John André

John André was a British Army officer who served as adjutant general and an important intelligence organiser during the American Revolutionary War. He negotiated with Benedict Arnold over the planned surrender of West Point, but was captured while carrying incriminating papers and travelling in civilian clothes. A military court convicted him as a spy, and he was executed in 1780.

Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Shadow Patriots places André within the same clandestine world as the Culper agents, Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold. Historical fiction often portrays him as cultivated, charming and personally honourable, creating tension between sympathy for the man and the military logic of his execution. His story remains one of the clearest examples of how espionage collapses distinctions between soldier, diplomat and criminal.