Benedict Arnold: From Revolutionary War Hero to Infamous Traitor
Benedict Arnold, a name synonymous with betrayal in American history, was not always regarded with such disdain. Initially a celebrated figure in the American Revolution, his early life and military service were marked by ambition, bravery, and significant contributions to the Patriot cause. This article delves into the formative years and early military career of Benedict Arnold, exploring the factors that shaped his character and set the stage for his eventual defection to the British.
Early Life and Family Background
Benedict Arnold was born on January 14, 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut, to Benedict Arnold III and Hannah Waterman King. He was the second of six children, though only he and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood, with several siblings succumbing to yellow fever. He was the fourth member of his family named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold I, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island. His grandfather (Benedict Arnold II) and father, as well as an older brother who died in infancy, were also named for the colonial governor.
Arnold's family initially prospered due to his father's success as a businessman. They were well-regarded in Norwich society, and Arnold was sent to a private school in Canterbury at the age of 10, with the expectation that he would attend Yale College. However, the family's fortunes declined following the deaths of his siblings, leading to his father's alcoholism and subsequent financial difficulties. By the time Arnold was 14, there was no money for private education, forcing him to withdraw from school. The lack of formal schooling and lax parental control led to young Benedict often being in trouble.
Despite these hardships, Arnold was very close to his mother, who died in 1759. His father's alcoholism worsened after her death, and Arnold took on the responsibility of supporting his father and younger sister.
Early Military Experience
In 1755, Arnold was attracted by the sound of a drummer and attempted to enlist in the Connecticut provincial militia for service in the French and Indian War, but his mother refused permission. In 1757, at the age of 16, Arnold did enlist in the Connecticut militia, which marched off toward Albany, New York, and Lake George. The French had besieged Fort William Henry in northeastern New York, and their Indian allies had committed atrocities after their victory. However, he twice enlisted in the New York Militia during the French and Indian War and twice deserted, each time under pressure from his family to complete an apprenticeship as an apothecary under his uncles at home.
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Entrepreneurial Ventures and Growing Discontent
After leaving the apprenticeship, Arnold traveled to Europe, buying supplies for his own apothecary which he established in New Haven. In 1762, Arnold established himself in business as a pharmacist and bookseller in New Haven, Connecticut, with the help of the Lathrops. He was hardworking and successful and was able to rapidly expand his business. In 1763, he repaid money that he had borrowed from the Lathrops, repurchased the family homestead that his father had sold when deeply in debt, and resold it a year later for a substantial profit. In 1764, he formed a partnership with Adam Babcock, another young New Haven merchant. During this time, Arnold brought his sister Hannah to New Haven and established her in his apothecary to manage the business in his absence. He became one of the most successful merchants of the coast, owning ships that sailed from the Caribbean to Canada.
Arnold's entrepreneurial success, however, brought him into conflict with British trade policies. The Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765 severely curtailed mercantile trade in the colonies. The Stamp Act prompted Arnold to join the chorus of voices in opposition, and also led to his joining the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization which advocated resistance to those and other restrictive Parliamentary measures. Arnold initially took no part in any public demonstrations but, like many merchants, continued to do business openly in defiance of the acts, which legally amounted to smuggling. He also faced financial ruin, falling £16,000 in debt with creditors spreading rumors of his insolvency, to the point where he took legal action against them. On the night of January 28, 1767, Arnold and members of his crew roughed up a man suspected of attempting to inform authorities of their smuggling.
Personal Life and Family
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. Their son Benedict was born the following year and was followed by brothers Richard in 1769 and Henry in 1772. Margaret died on June 19, 1775, while Arnold was at Fort Ticonderoga following its capture. She is buried in the crypt of the Center Church on New Haven Green. The household was dominated by Arnold's sister Hannah, even while Margaret was alive.
Revolutionary War Service and Rise to Prominence
Prior to the official outbreak of war, Arnold became a Captain in the Governor's Second Company of Guards. When the word spread of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Arnold was eager for action and at Cambridge he requested permission of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to lead a campaign to capture Ft. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys were equally eager to capture such a prize and the two groups met up with each other at Bennington. Arnold was surprised and a little angered because Ethan Allen did not care if Arnold had permission from the Committee of Safety and Arnold couldn't talk Allen out of relinquishing command. Arnold had to concede to accompanying Allen and his rowdy, rough and tumble fighters. On May 10, 1775, they surprised the British garrison and the Green Mountain Boys celebrated by invading the rum stores of the British and getting totally sloshed. They virtually ignored Benedict Arnold except when they were teasing and jeering him. Arnold had an argument with Colonel James Easton, who was to deliver the missive announcing the victory of the capture to Massachusetts. I took the liberty of breaking his head, and on his refusing to draw like a gentleman, he having a hanger [short sword] by his side and a case of loaded pistols in his pocket. Arnold and Allen really didn't agree on much . . . except for the essential need of an invasion of Canada. Easton returned from his mission to Massachusetts while Arnold and Allen were planning the Canadian Invasion. Easton had done his best to diminish Arnold's participation in the capture of Ticonderoga and the two were arguing once more. The hot-tempered Arnold soon had some more people to fight with: Connecticut governor Johnathan Trumbull appointed Colonel Benjamin Hinman to command the Fort. Ethan Allen relinquished his command. Arnold did not, instead threatening to sail two ships under his command directly to a nearby British outpost and surrender them. Hinman then enlisted the treasonous Arnold's soldiers, took command of his ships, and dissolved his command. Arnold had been caught in the middle of the political machinations of Connecticut and Massachusetts, both vying for the glory that would accompany the capture of the British stores at Fort Ticonderoga.
Arnold began the war as a militia captain, a position to which he was elected in March 1775. His company marched northeast the following month to assist in the Siege of Boston that followed the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He proposed an action to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to seize Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, which he knew was poorly defended. They issued him a colonel's commission on May 3, 1775, and he immediately rode off to Castleton in the disputed New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) in time to participate with Ethan Allen and his men in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. He followed up that action with a bold raid on Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River north of Lake Champlain. 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.
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The Second Continental Congress authorized an invasion of Quebec, in part on the urging of Arnold, but he was passed over for command of the expedition. He then went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and suggested to George Washington a second expedition to attack Quebec City via a wilderness route through present-day Maine. He received a colonel's commission in the Continental Army for this expedition and left Cambridge in September 1775 with 1,100 men. He arrived before Quebec City in November, after a difficult passage in which 300 men turned back and another 200 died en route. Arnold's forces were joined by Richard Montgomery's small army and participated in the December 31 assault on Quebec City in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold's leg was shattered. Arnold's chaplain, Rev. Samuel Spring, carried him to the makeshift hospital at the Hôtel Dieu. 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. He presided over the rear of the Continental Army during its retreat from Saint-Jean, where he was reported by James Wilkinson to be the last person to leave before the British arrived. He then directed the construction of a fleet to defend Lake Champlain, which was overmatched and defeated in the Battle of Valcour Island in October 1776. Although this success was considered a great one, Arnold was, in his opinion, forced from command of these new American posts. This did not hinder his ambition.
In the summer of 1776 Arnold's skills as a strategist were once again called upon as he was placed in charge of a new American Naval Fleet in Lake Champlain. His orders from Gen. Horatio Gates were to defend the area and attack only if attacked. Upon learning of a British naval force under Guy Carleton settling in the northern end of the lake, Arnold took his fleet and stationed it towards Valcour Island in October. Several days of battle ensued. Arnold was not able to do much damage to the veteran British fleet. He only saved many of his men after grounding and burning their ships. Yet, in Gates' eyes, he had disobeyed orders by conducting an offensive maneuver.
Now at odds with not only his superiors, but with Congress over promotions he did not receive, 1777 became Arnold's year to prove himself. The first chance came in August, when Gen. Philip Schuyler ordered him to march west from Albany to prevent a force under British commander Barry St. Leger from over-whelming the beleaguered troops at Fort Schuyler. Arnold was able to turn St. St. Leger's allies retreated leaving him with no support; he ordered the retreat of his Regular force before Arnold ever arrived on August 21.
As Arnold returned to Albany the Northern Army, now under command of Gates, was bearing down for a defensive against John Burgoyne to the north near Stillwater, NY. After the battle at Freeman's Farm and an argument with Gates about whether or not to attack the shaken British force, Arnold was relieved of command. On Oct. 7, Burgoyne struck again closer to the American lines. Seeing the enemy entrenched, Arnold rode to the field of battle to lead an American attack that captured an enemy stronghold all against Gates' orders. This minor victory however, led the Americans to gain the position they needed on the field to force a British surrender. Arnold was wounded in the same leg that suffered injury in Canada. Scorned by Gates, but officially thanked by Washington and Congress, he was promoted to Major General and sent to Philadelphia to recover, as he could not command the field.
During these actions, Arnold made several friends and a larger number of enemies within the army power structure and in Congress. He had established a decent relationship with Washington, as well as Philip Schuyler and Horatio Gates, both of whom had command of the army's Northern Department during 1775 and 1776. However, an acrimonious dispute with Moses Hazen, commander of the 2nd Canadian Regiment, boiled into Hazen's court martial at Fort Ticonderoga during the summer of 1776. Only action by Arnold's superior at Ticonderoga prevented his own arrest on countercharges leveled by Hazen. Arnold 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.
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Washington assigned Arnold to the defense of Rhode Island following the British capture of Newport in December 1776, where the local militia was too poorly equipped to even consider a counterattack. He took the opportunity to visit his children while near his home in New Haven, and he spent much of the winter socializing in Boston, where he unsuccessfully courted a young belle named Betsy Deblois.
In February 1777, Arnold learned that he had been passed over by Congress for promotion to major general. Arnold then continued to Philadelphia, where he met with members of Congress about his rank. 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. 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. Arnold arrived in Schuyler's camp at Fort Edward, New York, on July 24. 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. Arnold sent an Indian messenger into the camp of British Brigadier-General Barry St. Leger with news that the approaching force was much larger and closer than it actually was; this convinced St.
Arnold returned to the Hudson River, where General Gates had taken over command of the American army after they had retreated to a camp south of Stillwater. He then distinguished himself in both Battles of Saratoga, even though Gates removed him from field command after the first battle, following a series of escalating disagreements that culminated in a shouting match. During the fighting in the second battle, Arnold disobeyed Gates' orders and took to the battlefield to lead attacks on the British defenses. He was again severely wounded in the left leg late in the fighting. Arnold later said that it would have been better had it been in the chest instead of the leg. Burgoyne surrendered ten days after the second battle on October 17, 1777. Arnold spent several months recovering from his injuries. He had his leg crudely set rather than allowing it to be amputated, leaving it 2 inches (5 cm) shorter than the right.
Seeds of Discontent and the Road to Treason
Arnold's early life and military career reveal a complex individual driven by ambition, bravery, and a desire for recognition. However, his experiences also exposed a volatile temperament, a tendency towards conflict, and a growing sense of resentment towards those he believed had slighted him.
Several factors contributed to Arnold's growing discontent. The lack of recognition for his accomplishments, coupled with financial difficulties and the influence of Loyalist sympathizers, gradually eroded his commitment to the American cause. These factors, combined with his personal failings, ultimately led him down the path of treason.
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