Brief description:
From the dust jacket:
A day in the last week of September 1780: a young English oflicer sits in a room of a small stone house in the village of Tappan, New York, Where the Continental Army under General Washington is encamped. The young man is reflecting on the events of the last few days. His name is John André, and he is the acting Adjutant-General of the British Army in New York. His captors, to whom he talks amicably now and then, have until recently believed that he was a merchant named John Anderson. Is he or is he not a spy? Should he or should he not be hanged?
The conspiracy in which General Benedict Arnold planned to surrender West Point to the British is regarded not only as a crucial moment in the Revolutionary War but as a maneuver that—had it gone the other Way—could well have changed the course of the war, and subsequent history. Anthony Bailey looks at this episode from the point of view of a leading participant, the charming and talented professional military man, amateur actor, and poet who abruptly finds himself in highly charged and then tragic circumstances, and who is compelled in the end by his code of conduct to rise above his own shortcomings. An individual, rather than a historical figure, is movingly and dramatically evoked.
A day in the last week of September 1780: a young English oflicer sits in a room of a small stone house in the village of Tappan, New York, Where the Continental Army under General Washington is encamped. The young man is reflecting on the events of the last few days. His name is John André, and he is the acting Adjutant-General of the British Army in New York. His captors, to whom he talks amicably now and then, have until recently believed that he was a merchant named John Anderson. Is he or is he not a spy? Should he or should he not be hanged?
The conspiracy in which General Benedict Arnold planned to surrender West Point to the British is regarded not only as a crucial moment in the Revolutionary War but as a maneuver that—had it gone the other Way—could well have changed the course of the war, and subsequent history. Anthony Bailey looks at this episode from the point of view of a leading participant, the charming and talented professional military man, amateur actor, and poet who abruptly finds himself in highly charged and then tragic circumstances, and who is compelled in the end by his code of conduct to rise above his own shortcomings. An individual, rather than a historical figure, is movingly and dramatically evoked.
Publication
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux,,(1987),Hdbk,,,Exc,