Benedict Arnold V | |
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![]() Benedict Arnold Engraving by H.B. Hall after John Trumbull | |
Place of burial | St Mary's Churchyard, Battersea, London[1] |
Service/branch | Colonial militia Continental Army British Army |
Years of service | Colonial militia: 1757, 1775 Continental Army: 1775–1780 British Army: 1780–1781 |
Rank | Major General (Continental Army) Brigadier General (British Army) |
Commands held | Fort Ticonderoga (June 1775) Quebec City (siege, January–April 1776) Montreal (April–June 1776) Lake Champlain fleet (August–October 1776) Philadelphia (June 1778–April 1780) West Point (August–September 1780) American Legion (a Loyalist regiment, September 1780–1781) |
Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War |
Awards | Boot Monument |
Signature | ![]() |
Benedict Arnold V (14 January 1741 [O.S. 3 January 1740][2][3] – 14 June 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later changed to the British Army. While on the American side, led the fort at West Point, New York. He planned to give the fort to the British army. He was caught in September 1780 and switched sides to the British Army. He was made a brigadier general in the British Army.
Arnold was born in Connecticut. He started as a merchant, sailing ships on the Atlantic Ocean. He joined the Continental army outside Boston. Soon, he became famous for cunning and bravery. His actions included these:
The Continental Congress decided to promote other people instead of Arnold, and this made him angry. Other officers claimed credit for some of Arnold's actions.[4] When he lived in Philadelphia, Arnold was accused of corruption, but he was found innocent. Congress investigated his accounts, and found that he owed it money after he had spent much of his own money on the war effort.
Arnold was angry about being passed over for promotion and being told to pay money even though he had already given much of his money to the army. He decided to change sides in 1779, and he began to secretly talk to the British
In July 1780, he asked for, and got, command of West Point. Secretly, he planned to surrender it to the British. But Arnold's contact in the British army, Major John André, was captured. André had been carrying papers Arnold had given him that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold ran away down the Hudson River to the British ship HMS Vulture. Arnold was almost captured by the forces of George Washington, but he did get away.
Arnold was made a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000.[5] During the American Revolutionary War, he led British forces on raids in Virginia, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. In England, the king and the Tory political party liked him, but the Whig political party did not. In 1787, Arnold became a merchant again became a merchant, with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick, but returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died ten years later.
Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal.[6] Some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor show the mixed feelings people still have about him.
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