Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold was one of the ablest American commanders of the Revolution and his name became the byword for treason. Born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1741, he was descended from a colonial governor; his father drank the family into ruin, and Arnold was apprenticed to apothecaries and built himself up as a merchant and ship owner. He took Fort Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen in 1775, and then led a thousand men through the Maine wilderness in autumn to attack Quebec — a march of extraordinary hardship in which about half the force was lost to starvation and desertion. He was shot in the leg in the failed assault. He improvised a fleet on Lake Champlain in 1776 and, though defeated at Valcour Island, delayed the British advance by a year. At Saratoga in 1777 he was relieved of command by Horatio Gates after a quarrel, rode onto the field anyway, led the assault that broke the British line, and was shot in the same leg. The victory brought France into the war. A monument at the site depicts a boot and no name. He was passed over for promotion repeatedly, investigated over expenses, and reprimanded by court martial. He married Peggy Shippen, from a loyalist Philadelphia family, and was in debt. From 1779 he sold intelligence to Major John André, and in 1780, commanding West Point, agreed to surrender it for twenty thousand pounds. André was captured with the plans in his boot and hanged. Arnold escaped downriver. He led British raids that burned New London, and died in London in 1801.
- Lived: 1741 CE – 1801 CE
- Nationality: American
- Roles: general, military_leader
