Note—This is an epically long
post as befits the career and complexity of its subject. Pour yourself a favorite beverage and settle
in for a read.
If
only he had died of his wounds after
the Saratoga Campaign—or better yet,
had completely recovered and not fallen
for the wiles of a teenage
temptress, or nursed the bitterness of a petty jealous grudge Benedict Arnold would be celebrated today as one of the greatest
military heroes of the American Revolution
on one hand or risen on that reputation to almost any political position he desired after the war, perhaps to the Presidency itself. But he threw
it all away to die an un-trusted
traitor exile in the lands of his old enemy.
Young
Benedict Arnold, the most recent of a long line of that name, was born
on January 14, 1741, the eldest surviving
son of an old colonial family. His father,
also named Benedict was a wealthy merchant
and respected citizen of their hometown,
Norwich, Connecticut. The boy was
schooled locally with the intention that he should go to Yale College to prepare to join his father’s business.
But
after all but one of his sisters died in childhood in the space of a few years, the elder Arnold took to drink and eventually lost his business
and his fortune. Instead of being sent to
Yale, his mother arranged for him to be apprenticed
to an apothecary to help support
the family. He was bound for seven years service.
In
1757 Arnold found relief from the
drudgery of shop life when he enlisted
in the Connecticut Militia at age 16 for service in the French and Indian Wars. He marched with an untrained Militia column to the front around Albany, New
York and Lake George. But the relief force got word that Fort William Henry had fallen after a siege and that French native auxiliaries had been allowed to commit atrocities on the survivors including
women and children who had taken refuge there. The Militia fell back in a near panic
before ever contacting the enemy.
Muster rolls indicate that
Arnold served just 13 days giving rise to unsubstantiated
lore that he deserted out of disgust and
contempt for the rabble that was the Militia. In likelihood, however, he was released at the request of his mother
who had opposed his dreams of military glory, because he was the sole support
of his family.
Arnold’s
mother, to whom he was devoted, died
in 1759 worsening his father’s chronic alcohol
abuse—he was arrested for public drunkenness and denied communion in the local church, a sign of complete pariah status. His young son buckled down to
support his sister and failing father.
After
his father finally died in 1761, Arnold moved to the capital of New Haven where
he opened his own successful pharmacy and book shop. The
business prospered. Arnold borrowed money from his mother’s
wealthy kin the Lanthrops to repurchase
the family home that his father had squandered away. Unsentimentally,
he turned around and sold the
property within a year at a tidy profit. After re-paying the loan he had enough left
over to form a trading company with
another young merchant, Adam Babcock. They bought three ships and entered the lucrative West Indies Trade.
He
brought his surviving sister Hannah to
New Haven to manage the apothecary
shop while he was often away in command
of one of his own trading ships plying
waters as far north as Quebec
and all of the Colonial ports and
rich Caribbean isles.
Until
the Sugar and Stamp Acts curtailed his business, Arnold had taken no part in the
growing political restiveness with
British in the Colonies. Although he
joined the Sons of Liberty he took
no part in public demonstrations
preferring to serve the cause—and his own purse by continuing his trading
operations as a smuggler.
Difficulties
in dodging the Royal Navy cut into his income and he was soon in
debt by £16,000, an enormous sum, and facing bankruptcy and debtors’ prison.
On January 27, 1768 Arnold watched,
and likely supervised as a mob of Sons of Liberty attacked and roughed up a would-be informant to the British of about
his smuggling activities. Arnold was arrested, found guilty of disorderly
conduct, and fined 50 schillings. It could have been much worse. And the publicity
around the prosecution made Arnold a local
celebrity and Patriot hero.
A
month later Arnold conveniently married
Margaret Mansfield, daughter of Samuel Mansfield, the Sheriff of New Haven. His new father
in law provided some shield from prosecution by Arnold’s creditors. The couple had three children, including yet
another Benedict, before she died while her husband was away at war during the
Revolution.
As
tensions rose, Arnold returned to his business only attending a Sons of Liberty
meeting while ashore and taking no leading role. He was at sea when the Boston Massacre and the event that came to be called much later the
Boston Tea Party happened, but took
note of hearing of them in his personal
journal.
He
was, however, home in New Haven when actual
fighting broke out at Lexington and
Concord in April of 1775. Once
again he responded to the Militia call and this time as elected the Captain of
his company as befitted a man of his
station in life. Within a month
Connecticut troops were marching to join the army besieging the British in Boston.
Arnold
had not been on the scene long before he conceived of an audacious plan and took it to the Committee of Safety which was trying to organize an army. He proposed a surprise attack on Fort
Ticonderoga at the southern end of Lake
Champlain, probably the most
important inland strategic point in the Colonies, lying on the traditional invasion rout from Canada. The fort had been built by the French but
following the settlement of the Seven
Years War—the global conflict of
which our French and Indian Wars were just a part—the fort and French North America—Quebec and Upper Canada—had been ceded
to the British.
A
state-of-the-art modern masonry star fort should have been virtually
impregnable. But Arnold somehow had information that it
was lightly garrisoned since there
was no threat of a French invasion to defend against and troops were need
elsewhere to cow the upstart colonists.
The fort also housed a substantial
arsenal of powder and shot, stands of musket ready to arm militia forces or native
auxiliaries, and housed one of the largest concentrations of heavy artillery in the country.
The
Committee immediately saw the importance of such a mission and commissioned
Arnold to carry it out with the rank of Colonel. They did not, however, have troops to spare
around Boston for the project. He was
sent out to scrounge men how ever he could.
He made for Bennington in the
wilds of the Hampshire Grants where
he knew of an already formed force perfect for his raid.
The
Hampshire Grants, the territory now known as Vermont (The Green Mountain),
was claimed in whole or in part by
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
and New York. It was settled by hardy pioneer farmers from Massachusetts and Connecticut largely on
the basis of questionable land warrants. When New York attempted to assert sovereignty and either oust or tax those who they considered squatters. Firebrand
Ethan Allen had organized his Green
Mountain Boys for a virtual guerilla
war against New York surveyors, would-be
settlers, Sheriffs, bailiffs, tax assessors, and judges who
tried to assert control. The conflict
had been ongoing since 1770. The Green
Mountain Boys were tough, experienced, relatively well disciplined, and from the point of view of New York as much brigands as militia.
Allen
was known to be a fierce Patriot. Less than
two weeks before the fighting in Lexington and Concord, he had convened the Winchester Convention which drafted
a blustery declaration against the King.
Arnold
found Allen not only amenable to the project, but found that he was already contemplating it. In fact,
he had gathered a force that included irregular
Connecticut and Massachusetts Militia men in addition to his own. The two strong
minded men joined forces, each not
entirely trusting the other. Allen insisted
on command but agreed to Arnold’s plan of operation and to
accept his advice.
The
combined force moved swiftly and without detection. They surrounded
the Fort before dawn on May 10, less than a month after the war broke
out. Only 83 men had made a boat crossing before the commanders decided
that it was too near dawn to risk further boats being spotted. By agreement Arnold and Allen together marched
at the head of a small unit and surprised the lone sentry at the gate, gaining admission into the Fort.
They
made straight way to the Commander’s
quarters where they roused Lieutenant
Jocelyn Feltham from his slumber.
The Lt. challenged their authority to enter the Fort to which Allen famously bellowed that
he demanded surrender in the name of “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental
Congress!” Allen would later claim
his demand was directed at the commander, but Captain William Delaplace was still groggily struggling with his
clothing. He emerged minutes later to
surrender his sword and 48 man
garrison. Without firing a shot Arnold
and Allen had won the most significant Colonial victory of the early months of the war.
The
colorful Ethan Allen would claim—and get—most of the credit for the raid. But he
and the Green Mountain Boys quickly left the Fort carrying with them a modest
amount of small arms and ammunition. The
post was left under Arnold’s command of a small garrison of mostly Connecticut
militia men. Arnold was concerned that
when they discovered what had happened, that the English would mount an attack down Lake Champaign to
regain the Fort. He made what
preparations he could and pled for reinforcements from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety.
But
those reinforcements came from an unexpected direction and source. In June 1000 Connecticut troops arrived under
the command of Colonel Benjamin Hinman who
asserted his authority to relieve Arnold of command at Ticonderoga and the other near-by strong hold
of Crown Point. Citing his Massachusetts commission and
orders, Arnold refused to be relieved.
He denied Hinman and his
troops access to the fort except under limited,
stringent conditions, interfered
with supply columns, and generally harassed Hinman. Finally, a delegation from Massachusetts was
summoned—and Arnold even impeded their journey when he discovered their
mission—to explain that Hinman and the Connecticut troops were acting in concert with Massachusetts.
Feeling his honor slighted,
Arnold resigned his commission and
left in a huff.
The
value of Ticonderoga would become
apparent in the coming months. Not only
did it become a jumping off point for
an invasion of Quebec later in the
year, but stout Henry Knox arrived
from the Siege of Boston to haul
many of the Fort’s guns by sledge across
the frozen New England landscape. The sight of their deployment on the heights across
from the city forced the British to abandon Boston to General George Washington’s new Continental Army.
So
that summer Arnold found himself without commission or command as plans were
being drawn up to attack Quebec via the traditional Lake Champlain route using
Ticonderoga as a jumping off point and supply base. He lobbied
Congress in Philadelphia for command
of that expedition. But Col. Hinman’s
reports of Arnold’s shenanigans,
which he reported as bordering on mutiny
and treason, soured powerful members
of Congress on him. Command of the
proposed invasion was given to New York Patroon
General Philip Schuyler and Anglo-Irish
General Richard Montgomery.
Instead,
Arnold went to Massachusetts to lay another project before Washington who was
settling into command of the Army. He proposed a second expedition against Quebec in support of the main attack. He would lead a force that would drive west across the wilderness
of what is now Maine to the St. Lawrence, perhaps provoke an uprising of the French settlers against their new
English masters, and lay siege to Quebec City itself in conjunction with
Montgomery’s Army. The audacious plan met with the approval of
Washington, who always liked daring,
surprise maneuvers and coordinated,
multi-pronged attacks. He
commissioned Arnold a Colonel in the Continental Army and gave him a
small force of Continental troops to accomplish the mission.
Arnold
had his men marched from Cambridge in
several contingents from September
8-11 to Newburyport where a small fleet was assembled to sail with
them to the mouth of the Kennebec River
hopefully eluding detection by the Royal
Navy. Sailing was delayed by fog and bad weather and the ships did not reach
their destination until 20th of the month and then spent another two days
sailing up the river to Gardinerston where
they spent another couple of days transferring their supplies to boats to
proceed further. Some of the force had
to be put to work building the bateaux, light, flat bottomed French style
boats capable of being portaged.
Sending
some supplies by boat, Arnold marched some of his men along the banks of the
river for 45 miles. From that point he sent out scouts to determine his route and began to hear reports of Mohawk and other English allied native
activity ahead. His forces were slowed down by the 12 mile portage known as the Great Carrying Place and then by boggy ground and rain. By now rations
were short and the large party was having a hard time feeding itself on
game despite the presence of Daniel
Morgan’s expert Pennsylvania
riflemen.
Arnold
dispatched messages to both Washington and Montgomery detailing his slow
progress. Unfortunately the letters to
Montgomery were intercepted revealing
the mission and robbing it of essential surprise.
Ascending
the Dead River in October was arduous. Currents
were too swift to pole against, then a torrential rainstorm flooded the camps. Some of the party went up a tributary by mistake, fooled by the
high water. Seven bateaux including
those carrying most of the remaining food supplies overturned and
the stores were lost. The rain and
flooding dampened powder as
well.
Nearly
starving and lagging far behind,
the main force 450 men under Lt.
Col. Enos turned back. Arnold
had already sent some sick and starving men from his lead force back to the
Maine settlements.
Various
sections of the army staggered into Lake Mégantic in the St. Lawrence Highlands over several
days at the end of October. Most were
starving. Some had been reduced to boiling shoes. Captain
Henry Dearborn’s
dog was eaten, even his bones
crushed to make soup.
At
this point they finally made contact with local French residents who supplied
the men with food and told Arnold that his plans had been discovered.
On
November 9 Arnold and 600 remaining men of his force, many in wrenched
condition finally arrived on the St. Lawrence at a point across the river from the Quebec City.
He managed to get his men across in a night crossing between picketing Royal Navy ships two days
later and formed on the Plaines of Abraham in front of the city
on the 13th. The walled city on the heights above
them was defended by a garrison of 150 Royal Highland Emigrants, 400 Royal
Marines from the ships patrolling the River, and several hundred untrained
and unreliable French speaking militia whose loyalty was suspect. Arnold advanced a Flag of Truce to demand the
surrender of the City. Officers
there could plainly see the condition of Arnold’s forces and wisely refused. Without any artillery to reduce the walls,
Arnold had no choice but to fall back
and wait on the arrival of Montgomery who had just taken Montreal.
Montgomery
arrived at Pointe-aux-Trembles on
December 3 and the combined forces now under Montgomery’s overall command laid
siege to the city. Weather continued to
deteriorate through the month of December.
The arrival of a major winter
storm would make the exposed
positions of the besieging army untenable. Finally Montgomery ordered a desperate attack on December 31.
It
was a disaster. Montgomery was killed, becoming the first American General to die and becoming
something of a folk hero, his death commemorated in a heroic painting. Arnold’s leg was shattered. Morgan and 350 of other men were captured. The army was forced to fall back to
Montreal where Arnold assumed command and learned that he had been promoted to Brigadier General. When the
British advanced on the city, Arnold led a brilliant rear guard action knowing that the English would not stop short of
Ticonderoga.
James Wilkinson, a young officer
who in later life would also become a notorious
traitor, noted that Arnold was the last man to depart the defenses at Saint Jean as the reinforced Red Coat Army advanced. Then Arnold hastily constructed his mosquito
fleet of gun boats on Lake Champlain. The little fleet was overwhelmed by the Royal Navy in October 1776 but by that time the
snow was beginning to fall and the English had to scrub plans to attack Ticonderoga for the year.
But
in 1777 they would make another try with an even bigger Army under the command
of General John “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne.
Although
somewhat overshadowed by the death of the gallant Montgomery, Arnold found
himself a national hero and held in high esteem by both Washington and the Commanding General of the North Department,
General Schuyler. Of course, being Arnold, he not so
secretly thought that he should have that new command. Back at Ticonderoga with not much to do
Arnold quickly entered controversies
with fellow officers narrowly escaping arrest on charge brought by an
officer he had brought charges against.
Some complained of his lavish
spending and suggested to Congress that his accounts were not in order. Then he made particular enemies of two junior
officers with significant political
connections to Congress.
Washington
rescued him from the hot water by giving him a new assignment—the defense
of Rhode Island following the
British seizure of Newport in
December 1776. On the way he visited his
children who had lost their mother while he was away. He wintered
mostly in Boston where he learned that he had been passed over for a promotion
to Major General. He offered Washington his resignation
which was refused, and Washington wrote Congress in an attempt to have the
decision reversed.
Arnold
decided to personally visit Philadelphia to lobby on his own behalf. But on his way south, he learned that a
British column was marching on the Continental supply base at Danville, Connecticut. Arnold quickly gathered a force of
Militia and along with General David
Wooster and Connecticut militia General
Gold S. Silliman met the British at the small but significant Battle of Ridgefield in which they intercepted the enemy column as it
attempted to return to the coast. In the
sharp engagement Wooster was killed
and Arnold was wounded for a second time in his left leg.
At
Philadelphia, given the vacancy left by Wooster and Arnold’s gallant service, Congress relented and
granted him his Major General commission.
But he was not granted seniority
retroactive to the earlier round of promotions over him. In a snit, he wrote another resignation to
Washington, who received it on the same day news arrived that Ticonderoga had fallen.
Instead Washington ordered him north to assist in the defense against
the advancing British.
On
July 24, 1777 Schuyler at Fort Edward ordered
him to take a force of 900 men to lift the siege of Fort Stanwix. As Arnold
closed in, he dispatched an Indian
messenger who spread word among Brigadier
General Barry St. Leger’s large force of
native auxiliaries that his force was treble
its actual size and much nearer than they were. The auxiliaries, who were savvy about picking their fights, melted away leaving St. Leger’s force
exposed and forcing him to lift the
siege and retreat.
When
Arnold returned to the Hudson, he
found that the army had retreated to a camp south of Stillwater and that General
Horatio Gates had assumed command.
Being Arnold, he once again felt snubbed for being passed over. Washington, from his headquarters, decided to
maneuver aggressively to meet the
British advance. He sent forces under
Arnold and General Benjamin Lincoln north
during the summer. When Washington
discovered that much of British Commanding
General Lord Howe’s
forces had been sent by ship to the
South rather than being available to drive
north up the Hudson to
joined up with Burgoyne, he reinforced
the army in the north with hundreds of men under General Israel Putnam and the 400 elite men of Daniel Morgan’s Rifle Corps, Morgan having been
released from British custody in a prisoner
swap.
Gates
ordered the now united army north to
take up a position astride the route that Burgoyne must take unless he made a long detour. Engineers
trained by the Polish officer Thaddeus
Kosciusko had time to dig in and erect
elaborate field fortifications at
Bemis Heights, just north of Stillwater and about 10 miles south of Saratoga. Gates had nearly 9000 troops both Continental
Regulars and Militia. Burgoyne who was
approaching with only the head of his Army had about 7000. Since the Militia was considered unreliable in
open field combat, Gates planned to wait for a frontal attack by the enemy and cut them to pieces from behind his fortifications.
Burgoyne
for his part was blind as most of
his “eyes”, his native auxiliaries,
had deserted after Arnold’s Fort Stanwix ruse.
He suspected a trap
but could not confirm it.
As
the enemy approached on the morning of September 19, Arnold realized that the left of the American line on
the heights was vulnerable to a
flanking maneuver through the woods.
He pleaded with Gates to allow him to take a significant force down from
the heights to meet such an attack using the American’s superior skills in fighting from the cover of woods.
Gates was reluctant but finally partially relented and allowed Arnold to
send out a reconnaissance in force led
by Daniel Morgan’s riflemen with support from Henry Dearborn’s light infantry.
As
he anticipated, Burgoyne split his forces into three columns and
sent his right, under General Simon
Frazier to flank the American left.
Morgan’s men advanced down to an open field on John Freeman’s farm where they saw advance units from the center column under General James Hamilton which had arrived ahead of the delayed
Frazier and were beginning to advance through the thick woods and across a deep ravine. Carefully choosing their targets, the expert riflemen picked off nearly every officer and many non-commissioned officers of this advance guard sending them reeling in confusion. Morgan ordered his men to charge, unaware that Frazier was
arriving on the scene, and they were attacking the main column. Some of Hamilton’s retreating men were fired
on by Frazier’s troops in the confusion.
Morgan had to retreat back to the woods where he resumed picking off
advancing troops.
The
fighting delayed the whole advance and frustrated the flanking plan. After a two hour lull, while Hamilton’s force
formed up for an assault and reinforcements in the form of several regiments
arrived from Gates. When the attack
resumed American fire, especially from Morgan’s riflemen, picked off more
British officers, and perhaps even more importantly, artillery crews. Several
guns were at least temporarily overrun
by the Americans. The English center
almost broke. Later in the day
the tide of battle turned somewhat, and the English were able to threaten both
the American right and left, which Arnold defended with additional
reinforcements from Gates.
When
darkness fell ending the fighting, the Americans fell back on their
entrenchments leaving the British in control of the battlefield, the
traditional definition of a tactical
victory. But
an extremely costly one.
Instead
of renewing the attack, Burgoyne delayed burying his dead and reorganizing. Then he
received a days old message from Henry
Clinton in New York that he
might possibly be able to attack American posts on the Hudson—Forts Montgomery and Clinton—then proceed north to relieve
Burgoyne. Gentleman Jim elected to wait
for Clinton. But Clinton dallied in New York then finally took
the American Forts on October 6 and his advance guard got no farther north than
the Livingston Estate Claremont on
the 16th. Clearly Clinton would be no
help to Burgoyne.
Meanwhile
Benjamin Lincoln and an army from Massachusetts set out to retake
Ticonderoga. They rolled up several minor
British outposts, spend a few days bombarding
the fort, then decided to bypass it
and proceed to link up with Gates.
While
all of this was going on Gates and Arnold were having a monumental falling out. Gates failed to even mention
Arnold in his official report of the
battle to New York Governor Henry
Clinton despite the fact that Arnold was in effective field command during the entire battle as Gates remained
well behind the lines in his tent and
the officers of the army all credited him with the de facto victory. The two generals got into a raging shouting match and Gates
relieved Arnold of his command. Arnold
requested re-assignment to
Washington’s main army, which Gates gladly granted. But Arnold did not leave. He kept to his tent, biding his time.
By
October 7, with Lincoln’s arrival Gates now had 12,000 men. The unreinforced Burgoyne’s forces were
reduced to 6,600, many of them beginning to suffer from hunger as supplies
dwindled. Burgoyne, ignoring advice from some senior officers to retreat, decided to
test the American left at Bemis Heights again
with a reconnaissance in force. With
Arnold relieved of duty, Gates took personal command of the left. Fighting began around 2 pm with Morgan’s men
once again doing their deadly work. The on
the right the Americans repelled a Grenadier bayonet charge with devastating
volleys at close range from behind tree cover. Then they counter charged breaking the flank and capturing senior officers. On the
left Morgan swept aside Canadian militia and native auxiliaries and engaged the
main attacking body under Frazier, who was killed in the action, and Burgoyne’s hat and coat were peppered with Yankee
balls. The English fell back in
confusion on their own entrenchments.
At
this point the enraged Arnold, who
had been drinking in camp, could no longer contain
himself. He rode out to join the action,
chased by an officer sent by Gates to order his return to camp. Arnold arrived in time to ride to the front
of Brigadier General Enoch Poor’s
men who were in pursuit of the English falling back on two redoubts of the British camp and the
thin line of Canadian Militia between them.
He led an attack on the first redoubt under the command of Lord Balcarres which was repulsed after
furious fighting.
Arnold
then rode through the Canadians, dodging their bullets to lead men under Brigadier General Ebenezer Learned on
an attack on the second redoubt, which was taken and whose commander, Hessian Heinrich von Breymann was
killed. In one of the last vollies fired by the defenders
before they were overwhelmed, Arnold was shot in the leg and his horse killed. The wounded leg was crushed under the falling horse.
As he lay bleeding on the field, Gates’s messenger finally caught up to
him with his orders to return to camp. The
gravely wounded Arnold was carried
there.
As
darkness fell Burgoyne’s Army was clearly
defeated. An attempted night raid by German troops to retake
the fallen redoubt was the last action.
Arnold’s
actions that day awed the army. His presence
on the field had electrified the troops. And it was
undoubtedly the single most
extraordinary act of mutinous bravery in American military
history. Gates, of course, was unimpressed
and unamused.
Burgoyne
retreated under cover of darkness later that night. He had lost over 1000 men in the two battles
including many of his most capable senior officers. On October 13 the pursuing Americans caught up to him near Saratoga and he had to surrender his army to Gates on the 17th.
The cut off troops at Ticonderoga had to negotiate a tricky retreat to
Quebec as well.
It
was a stunning and complete American victory and
considered the turning point of the war. In France news of the victory
pushed the King into open alliance
with the American’s—and alliance that would be critical to ultimate
victory.
Despite
Gate’s voracious protests, Arnold
was recognized as the hero of the Campaign.
As a reward he was restored to
seniority as a Major General. But he
was gravely wounded and unfit for field command. After
months of recovery, he rejoined the Army at winter quarters at Valley
Forge in May 1778 in advance of the coming campaign season. He was cheered by the Army, particularly
those who had served under him in the Saratoga campaign. That spring he participated along with other
officers in taking and signing a symbolic Oath of Allegiance to the United States.
He
was walking painfully with a limp, his shattered oft-wounded left leg now 2½
inches shorter than the
other. He asked Washington for
assignment as military commander of
Philadelphia after the British retreated from the city in June.
From
the beginning, he planned to use this position to enrich himself. He
considered it as no more than due for
his sacrificial service. He quietly entered several business deals,
took bribes to favor some merchants
over others as suppliers to the Army, and may have privately sold Army stores.
Meanwhile he lived lavishly
and allowed himself to be entertained at
the most fashionable homes in the city, including those known to be British sympathizers. At one such home he met lovely 18 year old Peggy Shippen whose father had done business with the British
during their occupation of the city.
Arnold wooed and won her. The two were married
in April 1779.
Meanwhile
Arnold’s plundering drew unwelcome attention. Other officers had benefited similarly in
their commands, it was even considered, marginally by some, as an acceptable and expected benefit of office.
But Arnold’s dealings were more flagrant than most and done under the
very nose of Congress which had returned to the city. When charges
of impropriety were publicly leveled, Arnold demanded a court martial to clear his name.
By
that time, under the influence of
the Tory Shippen family the aggrieved Arnold was toying with the idea of
changing sides. Peggy was able to
put him in touch with a former beau, the dashing Major John André who became a go-between
in tricky negotiations with General
Clinton in New York. André had just been
placed in charge of Clinton’s espionage
operations.
By
July Arnold was passing information
on American troop deployment and supply
depots using codes and invisible ink in letters sent via Peggy
and her ladies circle to André. He requested
£10,000 for his services. Clinton demurred at that sum but passed on
indications that it might be forthcoming if Arnold could provide information on
American defenses and dispositions along
the Hudson as he planned another drive to the north hoping to cut New England
off from the lower colonies.
Negotiations
broke off, however. Arnold was stuck
in Philadelphia where feeling was rising against Tories like the Shippen family and his own high handed business
dealings. His court martial was finally
convened in December 1779. Despite
prejudice against him by some members of the court, however, he was cleared of all but two minor charges of
corruption in January. Arnold launched a
letter writing campaign to publicize
the results and characterize them as a vindication.
Despite
Washington’s personal fondness for
Arnold—he sent a private letter
congratulating him on the birth of his son that spring—the General was forced
to issue a short, public censure:
The
Commander-in-Chief would have been much happier in an occasion of bestowing
commendations on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his
country as Major General Arnold; but in the present case, a sense of duty and a
regard to candor oblige him to declare that he considers his conduct [in the
convicted actions] as imprudent and improper.—George Washington, April 9, 1780.
That
rebuke was deeply humiliating. Then
Congress reopened old charges that he had misspent funds
on the Quebec invasion years earlier and concluded that he owed £1,000. Enraged, Arnold resigned his position in
Philadelphia but not yet in the
Army.
About
the same time old friend Philip Schuyler offered him an out—command of the critical American garrison at West Point on the Hudson, the key to
defenses to the north. Schuyler took
the matter up with Washington who at first would not commit. But on the strength of the possibility,
Arnold reopened his channels to André and Clinton. He stopped at West Point to inspect its defenses and sent a detailed
report as a sign of good faith
along with other intelligence.
He
returned to Philadelphia to sell his house and began to arrange the transfer of his assets to London.
By July 12, after a flurry of messages Arnold made clear that he
would surrender West Point upon
taking command for a price of £20,000,
£1,000 payable immediately in cash.
On
August 3, Washington finally made the appointment to the West Point
command. On the 22nd Peggy received word
that Clinton had agreed on the terms. Almost comic misadventures followed as the two
sides attempted to work out details. One
coded letter ended up in the hands
of Connecticut authorities but could not be read.
Arnold
and André finally met secretly face to face to work out the details on
October 21. André was in civilian clothes. The boat
he was supposed to take back to the city was fired upon and damaged by American troops forcing André to attempt
to return overland. Arnold wrote out passes to get him through the lines.
André
was captured by a militia patrol near Tarrytown on October 23. Incriminating
papers exposing the plot were immediately sent to Washington. Meanwhile André was sent by the officer in
charge of him, who knew nothing of the content of the papers, back to Arnold at
West Point. Washington’s spy chief quickly
sent a rider to retrieve him, but the escort was inexplicably allowed
to proceed to West Point to inform Arnold of the arrest.
Despite
Washington’s best efforts, Arnold was able to slip away from West
Point and was rowed down river to be picked
up by the damaged ship HMS
Vulcan, which had failed to retrieve André.
Arnold
boldly wrote to Washington requesting
safe passage out of Philadelphia for Peggy and his family, which the gentlemanly Commander granted, not yet
aware of the depth of her own involvement in the plot. Washington wrote to Clinton offering to exchange André for Arnold, but the
request was rebuffed. André was tied and hung as a spy in early October, his fate sealed by the earlier British execution of Patriot officer Nathan
Hale.
Washington
sent agents to the city to attempt
to kidnap Arnold, and they nearly succeeded but he changed his
quarters. Late in October he sailed from
New York to take up a British command
in the South. About the same time, he
sent a public letter attempting to defend his actions to the
American people. It was not well
received.
Arnold
was given a commission as a British Brigadier General with an annual income of several hundred Pounds
but paid him only £6,315 plus an annual pension of £360 for his treason because his plot had failed.
In
December 1780 Arnold commanded a force of more than 1,600 men which captured the Virginia capital of Richmond
sending the legislature and Governor Thomas Jefferson fleeing. Arnold’s force was pursued by Virginia
Militia and Continental troops under the Marquis
de Lafayette who was under the personal
orders of Washington to summarily
hang Arnold if captured. Arnold fell
back until reinforced and then raided in Virginia until Lord Cornwallis and the southern army arrived and relieved Arnold
of command.
Arnold
returned to New York where he proposed various aggressive raids on American economic
interests, almost all denied by Clinton.
But Clinton finally agreed to a raid on New London Connecticut causing damage estimated at $500,000 when Arnold burned the town and
its warehouses and captured Fort Griswold. But Arnold lost a third of his 1,700 man
command in the attack. Clinton concluded
he could afford no more such victories.
When
word of Cornwallis’s
surrender reached Clinton in New York in October 1781, he gave leave for
Arnold and his family to sail for London.
His active role on both sides of the
American Revolution was over.
In
England he was celebrated by the Tories, reviled by the Whigs who
were in the ascendency, and mistrusted in the Army. Public
opinion held him to be a traitor who could not be trusted. Every attempt to gain a new command, a position
in the government, or a sinecure in
the East India Company was turned down. He had a hard time getting along on a
Brigadier’s half pay and pension given Peggy’s lavish spending.
In 1785,
leaving Peggy and the younger children in London he and his son Richard from his first marriage
emigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick where they speculated in land and Arnold
returned to sea as a merchant trader.
After a successful first voyage, Arnold retrieved Peggy and the
children, settled various lawsuits
in London and Philadelphia and settled them in St. Johns. He was soon embroiled in still more lawsuits
and controversy about his business dealings and was so unpopular that a mob burned
him in effigy in front of his home.
The family was forced to return to London in 1791.
Controversy
and lawsuits dogged him. He fought a bloodless duel with the Earl of Lauderdale for impugning his honor in the House of Lords.
With
the outbreak of the French Revolution, he
outfitted a privateer to prey on French shipping and their Caribbean islands. He was
captured and imprisoned on Guadeloupe charged
with spying for the British and avoided hanging in a daring escape to the blockading
British ships. Then he organized
militias on British held islands to repel French threats. He was rewarded for this service with a large land grant held jointly with son
Richard in Upper Canada.
Back
in London in 1801 his health began to
fail. Gout crippled his good leg and he could no longer go to sea. He suffered dropsy and by summer was lapsing
into periods of fever and delirium. Arnold died on
June 14, 1801, at the age of 60. He left
Peggy a woefully small inheritance and a bad
reputation. He was, however, buried with full British military
honors.
In
America Arnold’s name became literally synonymous
with treason. His real contributions to the Revolutionary
war effort have been forgotten in the public mind except for military historians and Revolutionary period specialists. Still, there was a lingering affection for their old
commander among some of his troops despite it all. And some later admirers thought his contributions
deserved some recognition. But it was
always dicey.
A boot on a nameless monument commemorates the battlefield heroics of Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Bemis Heights. |
On
the old Bemis Heights battle ground of the Saratoga Campaign a small monument stands with a carved boot on it. The inscription reads “In memory of the most
brilliant soldier of the Continental army, who was desperately wounded on this spot,
winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution, and
for himself the rank of Major General.”
It omits a name. The monument was paid for by General John Watts DePeyster, a New
York Militia officer and noted military
historian.
No comments:
Post a Comment