Buoy’d above the terror of death by the consciousness of a life devoted to honorable pursuits and stained with no action that can give me remorse, I trust that the request that I make to your Excellency, at this serious period and which is to soften my last moments will not be rejected.
Sympathy toward a soldier will surely induce your Excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor. Let me hope, Sir, that if aught in my character impresses you with esteem towards me, if aught in my misfortune marks me the victim of policy and not of resentment, I shall experience the operation of those feelings in your breast by being informed that I am not to die on a gibbet.
I have the honor to be your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant,
John André,
Adj. General to the British Army.
His request, however, was not granted and in the early afternoon of October 2, 1780, arrayed in full dress uniform he paid the penalty on the scaffold. His body was buried beneath his gibbet but removed to England in 1831 where it rests in Westminster Abbey.
West Point and the Revolutionary cause was saved to the Americans! The shock of Arnold’s traitorous act with its narrowly averted consequences caused Washington to take even more stringent measures for West Point’s defense. Orders were issued to continue work on all of the fortifications and during 1781 and 1782, the garrison labored faithfully and uncomplainingly notwithstanding the great sufferings of the men from lack of provisions. At times the stores on hand were numbered by a few barrels of salt pork and a little flour.
Major-General Knox now assumed command of the Post. After the cessation of hostilities he was very busy mustering out troops and putting the garrison in shape.
Despite the poverty that prevailed at West Point, Washington ordered a celebration to be held in honor of the birth of the Dauphin of France, Louis Joseph, the son of Louis XVI., born October, 1781. A magnificent fête was arranged in which all of the troops stationed in the Highlands participated. Upon the Plain at West Point, Major Villefranche erected a curious edifice, an improvised temple with a grand colonnade of 118 pillars made of the trunks of trees. The entire building was festooned with American and French flags, with designs and emblems, muskets and bayonets fancifully arranged. Washington, with a party of five hundred distinguished guests, assembled in the colonnade for a banquet. A series of thirteen toasts were drunk, each one accompanied by a salute of thirteen cannon. During the evening there was a grand display of fireworks for the troops and a ball for the officers and their guests. This dance, led by General Washington, was the first real West Point hop.
The various details left over from the Revolution were now disposed of by General Knox and his successor, Lieut.-Col. Rochefontaine. The genesis of the Military Academy was foreshadowed by the presence of the Invalid Corps which by act of Congress, 1777, was, among other things, “to serve as a military school for young gentlemen previous to their being appointed to marching regiments.”
The dark days of the Revolution were over and the troops could now rest from their strenuous labors. There were important matters, however, to occupy the leaders, not the least of which was the establishment of an institution for training officers for the Army. No lesson of the war was so well learned as the need for such educated leaders, and immediately the Revolution was over, Washington, Hamilton, and Knox began urging Congress to establish a National Military Academy. Although Washington never lived to see his recommendations carried out, he would have rejoiced, I am sure, to know that Congress three years after his death founded the United States Military Academy, at his favorite Post, West Point.