Podcast Episode Details

During the British occupation, Peggy Shippen interacted closely with several British officers and enjoyed a flirtation with Major John Andre, a member of British commander Sir Henry Clinton’s staff.  Peggy continued to communicate with Andre after the British retreat from Philadelphia and when the British officer was appointed to head Clinton’s intelligence efforts, the Arnolds exploited this connection.

On Arnold’s behalf, A Philadelphia loyalist named Joseph Stansbury covertly met personally with Andre in New York City  and established ground rules for communication by letter involving secret code and invisible ink.  Throughout 1779 Arnold provided Andre and Sir Henry Clinton information about troop movements.  When he began to request large sums of money for his defection, Andre made it clear that this must involve the surrender of a major army or military installation.

At noon on October 2, 1780, when he was conveyed to a peach orchard in Tappan, NY, nearby the stone house where he was confined, John Andre was greeted by a gathering of over two thousand people.  By then, his story had gripped the public imagination.  Accounts of the British officer toasting his captors and insisting that they remain in good cheer and sending a distraught servant from his presence “until you can show yourself more manly,” had only endeared him further as a tragic hero merely doing his duty.  Andre, a gifted artist, blithely sketched a self-portrait on the day before his execution and as he walked briskly to the gallows he is said to have only hesitated when he saw that he was to be hanged and not shot.