Herrera on “Treason at West Point,” 5 Nov.

On Thursday, 5 November, Ricardo A. Herrera will appear online as part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s “Inside the Vault” series. Rick’s topic will be “Treason at West Point—Benedict Arnold, John André, and the Spies of the American Revolution.”

The institute’s curator will bring out these items from its collection:

• Maj. John André’s letter from June 1780, asking a contact to keep watch on “Arnold the Rebel General,” three months before the plot came apart
• The note sent to André on the morning of his death: “His Excellency Genl. Washington has fixed the Hour at 12 o Clock this Day”
• A Continental officer’s letter written the day after the hanging, condemning Arnold for leaving André “to pay the forfeiture that should have fallen on the traitor”
• An eyewitness’s account of why André’s last request, to be shot instead of hanged, was refused

Ricardo Herrera is senior historian at the George Washington Leadership Institute and George Washington Presidential Library. Previously he was a professor at the U.S. Army War College, and before that an army officer. Rick’s most recent book is The New York Campaign, 1776.

The institute says, “This event is for teachers, students, and their families—and everyone with an interest in history!” Folks who attend the whole program can sign up to receive professional development credits. The program is due to start at 7 P.M. For more information, go to this registration page.

The day after this online event, Rick and I will be cohosting “The British Empire Strikes Back,” the Pursuit of History’s latest weekend exploration of Revolutionary events 250 years later. We’ll be in the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, New Jersey, a structure used by both Crown and Continental forces as they fought over that region in late 1776 and early 1777.