Throughout Asgill's ordeal he had been accompanied by the officer in charge of British prisoners, Major James Gordon, remaining alongside him for the six-month imprisonment. Gordon went way above and well beyond his duty to his young charge, according to Keith Feiling, who states: " plain courage and humanity shines in this ugly, tangled business, who spent himself till death for the imprisoned British soldiers, steeled Asgill to his fate, and shared all his prisons and trials." He also guided and counselled him, and wrote letters to all those who he hoped would be able to save him. Gordon was, unquestionably, the hero of the Asgill Affair. Mayo writes that on meeting up with Gordon in New York, Samuel Graham noted that "All Gordon's protests failed to disguise from his eyes the havoc wrought in the last five months. 'He was an altered man,' Graham lamented."