12. A Clandestine Hero Saves West Point
Major John 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. Then Robert Townsend’s ring doomed him. American Major Benjamin Tallmadge had received word from Townsend’s ring that a high-ranking American officer had turned traitor. 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 Townsend’s ring unraveled the plot.
During interrogation, Andre asked Tallmadge how he would be treated. Tallmadge, a friend of Nathan Hale who had been hanged by the British as a spy, told his prisoner about 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. The war in the northern colonies then entered a stalemate, and efforts shifted to the southern colonies. There, the war was won with the capture of Lord Cornwallis’ British Army at Yorktown in 1781. As a result, Townsend and his ring in New York became less important. They soon ceased activity, and disbanded.
