John André

John André was a British Army officer who served as adjutant general and an important intelligence organiser during the American Revolutionary War. He negotiated with Benedict Arnold over the planned surrender of West Point, but was captured while carrying incriminating papers and travelling in civilian clothes. A military court convicted him as a spy, and he was executed in 1780.

André became the British intermediary in Benedict Arnold’s plan to surrender West Point. Captured in civilian clothes in September 1780, he was found carrying papers connected with the conspiracy and was tried by an American military board as a spy. He was hanged at Tappan, New York, on 2 October 1780, while Arnold escaped to the British lines and entered British service.

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Valiant Ambition follows the two commanders through the Revolution’s uncertain middle years: Washington learns to preserve the Continental Army despite political interference and chronic shortages, while Arnold earns a reputation for audacity at Saratoga and in the Philadelphia campaign but feels repeatedly denied credit, rank and financial security. Arnold’s grievances harden after his marriage to Peggy Shippen, whose Loyalist connections help open negotiations with British intelligence officer John André. In Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Shadow Patriots, as British forces occupy New York and the war moves through Valley Forge and the Arnold–André conspiracy, Kate is recruited under the numerical designation 355.