AD 1781, when the British, under the command of the Traitor Benedict Arnold, burnt the towns of New London and Groton and spread desolation and woe throughout the region. When the British took control of Philadelphia in 1777, Peggy met John Andr, a charming, well-educated British officer. [3] Arnold was buried at St. Mary's Church in Battersea, England. His chaplain Rev. Apparently, Arnold also had self-confidence issues and his new wife Peggy wasn't helping the situation. It was General Arnold. [11], In 1755, Arnold was attracted by the sound of a drummer and attempted to enlist in the provincial militia for service in the French and Indian War, but his mother refused permission. At the end of 1781 Arnold went to England. Samuel Spring carried him to the makeshift hospital at the Htel Dieu. [37] He also had disagreements with John Brown and James Easton, two lower-level officers with political connections that resulted in ongoing suggestions of improprieties on his part. The most famous of these occurred on May 10, 1775, when Ethan Allen and his band of Green Mountain Boys, accompanied by Benedict Arnold, who held a commission from . The Hudson River Chain today After trying and failing to hand the fort at West Point over to the British, he joined the Royal Army and took . Arnold remained there until July 1781 and then returned to New York. [135] Jefferson Davis and other southern secessionist leaders were unfavorably compared to Arnold, implicitly and explicitly likening the idea of secession to treason. [75], Arnold's court martial on charges of profiteering began meeting on June 1, 1779, but it was delayed until December 1779 by Clinton's capture of Stony Point, New York, throwing the army into a flurry of activity to react. It just doesn't respect it", "Letter, Benedict Arnold to George Washington pleading for mercy for his wife", "Benedict Arnold: The Aftermath of Treason", "Saratoga National Historical Park Activities", "Saratoga National Historical Park Tour Stop 7", links to primary sources about Benedict Arnold before and after his treason, Arnold, Benedict (17411801), army officer | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, African Americans in the Revolutionary War, Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benedict_Arnold&oldid=1139478021, 18th-century American non-fiction writers, American expatriates in the United Kingdom, British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War, British people of the French Revolutionary Wars, British spies during the American Revolution, Businesspeople from New Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut militiamen in the American Revolution, Continental Army officers from Connecticut, Continental Army personnel who were court-martialed, Military personnel from Norwich, Connecticut, People of Connecticut in the French and Indian War, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2019, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2020, All articles with broken links to citations, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Benedict Arnold (17681795) (Captain, British Army in Jamaica), Henry Arnold (17721826) (Lieutenant, American Legion cavalry), Edward Shippen Arnold (17801813) (Lieutenant, British Army in India; see, James Robertson Arnold (17811854) (Lieutenant General, Royal Engineers), George Arnold (17871828) (Lieutenant Colonel, 2nd (or 7th) Bengal Cavalry). Congress restored Arnold's command seniority in response to his valor at Saratoga. "[144] The victory monument at Saratoga has four niches, three of which are occupied by statues of Generals Gates, Schuyler, and Morgan. Arnold purchased large tracts of land in the Maugerville area, and acquired city lots in Saint John and Fredericton. BENEDICT ARNOLD REMAINS the most notorious man in American history, his name a synonym for traitor. Arnold's letters continued to detail Washington's troop movements and provide information about French reinforcements that were being organized. According to W. D. Wetherell, he was: [A]mong the hardest human beings to understand in American history. Lee Moran. In a July 11 letter, he complained that the British did not appear to trust him, and threatened to break off negotiations unless progress was made. On August 15, he received a coded letter from Andr with Clinton's final offer: 20,000[b] and no indemnification for his losses. [139] However, not all depictions of Arnold were so negative. However, Arnold was a prominent figure in the American Revolution and, for a time, was a distinguished war hero who simply became . "[102], The British gave Arnold a brigadier general's commission with an annual income of several hundred pounds, but they paid him only 6,315 plus an annual pension of 360[b] for his defection because his plot had failed. 2. [12] In 1757 when he was 16, he did enlist in the Connecticut militia, which marched off toward Albany, New York, and Lake George. [137] A moralistic children's tale entitled "The Cruel Boy" was widely circulated in the 19th century. [1] Answer (1 of 54): Go up to most British people and ask who Benedict Arnold was, and you will get a resounding "who?" back. [113] Other attempts all failed to gain positions within the government or the British East India Company over the next few years, and he was forced to subsist on the reduced pay of non-wartime service. [46] During the fighting in the second battle, Arnold disobeyed Gates' orders and took to the battlefield to lead attacks on the British defenses. Arnold didn't die a heroic death, or even a cowardly death. [74] Furthermore, revolutionary mobs were scouring Philadelphia for Loyalists, and Arnold and the Shippen family were being threatened. I used the widely accepted 1910 translation by the sinologist Lionel Giles, available in various . He received a colonel's commission in the Continental Army for this expedition and left Cambridge in September 1775 with 1,100 men. (Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't count; he's British.) . He engaged in a variety of business deals designed to profit from war-related supply movements and benefiting from the protection of his authority. [1][7] Arnold was the fourth surviving member of his family named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold I, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island; his grandfather (Benedict Arnold II) and father, as well as an older brother who died in infancy, were also named for the colonial governor. He organized the militia response, along with David Wooster and Connecticut militia General Gold Selleck Silliman. He arrived before Quebec City in November, after a difficult passage in which 300 men turned back and another 200 died en route. The crowd of hundreds of people was quiet. Although he was unsuccessful, his attempt to betray George Washington and his American forces . Scholastica, the founder of the Benedictine sisters, was Benedict's sister. [a][133] Historical markers in Danvers, Massachusetts, and Newburyport, MA commemorate Arnold's 1775 expedition to Quebec. His ventures met with mixed success. In 1787, he moved to Canada to run a merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry. general, has a name that's become synonymous with deceit and. These charges were then referred to Congress, and Arnold asked for an immediate court-martial to clear himself. Benedict Arnold's reasons for betraying America were extraordinarily complex. [113] George Johnstone turned him down for a position in the East India Company and explained: "Although I am satisfied with the purity of your conduct, the generality do not think so. [18] On one of his voyages, he fought a duel in Honduras with a British sea captain who had called him a "damned Yankee, destitute of good manners or those of a gentleman". [62], Wetherell says that the shortest explanation for his treason is that he "married the wrong person". [1] Only he and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood; his other siblings died from yellow fever in childhood. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Needed repairs were never ordered on the chain across the Hudson. 1:38. In April of 1775, after learning about the conflicts at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, Arnold organized his men in preparation for a march to Cambridge to aid in the fight against the British . Omissions? Arnold had three sons with Margaret Mansfield:[150][151]. He returned a hero, but his rash courage and impatient energy had aroused the enmity of several officers. After Arnold was wounded in 1777, George Washington named him military governor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recently abandoned by the British. Letters were to be passed through the women's circle that Peggy Arnold was a part of, but only Peggy would be aware that some letters contained instructions that were to be passed on to Andr, written in both code and invisible ink, using Stansbury as the courier. Benedict Arnold passed away on 3 March 1849. Because of the constant agony of two battlefield wounds in an already gout-ridden leg? When his British contact, Maj. John Andr, was captured by the Americans, Arnold escaped on a British ship, leaving Andr to be hanged as a spy. They issued him a colonel's commission on May 3, 1775, and he immediately rode off to Castleton in the disputed New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) in time to participate with Ethan Allen and his men in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. One plaque bears only a rank and a date but no name: "major general born 1740". His father was a successful businessman and young Arnold was educated in private schools. Arnold's Family Life Was Messy By The Time He Was 20. [16] He was hardworking and successful, and was able to rapidly expand his business. She couldand did. "No one has betrayed those in uniform like Donald Trump ," said the voiceover in the latest ad . [9], Arnold's father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. [55], Arnold lived extravagantly in Philadelphia and was a prominent figure on the social scene. Neither side knew for some days that the other was in agreement with that offer, due to difficulties in getting the messages across the lines. They had no reason to suspect that Gen. Benedict Arnold, the new commander of the post, would be less than a gracious host. 8. The arched, double-door main entrance provided a stately, picturesque quality to the home. She exerted powerful influence on her husband, who is said to have been his own man but who actually was swayed by his staff and certainly by his wife. He was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold who was once governor of the colony of Connecticut. By. However, British casualties were high; nearly one quarter of the force was killed or wounded, and Clinton declared that he could ill afford any more such victories. He was on his way home from Ticonderoga when he learned that his wife had died earlier in June. Benedict Arnold was born on Jan. 14, 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. This plan very nearly succeeded, but Arnold changed living quarters prior to sailing for Virginia in December and thus avoided capture. He was a war hero who persistently fought for America's independence. Through the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 1780 the two plotted. [24] Arnold initially took no part in any public demonstrations but, like many merchants, continued to do business openly in defiance of the Parliamentary Acts, which legally amounted to smuggling.