Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801
Military officer; born in Norwich, Conn., Jan. 14, 1741. As a boy he was bold, mischievous, and quarrelsome. Apprenticed to an apothecary, he ran away, enlisted as a soldier, but deserted. [216] For four years (1763-67) he was a bookseller and druggist in New Haven, Conn., and was afterwards master and supercargo of a vessel trading to the WestBirthplace of Benedict Arnold. |
Returning to Cambridge, he was placed at the head of an expedition for the capture of Quebec. He left Cambridge with a little more than 1,000 men, composed of New England musketeers and riflemen from Virginia and Pennsylvania, the latter under Capt. Daniel Morgan. He sailed from Newburyport for the Kennebec in the middle of September, 1775. They rendezvoused at Fort Western, on the Kennebee River, opposite the site of the present city of Augusta, Me., and on the verge of a wilderness uninhabited except by a few Indian hunters. At Norridgewock Falls their severe labors began. Their bateaux were drawn by oxen, and their provisions were carried on their backs around the falls — a wearisome task often repeated as they pressed towards the head-waters of the Kennebec, often wading and pushing their bateaux against swift currents. At length they left that stream and traversed tangled ravines, craggy knolls, and deep morasses, until they reached the Dead River. The stream flowed placidly on the summit of the water-shed between the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic, and they moved pleasantly over its bosom until they encamped at the foot of a high mountain capped with snow. Sickness and desertion now began to reduce the number of effective men. October was passing away. Keen blasts came from the north. A heavy rain fell, and the water, rushing from the hills, suddenly filled the Dead River to its brim and overflowed its banks. Some of the boats were overturned and much provision was lost or spoiled. Food for only twelve days remained. A detachment was sent to get a supply, but did not return. The floods began to freeze and the morasses became almost impassable. Through ice-cold water they were frequently compelled to wade; even two women, wives of soldiers, endured this hardship. At length they reached the Chaudiere River, that empties into the St. Lawrence. Starvation threatened. Seventy miles lay between them and Sertigan, the nearest French settlement. Leaving his troops on the banks of the upper Chaudiere, Arnold and fifty-five men started down the river for Sertigan to obtain food. Two or three boats had been wrecked just before their departure, and much of their scanty supply of food was lost. Arnold and his party reached the settlement. Indians were sent back with provisions and as guides for the rest of the troops to the
Arnold's route through the wilderness. |
Arnold assisted Montgomery in the siege of Quebec, and was there severely wounded in the leg. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was promoted to brigadier-general (Jan. 10, 1776), and took command of the remnant of the American troops in the vicinity of Quebec. Succeeded by Wooster, he went up Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga, where he was placed in command of an armed flotilla on the lake. With these vessels he had disastrous battles (Oct. 11 and 13, 1776) with British vessels built at St. Johns. Arnold was deeply offended by the appointment, by Congress, early in 1777, of five of his juniors to the rank of major-general. He received the same appointment soon afterwards (Feb. 7, 1777), but the affront left an irritating thorn in his bosom, and he was continually in trouble with his fellow-officers, for his temper was violent and he was not upright in pecuniary transactions. General Schuyler admired him for his bravery, and was his abiding friend until his treason. He successfully went to the relief of Fort Schuyler on the upper Mohawk (August, 1777), with 800 volunteers; and in September and October following he was chiefly instrumental in the defeat of Burgoyne, in spite of General Gates. There he was again severely wounded in the same leg, and was disabled several months. When the British evacuated Philadelphia (June, 1778) Arnold was appointed commander at Philadelphia, where he married the daughter of a leading Tory (Edward Shippen), lived extravagantly, became involved in debt, was accused of dishonest official conduct, and plotted his treason against his country. To meet the demands of importunate creditors, he engaged in fraudulent transactions, for which his official position gave him facilities, and charges of dishonesty and malpractice in office were preferred against him before the Continental Congress. A tribunal before which he was tried convicted him, but sentenced him to a reprimand only by the commander-in-chief. Washington performed the duty with great delicacy, but the disgrace aroused in the bosom of Arnold a fierce spirit of revenge. He resolved to betray his country, and, making treasonable overtures to Sir Henry Clinton, kept up a correspondence on the subject for a long time with Maj. John Andre (q. v.), the adjutant-general of the British army. This correspondence was carried on mutually under assumed names, and on the part of Arnold in a disguised hand. Feigning great patriotism and a desire to serve his country better, he asked for, and, through the recommendation of General Schuyler and others, obtained the command of the important post of West Point and its dependencies in the Hudson Highlands. He arranged with Major Andre to surrender that post into the hands of a British force which Sir Henry might send up the Hudson. For this service he was to receive the commission of a brigadier-general in the British army and nearly $50.000 in gold. He made his headquarters at the house of Beverly Robinson, a Tory, opposite West Point, and the time chosen for the consummation of the treason was when Washington should be absent at a conference with Rochambeau at Hartford. Arnold and Andre had negotiated in writing: the former wished a personal interview, and arrangements were made for it. Andre went up the Hudson in the British sloop-of-war Vulture to Teller's (afterwards Croton) Point, from which he was taken in the night in a small boat to a secluded spot near Haverstraw, on the west side of the river, where, in bushes, he met Arnold for the first time. Before they parted (Sept. 22. 1780) the whole matter was arranged: Clinton was to sail up the river with a strong force, and, after a show of resistance, Arnold was to surrender West Point and its dependencies into his hands. But all did not work well. the Vulture was driven from her anchorage by some Americans with a cannon on Teller's Point, and when Andre, with Arnold, at Joshua H. Smith's house, above [218] Haverstraw, looked for her in the early morning she had disappeared from sight. He had expected to return to the Vulture after the conference was over; now he was compelled to cross the river at King's Ferry and return to New York by land.
Fac-simile of Arnold's disguised handwriting. |
Fac-simile of a portion of one of Andre‘s letters. |
Soon after his flight to the British army, Arnold published an Address to the inhabitants of America, in which he attempted to gloss over his treason by abusing the Congress and the French alliance. He also published a Proclamation to the officers and soldiers of the Continental army, in which he contrasted the wretchedness of their condition with the prompt pay and abundant supplies of the British service. To induce them to desert he offered
Smith's House. |
A portion of the French fleet went from Rhode Island (March 8) to shut Arnold up in the Elizabeth River and assist in capturing him. Steuben, who was recruiting for Greene's army in Virginia, also watched him. The effort failed, for Arnold was vigilant and extremely cautious. He knew what would be his fate if caught. “What would the Americans do with me, if they should catch me?” Arnold inquired of a young prisoner. “They would cut off and bury with military honors your leg that was wounded at Saratoga. and hang the rest of you,” replied the young American soldier. General Phillips joined Arnold (March 26) with more than 2,000 men, and took the chief command. The traitor accompanied him on another expedition up the James River, in April, and then returned to New York, for Cornwallis, who came into Virginia from North Carolina, refused to serve with him.
When Sir Henry Clinton found that the allied armies were actually going to Virginia, he tried to alarm Washington by threats of marauding expeditions. He sent Arnold, with a band of regulars and Tories, to commit atrocities in Connecticut. Arnold crossed the Sound, from Long Island, and on Sept. 6, 1781, landed his troops on each side of the Thames, below New London. He plundered and burned that town. and a part of his force took Fort Griswold, opposite, by storm. It was gallantly defended by Colonel Ledyard and a garrison of 150 poorly armed militiamen. Only six of the garrison were killed in the conflict, but after the surrender the British officer in command (Colonel Eyre) murdered Ledyard with his sword, and, refusing to give quarter to the garrison, seventy-three were massacred. [220] Then the wounded were placed in a baggage-wagon and sent down the slope towards the river, with the intention of drowning them in the stream at its foot, but the vehicle was caught by an apple-tree. The cries of the sufferers could be heard above the crackling of the burning town by persons across the river. With this atrocious expedition the name of Benedict Arnold disappears from the records of our history.
Arnold went to England at the close of the war, where he was despised and shunned by all honorable men. He was afterwards a resident of St. Johns, New Brunswick, engaged chiefly in trade and navigation, but was very unpopular. He was there hung in effigy. His son, James Robertson (an infant at the time of his father's treason), became a lieutenant-general in the British army. Arnold's second wife, whom he married when she was not quite eighteen years of age, survived him just three years. Arnold died in obscurity, but in comfortable pecuniary circumstances, in Gloucester Place, London, June 14, 1801.