"Under cover of darkness on the night of September 22, 1780, British Major John Andre met secretly on the shore of the Hudson River with the famous American General, Benedict Arnold. For a half-million dollars, Arnold offered to betray West Point, surrender it to the British, and thus crush America's hopes for independence. But, the plot failed when Andre, carrying Arnold's plans while returning to British headquarters in New York City, blundered into the hands of three American militiamen. Tried by a military court convened by George Washington, Andre was judged a spy and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed at Tappan, New York, on October 2, 1780, under Washington's orders. At the execution, Americans wept openly for the popular officer, and his remains were later interred in Westminster Abbey. What, though, is the true story of Major John Andre? Was he a spy justly doomed to die on the gallows or was he actually a soldier carrying out a legitimate military assignment, an offense for which he would have been imprisoned, but his life spared? For more than two hundred years, these questions have fascinated and confounded historians of the Revolution."--BOOK JACKET.