Benedict Arnold: America’s Greatest Traitor,Biography of Benedict Arnold, Benedict Arnold, Army officer and marchent,jeff benedict arnold

                                                                   

                             Benedict Arnold: America’s Greatest Traitor

Visitors to the Sara toga National Historical Park in New York may see the Boot Monument, a frieze that commemorates the Battle of Sara toga,one of the most significant wins for the Americans over the British during the Revolutionary War.

Specifically, it honors one officer described as the “most brilliant soldier of the Continental Army”. And although it is extremely bizarre, it does not show his likeness or even name the officer in question. Image: Boot Monument There is a reason for that. The monument is dedicated to Benedict Arnold,a man presented in history classes around the United States as the most notorious traitor in the country’s history.

There is no better exemplification of the conundrum posed by Arnold than the Boot Monument. Before he betrayed his country, he had several victories that were instrumental to the overall success of the Continental Army. However, constant arguments with his peers and being the target of numerous slights and insults, both real and perceived, eventually persuaded him to switch sides and attempt to surrender West Point to the British. That’s how we ended up with strange things like a memorial that does not name its honoree. People wanted to praise Arnold’s early career but, at the same time, the mere mention of his name revulsed many Americans. And no, in case you were wondering, the monument was not erected before Arnold’s betrayal. In fact, it was built over a hundred years later, at the behest of John Watts de Peyster, himself a Major General during the Civil War.

There is a certain “Jekyll and Hyde” elementto Arnold’s legacy and today we are going to try to unravel, as best we can, the taleof the unnamed hero and the despicable villain that was Benedict Arnold. Early Life and EducationBenedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741, in Norwich, then a part of the Colony of Connecticut. The second of six children, his parents wereBenedict Arnold Sr. and Hannah Waterman King. In fact, the younger Arnold was the fourthBenedict in his family, all named after his great-grandfather who served as the Governorof the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. On his mother’s side, Arnold was descendedfrom Reverend John Lothropp (sometimes Lathrop), an influential New England clergyman who helpedsettle the city of Barnstable, Massachusetts, and was one of the first people in the coloniesto champion the idea of separation of church and state. At first, it seemed like Arnold would havean easy ride through life. He was born into a wealthy family and hisfather was a successful businessman. He went to private school in Canterbury, Connecticut,and was expected to continue his studies at a prestigious university, most likely Yale.

 However, when he was a teenager, three ofhis siblings died of Yellow Fever. His father did not take their losses welland started drinking heavily. In turn, this led to multiple failed businessdeals until, eventually, he lost the family company. With the money gone, the Arnolds had no choicebut to pull young Benedict from school and find him work. His mother appealed to two of her cousins,Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, to take him on as an apprentice to their expanding apothecarybusiness so he could learn the trade. She died a few years later, in 1759, followedby her husband two years after that. Arnold proved to be an adept merchant. Once his apprenticeship was finished, he borrowedmoney from his uncles and traveled to Europe to secure goods. He opened his own apothecary in New Havenwhich proved to be successful. In just a few years, he managed to settleall his family debts. He also married Margaret Mansfield in 1767and had three children together before her death in 1775. Early Military CareerArnold’s military career kicked off almost two decades before the Revolutionary War.

As a youth, he wanted to fight in the Frenchand Indian War against his mother’s wishes. Eventually, he managed to join a Connecticutmilitia but, as far as we can tell, never actually saw combat. As a successful businessman, Arnold felt theoppressive boot of the British government more and more. The Sugar and Stamp Acts were passed in 1764and 1765, respectively, to tax the North American colonies. This was an attempt to increase revenue bya government that was hurting financially following the Seven Years’ War, but, unsurprisingly,proved to be wildly unpopular in North America. Response to the new taxes was almost universallynegative, but to varying degrees. Some tried to take the legal route and arguedthat it was unconstitutional for the government to levy direct taxes since only their representativeassemblies could do this. “No taxation without representation” becametheir rallying slogan. Others resorted to mob violence to deter collectorsfrom doing their jobs. Meanwhile, Benedict Arnold and many like himsimply continued to operate normally, in defiance of the British Government which, technically,turned him into a smuggler.

He also joined the Sons of Liberty, a secretorganization that sought to protect the interests of colonists against the British Crown. Outbreak of the WarArnold’s first position during the Revolutionary War was as a captain with a New Haven militiacalled the Second Company of Governor’s Foot Guard. When the Battles at Lexington and Concordsignaled the start of the conflict, his men were ready to march. Well...maybe not so fast. The militia was ready to go, but the New Haventown council led by David Wooster had a meeting and decided that they should wait for regularorders. Consequently, they refused to release anygunpowder to the soldiers. Back then, because gunpowder was so volatileand dangerous, a town’s entire supply was generally kept in one safe place - usually,a magazine or a church basement - and the keys were safeguarded carefully. Frustrated by the denial, Arnold confrontedWooster in a tavern and demanded the keys, saying that he intended to march even if hehad to break into the powder house. The town council relented and, after armingthemselves, the militia trooped to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Image suggestion: Powder House Day celebrationThis little moment of glory for Benedict Arnold is well-remembered in New Haven. Since 1904, the city commemorates it everyyear on April 22 as Powder House Day. On the Way to Fort TiconderogaArnold’s militia was on its way to take part in the Siege of Boston, but on the waymet Colonel Samuel Holden Parsons.

The two of them discussed the ContinentalArmy’s desperate need for artillery and brought up the fact that Fort Ticonderogaon Lake Champlain had plenty of cannons guarded only by a small force. They agreed that the fort would be a greatasset to them so, while Parsons continued his journey, Arnold went to Cambridge wherehe persuaded the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to fund his expedition to capture thefort. Image: Ethan AllenNow we arrive at the first instance where Arnold felt slighted by his own side. He was not the only one planning to attackFort Ticonderoga. A second militia from the New Hampshire Grantscalled the Green Mountain Boys were also on route. They were led by Ethan Allen, a man who wouldgo on to be one of the founders of Vermont. Arnold and Allen did not get along and thiswas the first in a series of rivalries that Benedict would have with fellow officers. Whether or not he was justified in his enmity,we cannot really say with certainty since both sides gave their own versions of thestory. Benedict Arnold had been made a colonel andhad official orders to lead the charge on Fort Ticonderoga. This did not mean anything to Allen who refusedto relinquish command nor to his Green Mountain Boys who would not obey the orders of anyother officer. They knew they had all the leverage becausethey accounted for the bulk of the military force. Eventually, Arnold had no choice but to concedeand accept Ethan Allen as the co-leader of the expedition. Some historians see it as even more insultingto Arnold.

They argue that he was only allowed to rideat the front of the military column alongside Allen for pure symbolism and had no actualauthority. We should mention that there was also a third,smaller force led by one Colonel James Easton who got along even worse with Arnold and theirrelationship eventually descended into violence. According to Arnold’s journal, he took theliberty of “breaking his head” and then challenging Easton to a duel. When the latter refused to relinquish hisother weapons and “draw like a gentleman”, Arnold kicked him “very heartily” andtold him to leave the point. Taking the Fort Despite the animosity between Arnold and hisfellow officers, the attack on Fort Ticonderoga was an unmitigated success. During the early hours of May 10, 1775, around80 soldiers crossed Lake Champlain undetected and snuck into the fort, taking the Britishgarrison by surprise. The militia managed to capture the citadelwithout any fatalities. From there, the men also took the nearby FortGeorge and Fort Crown Point which had even fewer soldiers guarding them. This victory was cause for celebration. According to Arnold’s journal, the GreenMountain Boys broke into the rum supply and drank themselves into a stupor. Meanwhile, his own captains started to showup with additional men.

 Now that he had a sizable force on his side,Arnold sought to claim some glory for himself. His target was Fort Saint-Jean on the Canadianside of Lake Champlain. Like the other fortresses, it was poorly guarded,but it also had the HMS Royal George, the only major warship in those waters. It would have been a fitting prize for theambitious officer who knew that Ethan Allen would try to claim as much credit as possiblefor the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. Indeed, when he wrote his memoir, Allen neglectedto mention Benedict Arnold by name. A week after taking Ticonderoga, Arnold’smen rowed in small boats called bateaux and reached Fort Saint-Jean undetected. The element of surprise was enough to overpowerthe small garrison, but Arnold found out that a large British force was on its way fromMontreal. The capture of the fort turned into a raid. Arnold and his men took all the supplies theycould aboard the Royal George and sunk everything else. Image: USS EnterpriseArnold decided to rechristen the warship as the USS Enterprise. It became the first in a long line of prestigiousAmerican ships that carried that name - a tradition which, if Star Trek is to be believed,will continue hundreds of years into the future.

Ethan Allen and his men started to dispersefrom Fort Ticonderoga and Arnold assumed that he would take command. Instead, Colonel Benjamin Hinman arrived witha large force of 1,000 soldiers and orders from Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbullwhich said that Arnold would serve as his subordinate. Incensed by another perceived injustice, Arnoldresigned his commission and headed home. On the way, he learned that his wife had passedaway and, shortly after, Arnold himself was struck by gout, a painful disease which wouldplague him for the rest of his life. Disaster in CanadaDespite these setbacks, Arnold was not quite ready to give up on the military life justyet. Among others, he was of the opinion that theContinental Army’s next move should be to invade Quebec via their newly-gained footholdon Lake Champlain.

 This would deny the British a solid base ofoperations should they want to charge into New York. Again, Arnold was refused the opportunityto lead the expedition, with that honor going to Major General Philip Schuyler. He turned out to be quite a rarity in thathe was a Continental officer that Benedict Arnold actually got along with. However, he was stricken by illness and wasforced to relinquish command to Brigadier General Richard Montgomery. Image: Richard MontgomeryArnold convinced his superiors that a two-pronged attack would work better. He was given 1,100 men and a colonel’s commissionby George Washington himself and told to meet up with Montgomery’s forces and take QuebecCity. There was just one problem. In order for this assault to work, Arnoldhad to take his troops through the harsh wilderness of Maine and Quebec, over rough terrain, incold September weather. Almost half of his soldiers died or desertedbefore they reached their goal. Meanwhile, the British got wind of this plannedattack and shored up their defenses. The six hundred or so soldiers who remainedjoined up with an equal force commanded by General Montgomery and, on December 31, 1775,attacked Quebec City.

The battle was a disaster for the continentalforces. Montgomery died leading the assault. Most of his soldiers were killed, injured,or taken prisoner. The remaining forces fell under the commandof Benedict Arnold who sustained a leg injury during the fight. Instead of retreating, Arnold decided to maintaina siege on the city in the hopes that reinforcements would come. New units did arrive, commanded by David Wooster,the same man who didn’t want to supply Arnold’s militia with gunpowder. He was now a major general and took controlof the siege while Arnold traveled to Montreal. As a consolation prize, he found out thathe had been promoted to brigadier general for his efforts. Legal TroublesContinental forces gave up on Quebec City once British reinforcements were on the wayand it became clear that there was no salvaging that disastrous mission. Unsurprisingly, the enemy pressed their advantageand continued on to Montreal to gain back the territory they had lost in Canada. Arnold spent the rest of the year in Quebec,trying to slow down the advance of the British as much as possible.

He distinguished himself in two conflicts:the Battle of the Cedars and the Battle of Valcour Island. However, because it had been a while sincehe had an argument with another officer, Arnold brought charges of dereliction of duty againstGeneral Moses Hazen. He claimed that the latter refused to takegoods from Montreal merchants and send them to supply Arnold’s garrison. This led to a court-martial for Hazen, buthis rank, his service, and his connections ensured that he got off. In turn, he pressed counter charges againstArnold and had him court-martialed. Moreover, he was joined by two junior officerswho had their own issues with Arnold, John Brown and the aforementioned James Easton. Unlike Hazen, Arnold was never honorably acquittedof the accusations against him. Instead, General Horatio Gates intervenedand dissolved the arrest warrant, believing that the brigadier general was too valuablein battle to lose over legal matters. It certainly sounds like Gates was on thesame page as Arnold, but stick around because that will not last long. Meanwhile, in a rather prophetic move, JohnBrown was not content with the ruling in Arnold’s favor. He wanted the world to know what kind of manthe general was and distributed a pamphlet where he wrote of Benedict Arnold that “moneyis this man’s God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country”. Success at SaratogaWe are approaching the crowning achievement of Benedict Arnold’s military career - hisservice during the Battles of Saratoga.

However, it almost never happened because,once again, he wanted to resign his position. Arnold was angered by the fact that severaljunior officers, some of them his enemies, were promoted to major general ahead of him. It was only due to George Washington’s directinterference that he decided to postpone his resignation and, instead, serve under GeneralSchuyler at Saratoga. Eventually, Continental Congress promotedArnold to major general, but refused to reinstate his seniority, meaning that those junior officersstill remained his superiors. At Saratoga, Arnold found out not only ofCongress’ refusal to restore his seniority, but also that Schuyler had been replaced withGeneral Horatio Gates. The general might have defended Arnold duringhis court-martial, but their relationship soured quickly on the battlefield as theyhad opposing views on how to approach the military campaign. The first engagement occurred on September19 against British forces led by General John Burgoyne. Dubbed the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, itwas a pyrrhic victory for the British. They might have won the field, but they sufferedgreater casualties and failed to weaken the American position.

 Image: John BurgoyneMost of the success was due to Arnold who wanted to be aggressive and took his regimentsto meet the British head-on. However, he felt that he didn’t receiveproper credit in the reports written by Gates’s party and began butting heads with the superiorofficer. One shouting match got so heated that Gatesrelieved Arnold of command although, for an unclear reason, the latter remained in camp. This proved instrumental in the second clashat Saratoga known as the Battle of Bemis Heights. According to the conventional story, Arnoldignored Gates’s orders and charged into battle at a critical point, rallied the menand captured a British redoubt. It was also at this point that Arnold wasfirst shot in the leg and then had it crushed by his horse falling on it. A newly-discovered letter suggests that Arnoldhad his superior’s permission to engage, but this is besides the point. What matters is that Benedict Arnold ensureda victory for the Continental Army that played a pivotal role in the outcome of the RevolutionaryWar. A few days later, General Burgoyne surrenderedand this was the move that convinced France to enter the war as an ally against the British. In Charge of PhiladelphiaFollowing the Battles of Saratoga, Arnold took time off active duty to heal his injuries. In June 1778, after the British withdrew fromPhiladelphia, Washington placed him in command of the city. Image: Peggy ShippenHis new position provided Arnold ample opportunity to enrich himself through various shady businessdeals and questionable schemes.

This increase in status allowed the majorgeneral to meet the Shippens, one of the wealthiest, most influential families in Philadelphia. He fell in love with 18-year-old Peggy Shippenand the two married in April, 1779. It’s important to remember that, at thispoint in time, there were still people in the colonies who sympathized with the Britishgovernment. The Shippens were among them. Now, it’s impossible to say with certaintyhow influential Peggy was in getting her husband to switch sides, but she definitely exposedhim to a new circle of individuals who shared her views. Crucially, among them was British spy chiefMajor John André. In fact, historians believe that the two ofthem had a romantic tryst before Peggy married Arnold. Image: John AndreAround the same time, the general had been court-martialed for abusing his power in Philadelphia. He was found guilty on two charges of usinggovernment transport for personal use and issuing a pass for a ship he had a financialstake in. Arnold received a public chastising from GeorgeWashington who wrote that his sense of duty compelled him to decry the general’s actionsas “imprudent and improper”. Whether this was the straw that broke thecamel’s back or he had already made up his mind by this point, we don’t know. But Arnold had decided to betray his country. Betrayal at West PointMajor André acted as a middle-man between Benedict Arnold and Henry Clinton, the BritishCommander-in-Chief in North America. The offer was £20,000 and a general’s commission. In return, Arnold would surrender West Point,a military post on the Hudson River with significant strategic value. Image: West PointOn August 3, 1780, Arnold assumed command and began weakening the post’s defensesby delaying repairs, draining supplies, and reassigning troops. Communication was slow and dangerous betweenhim and the British so it wasn’t until late September that he met André again. The plot was exposed on September 23 whenthe spy was caught by militiamen who found incriminating papers on him that detailedthe entire plan.

André was taken into custody, but Arnoldfound out of his arrest in time to flee to British-controlled New York City aboard theHMS Vulture. Peggy managed to join him and the family movedto London following the end of the war. Major André was hanged as a spy. General Explains His ActionsIn early October, Arnold published an open letter titled “To the Inhabitants of America”to explain why he did it. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t because of hisconstant fights with other officers, or his illicit dealings, or his wife’s persuasions. It was because of the tyranny and corruptionof Congress and the leaders of the Continental Army. Arnold argued that once the British governmentsorted out the grievances of Americans, there was no reason why the colonies should notreturn to the British Empire. He also objected to America’s alliance withCatholic France. As you might expect, public reception to theletter was “unfavorable”, to say the least. Even though the treasonous plot failed, Arnoldwas still rewarded handsomely by the British Crown.

He was granted pay, pensions for his wholefamily, and a commission as brigadier general. However, he never distinguished himself inbattle for the remainder of the war. Arnold’s life after his betrayal was, fittingly,bereft of any triumphs. He made several bad business deals in Londonand Saint John, New Brunswick, and had to deal with multiple lawsuits. His propensity to anger his peers continuedon the other side of the pond and, in 1792, Arnold fought a bloodless duel with JamesMaitland, the Earl of Lauderdale. His gout had gotten worse and affected hisgood leg. Eventually, he died in a state of deliriumin 1801, aged 60, leaving behind an indebted estate. In the centuries that followed, “BenedictArnold” became synonymous with “traitor” in the United States, with very few peopleremembering (or caring, for that matter) about his service in the war prior to his betrayal. The only people still troubled by Arnold arehistorians who still struggle, to this day, to find the most accurate perspective to lookat one of the country’s most controversial figures.