USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume II > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
Then Paulding swore, " We would not let you go for ten thousand guineas." That decision sealed the fate of André and ensured the success of the American cause. All honor to Pauld-
1 His fatal blunder, which led to Andre's undoing, was his loss of mind. Instead of asking this fatal question, he should have presented the pass which had brought him safely through many dangers. Undoubtedly the pass would have been accepted, and he be allowed to pass on. Gen. Hamil- ton, in later commenting upon this, said, " Instead of producing Arnold's pass, which would have extricated him from our parties, and could have done him no harm with his own, he asked the men if they were of the ' upper ' or of the ' lower ' party."
198
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
ing and his comrades Williams and Van Wart, say a grateful people.
As Grant Thorburn wrote, in 1840, relative to the sum of money André offered his three captors, " This sum would have made the three so rich that they could have owned more live stock than Job of old, in the height of his prosperity. The very magnitude of the sum may have over-reached its object. It is highly probable no one of the three had ever possessed a hundred guineas at any one time."
Williams, of the captors, writing in 1817, said: " We refused to accept his bribes, unless he would say from whom he got the papers. He refused to say."
To the imprudence of André himself, more than to anything else, is attributed his capture. One with a cooler head might have been successful.
After André's capture, the others, the five scouts on Tarry- town Heights, joined Paulding, Williams and Van Wart, and all, with André as their prisoner, started for Col. Sheldon's camp, the nearest American post.1
The route taken to Col. Sheldon's headquarters, at Robbin's Mills (later known as Kensico) in the town of North Castle, was (as stated by Justice J. O. Dykman, in his narrative) as follows :
" They passed along to the north on the hill west of the county almshouse, up that road, under Buttermilk Hill, across the Sawmill river at the bridge just below the mill. Passing up the road near Raven Rock, they went to the corner at the late residence of Carlton Clark. Turning to the right they ascended the hill to the Upper Cross Roads, down another hill, past Ebenezer Newman's, across the hollow now traversed by the Harlem Railroad, and up Reynold's Hill on the White Plains road to the old Foshay house. From here they proceeded to the house of John Robbins, where Lt .- Col. John Jameson made his headquarters. They did not find Jameson there, therefore they resumed the march, over the North Castle road, to Sand's Mills (Armonk), in the town of North Castle, which lies not far from the " Heights of North Castle," where the patriot troops camped after the Battle of White Plains. After turning André over to Lt .- Col. Jameson, all the militia "scouts" returned to their respective camps, excepting Paulding, Wil- liams and Van Wart, the immediate captors.
1 See details under title Town of North Castle.
199
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
Lt .- Col. Jameson, into whose charge André was given, as Col. Sheldon was absent from headquarters, though a brave soldier, was easily deceived by the smooth spoken André, who wanted the privilege of writing a letter and having it sent to Arnold, in which he intended giving warning that Arnold might make good his escape. Lt .- Col. Jameson consented to send a letter,1 and later, at the urging of André, consented that the latter go with the letter to Arnold in company of Lieut. Allen and a squad of men. The papers found on André were to be sent to Gen. Washington, at West Point, by a special messenger. André assured Jameson that he, on reaching Arnold, could con- vince his accusers that he was not a spy. André saw a way to escape. Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge, of Sheldon's command, as vigilant as honest, who had been absent on duty near White Plains, and returned to headquarters just after André's depart- ure, was not so easily overcome by André's blandishments; the whole affair looked suspicious to him; he remembered that Arnold had at one time asked Col. Sheldon for careful consid- eration of a gentleman answering André's description, in case such a person should be met traveling along the road, and, as he stated later, " he smelled treachery," as he had but little faith in Arnold. The Major finally prevailed upon Lt .- Col. Jameson to send after Lieut. Allen and have André brought back, which was done, but not until after Allen had trouble with his soldiers, who, owing to Andre's encouragement, did not want to return him to headquarters. Allen was ordered to send André back, but, unfortunately, was permitted to pro- ceed himself and carry André's letter to Arnold. Allen reached Arnold in the morning; while the messenger sent to Gen. Wash- ington did not reach the General until afternoon. Thus giving Arnold advantage and time to arrange his flight. This is an instance wherein the just were not favored. Had Gen. Wash- ington returned to West Point, from Hartford, Conn., by the route which it was supposed he would take, through Danbury to Peekskill, Arnold would have not even thus been saved. For some reason Gen. Washington returned two or three days sooner than had been expected; and, moreover, he chose a more
1 Lt .- Col. Jameson felt deeply mortified when he considered his act in warning Arnold and thereby aiding in his escape; under date of September 27, Jameson wrote Gen. Washington a letter expressing strong regret, and asking forgiveness for writing Arnold notifying him of Andre's capture. This letter Jameson gave to Paulding, one of the captors, to convey to Gen. Washington.
200
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
northerly route, through Farmington and Litchfield, so that the messenger failed to meet him.
As Gen. Washington was riding from Hartford the previous night, depressed by the refusal of Count Rochambeau, the French General, to co-operate in his plans, and to be over- whelmed on the morrow by Arnold's astounding treason, all along the route enthusiastic throngs with torches and acclama- tions hailed his approach. "We may be beaten by the Eng- lish," he said to Rochambeau's Aide, "it is the fortune of war; but behold an army which they can never conquer."
Gen. Washington, on approaching the river on the morning after his return from Hartford, according to his habit, pro- ceeded at once to examine the fortifications. Gen. Lafayette, who had joined him, reminded him that Mrs. Arnold's break- fast was waiting. " You young gentlemen are all in love with Mrs. Arnold," he said. " You go and tell her not to wait for me, I will be there in a short time." Aides Hamilton and McHenry delivered the message, and were welcomed by Arnold and his wife.
In the midst of the meal, Lieut. Allen, who had been sent by Col. Jameson, delivered the letter sent by André to Arnold, at West Point headquarters in the Robinson House.
Arnold's iron nerve held him unconcernedly at the table, as sparkling as ever in conversation, until a favorable moment, when he asked his guests to excuse him, as he would have to run away from so delightful a company; sorry, but he had to go over to the Point to prepare for the reception of Gen. Wash- ington. He arose and went upstairs; his wife, being not deceived, fearing something unusual had happened, followed her husband.
Arnold informed his wife of his ruin, and hastily bade her perhaps a last farewell, as she fell fainting to the floor; he kissed his sleeping baby, stepped a moment into the breakfast room to inform his guests of the sudden illness of his wife, and, followed by his boat's crew, dashed down the hillside to the river. To these honest men who had served him loyally in a just cause, Arnold explained his haste by saying that they must row with all their might, as he had a message to deliver on board the strange vessel anchored in the stream eighteen miles below, that he was doing this errand for Gen. Washington, and should be back before evening. He reprimed his pistols, and with one in each hand, sat resolved to die the death of a suicide
201
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
rather than be captured. By promises of reward, by voice and gesture, he urges his crew to their best endeavors. To his coxswain he offers a commission, to the crew rewards, if they will desert and join the British. They unanimously refused, and Larvey, the coxswain, replied: " If Gen. Arnold likes the King of England, let him serve him; we love our country, and intend to live or die in support of her cause." At Arnold's suggestion the coxswain and crew were made prisoners and carried on board of the " Vulture " to New York, in company with their old commander, who was the first and only American soldier during the Revolutionary War who turned traitor to his country.
The Beverly Robinson house,1 where Arnold resided and made his headquarters, was situated about two miles below West Point, on the east side of the Hudson River. The house was burned down only a few years ago. Here also is the Beverly Robinson dock, from which Arnold escaped in a boat, as stated. This house before the Revolutionary War was owned and occu- pied by Robinson, who became a Tory, who also owned consider- able land adjoining. It was to this house that André was brought from Salem, in this county, where Lt .- Col. Jameson was in command.
As Gen. Washington was returning from his tour of inspection about West Point, and on his way to Arnold's headquarters in the Robinson house, he was met by Gen. Hamilton, his secre- tary, who had for him Lt .- Col. Jameson's letter and the papers Paulding, Williams and Van Wart had taken from André. Gen. Washington and his co-patriots soon learned the cause of Arnold's sudden flight, the failure to greet Washington from the batteries with the accustomed salute, the general neg- ligence and want of preparation for attack everywhere found. For a time consternation overcame the defenders of their coun- try; they did not know how far the conspiracy extended, nor who were in it. The enemy might come that very night and find them unprepared. But Gen. Washington proved equal to the situation. He issued orders right and left and found men willing to execute them, and soon found answer to his question, asked in despair, " Whom can we trust?" Every man about him then proved himself a man of integrity, on whom
1The Beverly Robinson House was destroyed by fire in 1892, and many valuable relics with it.
Garrisons, opposite West Point, was, in 1780, known as Nelson's Point, and the nearby vicinity as Nelsonville.
202
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
he could rely. Hamilton was sent to head off Arnold if possi- ble; Col. Talmadge was ordered to bring André with triple guards to the Robinson house; Gen. Greene, at Tappan, was directed to put the whole army in marching order, and before night every fort and defence, from Putnam to Verplanck's Point, was ready for any assault.
After Gen. Washington had given these orders, which he did with no outward sign of excitement, he sat down to dinner, and, with courtly kindness, sent to Arnold's hysterical and scream- ing wife this message: "It was my duty to arrest Gen. Arnold, and I have used every exertion to do so, but I take pleasure in informing you that he is now safe on board the ' Vulture.' "
André was brought to the Robinson house that night, by Gen. Washington's order, under guard of a detachment of one hundred dragoons, under command of four officers, headed by Col. Talmadge, who was determined his prisoner would be delivered sure.1 The following day André was taken to Tappan where the American Army had its headquarters. And André never left Tappan a live man.2
According to the laws and usages of war in relation to spies, Gen. Washington would have been justified in ordering André summarily executed. But his kindness of heart ruled in the guilty man's favor. The threats of retaliation, impudent letters from Arnold, extraordinary appeals and interpretations of André's conduct and position from Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, did not have the effect of frightening Gen. Washington, who wanted to perform only his plain duty in the premises. He ordered a Board of Officers, consisting of six Major-Generals and eight Brigadier-Generals, as eminent as any in the service, including the foreign officers, Gens. La Fayette and Steuben, to act as a court to consider André's case.
This court gave André every opportunity to present his defence, and, when the facts were all in, unanimously adjudged him guilty, and that he must suffer the death of a spy. His judges were most reluctant to condemn him, but their duty was plain. André's youth, graces and accomplishments, his dignity and cheerfulness, won the affections of every soldier,
1 See " Town of North Castle, " and " Town of North Salem."
2 Though Gen. Washington and his staff occupied the Robinson house at the time André was brought there a prisoner, he avoided seeing him; and, in fact, never saw André at all, dead or alive.
203
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
and the desire of all was that Arnold might be captured and substituted in André's place. In all the glittering splendor of the full uniform and ornaments of his rank, in the presence of the whole American army, without the quiver of a muscle or sign of fear, the officers about him weeping, the bands play- ing the dead march, he walked to his execution. His last words were of loving solicitude for the welfare of mother and sister he had left in the home land, and the manner of fame he would leave behind. " How hard is my fate, but it will be but a momentary pang," he said, as he pushed aside the executioner and himself adjusted the rope. To those around he cried : " I pray you to bear witness that I meet my fate like a brave man," and swung into eternity.
We are told that on the day of the execution the great tree, under which André was searched, in Tarrytown, was shattered by a bolt of lightning; and at the same hour, at his home .in England, his sister awoke from a troubled sleep, screaming : " My brother is dead; he has been hung as a spy." It is sur- mised that André had written to his folks hinting that he was about to undertake a hazardous journey, and the uncertainty of the result had preyed upon his sister's mind, accounting for her dream.
André's remains were buried at Tappan, on the west side of the Hudson River, in Rockland County. Over his grave a stone was placed.
André was mourned and honored in England as if he had fallen in a moment of glorious victory at the head of an army. His brother was knighted by the King, who declared in solemn message that " the public can never be compensated for the vast advantages which must have followed from the success of his plan;" besides this his family was pensioned by the English government. In Westminster Abbey, that grand mausoleum of England's mighty dead, where repose her greatest statesmen, warriors and authors, the King placed a monument bearing this inscription : " Sacred to the memory of Major John André, who, raised by his merit, at an early period of his life, to the rank of Adjutant-General of the British forces in America, and employed in an important but hazardous enterprise, fell a sacri- fice to his zeal for his King and country."
How careful the writer of this inscription was not to men- tion that their hero was arrested inside the lines of the enemy, bearing upon his person ample evidence to prove him to be
204
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
a spy, and that he was executed according to the laws and usages of war, after a fair trial by a jury of his peers, and duty compelled them to decide as they did.
Forty years later a Royal embassy came to this country, dis- interred his remains at Tappan, and a British frigate, sent for the purpose, bore them to England, where they were buried beside his monument, in Westminster Abbey, with imposing ceremonies.
In April, 1909, there was found in the vaults of the Yale College Treasury, at New Haven, Conn., where it had been hidden for many years, a framed sheet of paper, faded and yellow, upon which is fixed a lock of hair, which a written inscription shows was taken from the head of Major André forty years after his execution. The hair is extremely fine and very dark. It has been placed in the Yale library with the pen portrait of Major André, drawn by himself on the night before his execution and given to an American officer.
What recognition have we made of the valuable, patriotic service rendered their country by John Paulding, David Wil- liams and Isaac Van Wart? True, we cannot place in West- minster Abbey tablets properly inscribed setting forth their deeds of valor, and we know they are more worthy of the name " Hero " than was the man buried there, but we can honor their memory, and never forget that but for the service they rendered, and which was by them thought to be only trivial, we as residents of the United States would not now enjoy those privileges of liberty that make us a prosperous people.
MONUMENT HONORS HIS CAPTORS, NOT ANDRE.
On May 6, 1853, in the village of Tarrytown, a public meet- ing was held, at which an organization known as the " Monu- ment Association of the Capture of André " announced that it was proposed to erect a monument " to commemorate the cap- ture of Major John André, the British spy, at this place, dur- ing the Revolutionary War, by John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac Van Wart." Funds for this monument were col- lected in small amounts by popular subscription. Mr. William Taylor, on whose grounds it was proposed to erect the monu- ment, had agreed to give the necessary land, a plot of twenty feet square. On Monday, July 4, 1853, the corner-stone of the monument was laid with appropriate ceremonies. A proces-
MONUMENT AT TARRYTOWN IN HONOR OF CAPTORS OF ANDRE
205
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
sion of military and civic societies, and carriages containing distinguished citizens, including surviving relations of Pauld- ing, Williams and Van Wart, was part of the day's program. Col. James A. Hamilton, a son of Gen. Alexander Hamilton, and a local resident, laid the corner-stone.
The monument was completed and dedicated on October 7, 1853, with most interesting ceremonies, attended by citizens from all sections of the county and by many distinguished men of State and Nation.
Hon. Horatio Seymour, then Governor of the State of New York, dedicated the monument, and Hon. Henry J. Raymond, Lieutenant-Governor, delivered the oration.
In the course of his remarks, Governor Seymour said :
" I feel deep interest in this occasion, because I believe it is to be the first of a series of measures, calculated to do justice to the early history of our State, and to the memories of the brave and patriotic men who, within its limits, contributed so largely towards the achievement of our national liberties, and the formation of our political institutions." In concluding his address, he said :
" Fellow Citizens: In pursuance of the patriotic purpose of those who have erected this monument, as chief magistrate of this State, I hereby dedicate it to the commemoration of the capture of Major John André, Adjutant-General of the British Army, and the consequent discovery and defeat of a foul and dangerous conspiracy to betray the liberties of our country. May it ever stand, a memorial of the fidelity and bravery shown by our ancestors in achieving our national independence, a warning against treason to our political institutions, and a memento to remind us of the blessings which our God has bestowed upon our land."
Mr. Raymond. in the course of his eloquent address, had this to say :
"We stand upon the very spot where the dark plot was arrested -where the uplifted arm, just raised to strike the fatal and per- fidious stab at the liberties of our land, was seized-where André, just upon the verge of safety, within a step, as it were, of his own encampment, ladened with the keys of the fortress of American freedom-by incaution-fruit of his foreseen and almost grasped security-betrayed himself to three incorrup- tible American hearts, and was by them returned to the Ameri- can camp, whose honor he had so assailed."
206
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
" As I happened, a few weeks since, to be wandering through the long-drawn aisles and beneath the fretted vaults of West- minster Abbey, that venerable pile which enshrines the ashes, and consecrates the fame, of England's illustrious and immortal dead-my eye fell upon a monument, conspicuous by its posi- tion, and proclaiming itself " Sacred to the memory of Major John André; who, raised by his merit " (thus the record runs), " at an early period of his life, to the rank of Adjutant-General of the British forces in America," etc., etc.
" Placed thus high upon the list of England's bravest and noblest men, by the immediate act of her monarch, the name of André is handed down to immortality. He earned that great distinction, for which greater men have toiled through long lives, and performed deeds which have filled the world with admiration, and stamped their impress upon the whole current of the Nation's life, by the single endeavor to give shape and success to the only act of treachery which stains the annals of the Revolution-to purchase the infamous betrayal of that holy cause, which British power had proved unable to conquer, in an open and manly fight. The inscription upon his monument justly characterizes the enterprise as " impor- tant " to his King, and " hazardous " to himself. But its personal hazards fell infinitely below its public importance. André entered upon the service, doubly armed against its secret perils; first, by his character as a British officer, which would shield him, on the neutral ground, from the hostility of adherents to the British camp; and second, by a pass from a general, high in the American service, whose bravery had given him fame, whose fidelity was unstained by suspicion, and whose rank would have secured, for any one bearing his com- mands, free passage through the American camp, and prompt access to the favor and friendliness of every lover of the American cause. Of danger, then, there could be but little, except what might arise from his own imprudence, or lack of self-possession. But the results of the enterprise, if it should prove successful, promised to be of the most brilliant and decisive character.
" Men of Westchester! you have done well to erect this monument, upon a spot so sanctified, in everlasting remembrance of a deed, so transcendant in its relations to the freedom of America and of the world. It is among the most pious of the offices of patriotism, to perpetuate, by such memorials, the
207
MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST.
excellence and the dignity of noble acts. Oblivion strenuously struggles for the possession of all things earthly; and it needs all the aid of letters and of stone-of commemorative festival and of recorded history-to scare away the forgetfulness which settles upon good deeds, and upon the memories of worthy men. It is only a few, at the best, out of the renowned nations of the dead, whose names and characters are thus handed down to the knowledge and regard of the living that come after. Of that great multitude of noble hearts, which upheld the country during our long and strenuous Revolution-of all those thou- sands who aided, in the field, in council, at the hearth, by action or by endurance, no less heroic, with blows, with words, with blood, with tears, in the consummation of that great result, how small is the number whose names have been engraven on any stone, or printed on any page, or preserved, in any way, among the hallowed recollections of that heroic time. It is only here and there that affectionate veneration, or a patriotic impulse, snatches one and another from the dreary realms of forgetful night, gives them to subsist in lasting monuments, and secures them from oblivion, " in preservations below the moon." For- tunate in this, as in the felicity of their useful lives, are the three men, Paulding, Williams and Van Wart, whose memory your pious labors will perpetuate; and fortunate, in a higher sense, is the country which is to have the undying benefit of their example thus handed down to the admiration and the emulation of all coming time. To them, indeed, it matters little whether their names shall be heard ever again among men- whether their bodies shall commingle with the dust, or be scat- tered by the mourning winds which sweep their native soil. But to their country, and to us, their countrymen, inheritors of the rich blessings they did so much to secure, and to the generations yet to come, to whom, in turn, they must be trans- mitted, undefiled, by us-it is not so. For our use and our country's, this monument has risen beneath your hands. To us and to our children are its words addressed. And they are words, at once of the past, and for the future-words of remembrance and of hope-words of gratitude to God evermore, in His guidance and support."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.