On the preceding evening André wrote letters to his mother, sisters, Miss Seward, and other friends, and made a pen-and-ink sketch of himself sitting at a table with a pen in his hand. On the following morning he made a rude sketch, with pen and ink, depicting the scene of his passage from the Vulture to the shore, when he went to meet Arnold.[55]
At noon on the 2d day of October, 1780, Major André was executed upon an eminence near Tappaan village, in the presence of a vast concourse of people. He was dressed in full military costume and white top-boots. He was taken to the gallows—a cross-piece between two moderate-sized trees—by a procession of nearly all the field-officers, excepting Washington and his staff, who remained at headquarters. General Greene led the cavalcade, which passed between two files of soldiers, extending from the prison up to the fatal spot. The prisoner's step was firm, and he did not falter until he saw the gallows, and knew he was to be hanged as a felon and not shot as a soldier. His hesitation was only for a moment.
A baggage-wagon, bearing a plain pine coffin, had been driven under the gallows. A grave had been dug near by. Into the wagon the prisoner stepped and, taking the rope from the hangman, adjusted it to his neck, and tied a white handkerchief over his eyes. Then Adjutant-General Scammell read the order for the execution in a clear voice, and at its conclusion told André that he might speak if he desired it. The prisoner lifted the handkerchief from his eyes and, bowing courteously to General Greene and his officers, said in firm voice, "All I request of you, gentlemen, is that, while I acknowledge the propriety of my sentence, you will bear me witness that I die like a brave man." In an undertone he murmured, "It will be but a momentary pang." The wagon was driven swiftly from under him, and in a few minutes he ceased to exist.
Passage from the Vulture.—(Fac-simile of a Pen-and-ink Sketch by André.)
"Thus died in the bloom of life," wrote Dr. Thacher, a surgeon of the Continental army, who was present, "the accomplished Major André, the pride of the royal army and the valued friend of Sir Henry Clinton." The same authority wrote that André's regimentals, which had been brought up to Tappaan by his servant, were handed to that servant, and he was buried near one of the trees which formed the gibbet.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] This building is yet standing, and is in nearly the same condition as it was in 1780, at which time it belonged to John de Windt, a native of the Island of St. Thomas. By a peculiar arrangement of bricks in its front wall, the date of its construction—1700—may be seen. In a large room which Washington occupied as his office, and where André's death-warrant was signed, the spacious fireplace was surrounded by Dutch pictorial tiles, when I visited and made the above sketch, in 1849.
[53] This letter evinced great tenderness of feeling toward his commander. He declared that the events connected with his coming within the American lines were contrary to his own intentions, and avowed the object of his letter to be to remove from Sir Henry's mind any suspicion that he (André) imagined he was bound by his Excellency's orders to expose himself to what had happened.