Treason Site
Town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York
Marker Inscription
Within these woods, in the early morning hours of September 22, 1780, American General Benedict Arnold and British Major John Andre plotted the surrender of American fortress at West Point. While attempting to return to British lines, Andre was captured… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
In the tense autumn of 1780, American General Benedict Arnold conspired with British Major John André to hand over the strategic Hudson River fortress at West Point — one of the most infamous acts of treason in the nation's history. André was captured while trying to reach British lines, and the plot unraveled, turning Arnold's name into a byword for betrayal. This marker stands near where that fateful meeting took place.
Why it matters
The near-loss of West Point shows how close the Revolution came to disaster from within, and why Arnold's betrayal still defines the word 'treason' in American memory.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the autumn of 1780, the American Revolution had ground into its long, uncertain middle years. The bright hopes of 1776 had given way to exhaustion, thin supplies, and mounting debt, and the outcome was far from settled. The Hudson River was the strategic spine of the war: whoever controlled it could split New England from the rest of the rebelling colonies.
That is why the fortress at West Point mattered so much. Perched above a sharp bend in the Hudson, its guns and its great chain across the river were meant to keep British warships from sailing north and cutting the young nation in two. To lose West Point would be to hand Britain a war-changing advantage.
The wooded country of the lower Hudson valley, where this marker stands, lay in the tense borderland between American positions and the British-held city to the south. It was a landscape of shadows and suspicion, where loyalties were tested and a secret errand could change the course of a war.
People & events
At the center of this story is Benedict Arnold, once among the most daring and celebrated generals in the American cause. Given command of West Point, he chose instead to sell it. In secret dealings with the British, he agreed to betray the fortress that had been entrusted to him.
His contact was Major John André, a capable and cultured British officer serving as an intelligence go-between. In the dark early hours of September 22, 1780, on the west side of the Hudson, Arnold and André met to finalize the plot — the surrender of West Point laid out in careful detail.
Then the scheme came apart. Attempting to make his way back toward British lines, André was stopped near Tarrytown by three American militiamen — John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. They discovered incriminating papers concealed on his person. Arnold, warned just in time, fled downriver to the safety of a British warship. André was not so fortunate: tried as a spy, he was hanged at Tappan on October 2, 1780.
Its place in the American story
This is the most famous act of treason in American history, and it left a mark on the language itself. To this day, "Benedict Arnold" is shorthand for a traitor — proof of how deeply the betrayal wounded the young nation's sense of itself.
The episode is also a lesson in how close the Revolution came to catastrophe from within. The Continental cause could survive lost battles; what it could barely survive was a trusted general handing the enemy the keys to its most vital stronghold. That the plot failed by a matter of hours is one of the great near-misses of the war.
There is a further, poignant irony in how it played out. Arnold, the American who betrayed his country, escaped and lived on in disgrace, while André, an enemy officer who impressed even his captors with his conduct, met the fate of a spy. The contrast has haunted the story ever since — a meditation on loyalty, honor, and the terrible cost of betrayal at the birth of a republic.
If you visit
Approach this spot with your imagination ready, because there are no cannons or ramparts to see — only quiet woods. That very quiet is what makes it powerful. Stand among the trees and picture two men conferring here in the pre-dawn dark, deciding the fate of a fortress and, perhaps, a war.
You are in the wooded Hudson valley country of Rockland County, a region threaded with Revolutionary history. Reading the marker here, then looking around at the ordinary landscape, brings home how history's hinges often turned in unremarkable, out-of-the-way places.
This makes a thought-provoking stop on any trip tracing the Revolution along the Hudson. Give yourself a few minutes to stand still and let the weight of what nearly happened here sink in — a whispered plot in the woods that came within hours of changing the country's story.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Benedict Arnold
- · John André
Related events
- · Benedict Arnold's treason
- · Plot to surrender West Point
- · Capture of Major André
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Treason Site
Village of Haverstraw, NY
On a September night in 1780, American General Benedict Arnold met secretly with British Major John André along the Hudson to arrange the surrender of the vital fortress at West Point. André was seized while attempting to return to British lines, exposing the conspiracy and cementing Arnold's reputation as the archetypal American traitor. This marker recalls the wooded ground tied to that betrayal.
André Captors' Monument
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Here on September 23, 1780, three local militiamen — John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart — stopped a traveler on the road near Tarrytown and discovered he was Major John André, the British adjutant general carrying papers that exposed Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point. Their refusal of André's bribes unraveled one of the Revolution's most dangerous conspiracies. André was later hanged as a spy, and the three captors became early American heroes.
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