_To the Honorable Horatio Gates, Esq., Major-General in the Army
of the United States of America, commanding at Albany_.
Humbly sheweth, that, in the month of February last, Brig.-Gen.
Arnold transmitted to the honorable Continental Congress, an
unjustifiable, false, wicked, and malicious accusation against
me, and my character as an officer in their service, at the time
when I was under his immediate command; that, had there been the
least ground for such an accusation, the author thereof had it in
his power--indeed, it was his duty--to have me brought to a fair
trial by a general court-martial in the country where the
pretended crime is said to have originated; that I was left to
the necessity of applying to Congress, not only for the charge
against me, but for an order for a court of inquiry on my own
conduct in respect thereto; that, in consequence of my
application, I obtained a positive order of Congress to the then
general commanding the Northern Department for a court of
inquiry, before whom I might justify my injured character; that
the said order was transmitted to your Honor at Ticonderoga, in
the month of August last; and, notwithstanding the most ardent
solicitations on my part, the order of Congress has not yet been
complied with; that, upon my renewing my application to your
Honor for a court of inquiry, you were pleased to refer me to the
Board of War.
Thus I have been led an expensive dance, from generals to
Congress, and from Congress to generals; and I am now referred
to a Board of War, who, I venture to say, have never yet taken
cognisance of any such matter; nor do I think it, with great
submission to your Honor, any part of their duty. I must
therefore conclude, that this information, from the mode of its
origin, as well as from the repeated evasions of a fair hearing,
is now rested upon the author's own shoulders.
I therefore beg that your Honor will please to order Brig.-Gen.
Arnold in arrest for the following crimes, which I am ready to
verify, viz.:--
1. For endeavoring to asperse your petitioner's personal
character in the most infamous manner.
2. For unwarrantably degrading and reducing the rank conferred on
your petitioner by his (Gen. Arnold's) superior officers, and
subjecting your petitioner to serve in an inferior rank to that
to which he had been appointed.
3. For ungentlemanlike conduct in his letter to Gen. Wooster, of
the 25th of January last, charging your petitioner with a
falsehood, and in a private manner, which is justly chargeable on
himself.
4. For suffering the small-pox to spread in the camp before
Quebec, and promoting inoculation there in the Continental army.
5. For depriving a part of the army under his command of their
usual allowance of provisions, ordered by Congress.
6. For interfering with and countermanding the order of his
superior officer.
7. For plundering the inhabitants of Montreal, in direct
violation of a solemn capitulation, or agreement, entered into
with them by our late brave and worthy Gen. Montgomery, to the
eternal disgrace of the Continental arms.
8. For giving unjustifiable, unwarrantable, cruel and bloody
orders, directing whole villages to be destroyed, and the
inhabitants thereof put to death by fire & sword, without any
distinction to friend or foe, age or sex.
9. For entering into an unwarrantable, unjustifiable & partial
agreement with Capt. Foster for the exchange of prisoners taken
at the Cedars, without the knowledge, advice, or consent of any
officer then there present with him on the spot.
10. For ordering inoculation of the Continental Army at Sorel,
without the knowledge of, and contrary to the intentions of the
general commanding that Northern Department; by which fatal
consequences ensued.
11. For great misconduct in his command of the Continental fleet
on Lake Champlain, which occasioned the loss thereof.
12. For great misconduct during his command from the camp at
Cambridge, in the year 1775, until he was superseded by Gen.
Montgomery, at Point Aux-Tremble, near Quebec.
13. For disobedience of the orders of his superior officers,
while acting by a commission from the Provincial Congress of the
Province of Massachusetts Bay; and for a disobedience of the
orders of a committee of the same Congress, sent from that State
to inspect his conduct, and also for insulting, abusing, and
imprisoning the said committee; as also for a _treasonable
attempt_ to make his escape with the navigation men, at or near
Ticonderoga, to the enemy at St. Johns, which oblidged the then
commanding officer at Ticonderoga and its dependencies to issue a
positive order to the officers commanding our batteries at Crown
Point, to stop or sink the vessels attempting to pass that post,
and by force of arms to make a prisoner of the said Gen. Arnold
(then a colonel), which was accordingly done.
JOHN BROWN, _Lieutenant-Colonel_.
ALBANY, 1st Dec., 1776.