Arnold, Benedict

Arnold, Benedict (1741–1801), Continental army general and traitor.In 1755, at sixteen, Arnold fled his dysfunctional family in Norwich, Connecticut, and joined the provincial army of New York. Arnold soon tired of military life and deserted, as he did after a second enlistment in 1760, anticipating a lifelong pattern of abandoning military allegiances that failed to produce wealth, status, or fame.

A prominent merchant in New Haven, Arnold in April 1775 led his militia company to Massachusetts. In May, Massachusetts authorities commissioned him a colonel, and he helped lead the expedition that captured Fort Ticonderoga. In September, he led an army through Maine toward Quebec. The conquest of Canada failed, but Arnold's wilderness march and his later defense of Lake Champlain secured his reputation as a dashing, talented leader. After being wounded at the Battle of Saratoga (1777), Arnold commanded the Philadelphia garrison in 1778. Rampant corruption in Arnold's command led to his court‐martial in 1779, and a reprimand from Washington. Furious, and desperate for money to support a lavish lifestyle, Arnold plotted to betray West Point to the British for £20,000. The plot was uncovered in 1780. Arnold fled to the British, who commissioned him a brigadier general and gave him command of a corps of deserters, the American Legion, which he led on raids in Virginia and Connecticut (1780–81). His name remains a symbol of treason in U.S. national history.
[See also Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Treason.]

Bibliography

James Thomas Flexner , The Traitor and the Spy, 1953; 2d ed., 1975.
Clare Brandt , The Man in the Mirror: A Life of Benedict Arnold, 1994.
James Kirby Martin , Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered, 1997.

Jon T. Coleman