“Treason of the blackest day,” wrote Henry Dearborn in his journal, “is this day fortunately discovered.” American troops had captured British Army Major John André a few days before Dearborn took note of it in his journal, on September 25, 1780. André was the agent working with Benedict Arnold, the treasonous American general who planned to surrender West Point to British forces.
At that moment, André was the second most hated man in the United States. Only Arnold seemed more disdainful. Yet Dearborn, an officer in the Continental Army, mourned André. He described how André “discoverd[sic] great firmness & candor” as he faced his executioners. André, Dearborn noted, “was one of the most promising young gentlemen in the British Army.”
