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.
The new Mt Vernon Museum has wax representations of Washington at different ages, pictures of which ought to make their way into the text books but probably won’t. years ago, afdter reading Flexner”s biography, I commented to a college that they ought to have the aging President Washington played by John Wayne. He laughed, and Wayne was such a famous face that he would have had to work past that. But with the right script, Wayne could have pulled it off, I think. Certainly after he had been slowed by cancer. But it would take an out-size actor to capture the man.