's _Life and Treason of Arnold_ (Boston), and he gives the principal documentary evidence in his _Washington_, vol. vii. App.[1005]

The next special examination of the conspiracy was made in Winthrop Sargent's[1006] _Life and Career of Major John André_ (Boston, 1861),—an excellent book.[1007]

In 1864 the story necessarily made a part of Edward C. Boynton's _History of West Point_, who pointed out the military advantage of the Highlands of the Hudson.[1008] Not long after this, Henry B. Dawson, then editing the _Yonkers Gazette_, printed in its columns sixty-eight contemporary documents or narratives, and these, subsequently printed from the same type in book-form, constitute no. 1 of Dawson's _Gazette Series_, under the title of _Papers concerning the capture and detention of Major John André_ (1866). It is the most complete gathering of authentic material which has been made.

The volume (x.) of Bancroft which contains his account of the conspiracy appeared in 1875, and was constructed "by following only contemporary documents, which are abundant and of the surest character, and which, taken collectively, solve every question.... The reminiscences of men who wrote in later days are so mixed up with errors of memory and fable that they offer no sure foothold."[1009]

The _Life of Arnold_, by Isaac N. Arnold, of Chicago, and the _Two Spies_ of Benson J. Lossing, are the last considerable examinations of the subject.[1010]

The story of the culmination and collapse of the conspiracy is easily told with the abundant testimony of those who were observers and actors,—much of the record being made at the time, though some of it, put upon paper at varying intervals later, may need to be scrutinized closely, particularly as regards André's demeanor from the moment of his arrest to his execution.[1011]

For the English side we must mainly depend on the letters and statements of Clinton, which are elaborate, and may well be supplemented by contemporary and later English historians.[1012]

As respects the justice of André's execution, the military authorities were disagreed on the two sides at the time, and for a while the alleged offence of Washington was considered in England a conspicuous blot upon his character; but Lord Mahon has been the only prominent instance of continued belief in this view among English writers, who have generally conceded the right of the Americans to count André a spy, however they might wish that Washington had been more clement. The attractive manners and brilliant mental habit of André have blinded even American writers to the atrocious nature of his mission, and to the sinister purpose which a man of sensibility and elevated character should never have grasped, even amid the license which a state of war gives. The power to face death with a calm and graceful courage may indeed be mated with the moral lightness that belongs to an intellectual popinjay and a debased intriguer.[1013]