Major André's hanging and his ghost
The officer John André was executed as a spy by hanging at Tappan, New York, on 2 October 1780. A legend says his horse's hoofbeats are heard on the road where he was seized.
Major John André was seized by three American militiamen, quickly identified and jailed. A board of officers tried him for espionage and found him guilty, and on George Washington's orders he was hanged at Tappan, New York, on 2 October 1780. His execution stirred anti-American anger in Britain. A granite monument put up in 1879 marks where he was hanged and buried.
A local legend gives him a ghost. According to one telling, the place of his execution is free of him. Rather, on certain crisp evenings near the close of September, the beat of his horse's hooves is said to ring down the road and halt abruptly at the very spot where he was taken. This is a local tradition, and no witness is named.
"André was captured by three American militiamen and was quickly identified and imprisoned. He was subsequently convicted of espionage by the Continental Army and executed by hanging on George Washington's orders. His execution led to an outburst of anti-American sentiment in Great Britain, and American painter John Trumbull was imprisoned as a result. André is typically remembered positively by historians, and several prominent leaders of the Patriot cause, including Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette, disagreed with the decision to execute him."
- The Legends and Reality of Sleepy Hollow, Part 2: The Hanging of Major André, The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick Libraries
- John André's Ghost, Sleepy Hollow Country
- Major John André Monument, Wikipedia