Great Events in the History of North and South AmericaGoodrich, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
History
Great Events in the History of North and South America
Goodrich, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
North America -- History; South America -- History; United States -- History
Andre approached the spot; upon which, Paulding rose, and presenting
his firelock to his breast, bid him stand. "Gentlemen," said Andre, "I
hope you belong to our party." "I asked him"--we follow the testimony
of Paulding on the trial of Smith--"what party? He said, 'The lower
party.' Upon that I told him I did. Then he said, 'I am a British
officer out of the country on particular business, and I hope you will
not detain me a minute;' and to show that he was a British officer, he
pulled out his watch. Upon which, I told him to dismount. He then
said, 'My God! I must do any thing to get along;' and seemed to make a
kind of laugh of it, and pulled out General Arnold's pass, which was
to John Anderson, to pass all guards to White Plains and below. Upon
that, he dismounted. Said he, 'Gentlemen, you had better let me go, or
you will bring yourselves into trouble, for your stopping me will
detain the general's business;' and said he was going to Dobb's ferry,
to meet a person there, and get intelligence for General Arnold. Upon
that, I told him I hoped he would not be offended, that we did not
mean to take any thing from him; and I told him there were many bad
people who were going along the road, and I did not know but perhaps
he might be one."
Williams testified as follows: "We took him into the bushes, and ordered
him to pull off his clothes, which he did; but on searching him
narrowly, we could not find any sort of writings. We told him to pull
off his boots, which he seemed to be indifferent about; but we got one
boot off, and searched in that boot, and could find nothing. But we
found there were some papers in the bottom of his stocking next to his
foot; on which we made him pull his stocking off, and found three papers
wrapped up. Mr. Paulding looked at the contents, and said he was a spy.
We then made him pull off his other boot, and there we found three more
papers at the bottom of his foot within his stocking."
After consultation, it was decided to take the prisoner to North
Castle, where Lieutenant-colonel Jameson commanded a detachment of
dragoons. Having surrendered him to Jameson, the latter for a time
hesitated what disposition to make of him. The papers found upon Andre
were important--in the hand-writing of Arnold, and endorsed by him.
Most men would have suspected treason--nor would Arnold himself have
escaped suspicion. Yet Jameson, at length, decided to forward the papers
to Washington by express, and the prisoner to Arnold. These measures had
been taken, when Major Talmadge, next in command to Jameson, returned
from an excursion to White Plains. On learning the incidents of the day,
he expressed his surprise, and begged Jameson to dispatch a
counter-order, if possible, to bring back the prisoner and the papers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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