by Stephen Case
Arnold also took vigorous action to prepare Robinson House for Peggy. He ordered a feather bed shipped from Connecticut. He arranged for local farmers to provide fresh milk, meat, and vegetables, swapping his government supplies for their fresh food and incurring the wrath of West Point’s provisioners, who had only Continental currency to offer the farmers.
The general seemed to love his wife deeply. It was as sincere a devotion as this traitorous man would ever have. “No sensations can bear a comparison with those arriving from the reciprocity of concern and mutual felicity existing between a lady of sensibility and a fond husband,” Arnold wrote Robert Howe. “I consider the time of celibacy in some measure misspent.”354
Arnold ordered his aide Franks to bring Peggy from Philadelphia to Robinson House, and he gave her explicit instructions: “You must by all means get out of the carriage in crossing all ferries and going over all large bridges to avoid accidents. . . . You must not forget to bring your own sheets to sleep in on the road, and a feather bed to put in the light wagon which will make an easy seat, and you will find it cooler and pleasanter to ride in smooth roads than a closed carriage—and it will ease your carriage horses.”355 He provided a list of where she would stop and under whose roof she would sleep, sometimes offering a few options.
Peggy left on September 6, 1780. While she was en route, her sister-in-law Hannah began corresponding with her: “Yesterday got a letter from your anxious husband, who, lover-like, is tormenting himself with a thousand fancied disasters which have happened to you and the family. . . . Heaven guard you safely to him, for in your life and happiness his consists.”356 Meanwhile Franks wrote to Arnold, pledging “soon to put safe into your hands the greatest treasure you have.”357
While Peggy was traveling, Arnold worked on the final phase of the conspiracy. His task was to arrange a meeting with a top British officer to finalize all the details and set in motion the betrayal of West Point. Communication with the British was difficult, and both Arnold and André became increasingly impatient and reckless in their attempts to schedule a rendezvous.358 To this end, Arnold tried an old trick: a shopping request from Peggy. He asked a frontline rebel commander to forward Peggy’s letter seeking “trifling articles” in New York from her friend Giles. The letter was turned over to the British under a flag of truce and sent to Major Oliver DeLancey, a Loyalist who was one of André’s best friends and had helped him paint theater backdrops in both Philadelphia and New York City. When DeLancey responded to Arnold’s message, a path of communication was established.
But Arnold felt compelled to explain his suspicious behavior to the superior officer of the frontline commander who had forwarded the message. “I am told there is a general order prohibiting any goods being purchased and brought out of New York,” Arnold wrote, “but as the goods were bought many months before the order was issued, I do not conceive they come under the intentions and spirit of it.”359 He added: “However, I would not wish my name to be mentioned in the matter, as it may give occasion for scandal.”
Arnold also entrusted a letter to a woman who had a pass to travel with her children into New York City. That message got through to André. Less successful was Arnold’s effort to send a message to Reverend Odell through a former Connecticut lawmaker. Instead of taking the letter into New York City, the lawmaker decided that it might involve a suspicious business scheme and turned it over to another rebel general, who put it in his desk and forgot about it.
There was some other correspondence as well, but its path remains unknown. It was clear that both Arnold and the British considered a face-to-face meeting to be essential to the success of their plot. Especially insistent was General Clinton, who was beginning to worry that the whole scheme might be a Patriot hoax. The British envisioned that Arnold would meet with André or another officer on neutral ground under a flag of truce, pretending to discuss a prisoner exchange or some other issue. But Arnold knew such a meeting would raise the eyebrows of officers who were already leery of his conduct. Arnold preferred that the British send in their emissary posing as a civilian—a notion that Clinton rejected because such a person could be hanged as a spy. The two sides’ inability to reach agreement on these issues would prove disastrous in the end.
In preparation for a meeting, Arnold told the same frontline Patriot commander who had handled Peggy’s shopping letter that he should expect a civilian to arrive with important intelligence from New York City. Then André took an audacious—and some might say idiotic—step. He sent a letter using one of his pseudonyms, John Anderson, to that same Patriot commander, saying, “I am told my name is made known to you” (it wasn’t) and that he hoped to visit Dobbs Ferry at noon on September 11 under a flag of truce to see “Mr. G” (whom the commander also had not heard of). The confused commander contacted Arnold and, luckily for Arnold, did not inform others who would have found such a message highly irregular. Arnold knew his hand was forced, and he rode his barge downriver at the appointed day and time to see if André would appear. Instead, a British gunboat unaware of the secret meeting suddenly appeared and fired at Arnold’s barge, forcing it to flee to the far shore.
André was on the opposite shore. But both “John Anderson” and “Gustavus” waited for a signal from the other, and when none came, they departed in frustration. Arnold’s hopes for a meeting grew even more complicated when the frontline Patriot commander who had been vital in arranging their aborted meeting was arrested for fraud unrelated to the West Point plot. This led Arnold to contact another officer, Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, and tell him that if a man named John Anderson arrived, Tallmadge should bring him to Robinson House. Arnold didn’t know that Tallmadge was not only a field commander but also Washington’s chief of spies.
Three days after the near miss at Dobbs Ferry, Arnold traveled back downriver to pick up the newly arrived Peggy, baby Edward, and Franks at Joshua Hett Smith’s house in Haverstraw. Smith, a wealthy landowner whose brother was the Loyalist chief justice of New York, was friendly with Arnold and perfectly willing to assist him without question. He agreed to help arrange a meeting between Arnold and André.
Then Arnold took his wife, child, and top aide to Robinson House by barge, showing Peggy the area’s impressive vistas along the Hudson. “The excursion up or down the river is truly romantic,” wrote Dr. James Thacher, who worked at Robinson House when it was commandeered as a Continental Army hospital in 1778. “Nature exhibits a diversified scenery of wild mountains, craggy precipices, and noble lofty cliffs on each side the river, which at this place is about one mile wide.”360 With Robinson House’s location, however, Thacher was not that impressed: “In the location of a country-seat, the judgment of Colonel Robinson is not much to be admired, unless he was guided altogether by a taste for romantic singularity and novelty. It is surrounded on two sides by hideous mountains and dreary forests, not a house in view, and but one within a mile.”
To Arnold and Peggy, it was a perfect perch as they awaited a meeting with her old friend André and a well-earned prize of twenty thousand pounds. But they soon realized that the biggest threats to their plan might reside in their own house. The two top aides serving the general were stalwart Patriots, Major David Franks and Colonel Richard Varick.
Franks, while involved in some of Arnold’s shady private commerce, was dedicated to the cause of liberty. He had broken with his father, a rich Canadian merchant who was a Loyalist, and once was jailed in Montreal for punching a man in the nose during a political argument. He had contributed much of his own money to defend American independence. Yet he was somewhat foppish and had his critics. Silas Deane considered Franks “mere wax, and never either too hot or too cold to receive the impression of the last application.”361
Varick, who would later become mayor of New York City, was lured away from his legal studies to handle Arnold’s correspondence at Robinson House. He had earned Arnold’s notice by vigorously rounding up supplies b
efore the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776. He also had served with Arnold at Saratoga, and had worsened Arnold’s feud with General Gates through his loose talk. But he had done much for Arnold after Saratoga, and he was a frequent bedside visitor as the general slowly recovered from his devastating wound.362
Franks and Varick knew Arnold well, so well that they became increasingly suspicious of his secretive behavior at Robinson House. Varick, less familiar than Franks with Arnold’s questionable financial transactions, objected to Arnold’s attempts to profit from his government-issued provisions. When the general tried to arrange for a ship captain to sell rum for him, Varick spoiled the plan by raising questions about whether the skipper was a Tory. Varick thought he had blocked Arnold’s sale of three barrels of pork in a separate deal, but Arnold managed to complete the transaction anyway.
When Franks reached Robinson House with Peggy and her husband, Varick told him that Arnold had written “in a mercantile style to a person in New York whose fictitious name was John Anderson, to establish a line of intelligence of the enemy’s movements.” Franks replied that he thought Arnold had “corresponded with Anderson or some such name before from Philadelphia.” Both of them thought it was a business scheme, they later testified.363
One of Peggy’s key duties was to keep Franks and Varick off the trail, a task made easier by the fact that both aides were infatuated with her. When Arnold had asked Varick to join him at West Point, he had mentioned, “As this has the appearance of a quiet post, I expect Mrs. Arnold will soon be with me.”364 Varick responded: “The presence of Mrs. Arnold will certainly make our situation in the barren Highlands vastly more agreeable, and I am persuaded will more than compensate for every deficiency of nature.”365 Franks was particularly fond of Peggy, and during her short stay at Robinson House, he went into the country with her on long picnics, accompanied by a female attendant and a guard. Franks was so attentive to Peggy’s needs, including what he called her “delicate” health, that he was nicknamed The Nurse.366 Apparently Franks was especially susceptible to female charms. “I have marked him particularly in the company of women, where he loses all power over himself and becomes almost frenzied,” Thomas Jefferson wrote a few years later when Franks was his aide.367
During Peggy’s short time at Robinson House, she had set herself up as lady of the manor, making sure that supplies were in order and servants were on task. She served as hostess at meals for Arnold, Varick, Franks, and key officers from West Point. Sometimes Arnold’s friend Joshua Hett Smith would bring his wife for visits, but often Peggy was the only woman around, except for the housekeeper and other staff. Of course, Peggy was comfortable and confident in male company.
There was a servant to help her with baby Edward, and this allowed her to go picnicking with Franks when she wasn’t breastfeeding her six-month-old son. Women of that era generally nursed their babies to at least ten months, and, as an attentive mother, there’s evidence that Peggy observed this practice.368
Even though she was trying to make a home for her husband and son in the Highlands, she knew not to settle in too comfortably. Indeed, the Arnolds’ plot was picking up speed. On September 16, 1780, Peggy’s husband received a confidential message from General Washington that he would be crossing the Hudson River at King’s Ferry the next day on his way to Hartford, Connecticut, for a secret conference with senior French commanders. Arnold responded that he would meet Washington at the crossing, which was not far from where he had attempted to meet André only days earlier. Arnold also sent a message informing André of Washington’s whereabouts, though it is unlikely that he believed the letter could travel fast enough to allow the British to try to capture the commander in chief.
The next day, before Arnold left for King’s Ferry, he and Peggy were in Robinson House with Smith and his wife, Varick, Franks, and West Point guests. While they were conversing, a courier brought a letter to Arnold delivered under a flag of truce from the British sloop-of-war Vulture, south of King’s Ferry. The message was from Beverley Robinson. He said he wanted to meet with Arnold, and added: “I did intend in order to have your answer immediately to have sent this by my servant, James Osborn.” Arnold knew that “James Osborn” was a code name for another J.O., Jonathan Odell, and this indicated that someone privy to the plot was aboard the Vulture.369
Arnold’s guests were curious about the correspondence, and he felt compelled to explain that the Loyalist owner of Robinson House wanted to talk with him. One of the officers then suggested that Arnold discuss its propriety with Washington that night at King’s Ferry, and when Arnold did, Washington told him not to meet with Robinson. Washington had other information critical to the Arnolds’ plot: He expected to stop at Robinson House on his return trip the following weekend.
While Arnold was talking with Washington at King’s Ferry—the last time the two would ever meet—his aide Varick was picking a fight with Smith over dinner at Robinson House. Varick considered Smith to be a “damn Tory and snake in the grass” who was probably involved in sneaky financial deals with Arnold.370 When Smith suggested that the rebels could have reached an honorable peace deal with the crown two years earlier, Varick argued with him, creating a confrontation that likely forced Peggy to referee.
After Arnold returned from King’s Ferry, he wrote a response to Beverley Robinson, but Varick complained that it “bore the complexion of one from a friend rather than one from an enemy.”371 Instead of taking offense, Arnold simply told his prickly aide to revise it as he wished. Arnold had a trick up his sleeve—in fact, two tricks. While Varick composed the official message, Arnold wrote two secret letters that would go in the same delivery to the Vulture. One was a copy of one of his previous messages to André. By sending it to the British under a flag of truce from Arnold, he would confirm the authenticity of the earlier message. The second letter was what Arnold really wanted to say to Robinson: “I shall send a person to Dobbs Ferry, or on board the Vulture, Wednesday night the 20th instant, and furnish him with a boat and flag of truce.” Arnold added another critical piece of news: “I expect His Excellency General Washington to lodge here on Saturday night next.”
Was Arnold suggesting that the British try to capture Washington as part of the plot? Or was he warning them to adjust the timing of their attack on West Point to avoid the heavier security that would attend Washington on his way through? Many historians tend to believe the latter scenario, but the idea that Washington was considered as a target cannot be entirely dismissed. This would mean that those traveling with him were in peril as well. They included the Marquis de Lafayette, an intrepid French nobleman who was vital to the alliance and had been given the rank of major general by Congress before he reached the age of twenty.372 Also with Washington was one of his most trusted commanders, Brigadier General Henry Knox, who was head of the artillery corps and would later become secretary of war.373 And there was Washington’s young aide Alexander Hamilton, who would serve as the nation’s first treasury secretary.
After the conspiracy was exposed, Washington wrote that he considered West Point and not himself to have been the target, explaining in a dispassionately tactical way: “I am rather inclined to think he did not wish to hazard the more important object of his treachery by attempting to combine two events, the lesser of which might have marred the greater.”374 Even so, it is intriguing to imagine what would have played out if the British had captured West Point, Washington, Lafayette, Knox, and Hamilton at the same time. The opportunity was there. And the results could have been devastating.
Arnold slipped his two secret letters into an envelope addressed to Chief Justice Smith, which was his way of telling the British that the justice’s brother, Joshua Hett Smith, would appear on the twentieth to further the plot. He then quietly sneaked this into the package that contained the Varick-approved letter to Robinson, and all three were sent to the British warship. Soon after, Smith paid a discreet visit to Arnold and agreed t
o pick up the mysterious “John Anderson” from the Vulture on the night of Wednesday, September 20. Inexplicably, Arnold did not go downriver that night. Apparently he expected Smith to take the emissary back to his own home in Haverstraw, where he would wait for Arnold’s visit the next day.375 But just after dawn Thursday, a messenger arrived at Robinson House with bad news from Smith. The rendezvous had not taken place. Smith had failed to persuade an oarsman to row out to the Vulture and pick up Mr. Anderson.
Arnold hurried down to his barge and headed south. He didn’t explain his plans to Varick and Franks, and they suspected he was off to join Smith in an unethical scheme to trade illegally across enemy lines. Arnold’s two aides told each other they would quit if this were true and went to Peggy with their complaints about her husband’s activities with “the unprincipled rascal Smith.” She told them she shared their feelings and that, upon her own complaints, “Arnold had made her fair promises not to countenance Smith at all,” according to Varick.
Peggy was lying, of course. Smith was central to their plans as a go-between with the mysterious Mr. Anderson. Peggy was trying to keep the aides at bay long enough for her husband to line up their secret forces, and then trigger a treason that might destroy the American Revolution.
CHAPTER 12
Meeting after Midnight
That night, while her husband tried to meet up with his British counterparts, Peggy Shippen had a simple mission: to keep Franks and Varick from open revolt while maintaining an air of innocence and normality at Robinson House. And she succeeded.
Peggy’s husband and his henchman Smith, however, had much more to accomplish, and they did it far less skillfully. Arnold, hurrying downriver to make the connection that should have been made the night before, was met by two letters from the Vulture. One was from Beverley Robinson, who said he was “greatly disappointed in not seeing Mr. Smith at the time appointed” and added that “my partner . . . arrived here last night.”376 The other was a protest about one of the Vulture’s boats being fired upon while under a flag of truce. The letter, purportedly from the ship’s captain but countersigned “John Anderson, secretary,” was in the handwriting of John André, the “partner” aboard the ship.