John Andre (1750–1780) purchased a commission in a British military unit in 1771 and went on to serve in Canada. He was captured during the siege of St. John’s (1775). Rough treatment as a prisoner of war in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, increased his resentment toward the rebels. He was sent to British-held New York in a 1776 prisoner exchange. Andre was promoted to captain and joined the staff of General Charles Grey. In 1778 he became an aide and confidant to General Sir Henry Clinton, the commander of British land forces in America. He...

For fire and water are not more heterogeneous than the different colonies in North America. Nothing can exceed the jealousy and emulation which they possess in regard to each other. . . . In short . . . were they left to themselves there would soon be a civil war from one end of the continent to the other, while the Indians and Negroes would . . . impatiently watch the opportunity of exterminating them all together.

—Rev. Andrew Burnaby, 1760