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A wardrobe error cost a Revolutionary War spy his life — and likely saved West Point

By all accounts, British Maj. John André faced his Oct. 2, 1780, execution for spying during the Revolutionary War with remarkable composure.

“I am reconciled to my death, but I detest the mode,” André, 29, told his American captors after recoiling at the sight of the gallows, a report by witness James Thacher said.

He had hoped to be shot by a firing squad as a soldier, not hanged like a common criminal.

A few days earlier, a slip-up led to André’s capture following a meeting with the traitorous Benedict Arnold to arrange the surrender of West Point, New York, to the British Army.

When notes on the crucial fort were found stuffed in his boot, André was convicted and sentenced to die by a military tribunal ordered up by George Washington.

More than 2,000 people witnessed André’s execution in Tappan, New York, Intel.gov reported.

André helped the clumsy hangman place the noose around his neck, Thacher reported.

“Bear me witness that I bear my fate like a brave man,” André told his executioners, according to the Journal of the American Revolution. And then it was done.

Deadly destinies

André wasn’t the first Revolutionary War spy to die in service to his country. Four years earlier, American spy Nathan Hale was hanged by the British.

Hale, 21, a commander in the Continental Army, volunteered to go behind the lines to scout British positions in New York, Connecticut History reported.

After a suspicious fire broke out in Manhattan, the British took more than 200 Americans captive, including Hale, who was disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster, History reported.

A search found incriminating documents and he was hanged at the Dove Tavern in New York on Sept. 22, 1776.

Legend holds that Hale’s last words were, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” but no contemporary accounts of the quote can be found, History reported.

The Americans would later use Hale’s death by hanging as precedent for refusing André’s plea to be executed by firing squad, the New England Historical Society reported

A fatal error

After four more years of war, André saw a chance to confound the rebels by seizing the strategically important fort at West Point in New York.

The British major, born in London, had been stationed in America since 1774 and became chief intelligence officer to Gen. Sir Henry Clinton in New York, Brittanica reported.

In May 1779, André began corresponding with Arnold, who was “disillusioned” with the rebel cause, Britannica reported. The next year, Arnold took command of West Point defenses.

In a midnight meeting at a house on the Hudson River, André concluded a deal with Arnold to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for 20,000 pounds, Intel.gov reported.

But fire from shore drove off a sloop assigned to retrieve André, the New England Historical Society reported.

Arnold gave him a horse, civilian clothes and a pass to get him through American lines. André hid detailed notes from Arnold on West Point defenses in his boot.

Riding alone, André spotted three soldiers ahead, one wearing the overcoat of a Hessian, German mercenaries fighting for the British, The New York Times reported.

“I am a British officer out of the country on particular business, and I hope you will not detain me a minute,” André greeted his supposed comrades-in-arms, according to the publication.

But they were American militia, and after a search revealed the incriminating notes from Arnold in his boot, they arrested him, seemingly sealing his fate.

Other Revolutionary War spies

André and Hale may have been the most-remembered spies of the American Revolution, but they were far from the only ones.

The Culper Spy Ring operated for five years in and around British-occupied New York for the American forces, George Washington’s Mt. Vernon reported.

Members of the spy ring used pseudonyms, number codes and invisible ink to conceal their activities, the site says. None were ever caught.

But the messages had to be gotten out of British-occupied territory to Washington’s agents. That’s where Anna Strong comes in.

Strong, who had a farm near the city, hung her laundry to dry in pre-arranged patterns with a black petticoat to signal Washington’s agents across the river. The patterns told them which coves were safe to use to pick up messages from the spy ring.

The ring’s activities were later portrayed in “Turn: Washington’s Spies” on AMC.

André meets his end

Hearing of André’s capture, Arnold escaped on a British ship, Britannica reported. He later led a raid on New London, Connecticut, for the British and eventually went to England, where he died in 1801, reviled even by British loyalists for leaving André to die.

The three militia soldiers who captured André each received “a farm, a large pension, and a silver medal,” according to Intel.gov. Washington said they had “prevented in all probability our suffering one of the severest strokes that could have been meditated against us.”

The “gentlemanly and charismatic” André impressed his captors, who were not keen to execute him, the site says.

“Never perhaps did any man suffer death with more justice, or deserve it less,” wrote Alexander Hamilton In a letter to friend John Laurens after the affair.

Washington even wrote to Clinton, the British commander, offering to trade André for Arnold so the traitor could be hanged instead, History.com reported. But Clinton did not reply, dooming André.

On Oct. 5, in his daily orders, Washington called for the sentence of death to be carried out “in the usual way,” according to the site.

After his hanging, André was buried in a shallow grave nearby. In Britain, he became a hero, and a monument to him was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1782.

Four decades later, his body was sent home to England to be placed in a sarcophagus with an inscription reading, “Universally beloved and esteemed by the Army in which he served and lamented even by his foes,” according to Intel.gov.

A monument at André’s place of death, placed a century later, bears a quote by Washington: “He was more unfortunate than criminal, an accomplished man and a gallant officer.”

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