from hero to traitor
Benedict Arnold was America’s best battlefield general. He was uncommonly brave and full of daring, leading his soldiers into battle with such zeal that they worried about their general’s safety. He inspired them, too, with his concern for their well-being.
On the notoriously difficult march to Quebec in 1775, for instance, a soldier fell ill after over-indulging in his first meal following days of hunger. As the hapless soldier sat at the roadside, then-colonel Arnold came up on his horse. Rather than disciplining the soldier, as expected, Arnold took him to a farmhouse and paid the farmer to take care of the soldier until he was well enough to resume the march and rejoin the troops.
honor and reputation
What made Arnold tick? To be sure, he had something to prove. His childhood is spent in relative comfort, with a caring mother, a father who earned a good living as a merchant trader, and a house full of siblings. With an eye toward a prosperous future, the teenage Benedict is sent away to a well-regarded school in preparation for college. But when disease ravishes his hometown and claims the life of two young sisters, his father takes to alcohol and is consumed by it. The family’s fortunes spiral downward, subjecting the teenage boy to one humiliation after another.
valor on the battlefield
The War for Independence gives Arnold a way to distinguish himself and establish his honor. He is among the first to take up the battle, seizing Fort Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen, attacking Quebec with Richard Montgomery, and valiantly leading his soldiers in numerous other engagements. The pinnacle of his battlefield daring comes at Saratoga, where his aggressive tactics turn the tide against British general John Burgoyne and change the course of the war. Arnold, however, is a casualty of the battle. While charging behind a barricade of Hessian troops, a musket ball fired at close range passes through his thigh and into his horse. The animal crashes to the ground and shatters the bones of Arnold’s leg.
injury and doubt
On the eighteenth-century battlefield, the actions that bring honor are straightforward, but the path to esteem and reputation are ill-defined in the chaotic politics of the Revolution. As Arnold recuperates, Washington appoints him military governor of Philadelphia, where he fights political battles that leave him angry and disenchanted. He also marries the young Peggy Shippen, whose well-to-do family harbors loyalist sympathies.
When, following this interregnum in Philadelphia, Washington urges Arnold to return as a battlefield commander, Arnold disappoints him by demurring, instead requesting the relatively sedentary command of the fort at West Point that controls passage on the all-important Hudson River.
becoming a traitor
Something about Arnold had changed, and most readers know the basic outline of his betrayal. On the night of September 21, 1780, Arnold meets with Major John André, an aide to the British commander in chief Sir Henry Clinton, to plan an attack on what Arnold assures will be a poorly defended and ill-prepared garrison.
Following their overnight meeting, André discovers that the ship meant to bear him back to New York has gone downriver to escape harassing gunfire from shore. At Arnold’s urging, André begins an ill-fated trip by horseback through the Neutral Ground, disguised in civilian clothes and bearing a pass from Major General Arnold to permit “Mr. John Anderson” to proceed undisturbed.
Despite this, André is stopped by three out-of-uniform militiamen to whom he mistakenly reveals himself as a British officer. They search him and find, hidden in his boots, suspicious documents, which they take—along with their prisoner—to their commander. In short order, Arnold learns of André’s capture. Finding the ship that returned upriver to look for André, he climbs aboard and escapes to New York to join the British as a brigadier general—and to become America’s most infamous traitor.
a new allegiance
Once in New York, Arnold wastes no time in proving his allegiance to his former enemy. He resolves to form an American Legion under his command that will fight for the British. To this end, he issues a proclamation calling for American soldiers to desert the patriot cause and join his legion.
Washington's plot: get arnold to the gallows
André is convicted of spying and hanged on October 2, but Washington emphatically wants Arnold to swing from a hangman’s noose. Taking advantage of Arnold’s plea for deserters, Washington and his closest commanders devise a plot to put eyes and ears right next to Arnold. A loyal soldier would feign desertion and join Arnold’s legion. He would observe Arnold’s daily habits and arrange with Washington’s spies in New York to abduct the traitor and speed him across the Hudson to New Jersey, where a squadron of American dragoons would eagerly await his arrival.
The success of the mission depended on the utmost secrecy—which brings us to Gideon’s Revolution.
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