Colonel Heman Swift to George Washington, 22–31 March 1781
From Colonel Heman Swift
[22–31 March 1781]
Sir
Agreable to your Excellencys Warrant McDowall was executed the 21st Inst.1 the Evening before his Execution he inform’d Messrs Strong & Prudoen Ministers of Hartford that Lee the man your Excellency sent from Newport and ordered confin’d in Goal at Hartford had given him a particular account of his intentions when he left New York, that he was employ’d by Sir Henry Clinton to pass through the Country to Newport with all possible expedition, and get all intelligence he could while passing, and at Newport of the movements of the French and of every other matter which concern’d Sir Harry, for which he was to give him a very handsome reward on his Return2—It has not been in my power to obtain any Evidence that Lee has been in actual Service with the Enemy, but am of opinion Evidence of that kind can be soon procur’d—I shall use every exertion in my power to prove the villany of the man of which with pleasure I will give your Excellency the earliest intelligence—and wait your Excellencys directions therein.3 I am with respect Your Excellency humbl. Servt
Heman Swift
LS, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote “Hartford March 1781” on the the docket. The content of the letter’s first sentence supports the date range. For GW’s presence in Hartford between 16 and 18 March, see his letter to Rochambeau, 16 March, n.1.
1. The Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer (Hartford) for 20 March printed an extract from GW’s order issued on 17 March: “ALEXANDER McDOWALL, late Lieutenant and Adjutant of Colonel Welles’s Regiment of the State Troops of Connecticut, having been, by a General Court-Martial of the Line, held at Hartford the 7th Day of March, 1781, whereof Colonel Heman Swift was President, found guilty of Desertion to the Enemy, and by the said Court Martial sentenced to suffer Death for the same, agreeable to the 6th Section of the first Article of War; which Sentence is ordered to be put in execution on Wednesday the 21st instant, at Hartford, between the Hours of Ten in the Forenoon and Three in the Afternoon of the same Day.” The first article of the sixth section of the articles of war reads: “All officers and soldiers, who having received pay, or having been duly inlisted in the service of the United States, shall be convicted of having deserted the same, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as by a court-martial shall be inflicted” (, 5:792).
Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., wrote in his diary for 21 March that “Alexander Mc Dowell hanged” on that date. He added that the “condemned and a large assembly” heard a sermon drawn from “Rom 2:2. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them who commit such things” (, 529).
Alexander McDowell (d. 1781), of Glastonbury, Conn., joined the 3d Connecticut Regiment as an ensign in January 1777. He was furloughed for 30 days in March 1779 but never returned to his regiment before resigning in June 1779 and being discharged on 1 July. McDowell received an appointment as a lieutenant in Lt. Col. Levi Wells’s Connecticut state regiment in July 1779, but he was not among the officers named to Wells’s new state regiment in January 1780 (see , 2:365, 459).
2. Revs. Nathan Strong and Nehemiah Prudden signed a deposition given at Hartford on 30 March: “On the morning of the Day that Alexander McDowall was executed he sent for us, and told us he wished to die like a Christian, and proposed the following question—Whether, if he was possessed of secrets which effected the safety of the Country, it was his duty to reveal them? We told him it was undoubtedly his duty to make full discovery of whatever he might know. Upon which among other things he told us the following, viz. That one —— Lee who was then confined in prison by order of his Excellency Genl Washington, being in the same dungeon with him, had told him that he (the sd Lee) came out from N. York as a spy and was employed by Sr Henry Clinton. That he came out to Ward’s block-house where he left his red coat to be sent back to N. York, and put on an old blue coat, and affected the appearance of a Country-man. That his orders were to collect intelligence of every kind as he passed through the Country; but especially to repair to N. Port and find the situation of the French fleet and Army. That he was executing the commission when he was taken up at Hartford and sent forward to the Gel under guard. ⟨mutilated⟩ he supposed he could effect an escape from N. Jersey into N. York, and ⟨mutilated⟩ better than from Connecticut, because there he was not so generally known; on ⟨mutilated⟩ account he pretended himself a subject of N. Jersey, but meant to return to the enemy whenever he was set at liberty.
“We then asked McDowall, Whether in giving this information he considered himself as a man who must that day answer for the truth of it before the Almighty Judge. He answered that he did—And said nothing further concerning Lee“ (DLC:GW; GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys wrote “Depositions respecting Lee, a Spy” on the docket).
Nathan Strong (1748–1816) graduated from Yale in 1769. He became a minister and served as chaplain of the 22d Continental Regiment from April to December 1776. He later published a series of articles in support of ratifying the Constitution; helped found the Connecticut Missionary Society, serving as its general secretary; and edited the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine.
Nehemiah Prudden (1749–1815) graduated from Yale in 1775. He became pastor of the Congregational church in Enfield, Conn., in November 1782, and remained until his death.
3. For the difficulties encountered in charging Lee with espionage, see Swift to GW, 5 April, and Jeremiah Wadsworth to GW, 19 April.