The skeleton of the Seventh was transferred from that Province to New York; recruits and new clothing were sent out from England ; and in the end of December, the regiment, including the men lately discharged from Pennsylvania, marched into town with tolerably full ranks. Andre did not, however, long remain in it; on the 18th January, 1777, he received a captaincy in the Twenty-sixth, which had been so augmented that each company consisted of sixty-four men, exclusive of commissioned officers. But a staff appointment was his legitimate sphere, and there was for the time none such vacant. He therefore remained on line duty. His regiment was fortunately not one of those that Tryon led in April, 1777, to Danbur)' ; otherwise he might have met Benedict Arnold face to face and shared in the questionable glories of what Clinton honestly confesses to have been "a second Lexington."6 In the beginning of the summer he was named aide-de-camp to Major-General Grey. In Grey's retirement Andre, with the provincial rank of Major, was appointed aide to Sir Henry Clinton, the son of Admiral George Clinton, once Governor of New York, who was second son of the ninth earl of Lincoln. Andre's conspicuous merit and aimable character had soon made him the most important person of Clinton's staff, and won the admiration of all who

a Ainsworth's Magazine, b Clinton US.

326 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

had business with the General. He would promptly inform them whether or not he could engage in their affairs, if he declined, his reasons were always polite and satisfactory; if he consented, the applicant was sure of an answer from Sir Henry within twenty-four hours. Clinton's confidence was evidenced in the spring of 1 779 by his appointment of Andre, with Colonel West Hyde of the Guards, as commissioner to negotiate with the Americans an exchange of prisoners." The following extract is from the Pennsylvania Packet, 1780-1781 : "Major Andre had ye address to insinuate himself so much unto ye favour of his commanderin-chief that he was said to have gained an absolute ascendency over this officer.