BENEDICT ARNOLD

 

When I was growing up, if someone was talking about a traitor, they would call that person a Benedict Arnold. Imagine doing something so heinous that your name is forever linked with it. Like Burke and Hare. Well, Burke, that is. But I’ve noticed a weird thing of late. No one calls anyone a Benedict Arnold anymore. I think it’s because the idea of treason is so permissible in our current political climate that it doesn’t matter anymore. The previous president committed treason almost every single time he opened his mouth to say something. And the sick thing is, he didn’t even do it for the enemy. He did it for personal gain and nothing else. 

 

But we’re not here to talk about that loathsome toad. Instead I want to take a look at Benedict Arnold, the man. I can’t condone his traitorous actions, but I can see why he did the things he did. His choices didn’t just come out of the blue. 

 

A Connecticut boy, Arnold was born to a wealthy mother who somehow wound up stuck with his father, a wastrel who drove their estate directly into the ground. (Oddly enough his father and his father’s father were also named Benedict Arnold.) So our Arnold knew what it was like to live in poverty to the point that three of his siblings died of Yellow Fever. 

 

Naturally Arnold got into some shit. Because of his father’s excessive drinking and spending, Arnold had to be pulled out of school, where he found himself with a lot of time on his hands to get into trouble. His mother set him up with a cousin’s apothecary business, where he apprenticed for a bit. He took breaks every once in a while to fight in the French and Indian War, and this experience showed him that he did, indeed, like being a soldier. 

 

But in the meantime his mother also fell prey to Yellow Fever, and not long after his father, who had a history of getting arrested, finally died. 

 

Arnold soon got into trade relations with the West Indies, owning three ships with a partner, but British taxation and restrictions ate at him until the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act, the latter of which you probably heard a lot about in elementary school and promptly forgot about as soon as you knew you wouldn’t be tested on it. 

 

That’s what drove him to join the Sons of Liberty, thus setting him down the path to his eventual betrayal. 

 

He promptly joined the Continental Army and started hanging out with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. They acted swiftly in attacking Ft. Ticonderoga, taking it with surprising ease. The only problem was, Arnold got permission from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to lead the battle while Allen, due to his leadership of the Green Mountain Boys, refused to give in. Arnold lost that one, and it wouldn’t be the first of his clashes with fellow officers. Another case in point: Col. James Easton was supposed to deliver the good news of the fort’s capture to their Massachusetts superiors. Arnold wanted the honor for himself. I’ll let Arnold speak for himself on this one: “I took the liberty of breaking his head, and on his refusing to draw like a gentleman, he having a hanger on his side and a case of loaded pistols in his pocket, I kicked him very heartily and ordered him from the Point immediately.” 

 

So Arnold didn’t take shit from anyone, really. Perhaps the only reason he relented with Allen was because of the Boys, who were known as “rowdy, rough and tumble fighters.” 

 

Easton, as you would expect, didn’t take well to being thrashed by Arnold. When Easton reported the capture of Ft. Ticonderoga, he downplayed Arnold’s role significantly. While he did this, Arnold and Allen decided that their next step should be an invasion of Canada. And then Col. Benjamin Hinman was sent by the Connecticut governor to take over command of the fort. Allen had no problem stepping down, but Arnold? Headstrong as always, he wanted to plow ahead and kill more redcoats. He paid the price for his hubris: he was stripped of his ships and men, essentially abandoned by the home that he loved so much. 

 

The turd on top of this shit sandwich: when he returned home after Ft. Ticonderoga he discovered that his wife had died in his absence. Notice a pattern? 

 

Oh yeah, and he only got a teeny-tiny bit of the money owed to him by the Continental Congress. That pissed him off. He had to go before the Congress before he was finally granted the rest of what was owed to him. 

 

It turns out that George Washington also thought it would be a good idea to invade Canada, Quebec in particular. It would cut the British off the continent and would ensure safety from an invasion from above. He also thought that Arnold should be involved. But not as the commander. No, he gave that honor to General Phillip Schuyler. That stuck in Arnold’s craw. He felt that he should be in charge. But he girded his loins and set off with his invasion forces. 

 

The going was bad. You can’t win a land war in Asia, and you should not invade Canada in the winter. It was cold and brutal. The going was rough. They weren’t supplied well enough. It’s not surprising that a great number of Americans deserted the invasion force. As they got closer to Quebec, Arnold thought he would need some updated intelligence on what he was about to face, so he sent a letter back home. Unfortunately that letter fell into enemy hands, and they now knew to expect Arnold’s invasion. They bolstered the city’s defenses, and even though Arnold got reinforcements, they didn’t stand a chance against the British. 

 

This is where Arnold got shot in the leg and had to fall back. That didn’t stop him from shouting orders the whole time. But while a competent officer took over for him, it became very clear that the redcoats were going to win. Arnold refused to give in, but there wasn’t much he could do with a horrible leg wound. 

 

(A side note: Aaron Burr also fought at Quebec. I wasn’t able to find out if they knew each other or even liked each other, but I find it quite interesting that most of the Founding Fathers did not actually fight in the Revolutionary War, Washington being the very obvious exception. Yet here are the two most notorious Americans of the time actually doing the grunt work. Something to think about.) 

 

They took Arnold to Montreal, where he convalesced, and when he was ready he rejoined soldiers on an intercept mission to Lake Champlain. He suspected the British would run an invasion force down from the lake, and he was right. He constructed a flotilla that ambushed the redcoats and soundly handed them their asses. 

 

It’s hard to play what-if sometimes, but it’s entirely possible that if Arnold hadn’t done this, we might still be under British rule. It can’t be stressed enough: Benedict Arnold saved America from being stillborn. 

 

But Arnold made a lot of enemies, and it infuriated him when five junior officers were promoted over him. He should have been next in line. Angered and frustrated, he handed in his resignation to Washington. Washington, possibly the only person in Arnold’s corner, convinced him to stay with the army, which he did. He was sent to battle the British in central New York under the banner of General Horatio Gates. 

 

Not surprising, Arnold fucking hated Gates, and the feeling was mutual. They argued so much that at one point Gates relieved Arnold of his command. Arnold defied this order and led a bunch of soldiers against the British line. It was a surprise attack, and it had the desired effect. Shortly after, the British surrendered at Saratoga. 

 

Here is another moment where Benedict Arnold, America’s most hated traitor, saved America’s bacon. Because of his victory here, the French decided to join the war on America’s side. Without this happening, it is very possible that, once again, we would still be under British rule. 

 

Incidentally, it was here that his horse was shot out from under him, landing on the same leg that had been injured at Quebec. That put him out of action for a while, and unsurprisingly Gates took credit for Saratoga. No glory or recognition for Arnold. 

 

Are you seeing another pattern? 

 

He was promoted, but it was too little, too late. Arnold harbored hatred for the Continental Congress in his heart, and it would never go away, not even when, after Philadelphia was cleared of redcoats, he was named Commandant of the City. (Or Military Governor, depending on which account you read.) 

 

During this time he met his second wife, Peggy Shippen. Some say this was the turning point in his life, the thing that led to his betrayal of his own country. Shippen had some loyalist ties, and more to the point, she knew John Andre and probably introduced the two of them. If you don’t know John Andre, you will in a moment. 

 

Arnold and his new wife lived beyond their means. There were rumors that he was abusing his office for his own gain. That could be, but remember that everyone hated Arnold, so it’s possible that they were just rumors. One way or the other, they found themselves over their heads in debt. Arnold believed that had he been properly promoted he would never have been in this situation. Soon he found himself charged of a lot of crimes, but the two that stuck were using government wagons for his personal use and giving a pass to a ship that he was invested in. Found guilty and court martialed, it only embittered him more against the country he fought so hard to found. 

 

Enter John Andre. He and Arnold started talking, and before long Andre had convinced Arnold to betray his country. He started out passing information on troop locations to Andre. And then came the betrayal that broke the camel’s back. Arnold found himself in command of West Point. What better gift to make to the British? 

 

Well, not a gift. He was offered twenty thousand pounds and a commission in the British military for West Point, and he took them up on it. After all, if no one in the colonies could appreciate his work, fuck ‘em. 

 

Unfortunately for Arnold, Andre was captured trying to get this information over the British lines. The papers clearly showed Arnold’s treason, and while Andre was busy getting executed, Arnold fled over the line and was protected by the British. He didn’t get all of his money, since West Point remained in American hands, but he had his life. 

 

Oddly enough, word of Arnold’s treason spread and helped raise morale on the American side. Washington, formerly Arnold’s only ally, issued orders that he was to be shot on sight. The Continental Army fought with renewed vigor which helped win more battles. In a backwards kind of way, Arnold saved America a third time. 

 

The British made him a brigadier general, but they never really trusted him. They never let him lead important charges, and they let him be in charge of a few tasks that wouldn’t interfere with the overall war. 

 

When it was all over Arnold and his family moved to London, where he tried his hand at several business ventures and failed each and every one of them. No one trusted him. Almost everyone hated him. 

 

He died on June 14, 1801, aged sixty, without a penny to his name. 

 

I’ll let Benjamin Franklin have the final word on Benedict Arnold. In a letter to the Marquis De Lafayette, written when Arnold’s treason was fresh, Franklin compared him to Judas. Franklin added that it was “a miserable bargain especially when one considers the quantity of infamy he has acquired to himself and entailed on his family.”