Benedict Arnold (14 January 1741 – 14 June 1801) was a Major-General of the Continental Army and a Brigadier-General of the British Army during the American Revolutionary War. Arnold was one of the best generals of the United States during the war, suffering two wounds to the same leg at the Battle of Quebec in 1775 and the Battles of Saratoga in 1777, the latter of which turned the tide of the war. In 1780, he was persuaded to betray his cause for Great Britain by his wife Peggy Shippen and British spy John Andre, and he moved to England after the war's end.
Biography[]
America's "Most Brilliant Soldier"[]
Benedict Arnold (standing) in Morristown, New Jersey in 1777
Arnold in Philadelphia in 1778
Benedict Arnold was born on 14 January 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut, and he served as a maritime merchant until the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775. Arnold joined the Continental Army outside of Boston, and acts of intelligence and bravery such as the capture of Fort Ticonderoga led to him rising in the ranks. He replaced Philip Schuyler as commander of the Northern Department in late 1775 and led a failed expedition to take Quebec from Great Britain, and he was wounded in the leg while his co-commander Richard Montgomery was killed. In 1776, he delayed the British advance south from Canada at the Battle of Valcour Island, where his makeshift fleet was destroyed by the Royal Navy after an admirable delaying action on Lake Champlain. However, he was promoted to Major-General after winning the Battle of Ridgefield in 1777, and his relief of Fort Schuyler from a siege by the Tories and Native Americans led to further praise. Arnold's finest hour was his command at the Battles of Saratoga, where he crushed John Burgoyne's army and forced him to surrender to the Americans; however, Horatio Gates took the credit for the victory.
Betrayal[]
Arnold eventually grew tired of the Continental Congress passing him over for promotions due to others taking credit for his victories, and Arnold was angry at America allying with King Louis XVI of France in 1778 and their refusal to accept an offer by the British to have self-governance. In July 1780, Arnold was sent to West Point along the Hudson Valley of New York, and in September he met with British spy John Andre and agreed to hand over West Point to the British and betray the American cause for Great Britain. After Andre was captured by the Patriots while carrying a fake passport, wearing civilian clothes, and carrying six letters on how to take the fort, all of these supplied by Arnold, Arnold fled on the HMS Vulture. Arnold was commissioned as a Brigadier-General in the British Army, leading the British in raids in Virginia in 1781 and massacring an American garrison at Fort Griswold during the Battle of Groton Heights on 6 September 1781 during his raid on New London, Connecticut.
Life in Britain[]
In the winter of 1782, Arnold and his wife Peggy Shippen moved to London after the Siege of Yorktown decided that the Americans would win the war, and King George III of Great Britain and the Tory Party supported him while the Whigs did not. From 1787 to 1791, he worked as a merchant in New Brunswick, British Canada before permanently returning to England. He died in London in 1801.