The Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold

by D. A. B. Ronald

Overview

This biography of Britain’s spy chief during the Revolutionary War sheds new light on his conspiracy with Benedict Arnold—and his mysterious capture.
 
John André was head of the British Army’s Secret Service in North America as the Revolutionary War entered its most decisive phase. In 1780, he masterminded the defection of the high-ranking American general Benedict Arnold. As the commander of West Point, Arnold agreed to turn the strategically vital fort over to the British. André and Arnold also conspired to kidnap George Washington.
 
The secret negotiations between Arnold and André were protracted and fraught with danger. Arnold’s wife Peggy acted as go-between until September 21st, 1780, when the two men met face to face in no-man’s-land. But then André was captured forty-eight hours later, having broken every condition set by his commanding officer: he was within American lines, wearing civilian clothes, and carrying maps of West Point in his boots. When he announced himself as a spy, the Americans had no recourse. Tried by a military tribunal, he was convicted and hanged.
 
André’s motives for his apparent sacrifice have baffled historians for generations. This biography provides a provocative answer to this mystery—explaining not only why he acted as he did, but how he wished others to see his actions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612005225
Publisher:	Casemate Publishers
Publication date:	11/12/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	859,546
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Dr D. A. B. Ronald has published several books, Young Nelsons: Boy Soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars (2009), and Youth, Heroism and War Propaganda: Britain and the Young Maritime Hero 1754–1820 (2015). Prior to becoming an academic and full-time writer, he ran his own company as an investment banker in the City of London. His acknowledged academic expertise in the realm of the ‘young hero’ makes him uniquely qualified to write this long overdue new biography.

Table of Contents

Notes on Dates, Spelling, Language and Names and Titles ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xiii

List of Abbreviations xiv

Prologue: Philadelphia, Monday, 5 September 1774 xv

Part I 'The Chicaneries of Bubble' 1

1 Refugees 2

2 'A Heap of Rubble' 7

3 'The Three Mile Stone' 10

4 'Young Gentlemen' 12

5 'Claptonians' 17

6 'Change Alley 22

7 'The Great Scheme' 28

8 'Lame Ducks' 34

9 Shakespeare's Jubilee 38

10 'A Gloomy Compting House' 48

Part II 'A Little of the Soldier in Him' 55

11 'House of Lords' 56

12 'The Drill Book' 63

13 'Petite Guerre' 71

14 'A Terrible Conflagration' 75

15 'A Man of Nearly Womanlike Modesty and Gentleness' 83

16 'Parting' 90

Part III A Subaltern at War 97

17 'America is in a Flame' 98

18 'Five Feet of Snow' 105

19 'Adverse Winds and Hard Frosts' 117

20 'No Political Correspondence' 130

21 'The Crooked Hill Tavern' 141

22 'No Firelock' 149

Part IV At Secret War 159

23 'The Fair Quakers' 160

24 'Implicit Confidence' 173

25 'These Double Faces' 184

26 'Mutual Confidence' 191

27 Southern Interlude 198

Part V 'The Grand Stroke' 205

28 'False Friends' 206

29 'Armed Boats' 211

30 'A Personal Conference' 218

31 'My Great Mortification' 227

32 'The Chance of Passing Undiscovered' 231

33 'I was Betrayed' 235

34 'It will be but a Momentary Pang' 241

Epilogue: 'Westminster Abbey' 247

Endnotes 253

Bibliography 310

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

11/26/2018
Ronald (Youth, Heroism and War Propaganda: Britain and the Young Maritime Hero, 1745­–1820) offers a detailed look at the British officer best known for having persuaded Benedict Arnold to betray the American Revolution. The account begins in the 1740s, with the story of John André’s father, Anthony, before delving into André’s childhood and education. André joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1771, beginning the military career that took him to America three years later. Once there, he conspired with Philadelphia’s Peggy Shippen “to snare a pliable Continental Army officer”—Arnold, that city’s military commander, whom Peggy married. After prolonged negotiations, Arnold agreed to defect to the British. André ended up captured and hanged as a spy in 1780. Ronald does not hide his admiration for André or his detestation of Arnold. He maintains, without citation, that André believed Arnold had betrayed him and that Arnold’s letter to George Washington threatening retribution should André be executed was written “to make sure” that the capital sentence was carried out. Other authors, such as Nathaniel Philbrick, have demonstrated that Arnold’s decision to defect was a complex one, and Ronald’s decision to make him a one-dimensional villain detracts from what is otherwise a well-researched and through look at his subject’s life. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Copiously documented and rich with contemporary quotes, The Life of John André reads like a tense spy novel as André, turncoat Benedict Arnold, and Arnold’s alluring young wife plot through multiple machinations and betrayals to strike ‘a blow of importance’ that will undo America’s revolution. Along the way, Ronald illuminates a role for André in British colonial strategy far greater than generally appreciated by even the most ardent of Revolutionary War aficionados.

Walter R. Borneman

"Dr. D. A. B. Ronald has done an admirable job of constructing a biography of John Andre ... one fascinating aspect of Ronald’s text is that it is written from the British perspective, rarely the case in literature about the American Revolutionary War."

New York Journal of Books

"The unfortunate Major André's life was short, and I had thought that every aspect of it had been discussed many times before. However Dr Ronald's research has been painstaking and meticulous, and he has uncovered crucial new information regarding influences on Andre's life; the misfortunes of his father; the patronage of Colonel Prescott early in his military career, and his time in Germany. Though there will always be controversy on how much Benedict Arnold engineered events at Stony Point and subsequent occurrences, this book must surely be the definitive account of André’s life. His name will ever be linked with that of Arnold in a juxtaposition of Honour and Ignominy.

Major J. E. A. Andre

"This is a nicely balanced work that takes time to assess what in André's psychology and background led him to make the choices he did. The biography is well researched, and it's clear Ronald is passionate about his subject."

Nicki J. Markus

"...Ronald does a tremendous job in portraying not only how André was treated as a prisoner of war but also how Patriot civilians dealt with the unexpected influx of British prisoners."

Journal of the American Revolution

"Ronald proves an exceptional biographer and has unquestionably drafted the definitive account of André’s life, leaving the reader eager and hopeful for future works."

The Colonial Review

"A valuable picture of a fine young officer, with some interesting insights into the events and a look at English and American military, social, and cultural life in the period."

StrategyPage

Although Ronald’s treatment of Arnold is quite hostile, he offers us a valuable picture of a fine young officer, with some interesting insights into the events and a look at English military, social, and cultural life in the period.

The NYMAS Review