The Culper Ring Played a Key Role in Unearthing Benedict Arnold’s Treason: the Capture of John Andre
One of the Culper Ring’s greatest contribution to the Patriot war effort was its enterprising spy work in the fall of 1780. The ring’s skullduggery led first to the capture of British intelligence officer John Andre, and Andre’s capture in turn led to unraveling Benedict Arnold’s treason. It spared the American side from what would have been a dramatic espionage coup that might have altered the war’s outcome and the course of history.
John Andre (1750 – 1780) joined the British Army in 1771, and was posted to Canada in 1774, on the eve of the American Revolutionary War. He was captured and made prisoner early in the war, before regaining his freedom in December of 1776 in a prisoner exchange. A likeable character, he was popular in colonial society in New York as well as Philadelphia, where he was posted for a time after that city’s capture by the British in September of 1777. He lived in Benjamin Franklin’s house during the British occupation of Philadelphia, and upon leaving when the British were forced to decamp from the city, he looted the famous Founding Father’s home of valuables.
In 1778, Andre was made an adjutant to the British commander in chief, Henry Clinton. The following year he was promoted to the rank of major and placed in charge of British Secret Service, tasked with intelligence gathering. At the time, the war in the northern colonies had entered a stalemate, following the collapse of the British campaign of 1777, which had aimed to split New England from New York and Pennsylvania. Instead, the campaign ended in the defeat of general John Burgoyne and the capture of his army at Saratoga in upstate New York.
The plan to split New England from the other colonies remained viable, however, provided the British could control the Hudson River. Were that to happen, the British would be able to sail northward from their base of operations in New York City, deep into upstate New York. From there, the British could interdict communications with New England, or even launch an invasion into that region.
The Patriots were aware of that threat, however, and dealt with it by constructing strong fortifications on bluffs overlooking the Hudson upstream from New York City, at West Point. That choked off the river to enemy navigation, and capturing West Point thus became a Holy Grail for the British. In 1780, Andre entered into communications with American general Benedict Arnold, who held the American command at West Point. The go between was Arnold’s wife, Peggy Shippen, a Philadelphia socialite from a Loyalist family, with whom Andre was rumored to have had a romantic affair during the British occupation of that city.
Arnold agreed to turn coat and betray West Point to the British in exchange for £20,000 – about $3.7 million in 2018 US dollars. Spymaster and would-be traitor met secretly in September of 1780, and Arnold gave Andre the plans for West Point, along with civilian clothes and a passport to get him through American lines. Andre aroused suspicions, however, and was detained by an American patrol. On him were found the incriminating documents.
Andre was sent back to the Continental Army headquarters, where he almost bluffed his way out of it. He convinced his captors to send him to Benedict Arnold, whose treason had not yet been suspected, when the Culper Ring doomed him. Major Benjamin Tallmadge had received word from the ring that a high ranking American officer had turned traitor, and upon hearing of Andre’s capture, he halted the plans to send him on to Benedict Arnold.
Cross checking the documents found on Andre with the intelligence gathered from the Culper Ring unraveled the plot. During interrogation, Andre asked Tallmadge how he would be treated, and Tallmadge, a friend of Nathan Hale who had been hanged by the British as spy, apprised his prisoner of Hale’s fate. When Andre asked if the situations were similar, Tallmadge replied: “Yes, precisely similar, and similar shall be your fate“. He was right. Andre was tried, convicted, and hanged as a spy on October 2nd, 1780.