Event · Significance tier 3 · provisional assessment
André is captured and Arnold's West Point plot is exposed
New York militiamen captured British major John André carrying papers that exposed Benedict Arnold's plan to surrender West Point; Arnold escaped to British lines.
- Category
- armed conflict
- Episode relations
- 1
- Selection basis
- film anchored
Episode coverage
Episode 6
set piece · spoken: caption verified
Visual check: not checked
Why this coverage: The episode reconstructs Arnold's grievances and negotiations, André's mission and capture, discovery of the papers, Arnold's escape, and the public reaction.
Caption entry: 00:21:54.646 · 00:23:55.033 · 00:25:38.737 · 00:26:35.594
Why it matters
The plot threatened a strategic Hudson River position and turned Arnold into a lasting symbol of treason, often obscuring the material, political, and personal conditions of his defection.
Why this provisional tier
This tier predates canonical assessment v1. It remains a research hypothesis and must not be used as settled label priority.
Exposure prevented a potentially serious strategic loss and had a large memory afterlife, though its military effect was the failure of the plan.
Arnold’s name became shorthand for betrayal. The timeline should still distinguish the failed military transaction from the moral emblem later attached to it.