Benedict Arnold, born Jan. 14, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut, ran
away from home at the age of fifteen, and entered the military force
of his native State, then marching to Albany and Lake George, to
resist the French invasion. Growing weary of discipline, he deserted,
returned home alone through the wilderness, and became a druggist’s
clerk, afterward skipper of a New England schooner trading with the
West Indies, and at times a horse-dealer. His spirit of adventure
and his early taste of war led him to offer himself among the first
who took the field when the American colonies began their struggle
for independence. In conjunction with Col. Ethan Allen he surprised
the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga on the 10th of May, 1775, capturing
large stores of cannon and ammunition without the loss of a single
man. Disagreeing with the officers of the party, and becoming bitterly
jealous of Allen, Arnold left New York; and applying to Washington for
service in the Continental army, he was given command of about five
hundred men and despatched, by way of the wilderness, to join General
Montgomery in an attack on Quebec. During the Canadian campaign, as
during his service in New York, Arnold evinced the same traits of
character,--dashing gallantry and perfect fearlessness when in action,
with petty meanness, vindictiveness, arrogance, and covetousness at
all other times. On the 10th of January, 1776, Congress bestowed on
him the rank of brigadier-general, and after his defeat of Tryon at
Danbury, and his daring heroism in bearing from the field the body of
the gallant Wooster, he was promoted to the rank of major-general on
the 2d of May, 1777. Being ordered again to the North, he did good
service under Schuyler; but all his worst passions seem to have been
aroused when Gates took command. The stirring events immediately
preceding the surrender of Burgoyne prevented an open rupture, and
Arnold’s reckless daring at the battle of Saratoga, though gaining the
victory, resulted in rendering him a cripple for life. Incapacitated
for active service, he was placed in command at Philadelphia when that
city was evacuated by the British, on the 17th of June, 1778. At this
point Arnold’s downward career began. There are just grounds to believe
that he entered into a secret contract to enrich himself at the expense
of the public; and finding many of the wealthiest of the citizens
to be Tories, he used all his influence in their behalf, hoping, no
doubt, for a pecuniary reward. His second marriage with Miss Shippen
bound him still more closely to the Tory faction.[2] In November,
1778, Gen. Joseph Reed was elected president “of the executive council
of the State” of Pennsylvania, and in the discharge of his duties,
brought the delinquencies of Arnold to the notice of Congress. A
court-martial on Jan. 26, 1780, sentenced him to be reprimanded by
the commander-in-chief. In addition to the public disgrace, he was
now cut off from various sources of revenue by which he had been
striving to ward off a threatened bankruptcy, and his pecuniary affairs
became sadly involved through extravagance and wild speculations.
Unsuccessful in his attempt to obtain a loan from the French minister,
De la Luzerne, he appears to have entered into correspondence with
the British, but soon found that to obtain any considerable sum of
money from that quarter, he must have control of some place worth the
purchase. Accordingly, having many warm friends in Congress and in the
army, he brought strong pressure to bear upon Washington to grant him
the command of West Point. Yielding at length, though reluctantly,
Arnold was assigned to this important post, and immediately put
himself in direct communication with the British commander-in-chief,
Sir Henry Clinton. On the night of the 21st of September, 1780, Major
André was sent by the latter to obtain personally from Arnold all the
information necessary to capture West Point and the posts on the line
of the Hudson. Arnold’s elaborate plans, however, miscarried; André was
captured, West Point saved, and Arnold obliged to fly. Though receiving
the military rank and the money promised him by Sir Henry Clinton,--ten
thousand pounds sterling and a commission as brigadier in the
British army, he was almost as much detested by the English as by the
Americans, and after some brutal outrages in Virginia and Connecticut,
ended his days in obscurity in London, on the 14th of June, 1801.
[2] His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mansfield
of New Haven, by whom he had three sons, Benedict, Richard,
and Henry.