Hamilton, Alexander

Autograph letter signed ("A. Hamilton | Aide de Camp"), one page bifolium (8 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.; 210 x 170 mm), [?Continental Village, New York], 28 September 1780, to Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, requesting fifty men to provide security for the guards accompanying John André and Joshua Hett Smith to headquarters in Tappan, New York, for trial, address leaf annotated and signed by Hamilton ("The V. W. at King's Ferry will instantly forward this"); center vertical fold reinforced, seal tear closed, light staining in upper left corner of address leaf. Blue cloth folding case, blue morocco spine lettered gilt; spine a trifle faded.

Papers of Alexander Hamilton (ed. Syrett), 2:445

The spoiled fruits of Arnold's treason: the arrest of Captain John André and his unwitting accomplice, Joshua Hett Smith. Hamilton instructs Anthony Wayne to supply a detail of fifty men to accompany the prisoners and their guards to Mabie's Tavern in Tappan, New York, where they were to be tried as spies.  Wayne at the time was situated in the vicinity of what is now Haverstraw, New York, about ten miles north of Tappan on the west bank of the Hudson River. 

André had been captured with the incriminating papers in his boots on 23 September by three militiamen as he tried to make his way through American lines to Tarrytown. Arnold learned of André's capture on the morning of the 25th and fled down river to the safety of the H.M.S. Vulture, just before General Washington arrived at Arnold's headquarters. André was taken by barge to Stony Point on the 28th. His trial took place on the 29th, and he was condemned as a spy. He was executed by hanging on 2 October in Tappan. 

Although his brother and father were suspected of harboring Loyalist sympathies, Joshua Smith was an active Whig, a member of the New York Provincial Congress, and active in the patriot militia. When Robert Howe assumed command of West Point, he chose Smith to direct his secret service. Arnold also had met Smith, in Philadelphia in 1778, and asked Smith to continue for him the same service he had performed for Howe. Smith's role in the treason was to arrange a meeting between Arnold and Col. Beverly Robinson, presumably to negotiate the return of his house in which Arnold was now headquartered. Instead, he shuttled "John Anderson" through American lines for a clandestine meeting with Arnold. Smith was seized on 25 September. He was tried and acquitted by court-martial but subsequently imprisoned by state authorities. In May 1781, he escaped from the Goshen jail ("in woman's dress") and later emigrated to England.