Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold (born January 14, 1741, Norwich, Connecticut [U.S.]—died June 14, 1801, London, England) served the cause of the American Revolution as an officer until 1779, when he shifted his allegiance to the British. In 1780 he offered to surrender West Point to the British, and he led a British attack on New London, Connecticut, in 1781. His name became an epithet for traitor in the United States.

A hero with enemies

Upon the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington, Massachusetts, in April 1775, Arnold volunteered for service and participated with Ethan Allen in the successful colonial attack on British-held Fort Ticonderoga in New York a few weeks later, on May 10.

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Understanding the American Revolution

That autumn Arnold was appointed by General George Washington to command an expedition to capture Quebec. He marched with 700 men by way of the Maine wilderness, a remarkable feat of leadership and endurance, and, reinforced by Gen. Richard Montgomery, he attacked the well-fortified city. The combined assault was carried out on December 31, 1775, but it failed, Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was severely wounded.

Promoted to the rank of brigadier general, Arnold constructed a flotilla on Lake Champlain and inflicted severe losses on a greatly superior enemy fleet near Valcour Island, New York, on October 11, 1776. He returned a hero, but his rash courage and impatient energy had aroused the enmity of several officers.

When in February 1777 Congress created five new major generalships, Arnold was passed over in favor of his juniors. Arnold resented this affront, and only Washington’s personal persuasion kept him from resigning.

Disillusionment and betrayal

Two months later, in April 1777, Arnold repelled a British attack on Danbury, Connecticut. He was made a major general, but Arnold’s seniority was not restored, and he felt his honor impugned. Again he tried to resign, but in July 1777 he accepted a government order to help stem the British advance into upper New York.

Arnold won a victory at Fort Stanwix (now Rome) in August and commanded advance battalions at the Battle of Saratoga that autumn, fighting brilliantly until seriously wounded. For his services he was restored to his proper relative rank.

Crippled from his wounds, Arnold was placed in command of Philadelphia in June 1778. There he socialized with families of loyalist sympathies and lived extravagantly. To raise money, he violated several state and military regulations, arousing the suspicions and, finally, the denunciations of Pennsylvania’s supreme executive council. These charges were then referred to Congress, and Arnold asked for an immediate court-martial to clear himself. Meanwhile, in April 1779, he married Margaret (Peggy) Shippen, a young woman of loyalist sympathies.

Early in May 1779, Arnold made secret overtures to British headquarters, and a year later he informed the British of a proposed American invasion of Canada. In July 1780 he revealed that he expected to obtain the command of the fort at West Point in New York—which happened in August—and through his British contact, Major John André, he asked the British for £20,000 for betraying this post.

When André was captured by the Americans, Arnold escaped on a British ship, leaving André to be hanged as a spy. The sacrifice of André made Arnold odious to loyalists, and his reputation was further tarnished among his former neighbors when he led British forces in a raid that burned New London, Connecticut, and killed dozens on September 6, 1781.

At the end of 1781, denounced as a traitor to America, Arnold went to England. Unable to obtain a regular commission in the British army, he later pursued various business ventures, including land speculation in Canada. Arnold returned to England in 1791, but he left to spend several years privateering in the West Indies before permanently settling in London, where he died in 1801.