‘South oithe ^Fyjountuind published by The Historical Society of Rockland County Orangeburg, New York Vol. 15, No. 3 July - September, 1971 Photo by Roger Cornell Mrs. Fred F. Brickmann. of the Demarest-Blauvelt Foundation and Reverend John A. Springer, pastor of the Tappan Reformed Church, examine the snuff box which was presented by HRH The Duke of York to Reverend John Demarest, in appreciation for his help in arranging for the removal of Andre’s remains to West­ minster Abbey in 1821. The gold box, encased in the wood of a cedar tree which has been planted on Andre’s grave in Tappan, after being lost for many years, was returned to the custody of the Demarest-Blauvelt Foundation through the efforts of Hiram Blau- velt, following a search which led to Minot, North Dakota. A PRE-BICENTENNIAL PROGRAM On August 15th, our Society, in collaboration with the Tappantown Society and the Westchester County Historical Socieiy, sponsored a 150th anniversary commemoration of the disinterment of Major John Andre at Tappan for reinter­ ment in Westminster Abbey on November 28, 1821. Three years earlier, in 1818, the British and United States governments had co-operated in arranging to remove the remains of General Richard Montgomery, the American general killed at Quebec, to a final resting place in St. Paul’s Cemetery, New York City. Dr. Robert W. Coakley, Deputy, Chief of the Office of Military History, De­ partment of the Army, Washington, D.C., gave an excellent summary of the events involved in the Andre story which is presented in this issue. Vice-Consul Michael P. Ross summarized details of the arrangements which his predecessor James Buchanan, at the British Consulate-New York, had made at the time. Colonel C.H.M. Toye, OBE, who serves as Deputy Commander of the British Army Staff, Washington, D.C. spoke on the United States and British Military relations since the Revolution. A copy of Colonel Toye’s address has been received which will be available for publication in a later issue. The program concluded with an excellent solo rendition of the hymn “God of The Nations, Near and Far” by J. Erwin Perine, vice president. The occasion - in a sense a pre-bicentennial program, served to recall the pur­ pose of Cyrus W. Field in arranging for the Andre monument, dedicated October 2, 1879 carrying the following inscription, prepared by Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley of Westminster Abbey: Inscription Here died, October 2, 1780 Major John Andre of the British Army Who, entering the American lines on a secret mission to Benedict Arnold, for the surrender of West Point, was taken prisoner, tried and condemned as a spy. His death, though according to the stern code of war, moved even his enemies to pity; and both armies mourned the fate of one so young and so brave. In 1821 his remains were removed to Westminster Abbey. A hundred years after the execution this stone was placed above the spot where he lay, by a citizen of the United States, against which he 2 not to perpetuate the record of strife, but in token of those better feelings which have since united two nations, one in race, one in language, and one in religion, with the hope that this friendly union will never be broken. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster. The monument carries two other inscriptions as follows: “He was more unfortunate than criminal; An accomplished man and gallant officer." George Washington “Sunt lacrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.” Virgil AEneid, 1,462 ★ ★ ★ We are indebted to Colonel Toye for a letter regarding the second passage. 24 August 1971 “When we had a few minutes in the house on Saturday evening last, Betty and I looked up the passage in Virgil from which comes the Latin line on Andre’s monument. We found it - Aeneid Book I, line 462 - and the surrounding story may be of interest. As you know, the Aeneid story is that of a handful of survivors from the sack of Troy who, after great sufferings and adventures, eventually found the city of Rome in Italy. On their way, they are cast ashore near Carthage (in what is now Tunisia) and there they are welcomed and helped by Dido, the Carthaginian queen. But before Aeneas has met Dido and is sure of his welcome, he visits the great temple of Carthage, and there he sees sculptured in stone the story of the siege of Troy - including himself and his dead comrades. For the first time this gives him hope; the story of Troy is known in this far off land - known and admired. They have a chance of being welcomed and succored of finding sympathy for their past trials. So as he looks at the sculpture he says - “Here, there are tears for what hap­ pened, and those tragic human events touch people’s hearts.” Altogether a very appropriate line for the monument. My translation is a free one and strict classicists might quarrel with it, but the background of Aeneas’s story is perhaps even more interesting.” 3 THE TRAGEDY OF MAJOR ANDRE By Dr. Robert W. CoaJcley The board of officers that met here in Tappan on the 29th day of Septem­ ber 1780 to consider the case of Major John Andre, Adjutant General of the British Army, reported to General Washington “the following facts, which appear to them relative to Major Andre. “First, that he came on shore from the Vulture sloop of war in the night of the twenty-first of September instant, on an interview with General Arnold, in a private and secret manner. “Secondly, That he changed his dress within our lines, and under a feigned name, and in a disguised habit, passed our works at Stoney and Verplanck’s Points, the evening of the twenty-second of September instant, and was taken the morning of the twenty-third of September instant, at Tarry Town, in a dis­ guised habit, being then on his way to New York, and when taken he had in his possession several papers, which contained intelligence for the enemy. “The Board having maturely considered these facts, do also report to his Excellency General Washington, That Major Andre, Adjutant General to the British Army, ought to be considered a spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death.” This verdict was duly executed three days later on Oct. 2, 1780, and Maj. Andre’s body lay buried here in Tappan for nearly 40 years. In 1821 the British Government had the body disinterred and removed to Westminster Abbey where a very impressive memorial was erected in testimony of his zeal in service of king and country. It is this distinterment that we commemorate today, 150 years afterward—time enough for old enmities and partisan quarrels to have settled so that we can view the dramatic events that led to Andre’s execution in some historical perspective. Initially your president asked that I present an official American interpreta­ tion of the Andre incident. I told him that there really was none unless of course the terse words of the military board’s verdict represent it. And I would suppose there is no official British position either though Englishmen certainly might still be expected to feel some of the same sense of outrage at Andre’s execution that Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander, felt at the time. Allowing for some national differences however, I believe there is a reasonable consensus of opinion among historians, British and American, as to the facts in the case and even the interpertation of them. This consensus briefly stated would be this: The board of officers who passed the verdict on Andre, and Washington, who insisted adamantly on its execution, had little choice in the matter. In the light of the evidence and the practices of the day, Andre could but be judged as spy, to suffer the fate of spies. Given the circumstances and the enormous shock to the Americans from the revelation of Benedict Arnold’s treason, Andre could only have been saved had the British been willing to surrender Arnold. Yet it is equally true that Americans as well as British, both at the time and since, have felt the greatest sympathy for Andre and indeed his very executioners wept copiously at the deed they felt they had to do. For they had the greatest respect for the gallant and talented British officer who showed that he could die so well for his country. As Douglas Freeman has remarked “although he was a 4 Brtish agent in the most dangerous and least suspected move to the the citadel of the indispensable line of the Hudson, he became almost a national hero and so he has remained.” It is because of this paradox that the Americans hung Andre because they thought they had to, while loving and respecting him as a person that we can look on the whole incident as a sort of Greek tragedy in which the inexorable fates, no human will, determined the destinies of men, and the most tragic figure in this drama was certainly John Andre. There were really three persons most intimately involved in this great human drama—Arnold, the disappointed and frustrated American hero of the March to Quebec, the naval base on the lakes, the Ruse at Fort Stanwix, and of Sara­ toga; his young and beautiful wife Peggy Shippen, who had known Andre well during the British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777-78, and who had cooper­ ated in promoting the treason of her husband; and Major Andre, a young man of 28 years, a favorite of Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander in New York, acting as Adjutant General without the necessary prerequisites of rank, ambitious and overly anxious to distinguish himself to vindicate his occupation of the post of Adjutant General and to pave the way for promotion.