Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 [O.S.

January 3, 1740] – June 14, 1801) is a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fights for the American Continental Army but defects to the British Army.

While a general on the American side, he obtains command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plots to surrender it to the British forces.

After the plot is exposed in September 1780, he is commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.

Born in Connecticut, Arnold is a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war breaks out in 1775.

After joining the growing army outside Boston, he distinguishes himself through acts of intelligence and bravery.

His actions include the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics despite losing the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he is promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffers leg injuries that end his combat career for several years.

Despite Arnold's successes, he is passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claim credit for some of his accomplishments.

Adversaries in military and political circles bring charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he is acquitted in formal inquiries.

Congress investigates his accounts and finds he is indebted to Congress after spending much of his own money on the war effort.

Frustrated and bitter, Arnold decides to change sides in 1779, and opens secret negotiations with the British.

In July 1780, he is offered, continued to pursue and is awarded command of West Point.

Arnold's scheme to surrender the fort to the British is exposed when American forces capture British Major John André carrying papers that reveal the plot.

Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold flees down the Hudson River to the British sloop-of-war Vulture, narrowly avoiding capture by the forces of George Washington, who had been alerted to the plot.

Arnold receives a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000.

He leads British forces on raids in Virginia, and nearly captures Thomas Jefferson, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively ends with the American victory at Yorktown.

In the winter of 1782, Arnold moves to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold.

He is well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs.

In 1787, he enters into mercantile business with his sons Richard and Henry in Saint John, New Brunswick, but returns to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he dies ten years later.

Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal.

His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor.

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