Speaking of, the more we dig into Washington story, the more he seems alive and a truly heroic figure. They have made several movies about the winter campaign in New Jersey, and none of them capture the true story. If they showed what really happened the movie critics would pan it. At Princeton, for instance, he rallies the troops and gets them into line to receive the British attack. he sat there as unmoving as a statue and bullets came whizzing around. The troops took one look at him and forgot themselves and turned back British regulars.
Anyway, our world has little respect for the truth.
One of Washington’s great secrets was that his true forte was as a spymaster. He had an impressive network of spies, many of whom were women, and many whose identities are still unknown, either because that information is lost, or just as likely, because they were so connected to the crown that it would still be an embarrassment today.
Only one of his spies, Nathan Hale, was ever captured, and as one historian noted, Washington must have had a bad hangover on the day he recruited him. After being captured, he basically demanded that he be tried and executed, instead of being sent back to Britain where he likely would have gotten a few years in prison. And to make matters worse, because he was executed, the Americans had to respond by hanging a known British spy, John André, four years later.
John André, to make matters worse, was a very charitable and amiable individual, who though he had worked with Benedict Arnold in his treachery, was beloved by those who knew him. Among whom the consensus was that he was hung because they had to hang somebody.