Benedict Arnold, a Turncoat's Tail

American soldier, born in Norwich, Connecticut, on the 14th of January 1741. He was the great-grandson of Benedict Arnold, thrice colonial governor of Rhode Island between 1663 and 1678; and was the fourth in direct descent to bear the name. He received a fair education but was not studious, and his youth was marked by the same waywardness which characterized his whole career. At fifteen he ran away from home and took part in an expedition against the French, but, restless under restraint, he soon deserted and returned home. In 1762 he settled in New Haven, where he became the proprietor of a drug and book shop; and he subsequently engaged successfully in trade with the West Indies. Immediately after the battle of Lexington Arnold led the local militia company, of which he was captain, and additional volunteers to Cambridge, and on the 29th of April 1775 he proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety an expedition against Crown Point and Ticonderoga. After a delay of four days the offer was accepted, and as a colonel of Massachusetts militia he was directed to enlist in the west part of a Massachusetts and in the neighboring colonies the men necessary for the undertaking. He was forestalled, however, Ethan Allen, acting on behalf of some members of the Connecticut Assembly. Under him, reluctantly waiving his own claim to command, Arnold served as a volunteer; and soon afterwards, Massachusetts having yielded to Connecticut, and having angered Arnold by sending a committee to make an inquiry into his conduct, he resigned and returned to Cambridge. He was then ordered to co-operate with General Richard Montgomery in the invasion of Canada, which he had been one of the first to suggest to the Continental Congress. Starting with 1100 men from Cambridge on the 17th of September 1775, he reached Gardiner, Maine, on the 20th, advanced through the Maine woods, and after suffering terrible privations and hardships, his little force, depleted by death and desertion, reached Quebec on the 13th of November. The garrison had been forewarned, and Arnold was compelled to await the coming of Montgomery from Montreal. The combined attack on the 31st of December 1775 failed; Montgomery was killed, and Arnold was severely wounded. Arnold, who had been commissioned a brigadier-general in January 1776, remained in Canada until the following June, being after April in command at Montreal. Some time after the retreat from Canada, charges of misconduct and dishonesty, growing chiefly out of his seizure from a merchants in Montreal of goods for the use of his troops, were brought against him; these charges were tardilty investigated by the Board of War, which in a report made on the 23rd of May 1777, and confirmed by Congress, declared that his "character and conduct" had been "cruelly and groundlessly aspersed." Having constructed a flotilla on Lake Champlain, Arnold engaged a greatly superior British fleet near Valcour Island, and after inflicting severe loss on the enemy, made his escape under cover of night. Two days later he was overtaken by the British fleet, which however he, with only one war-vessel, and that crippled, delayed long enough to enable his other vessels to make good their escape, fighting with desperate valour and finally running his own ship aground ad escaping to Crown Point. The engagement of the 11th as the first between British and American fleets. Arnold's brilliant exploits had drawn attention to him as one of the most promising of the Continental officers, and had won for him the friendship of George Washington. Nevertheless, when in February 1777 Congress created five new major-generals, Arnold, although the ranking brigadier, was passed over, partly at least for sectional reasons -- Connecticut had already two major-generals -- in favor of his juniors. At this time it was only Washington's urgent persuasion that prevented Arnold from leaving the service. Two months later while he was at New Haven, Governor Tryon's descent on Danbury took place; and Arnold, who took command of the militia after the death of General Wooster, attacked the British with such vigour at Ridgefleld that they escaped to their ships with difficulty. In recognition of this service Arnold was now commissioned major-general but without his former relative rank. After serving in New Jersey with Washington, he joined General Philip Schuyler in the Northern Department, and in August 1777 proceeded up the Mohawk Valley against Colonel St. Leger, and raised the siege of Fort Stanwix. Subsequently, after Gates ad superseded Schuyler, Arnold commanded the American left wing in the first battle of Saratoga. His ill-treatment at the hands of General Gates, whose jealousy had been aroused, led to a quarrel which terminated in Arnold being relieved of command. He remained with the army, however, at the urgent request of his brother officers, and although nominally without command served brilliantly in the second battle of Saratoga, during which he was seriously wounded. For his services he was thanked by Congress, and received a new commission giving him at last his proper relative rank. In June 1778 Washington placed him in command of Philadelphia. Here he soon came into conflict with the state authorities, jealous of any outside control. In the social life of Philadelphia, largely dominated by families of Loyalist sympathies, Arnold was the most conspicuous figure; he lived extravagantly,