John Paulding (October 16, 1758 – February 18, 1818) was an American militiaman from the state of New York during the American Revolution. In 1780, he was one of three men who captured Major John André, a British spy associated with the treason of Continental general and commandant of West Point Benedict Arnold. Andre was convicted and hanged. American Revolution While visiting his future wife, Sarah Tidd, Paulding was captured by Tories, or Loyalists, led by his future brother-in-law. He was held in the notorious "Sugar House" prison in New York City in 1780, then occupied by British forces. He escaped by jumping from a window. He went to the livery stable of a friend and acquired a German military Jäger or Hessian coat, green with red trim, associated with the British mercenaries, which he wore to evade notice. As part of an armed patrol in Westchester County, with fellow militiamen David Williams and Isaac Van Wart, Paulding seized British Major John André, who had left Benedict Arnold after discussing the latter's defection to the British and betrayal of the patriots. This site is now commemorated as Patriot's Park in Tarrytown, New York. André, seeing Paulding's Hessian coat, may have assumed him to be a member of the "cowboys," or pro-British marauders who raided the Neutral Ground for cattle and supplies. Searching André for valuables, they discovered documents of his secret communication with Benedict Arnold. The militiamen, all local yeomen farmers, refused André's attempt to bribe them, and delivered the officer to the Continental Army. Arnold's plans to surrender West Point to the British were revealed and foiled, and André was convicted and hanged as a spy. With George Washington's personal recommendation, the United States Congress awarded Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart the first military decoration of the United States, the silver medal known as the Fidelity Medallion. Each of the three also received federal pensions of $200 a year. New York State granted them each lands for farms. The celebrated trio were commemorated far and wide as popular heroes after the patriots won the war. By an act of Congress, the new state of Ohio (1803) included the counties named Paulding, Van Wert (anglicized spelling), and Williams. Paulding was held in particularly high regard by early American historians, as the standard 19th-century accounts credited him with the decision-making and initiative at the scene. Though hailed as national heroes, Paulding