14 January 1741 A.D. 1741 – Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut; died in London,
England, 14 June, 1801 (Norwich is on the New Thames River, up-river about
10-15 miles from the estuary to the Atlantic;
NAVSUBASE is near, Groton, CT; both town-cities are about 2 hours east
of New Haven, CT)
Editors. “1741 – Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut; died in London,
England, 14 June, 1801.” History.com. N.d.
http://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/january-14/. Accessed 14 Jan 2015.
1741 – Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut; died in London,
England, 14 June, 1801. His ancestor, William Arnold (born in Leamington,
Warwickshire, in 1587), came to Providence in 1636, and was associated with
Roger Williams as one of the fifty-four proprietors in the first settlement of
Rhode island. His son Benedict moved to Newport, and was governor of the colony
from 1663 to 1666, 1669 to 1672, 1677 to 1678, when he died. His son Benedict
was a member of the assembly in 1695. His son Benedict, third of that name,
moved to Norwich in 1730; was cooper, ship-owner, and sea-captain, town
surveyor, collector, assessor, and selectman. He married, 8 Nov., 1733, Hannah,
daughter of John Waterman, widow of Absalom King. Of their six children, only
Benedict and Hannah lived to grow up. Benedict received a respectable school
education, including some knowledge of Latin. He was romantic and adventurous,
excessively proud and sensitive, governed rather by impulse than by principle.
He was noted for physical strength and beauty, as well as for bravery. He
possessed immense capacity both for good and for evil, and circumstances
developed him in both directions. At the age of fifteen he ran away from home
and enlisted in the Connecticut army, marching to Albany and Lake George to
resist the French invasion; but, getting weary of discipline, he deserted and
made his way home alone through the wilderness. He was employed in a drug shop
at Norwich until 1762, when he moved to New Haven and established himself in
business as druggist and bookseller. He acquired a considerable property, and
engaged in the West India trade, sometimes commanding his own ships, as his
father had done. He also carried on trade with Canada, and often visited
Quebec. On 22 Feb., 1767, he married Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mansfield.
They had three sons, Benedict, Richard, and Henry. She died 19 June, 1775. On
one of his voyages, being at Honduras, he fought a duel with a British
sea-captain who called him a “Damn Yankee”; the captain was wounded and
apologized. He occasionally visited England. At noon of 20 April, 1775, the
news of the Battle of Lexington reached New Haven, and Arnold, who was captain
of the governor’s guards, about 60 in number, assembled them on the college
green and offered to lead them to Boston. Gen. Wooster thought he had better
wait for regular orders, and the selectmen refused to supply ammunition; but,
upon Arnold’s threatening’ to break into the magazine, the selectmen yielded
and furnished the ammunition, and the company marched to Cambridge. Arnold
immediately proposed the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the plan
was approved by Dr. Warren, chairman of the Committee of Safety. Arnold was
commissioned as colonel by the provincial congress of Massachusetts, and
directed to raise 400 men in the western counties and surprise the forts. The
same scheme had been entertained in Connecticut, and troops from that colony
and from Berkshire, with a number of “Green Mountain Boys,” had already started
for the lakes under command of Ethan Allen. On meeting them Arnold claimed the
command, but when it was refused he joined the expedition as a volunteer and
entered Ticonderoga side by side with Allen. A few days later Arnold captured
St. John’s. Massachusetts asked Connecticut to put him in command of these
posts, but Connecticut preferred Allen. Arnold returned to Cambridge early in
July, proposed to Washington the expedition against Quebec by way of the
Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers, and was placed in command of 1,100 men and
started from Cambridge 11 Sept. The enterprise, which was as difficult and
dangerous as Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, was conducted with consummate
ability, but was nearly ruined by the misconduct of Col. Enos, who deserted and
returned to Massachusetts with 200 men and the greater part of the provisions.
After frightful hardships, to which 200 more men succumbed, on 13 Nov., the
little army climbed the heights of Abraham. As Arnold’s force was insufficient
to storm the city, and the garrison would not come out to fight, he was obliged
to await the arrival of Montgomery, who had just taken Montreal. In the great
assault of 31 Dec., in which Montgomery was slain, Arnold received a wound in
the leg. For his gallantry he was now made brigadier-general. He kept up the
siege of Quebec till the following April, when Wooster arrived and took
command. Arnold was put in command of Montreal. The British, being now heavily
reinforced, were able to drive the Americans from Canada, and early in June
Arnold effected a junction with Gates at Ticonderoga. During the summer he was
busily occupied in building a fleet with which to oppose and delay the advance
of the British up Lake Champlain. On 11 Oct. he fought a terrible naval battle
near Valcour Island, in which he was defeated by the overwhelming superiority
of the enemy in number of ships and men; but he brought away part of his
flotilla and all his surviving troops in safety to Ticonderoga, and his
resistance had been so obstinate that it discouraged Gen. Carleton, who retired
to Montreal for the winter. This relief of Ticonderoga made it possible to send
3,000 men from the northern army to the aid of Washington, and thus enabled
that commander to strike his great blows at Trenton and Princeton. Among
Allen’s men concerned in the capture of Ticonderoga in the preceding year was
Lieut. John Brown, of Pittsfield, who on that occasion had some difficulty with
Arnold. Brown now brought charges against Arnold of malfeasance while in
command at Montreal, with reference to exactions of private property for the
use of the army. The charges were investigated by the board of war, which
pronounced them “cruel and groundless” and entirely exonerated Arnold, and the
report was confirmed by congress. Nevertheless, some members of the congress
found common ground in hostility toward Arnold. Gates had already begun to
intrigue against General Schuyler, and Charles Lee had done his best to ruin
Washington. The cabal or faction that afterward took its name from Conway was
already forming. Arnold was conspicuous as an intimate friend of Schuyler and
Washington, and their enemies began by striking at him. This petty persecution
of the commander-in-chief by slighting and insulting his favorite officers was
kept up until the last year of the war, and such men as Greene, Morgan, and
Stark were almost driven from the service by it. On 19 Feb., 1777, congress
appointed five new major-generals–Stirling, Mifflin, St. Claire, Stephen, and
Lincoln–thus passing over Arnold, who was the senior brigadier. None of these
officers had rendered services at all comparable to his, and, coming as it did
so soon after his heroic conduct on Lake Champlain, this action of congress naturally
incensed him. He behaved very well, however, and expressed his willingness to
serve under the men lately his juniors, while at the same time he requested
congress to restore him to his relative rank. The last week in April 2,000
British troops under Gov. Tryon invaded Connecticut and destroyed the military
stores at Danbury. They were opposed by Wooster with 600 men, and a skirmish
ensued, in which that general was slain. By this time Arnold, who was at New
Haven, on a visit to his family, arrived on the scene with several hundred
militia, and there was a desperate fight at Ridgefield, in which Arnold had two
horses shot from under him. The British were driven to their ships, and
narrowly escaped capture. Arnold was now promoted to the rank of major-general
and presented by congress with a fine horse, but his relative rank was not
restored. While he was at Philadelphia inquiring into the reasons for the
injustice that had been done him, the country was thrown into consternation by
the news of Burgoyne’s advance and the fall of Ticonderoga. At Washington’s
suggestion, Arnold again joined the northern army, and by a brilliant stratagem
dispersed the army of St. Leger, which, in cooperation with Burgoyne, was
coming down the Mohawk valley, and had laid siege to Fort Stanwix. After
Schuyler had been superseded by Gates, Arnold was placed in command of the left
wing of the army on Bemis heights. In the battle of 19 Sept., at Freeman’s
farm, he frustrated Burgoyne’s attempt to turn the American left, and held the
enemy at bay till nightfall. If properly reinforced by Gates, he would probably
have inflicted a crushing defeat upon Burgoyne. But Gates, who had already
begun to dislike him as a friend of Schuyler, was enraged by his criticisms on
the battle of Freeman’s farm, and sought to wreak his spite by withdrawing from
his division some of its best troops. This gave rise to a fierce quarrel.
Arnold asked permission to return to Philadelphia, and Gates granted it. But
many officers, knowing that a decisive battle was imminent, and feeling no
confidence in Gates, entreated Arnold to remain, and he did so. Gates issued no
order directly superseding him, but took command of the left wing in person,
giving the right wing to Lincoln. At the critical moment of the decisive battle
of 7 Oct., Arnold rushed upon the field without orders, and in a series of
magnificent charges broke through the British lines and put them to flight. The
credit of this great victory, which secured for us the alliance with France, is
due chiefly to Arnold, and in a less degree to Morgan. Gates was not on the
field, and deserves no credit whatever. Just at the close of the battle Arnold
was severely wounded in the leg that had been hurt at Quebec. He was carried on
a litter to Albany, and remained there disabled until spring. On 20 Jan., 1778,
he received from congress an antedated commission restoring him to his original
seniority in the army. On 19 June, as he was still too lame for field service,
Washington put him in command of Philadelphia, which the British had just
evacuated. The Tory sentiment in that city was strong, and had been
strengthened by disgust at the alliance with France, a feeling which Arnold
seems to have shared. He soon became engaged to a Tory lady, Margaret, daughter
of Edward Shippen, afterward chief justice of Pennsylvania. She was celebrated
for her beauty, wit, and nobility of character. During the next two years
Arnold associated much with the Tories, and his views of public affairs were no
doubt influenced by this association. He lived extravagantly, and became
involved in debt. He got into quarrels with many persons, especially with
Joseph Reed, president of the executive council of the state. These troubles
wrought upon him until he made up his mind to resign his commission, obtain a
grant of land in central New York, settle it with some of his old soldiers, and
end his days in rural seclusion. His request was favorably entertained by the
New York legislature, but a long list of charges now brought against him by Reed
drove the scheme from his mind. The charges were investigated by a committee of
congress, and on all those that affected his integrity he was acquitted. Two
charges — first, of having once in a hurry granted a pass in which some due
forms were overlooked, and, secondly, of having once used some public wagons,
which were standing idle, for saving private property in danger from the
enemy–were proved against him; but the committee thought these things too
trivial to notice, and recommended an unqualified verdict of acquittal. Arnold
then, considering himself vindicated, resigned his command of Philadelphia. But
as Reed now represented that further evidence was forthcoming, congress
referred the matter to another committee, which shirked the responsibility through
fear of offending Pennsylvania, and handed the affair over to a court-martial.
Arnold clamored for a speedy trial, but Reed succeeded in delaying it several
months under pretence of collecting evidence. On 26 Jan., 1780, the
court-martial rendered its verdict, which agreed in every particular with that
of the committee of congress; but for the two trivial charges proved against
Arnold, it was decided that he should receive a reprimand from the
commander-in-chief. Washington, who considered Arnold the victim of
persecution, couched the reprimand in such terms as to convert it into eulogy,
and soon afterward offered Arnold the highest command under himself in the
northern army for the next campaign. But Arnold in an evil hour had allowed
himself to be persuaded into the course that has blackened his name forever.
Three years had elapsed since Saratoga, and the fortunes of the Americans,
instead of improving, had grown worse and worse. France had as yet done but
little for us, our southern army had been annihilated, our paper money had
become worthless, our credit abroad had hardly begun to exist. Even Washington
wrote that “he had almost ceased to hope.” The army, clad in rags, half-starved
and unpaid, was nearly ripe for the mutiny that broke out a few months later,
and desertions to the British lines averaged more than 100 a month. The spirit
of desertion now seized upon Arnold, with whom the British commander had for
some time tampered through the mediation of John Andre and an American
loyalist, Beverley Robinson. Stung by the injustice he had suffered, and
influenced by historic surroundings, Arnold made up his mind to play a part
like that which Gen. Monk had played in the restoration of Charles II. to the
British throne. By putting the British in possession of the Hudson river, he
would give them all that they had sought to obtain by the campaigns of
1776-’77; and the American cause would thus become so hopeless that an
opportunity would be offered for negotiation. Arnold was assured that Lord
North would renew the liberal terms already offered in 1778, which conceded
everything that the Americans had demanded in 1775. By rendering a cardinal
service to the British, he might hope to attain a position of such eminence as
to conduct these negotiations, end the war, and restore America to her old
allegiance, with her freedom from parliamentary control guaranteed. In order to
realize these ambitious dreams, Arnold resorted to the blackest treachery. In
July, 1780, he sought and obtained command of West Point in order to surrender
it to the enemy. When his scheme was detected by the timely capture of Andre,
he fled to the British at New York, a disgraced and hated traitor. Instead of
getting control of affairs, like Gen. Monk, he had sold himself cheaply, receiving
a brigadier-general’s place in the British army and a paltry sum of money. In
the spring of 1781 he conducted a plundering expedition into Virginia. In
September of the same year he was sent to attack New London, in order to divert
Washington from his southward march against Cornwallis. In the following winter
he went with his wife to London, where he was well received by the king and the
Tories, but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787 he moved to St. John’s, New
Brunswick, and entered into mercantile business with his sons Richard and
Henry. In 1791 he returned to London and settled there permanently. In 1792 he
fought a bloodless duel with the earl of Landerdale, for a remark which the
latter had made about him in tile House of Lords. His last years were
embittered by remorse.
