Benedict Arnold

Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 2:51 am

Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 [O.S. January 3, 1741]– June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but switched sides to the British Empire. While he was still a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted unsuccessfully to surrender it to the British. After the plot failed, he served with British forces as a Loyalist.

Arnold has been called “the best general on either side of the conflict”.He distinguished himself early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery. His many successful actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, successful defensive and delaying tactics while losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to Major General), and the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that effectively ended his combat career for several years.

In spite of his success, Arnold was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other general officers took credit for his many accomplishments. Charges of corruption were brought by political adversaries, and Congress investigated his accounts, finding he owed it money after he had spent much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated, bitter, disaffected by the assaults on his honor, and strongly opposed to the new American alliance with France, Arnold decided to change sides in 1779. In July 1780, he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to surrender it to the British. Arnold’s scheme was detected when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André’s capture, Benedict Arnold escaped down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of General Washington, who had departed for West Point immediately upon learning of Arnold’s plan.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, a good annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000. He led British forces at Blanford, Virginia and Groton, Connecticut before the war effectively came to an end with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold left the army and moved to London with his second wife, Margaret “Peggy” Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he entered into mercantile business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick, but returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died.

Because of the way he changed sides his name has become a byword for treason in the United States.This conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor.

During his marriage to Margaret Mansfield, Arnold had the following children:-

Benedict Arnold VI (1768–1795) (Captain in the British Army, killed in action)
Richard Arnold (1769–1847)
Henry Arnold (1772–1826)

and with Peggy Shippen, he raised

Edward Shippen Arnold (1780–1813)
James Robertson Arnold (1781–1854) (Lieutenant General)
George Arnold (1787–1828) (Lieutenant Colonel)
Sophia Matilda Arnold (1785–1828)
William Fitch Arnold (1794–1846)

Benedict Arnold

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