A pharmacist by trade, the 34-year-old Arnold joined the rebellion in 1775. In 1763, he repaid money that he had borrowed from the Lathrops,[17] repurchased the family homestead that his father had sold when deeply in debt, and re-sold it a year later for a substantial profit. After his leg healed, Benedict Arnold was named Military Governor of Philadelphia. In May 1775, Arnold's forces eventually clashed with the British at Fort Ticonderoga - nestled along the shores of Lake . Benedict Arnold was born on Jan. 14, 1741 in Norwich, Connecticut. Through the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 1780 the two plotted. Word of the siege's disastrous outcome led the company to turn around, and Arnold served for only 13 days. . Arnold's Family Life Was Messy By The Time He Was 20. Two months later he repelled a British attack on Danbury, Connecticut, and was made a major general, but his seniority was not restored and Arnold felt his honour impugned. The band played a funeral march. Arnold remained there until July 1781 and then returned to New York. Four days later, Arnold sent a ciphered letter with similar content into New York through the services of the wife of a prisoner of war. Together, they won the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga, America's first victory in the Revolutionary War. He had requested to resign multiple times after being refused promotions and, from December 1779 to January 1780, was court-martialed because of multiple charges of misconduct. General Washington gave him a light reprimand, but it merely heightened Arnold's sense of betrayal; nonetheless, he had already opened negotiations with the British before his court martial even began. His father's alcoholism and ill health kept him from training Arnold in the family mercantile business, but his mother's family connections secured an apprenticeship for him with her cousins Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, who operated a successful apothecary and general merchandise trade in Norwich. [132], Early biographers attempted to describe Arnold's entire life in terms of treacherous or morally questionable behavior. It was General Arnold. In 1780, when "The Capture of Benedict Arnold" episode takes place, Rittenhouse in real life was treasurer of Pennsylvania. Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741. Jameson reluctantly recalled the lieutenant who had been delivering Andr into Arnold's custody, but he then sent the same lieutenant as a messenger to notify Arnold of Andr's arrest. While Benedict Arnold escaped to British-occupied New York, where he was protected from punishment. After Benedict Arnold betrayed the Continental Army, his British contact, Major John Andr, was captured by the Americans and hanged as a spy while Arnold escaped on a British ship. As the park's Facebook page explains, the hero's name was left off the monument for a reason. His company marched northeast the following month to assist in the siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord. [133] George Canning Hill authored a series of moralistic biographies in the mid-19th century and began his 1865 biography of Arnold: "Benedict, the Traitor, was born". During the American Revolution, British Major John Andr joined with American General Benedict Arnoldin a scheme to secure British control over the American fortification at West Point, New York. [8] His siblings were, in order of birth: Benedict (17381739), Hannah (17421803), Mary (17451753), Absolom (17471750), and Elizabeth (17491755). Congress restored Arnold's command seniority in response to his valor at Saratoga. Or was it a kind of extreme midlife crisis, swerving from radical political beliefs to reactionary ones, a change accelerated by his marriage to the very young, very pretty, very Tory Peggy Shippen? But the brash war herohe helped take Fort Ticonderoga and led troops. Benedict Arnold began the Revolutionary War as a militia captain. Thereupon I expressed the desire of seeing that gentleman, and, shortly after, I was introduced to him. [74] Furthermore, revolutionary mobs were scouring Philadelphia for Loyalists, and Arnold and the Shippen family were being threatened. He died after four days of delirium on June 14, 1801, at the age of 60. How did Benedict Arnold betray the Continental Army to the British? [26], On February 22, 1767, Arnold married Margaret Mansfield, daughter of Samuel Mansfield, the sheriff of New Haven and a fellow member in the local Masonic Lodge. [42] Amid negotiations over that issue, Arnold wrote out a letter of resignation on July 11, the same day that word arrived in Philadelphia that Fort Ticonderoga had fallen to the British. He was on his way home from Ticonderoga when he learned that his wife had died earlier in June. A historical marker in Danvers, Massachusetts commemorates Benedict Arnold's 1775 expedition to Quebec Bayley Seton Hospital in the Clifton section of Staten Island was named in part for Richard Bayley, father of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton To raise money, he violated several state and military regulations, arousing the suspicions and, finally, the denunciations of Pennsylvanias supreme executive council. Benedict Arnold was an American Senior Officer during the Revolutionary War. He also provided information on a proposed French-American invasion of Quebec that was to go up the Connecticut River (Arnold did not know that this proposed invasion was a ruse intended to divert British resources). In real life: Arnold left for England in late 1781, before the official surrender, in an unsuccessful bid to persuade the Crown to keep the war going in America. From psychological wounds received in his Connecticut childhood when his alcoholic father squandered the family's fortunes? For a time, he was a successful businessman, but after yellow fever took the lives of three of the Arnold children, the patriarch was devastated. As a young man, Arnold. [95] They found the papers exposing the plot to capture West Point and passed them on to their superiors,[96] but Andr convinced the unsuspecting Colonel John Jameson, to whom he was delivered, to send him back to Arnold at West Pointbut he never reached West Point. 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 . The fort was finally captured by the British in 1759. Benedict Arnold's name might be the first that comes to mind when we think of treason not just because he was a traitor, but because he was such an unlikely one. "Whom Can We Trust Now? [111] He renewed that request when he learned of the surrender, which Clinton then granted. One colonel wrote to Clinton concerning Arnold: "There are many officers who must wish some other general in command. The fourth niche is pointedly empty. They bought three trading ships, using the profits from the sale of his homestead, and established a lucrative West Indies trade. [117] After her first voyage, Arnold returned to London in 1786 to bring his family to Saint John. Peggy Shippen had barely turned eighteen when in June of 1778, following the evacuation of Philadelphia by a British army, Major General Benedict . [123], In January 1801, Arnold's health began to decline. He was enrolled in a private school in nearby Canterbury, Connecticut, when he was 10, with the expectation that he would eventually attend Yale College. 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. Answer (1 of 54): Go up to most British people and ask who Benedict Arnold was, and you will get a resounding "who?" back. It was invoked again as sectional conflicts increased in the years before the American Civil War. [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. Unlike his accomplishments in the battlefield, Arnold was not a good Governor. [139] However, not all depictions of Arnold were so negative. Background. He is also believed to have built the first U.S. telescope. [127] His funeral procession boasted "seven mourning coaches and four state carriages";[103] the funeral was without military honors. "[144] The victory monument at Saratoga has four niches, three of which are occupied by statues of Generals Gates, Schuyler, and Morgan. May God forgive me for ever having put on another,"[125] but this story may be apocryphal. On June 16, Arnold inspected West Point while on his way home to Connecticut to take care of personal business, and he sent a highly detailed report through the secret channel. Major-General Nathanael Greene (August 7 [O.S. His scheme was to surrender the fort to the British, but it was exposed in September 1780 when revolution militia captured Andr carrying papers which revealed the plot. [6] With the outbreak of the French Revolution, Arnold outfitted a privateer, while continuing to do business in the West Indies, even though the hostilities increased the risk. In an ironic twist, Heron went into New York unaware of the significance of the letter and offered his own services to the British as a spy. At a prearranged rendezvous point on the shoreline his contact arrived just after midnight. In 1776, he deployed defensive and delay tactics at the Battle of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain that gave American forces time to prepare New York's defenses. [70] This initial letter opened a discussion on the types of assistance and intelligence that Arnold might provide, and included instructions for how to communicate in the future. Arnold was born in Connecticut. in George Athan Billias, ed., This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 10:05. Arnold's name had become synonymous with the word traitor. Excited by the prospects, Clinton informed his superiors of his intelligence coup, but failed to respond to Arnold's July 7 letter. Answer (1 of 2): In the United States, Benedict Arnold has the dubious distinction of being one of the primary figures responsible for the Revolutionary War's losing cause. Promoted to the rank of brigadier general, Arnold constructed a flotilla on Lake Champlain and inflicted severe losses on a greatly superior enemy fleet near Valcour Island, New York (October 11, 1776). [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. At first, he asked for indemnification of his losses and 10,000,[b] an amount that the Continental Congress had given Charles Lee for his services in the Continental Army. betrayal. For additional information about Arnold's amazing career as a Continental officer, consult James Kirby Martin, Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered (New York, 1997). American, then British officer after defecting during the US Revolutionary War (17401801), For other people named Benedict Arnold, see, Raids in Virginia and Connecticut colonies, Arnold's birth records indicate that he was born January 3, 1740 (, One British pound in 1776 would be worth about 160 in 2019. [33], The Second Continental Congress authorized an invasion of Quebec, in part on the urging of Arnoldbut he was passed over for command of the expedition. [135] Jefferson Davis and other southern secessionist leaders were unfavorably compared to Arnold, implicitly and explicitly likening the idea of secession to treason. One thing that we can set aside is any notion that the dish was named after Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War general who became the most famous American traitor in history after he defected to the British army and became a general for the other side, leading troops against those he once commanded. [58] She married Arnold on April 8, 1779. The prisoner seemed suprised to see the gallows, but walked calmy toward it. He had established a decent relationship with George Washington, as well as Philip Schuyler and Horatio Gates, both of whom had command of the army's Northern Department during 1775 and 1776. Only action by Arnold's superior at Ticonderoga prevented his own arrest on countercharges leveled by Hazen. Interview with Philbrick in Michael Dolan, "Hero And Villain,", Julie Courtwright, "Whom Can We Trust Now? [41], Arnold was on his way to Philadelphia to discuss his future when he was alerted that a British force was marching toward a supply depot in Danbury, Connecticut. It is impossible to say when 37-year-old Benedict Arnold first met 18-year-old Peggy Shippen, but we do know that on September 25, 1778, he wrote her a love lettermuch of it an exact copy of . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Benedict Arnold was unhappy with his position in the Continental Army by the time he betrayed the cause of the American Revolution to the British. [54] Such schemes were not uncommon among American officers, but Arnold's schemes were sometimes frustrated by powerful local politicians such as Joseph Reed, who eventually amassed enough evidence to publicly air charges against him. [27] Their son Benedict was born the following year[28] and was followed by brothers Richard in 1769 and Henry in 1772. Arnold was born on January 14, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticutthe fifth person in his family to be named Benedict Arnold. Bettmann / Corbis "You have five. [16] He was hardworking and successful, and was able to rapidly expand his business. Later he became infamous for being a traitor, fighting for the British. [34], Arnold then traveled to Montreal where he served as military commander of the city until forced to retreat by an advancing British army that had arrived at Quebec in May. Benedict Arnold was an enthusiastic patriot who believed passionately in the cause of American liberty. [29] She is buried in the crypt of the Center Church on New Haven Green. General Parsons laid it aside, seeing a letter written as a coded business discussion. Arnold immediately hastened to the shore and ordered bargemen to row him downriver to where HMS Vulture was anchored, fleeing on it to New York City. He then directed the construction of a fleet to defend Lake Champlain, which was overmatched and defeated in the October 1776 Battle of Valcour Island. Early in May he made secret overtures to British headquarters, and a year later he informed the British of a proposed American invasion of Canada. Only a few weeks after learning of Arnold's treason, General George Washington enlisted a Continental Army sergeant major named John Champe in a daring mission to capture him from behind. His action at Ridgefield, coupled with the death of Wooster due to wounds sustained in the action, resulted in his promotion to major general, although his seniority was not restored over those who had been promoted before him. Wallace, Willard M. "Benedict Arnold: Traitorous Patriot." Again he tried to resign, but in July he accepted a government order to help stem the British advance into upper New York. Benedict Arnold was born to a prominent businessman in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741. [6] In December 1780, he led a force of 1,600 troops into Virginia under orders from Clinton, where he captured Richmond by surprise and then went on a rampage through Virginia, destroying supply houses, foundries, and mills. Arnold never received all of the 20,000 pounds he was promised by the British for becoming a traitor. Arnold eventually moved to England where he became a merchant. His father was a successful businessman and young Arnold was educated in private schools. Angry and frustrated, Arnold resigned his military command of Philadelphia in late April. He later revealed that he expected to obtain the command of West Point, New York, and asked the British for 20,000 for betraying this post. Arnold had the power to act, to defy the stresses of business and the dangers of the battlefield; but Peggy had the power to endure. 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. [87], Once Arnold established himself at West Point, he began systematically weakening its defenses and military strength. Peggy came from a loyalist family in Philadelphia; she had many ties to the British. On August 13, Schuyler dispatched him with a force of 900 to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix, where he succeeded in a ruse to lift the siege. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The British promised 20,000[b] for the capture of West Point, a major American stronghold; Washington greatly admired Arnold and gave him command of that fort in July 1780. A Connecticut militia force arrived at Ticonderoga in June; Arnold had a dispute with its commander over control of the fort, and resigned his Massachusetts commission. Clinton was uninterested in most of his aggressive ideas, but finally authorized him to raid the port of New London, Connecticut. Andr then drafted instructions to Stansbury and Arnold. On December 8, 1781, Arnold and his family left New York for England. These letters were delivered by Samuel Wallis, another Philadelphia businessman who spied for the British, rather than by Stansbury. "[65] A few days later, Arnold wrote to Greene and lamented over the "deplorable" and "horrid" situation of the country at that particular moment, citing the depreciating currency, disaffection of the army, and internal fighting in Congress, while predicting "impending ruin" if things did not change soon. On November 10, 1778, General Nathanael Greene wrote to General John Cadwalader, "I am told General Arnold is become very unpopular among you oweing to his associateing too much with the Tories. He was also convicted of two minor charges of using his authority to make a profit. Sage's gravestone indicates that he was born on April 14, 14, 1786, a date roughly confirmed by Arnold's will, which stated that Sage was 14 when Arnold wrote it in 1800. At the age of sixteen, Arnold enlisted in a militia and served in the French and Indian War in upstate New York . They had no reason to suspect that Gen. Benedict Arnold, the new commander of the post, would be less than a gracious host. 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