Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Part of the American Revolutionary War An 1875 print by John Steeple Davis giving an idealized and inaccurate depiction of Ethan Allen demanding the fort's surrender Date May 10, 1775 Location Ticonderoga, New York 43°50′29″N 73°23′17″W / 43.84139°N 73.38806°W / 43.84139; -73.38806Coordinates: 43°50′29″N 73°23′17″W / 43.84139°N 73.38806°W / 43.84139; -73.38806 Result Ticonderoga and Crown Point captured by New England militia Belligerents Green Mountain Boys militia of the Connecticut Colony militia of the Province of Massachusetts Bay  Great Britain 26th Regiment of Foot[1] Commanders and leaders Ethan Allen Benedict Arnold William Delaplace Strength 83 at Ticonderoga[2] 50 at Crown Point[3] 35 at Saint-Jean[4] 48 at Ticonderoga[5] 9 at Crown Point[6] 21 at Saint-Jean[4] Casualties and losses 1 captured near Fort Saint-Jean[7] 1 wounded at Ticonderoga[8] All captured

v t e Canadian campaign Ticonderoga Fort St. Jean Longue-Pointe Arnold's expedition Quebec Saint-Pierre The Cedars Trois-Rivières Valcour Bay

The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga occurred during the American Revolutionary War on May 10, 1775, when a small force of Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold overcame a small British garrison at the fort and looted the personal belongings of the garrison. Cannons and other armaments from the fort were transported to Boston and used to fortify Dorchester Heights and break the standoff at the Siege of Boston.

After seizing Ticonderoga, a small detachment captured the nearby Fort Crown Point on May 11. Seven days later, Arnold and 50 men boldly raided Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River in southern Quebec, seizing military supplies, cannons, and the largest military vessel on Lake Champlain.

Although the scope of this military action was relatively minor, it had significant strategic importance. It impeded communication between northern and southern units of the British Army, and gave the nascent Continental Army a staging ground for the invasion of Quebec later in 1775. It also involved two larger-than-life personalities in Allen and Arnold, each of whom sought to gain as much credit and honor as possible for these events.

Background[link]

In 1775, Fort Ticonderoga's location did not appear to be as strategically important as it had been in the French and Indian War, when the French famously defended it against a much larger British force in the 1758 Battle of Carillon, and when the British captured it in 1759. After the 1763 Treaty of Paris, in which the French ceded their North American territories to the British, the fort was no longer on the frontier of two great empires, guarding the principal waterway between them.^[9] The French had blown up the fort's powder magazine when they abandoned the fort, and it had fallen further into disrepair since then. In 1775 it was garrisoned by only a small detachment of the 26th Regiment of Foot, consisting of two officers and forty-six men, with many of them "invalids" (soldiers with limited duties because of disability or illness). Twenty-five women and children lived there as well. Because of its former significance, Fort Ticonderoga still had a high reputation as the "gateway to the continent" or the "Gibraltar of America", but in 1775 it was, according to historian Christopher Ward, "more like a backwoods village than a fort."^[5]

Even before shooting started in the American Revolutionary War, American Patriots were concerned about Fort Ticonderoga. The fort was a valuable asset for several reasons. Within its walls was a collection of heavy artillery including cannons, howitzers, and mortars, armaments that the Americans had in short supply.^[10][11] The fort was situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, a strategically important route between the rebellious Thirteen Colonies and the British-controlled northern provinces. British forces placed there would expose the colonial forces in Boston to attack from the rear.^[10] After the war began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the British General Thomas Gage realized the fort would require fortification, and several colonists had the idea of capturing the fort.

Gage, writing from the besieged city of Boston following Lexington and Concord, instructed Quebec's governor, General Guy Carleton, to rehabilitate and refortify the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point.^[12] Carleton did not receive this letter until May 19, well after the fort had been captured.^[13]

Benedict Arnold had frequently traveled through the area around the fort, and was familiar with its condition, manning, and armaments. En route to Boston following news of the events of April 19, he mentioned the fort and its condition to members of Silas Deane's militia.^[14] The Connecticut Committee of Correspondence acted on this information; money was "borrowed" from the provincial coffers and recruiters were sent into northwestern Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire Grants (now Vermont) to raise volunteers for an attack on the fort.^[15]

John Brown, an American spy from Pittsfield, Massachusetts who had carried correspondence between revolutionary committees in the Boston area and Patriot supporters in Montreal, was well aware of the fort and its strategic value.^[9] Ethan Allen and other Patriots in the disputed New Hampshire Grants territory also recognized the fort's value, as it played a role in the dispute over that area between New York and New Hampshire.^[16] Whether either took or instigated action prior to the Connecticut Colony's recruitment efforts is unclear. Brown had notified the Massachusetts Committee of Safety in March of his opinion that Ticonderoga "must be seized as soon as possible should hostilities be committed by the King's Troops."^[16][17]

When Arnold arrived outside Boston, he told the Massachusetts Committee of Safety about the cannons and other military equipment at the lightly defended fort. On May 3, the Committee gave Arnold a colonel's commission and authorized him to command a "secret mission", which was to capture the fort.^[18] He was issued £100, some gunpowder, ammunition, and horses, and instructed to recruit up to 400 men, march on the fort, and ship back to Massachusetts anything he thought useful.^[19]

Colonial forces assemble[link]

Fort Ticonderoga from Mount Defiance

Arnold departed immediately after receiving his instructions. He was accompanied by two captains, Eleazer Oswald and Jonathan Brown, who were charged with recruiting the necessary men. Arnold reached the border between Massachusetts and the Grants on May 6, where he learned of the recruitment efforts of the Connecticut Committee, and that Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys were already on their way north. Riding furiously northward (his horse was subsequently destroyed), he reached Allen's headquarters in Bennington the next day.^[20] Upon arrival, Arnold was told that Allen was in Castleton, 50 miles (80 km) miles to the north, awaiting supplies and more men. He was also warned that, although Allen's effort had no official sanction, his men were unlikely to serve under anyone else. Leaving early the next day, Arnold arrived in Castleton in time to join a war council, where he made a case to lead the expedition based on his formal authorization to act from the Massachusetts Committee.^[21]

The force that Allen had assembled in Castleton included about 100 Green Mountain Boys, about 40 men raised by James Easton and John Brown at Pittsfield, and an additional 20 men from Connecticut.^[22] Allen was elected colonel, with Easton and Seth Warner as his lieutenants.^[21] When Arnold arrived on the scene, Samuel Herrick had already been sent to Skenesboro and Asa Douglas to Panton with detachments to secure boats. Captain Noah Phelps, a member of the "Committee of War for the Expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point", had reconnoitered the fort disguised as a peddler seeking a shave. He saw that the fort walls were dilapidated, learned from the garrison commander that the soldiers' gunpowder was wet, and that they expected reinforcements at any time.^[23][24] He reported this intelligence to Allen, following which they planned a dawn raid.^[23]

Many of the Green Mountain Boys objected to Arnold's wish to command, insisting that they would go home rather than serve under anyone other than Ethan Allen. Arnold and Allen worked out an agreement, but no documented evidence exists concerning the deal. According to Arnold, he was given joint command of the operation. Some historians have supported Arnold's contention, while others suggest he was merely given the right to march next to Allen.^{[Note 1]}

Capture of the fort[link]

The flag of the Green Mountain Boys

By 11:30 pm on May 9, the men had assembled at Hand's Cove (in what is now Shoreham, Vermont) and were ready to cross the lake to Ticonderoga. However, boats did not arrive until 1:30 am, and they were inadequate to carry the whole force.^[25] Eighty-three of the Green Mountain Boys made the first crossing with Arnold and Allen, and Douglas went back for the rest.^[2] As dawn approached, Allen and Arnold became fearful of losing the element of surprise, so they decided to attack with the men at hand. The only sentry on duty at the south gate fled his post after his musket misfired, and the Americans rushed into the fort. The Patriots then roused the small number of sleeping troops at gunpoint, and began confiscating their weapons. Allen, Arnold, and a few other men charged up the stairs toward the officers' quarters. Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham, assistant to Captain William Delaplace, was awakened by the noise, and called to wake the captain.^[26] Stalling for time, Feltham demanded to know by what authority the fort was being entered. Allen, who later claimed that he said it to Captain Delaplace, replied, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"^[27] Delaplace finally emerged from his chambers, fully dressed, and surrendered his sword.^[27]

No one was killed in the assault. The only injury was to one American, who was slightly injured by a sentry with a bayonet.^[8] Eventually, as many as 400 men arrived at the fort, which they plundered for liquor and other provisions. Arnold, whose authority was not recognized by the Green Mountain Boys, was unable to stop the plunder. Frustrated, he retired to the captain's quarters to await forces that he had recruited, reporting to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that Allen and his men were "governing by whim and caprice" at the fort, and that the plan to strip the fort and send armaments to Boston was in peril.^[28] When Delaplace protested the seizure of his private liquor stores, Allen issued him a receipt for the stores, which he later submitted to Connecticut for payment.^[29] Arnold's disputes with Allen and his unruly men were severe enough that there were times when some of Allen's men drew weapons.^[28]

On May 12, Allen sent the prisoners to Connecticut's Governor Jonathan Trumbull with a note saying "I make you a present of a Major, a Captain, and two Lieutenants of the regular Establishment of George the Third."^[30] Arnold busied himself over the next few days with cataloging the military equipment at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, a task made difficult by the fact that walls had collapsed on some of the armaments.^[31]

Crown Point and the raid on Fort Saint-Jean[link]

1777 map showing the Champlain Valley, and all four forts

Seth Warner sailed a detachment up the lake and captured nearby Fort Crown Point, garrisoned by only nine men. It is widely recorded that this capture occurred on May 10; this is attributed to a letter Arnold wrote to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety on May 11, claiming that an attempt to sail up to Crown Point was frustrated by headwinds. However Warner claimed, in a letter dated May 12 from "Head Quarters, Crown Point", that he "took possession of this garrison" the day before.^[6] It appears likely that, having failed on May 10, the attempt was repeated the next day with success, as reported in Warner's memoir.^[32] A small force was also sent to capture Fort George on Lake George, which was held by only two soldiers.^[33]

Troops recruited by Arnold's captains began to arrive, some after seizing Philip Skene's schooner Katherine and several bateaux at Skenesboro.^[34][35] Arnold rechristened the schooner Liberty. The prisoners had reported that the lone British warship on Lake Champlain was at Fort Saint-Jean, on the Richelieu River north of the lake. Arnold, uncertain whether word of Ticonderoga's capture had reached Saint-Jean, decided to attempt a raid to capture the ship. He had Liberty outfitted with guns, and sailed north with 50 of his men on May 14.^[36] Allen, not wanting Arnold to get the full glory for that capture, followed with some of his men in bateaux, but Arnold's small fleet had the advantage of sail, and pulled away from Allen's boats. By May 17, Arnold's small fleet was at the northern end of the lake. Seeking intelligence, Arnold sent a man to reconnoiter the situation at Fort Saint-Jean. The scout returned later that day, reporting that the British were aware of the fall of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and that troops were apparently on the move toward Saint-Jean. Arnold decided to act immediately.^[37]

Rowing all night, Arnold and 35 of his men brought their bateaux near the fort. After a brief scouting excursion, they surprised the small garrison at the fort, and seized supplies there, along with the HMS Royal George, a seventy-ton sloop.^[38] Warned by their captives that several companies were on their way from Chambly, they loaded the more valuable supplies and cannons on the George, which Arnold renamed the Enterprise. Boats that they could not take were sunk, and the enlarged fleet returned to Lake Champlain.^[4] This activity was observed by Moses Hazen, a retired British officer who lived near the fort. Hazen rode to Montreal to report the action to the local military commander, and then continued on to Quebec City, where he reported the news to General Carleton on May 20. Major Charles Preston and 140 men were immediately dispatched from Montreal to Saint-Jean in response to Hazen's warning.^[39]

Fifteen miles out on the lake, Arnold's fleet met Allen's, which was still heading north. After an exchange of celebratory gunfire, Arnold opened his stores to feed Allen's men, who had rowed 100 miles (160 km) in open boats without provisions. Allen, believing he could seize and hold Fort Saint-Jean, continued north, while Arnold sailed south.^[40] Allen arrived at Saint-Jean on May 19, where he was warned that British troops were approaching by a sympathetic Montreal merchant who had raced ahead of those troops on horseback.^[41] Allen, after penning a message for the merchant to deliver to the citizens of Montreal, returned to Ticonderoga on May 21, leaving Saint-Jean just as the British forces arrived.^[41][42] In their haste to escape the British, three men were left behind; one was captured, but the other two eventually returned south by land.^[7]

Aftermath[link]

Ethan Allen and his men eventually drifted away from Ticonderoga, especially once the alcohol began to run out, and Arnold largely controlled affairs from a base at Crown Point.^[33][43] He oversaw the fitting of the two large ships, eventually taking command of Enterprise because of a lack of knowledgeable seamen. His men began rebuilding Ticonderoga's barracks, and worked to extract armaments from the rubble of the two forts and build gun carriages for them.^[43]

Connecticut sent about 1,000 men under Colonel Benjamin Hinman to hold Ticonderoga, and New York also began to raise militia to defend Crown Point and Ticonderoga against a possible British attack from the north. When Hinman's troops arrived in June, there was once again a clash over leadership. None of the communications to Arnold from the Massachusetts committee indicated that he was to serve under Hinman; when Hinman attempted to assert authority over Crown Point, Arnold refused to accept it, as Hinman's instructions only included Ticonderoga.^[44] The Massachusetts committee eventually sent a delegation to Ticonderoga. When they arrived on June 22 they made it clear to Arnold that he was to serve under Hinman. Arnold, after considering for two days, disbanded his command, resigned his commission, and went home, having spent more than £1,000 of his own money in the effort to capture the fort.^[45]

A 1902 photo of the Fort Crown Point ruins

Congress, when it received news of the events, drafted a second letter to the inhabitants of Quebec, which was sent north in June with James Price, another sympathetic Montreal merchant. This letter, and other communications from the New York Congress, combined with the activities of vocal American supporters, stirred up the Quebec population in the summer of 1775.^[46]

When news of the fall of Ticonderoga reached England, Lord Dartmouth wrote that it was "very unfortunate; very unfortunate indeed".^[47]

Repercussions in Quebec[link]

News of the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and especially the raids on Fort Saint-Jean, electrified the Quebec population. Colonel Dudley Templer, in charge of the garrison at Montreal, issued a call on May 19 to raise a militia for defense of the city, and requested Indians living nearby to also take up arms. Only 50 men, mostly French-speaking landowning seigneurs and petty nobility, were raised in and around Montreal, and they were sent to Saint-Jean; no Indians came to their aid. Templer also prevented merchants sympathetic to the American cause from sending supplies south in response to Allen's letter.^[48]

General Carleton, notified by Hazen of the events on May 20, immediately ordered the garrisons of Montreal and Trois-Rivières to fortify Saint-Jean. Some troops garrisoned at Quebec were also sent to Saint-Jean. Most of the remaining Quebec troops were dispatched to a variety of other points along the Saint Lawrence, as far west as Oswegatchie, to guard against potential invasion threats.^[49] Carleton then traveled to Montreal to oversee the defense of the province from there, leaving the city of Quebec in the hands of Lieutenant Governor Hector Cramahé.^[50] Before leaving, Carleton prevailed on Monsignor Jean-Olivier Briand, the Bishop of Quebec, to issue his own call to arms in support of the provincial defense, which was circulated primarily in the areas around Montreal and Trois-Rivières.^[51]

Later actions near Ticonderoga[link]

"Knox entering camp with artillery"

In July 1775, General Philip Schuyler began using the fort as the staging ground for the invasion of Quebec that was launched in late August.^[52] In the winter of 1775–1776, Henry Knox directed the transportation of the guns of Ticonderoga to Boston. The guns were placed upon Dorchester Heights overlooking the besieged city and the British ships in the harbor, prompting the British to evacuate their troops and Loyalist supporters from the city in March 1776.^[53]

Benedict Arnold again led a fleet of ships at the Battle of Valcour Island, and played other key roles in thwarting Britain's attempt to recapture the fort in 1776.^[54] The British did recapture the fort in July 1777 during the Saratoga campaign, but had abandoned it by November after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga.^[55]

Broken communications[link]

Although Fort Ticonderoga was not at the time an important military post, its capture had several important results. Rebel control of the area meant that overland communications and supply lines between British forces in Quebec and those in Boston and later New York were severed, so the British military command made an adjustment to their command structure.^[56] This break in communication was highlighted by the fact that Arnold, on his way north to Saint-Jean, intercepted a message from Carleton to Gage, detailing the military troop strengths in Quebec.^[57] Command of British forces in North America, previously under a single commander, was divided into two commands. General Carleton was given independent command of forces in Quebec and the northern frontier, while General William Howe was appointed Commander-in-Chief of forces along the Atlantic coast, an arrangement that had worked well between Generals Wolfe and Amherst in the French and Indian War.^[56] In this war, however, cooperation between the two forces would prove to be problematic and would play a role in the failure of the Saratoga campaign in 1777, as General Howe apparently abandoned an agreed-upon northern strategy, leaving General John Burgoyne without southern support in that campaign.^[58]

War of words between Allen and Arnold[link]

An engraving of Benedict Arnold after John Trumbull by H.B. Hall, published 1879

Beginning on the day of the fort's capture, Allen and Arnold began a war of words, each attempting to garner for himself as much credit for the operation as possible. Arnold, unable to exert any authority over Allen and his men, began to keep a diary of events and actions, which was highly critical and dismissive of Allen.^[33] Allen, in the days immediately after the action, also began to work on a memoir. Published several years later (see Further reading), the memoir fails to mention Arnold at all. Allen also wrote several versions of the events, which John Brown and James Easton brought to a variety of Congresses and committees in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Randall (1990) claims that Easton took accounts written by both Arnold and Allen to the Massachusetts committee, but conveniently lost Arnold's account on the way, ensuring that Allen's version, which greatly glorified his role in the affair, would be preferred.^[59] Smith (1907) indicates that it was highly likely that Easton was interested in claiming Arnold's command for himself.^[60] There was clearly no love lost between Easton and Arnold. Allen and Easton returned to Crown Point on June 10 and called a council of war while Arnold was with the fleet on the lake, a clear breach of military protocol. When Arnold, whose men now dominated the garrison, asserted his authority, Easton insulted Arnold, who responded by challenging Easton to a duel. Arnold later reported, "On refusing to draw like a gentleman, he having a [sword] by his side and cases of loaded pistols in his pockets, I kicked him very heartily and ordered him from the Point."^[61]

Notes[link]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

	Book: Fort Ticonderoga
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

External links[link]

• Fort Ticonderoga National Historic Landmark
• "Capture of Ticonderoga", excerpt from Thrilling Incidents in American History by J.W. Barber, 1860.

Fort Ticonderoga
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Fort Ticonderoga from Mount Defiance
Location:	Ticonderoga, NY
Nearest city:	Burlington, VT
Coordinates:	43°50′29″N 73°23′17″W / 43.84139°N 73.38806°W / 43.84139; -73.38806Coordinates: 43°50′29″N 73°23′17″W / 43.84139°N 73.38806°W / 43.84139; -73.38806
Area:	21,950 acres (8,880 ha)
Built:	1755–1758
Architect:	Marquis de Lotbinière
Architectural style:	Vauban-style fortress
Governing body:	Private museum
NRHP Reference#:	66000519
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL:	October 9, 1960[2]

Detail of a 1758 map showing the fort's layout

Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century fort built by the Canadians and the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York in the United States. It was constructed by Canadien Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between 1754 and 1757 during the Seven Years' War, often referred to as the French and Indian War in the USA. It was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played a role during the American Revolutionary War.

The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute River in the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) between Lake Champlain and Lake George and was strategically placed in conflicts over trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. The terrain amplified the importance of the site. Both lakes were long and narrow, oriented north–south, as were the many ridge lines of the Appalachian Mountains extending as far south as Georgia, creating the near-impassable mountainous terrains to the east and west of the Great Appalachian Valley that the site commanded. The name "Ticonderoga" comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".^[3]

During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops near the fort. In 1759, the British returned and drove a token French garrison from the fort merely by occupying high ground that threatened the fort. During the American Revolutionary War, the fort again saw action in May 1775 when the Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured it in a surprise attack. Cannons captured were transported to Boston where their deployment forced the British to abandon the city in March 1776. The Americans held it until June 1777, when British forces under General John Burgoyne again occupied high ground above the fort and threatened the Continental Army troops, leading them to withdraw from the fort and its surrounding defenses. The only direct attack on the fort took place in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the fort from about 100 British defenders.

The British abandoned the fort following the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and it ceased to be of military value after 1781. It fell into ruin, leading people to strip it of some of its usable stone, metal, and woodwork. It became a stop on tourist routes of the area in the 19th century. Its private owners restored the fort early in the 20th century. A foundation now operates the fort as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center.

Geography and early history[link]

Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border between New York and Vermont, and the Hudson River together formed an important travel route that was used by Indians before the arrival of European colonists. The route was relatively free of obstacles to navigation, with only a few portages. One strategically important place on the route lies at a narrows near the southern end of Lake Champlain, where Ticonderoga Creek, known in Colonial times as the La Chute River, enters the lake, carrying water from Lake George. Although the site provides commanding views of the southern extent of Lake Champlain, Mount Defiance, at 853 ft (260 m), and two other hills (Mount Hope and Mount Independence) overlook the area.^[4]

Engraving after a 1609 drawing by Champlain of an Indian battle near Ticonderoga

Indians had occupied the area for centuries before French explorer Samuel de Champlain first arrived there in 1609. Champlain recounted that the Algonquins, with whom he was traveling, battled a group of Iroquois nearby.^[5] In 1642, French missionary Isaac Jogues was the first white man to traverse the portage at Ticonderoga while escaping a battle between the Iroquois and members of the Huron tribe.^[6]

The French, who had colonized the Saint Lawrence River valley to the north, and the English, who had taken over the Dutch settlements that became the Province of New York to the south, began contesting the area as early as 1691, when Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the Ticonderoga point on the western shore of the lake.^[7] These colonial conflicts reached their height in the French and Indian War, which began in 1754.^[8]

Construction[link]

A 1777 map depicting Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson River

In 1755, following the Battle of Lake George, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, the governor of the French Province of Canada, sent his cousin Michel Chartier de Lotbinière to design and construct a fortification at this militarily important site, which the French called Fort Carillon.^[9] The name "Carillon" has variously been attributed to the name of a former French officer, Philippe de Carrion du Fresnoy, who established a trading post at the site in the late 17th century,^[10] or (more commonly) to the sounds made by the La Chute River, which were said to resemble the chiming bells of a carillon.^[11] Construction on the star-shaped fort, which Lotbinière based on designs of the renowned French military engineer Vauban, began in October 1755 and then proceeded slowly during the warmer-weather months of 1756 and 1757, using troops stationed at nearby Fort St. Frédéric and from Canada.^[12][13]

The work in 1755 consisted primarily of beginning construction on the main walls and on the Lotbinière redoubt, an outwork to the west of the site that provided additional coverage of the La Chute River. The next year saw the building of the four main bastions and a sawmill on the La Chute. Work slowed in 1757, when many of the troops prepared for and participated in the attack on Fort William Henry. The barracks and demi-lunes were not completed until spring 1758.^[14]

Walls and bastions[link]

The French built the fort to control the south end of Lake Champlain and prevent the British from gaining military access to the lake. Consequently, its most important defenses, the Reine and Germaine bastions, were directed to the northeast and northwest, away from the lake, with two demi-lunes further extending the works on the land side. The Joannes and Languedoc bastions overlooked the lake to the south, providing cover for the landing area outside the fort. The walls were seven feet (2.1 meters) high and fourteen feet (4.3 meters) thick, and the whole works was surrounded by a glacis and a dry moat five feet (1.5 meters) deep and 15 feet (4.6 m) wide. When the walls were first erected in 1756, they were made of squared wooden timbers, with earth filling the gap. The French then began to dress the walls with stone from a quarry about one mile (1.6 km) away, although this work was never fully completed.^[11] When the main defenses became ready for use, the fort was armed with cannons hauled from Montreal and Fort St. Frédéric.^[15][16]

Inside and outside[link]

The fort contained three barracks and four storehouses. One bastion held a bakery capable of producing 60 loaves of bread a day. A powder magazine was hacked out of the bedrock beneath the Joannes bastion. All the construction within the fort was of stone.^[11]

A wooden palisade protected an area outside the fort between the southern wall and the lake shore. This area contained the main landing for the fort and additional storage facilities and other works necessary for maintenance of the fort.^[11] When it became apparent in 1756 that the fort was too far to the west of the lake, the French constructed an additional redoubt to the east to enable cannon to cover the lake's narrows.^[17]

• 

  Officers' barracks, right; soldiers' barracks, left

• 

  Inside the first wall; officers' barracks at left, soldiers' barracks at right

• 

  Store room and powder magazine; soldiers' barracks at right

• 

  Front of the fort

• 

  View of the lake from the front

• 

  Back view of the fort

Analysis[link]

By 1758, the fort was largely complete; the only ongoing work thereafter consisted of dressing the walls with stone. Still, General Montcalm and two of his military engineers surveyed the works in 1758 and found something to criticize in almost every aspect of the fort's construction; the buildings were too tall and thus easier for attackers' cannon fire to hit, the powder magazine leaked, and the masonry was of poor quality.^[18] The critics apparently failed to notice the fort's significant strategic weakness: several nearby hills commanded the fort.^[19] Lotbinière, who may have won the job of building the fort only because he was related to Governor Vaudreuil, had lost a bid to become Canada's chief engineer to Nicolas Sarrebource de Pontleroy, one of the two surveying engineers, in 1756, all of which may explain the highly negative report. Lotbinière's career suffered for years afterwards.^[20]

William Nester, in his exhaustive analysis of the Battle of Carillon, notes additional problems with the fort's construction. The fort was small for a Vauban-style fort, about 500 feet (150 m) wide, with a barracks capable of holding only 400 soldiers. Storage space inside the fort was similarly limited, requiring the storage of provisions outside the fort's walls in exposed places. Its cistern was small, and the water quality was supposedly poor.^[21][22]

Military history[link]

Restored manuscript map, dated May 29, 1759, for the British plan of attack at the 1759 Battle of Ticonderoga

French and Indian War[link]

In August 1757, the French captured Fort William Henry in an action launched from Fort Carillon.^[23] This, and a string of other French victories in 1757, prompted the British to organize a large-scale attack on the fort as part of a multi-campaign strategy against French Canada.^[24] In June 1758, British General James Abercromby began amassing a large force at Fort William Henry in preparation for the military campaign directed up the Champlain Valley. These forces landed at the north end of Lake George, only four miles from the fort, on July 6.^[25] The French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, who had only arrived at Carillon in late June, engaged his troops in a flurry of work to improve the fort's outer defenses. They built, over two days, entrenchments around a rise between the fort and Mount Hope, about three-quarters of a mile (one kilometer) northwest of the fort, and then constructed an abatis (felled trees with sharpened branches pointing out) below these entrenchments.^[26] Abercromby's failure to advance directly to the fort on July 7 made much of this defensive work possible. Abercromby's second-in-command, Brigadier General George Howe, had been killed when his column encountered a French reconnaissance troop. Abercromby "felt [Howe's death] most heavily" and may have been unwilling to act immediately.^[27]

On July 8, 1758, Abercromby ordered a frontal attack against the hastily assembled French works. Abercromby tried to move rapidly against the few French defenders, opting to forgo field cannon and relying instead on the numerical superiority of his 16,000 troops. In the Battle of Carillon, the British were soundly defeated by the 4,000 French defenders.^[28] The battle took place far enough away from the fort that its guns were rarely used.^[29] The battle gave the fort a reputation for impregnability, which had an impact on future military operations in the area, notably during the American Revolutionary War.^[30] Following the French victory, Montcalm, anticipating further British attacks, ordered additional work on the defenses, including the construction of the Germain and Pontleroy redoubts (named for the engineers under whose direction they were constructed) to the northeast of the fort.^[31][32] However, the British did not attack again in 1758, so the French withdrew all but a small garrison of men for the winter in November.^[33]

The fort was captured the following year by the British under General Jeffrey Amherst in the 1759 Battle of Ticonderoga. In this confrontation 11,000 British troops, using emplaced artillery, drove off a token garrison of 400 Frenchmen. The French, in withdrawing, used explosives to destroy what they could of the fort^[34] and spiked or dumped cannons that they did not take with them. Although the British worked in 1759 and 1760 to repair and improve the fort,^[35] the fort saw no more significant action in the war. After the war, the British garrisoned it with a small numbers of troops and allowed it to fall into disrepair. Colonel Frederick Haldimand, in command of the fort in 1773, wrote that it was in "ruinous condition".^[36]

Early Revolutionary War[link]

In 1775, Fort Ticonderoga, in disrepair, was still manned by a token force. On May 10, 1775, less than one month after the American Revolutionary War was ignited with the battles of Lexington and Concord, the British garrison of 48 soldiers was surprised by a small force of Green Mountain Boys, along with militia volunteers from Massachusetts and Connecticut, led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold.^[37] Allen claims to have said, "Come out you old Rat!" to the fort's commander, Captain William Delaplace.^[38] He also later said that he demanded that the British commander surrender the fort "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"; however, his surrender demand was made to Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham and not the fort's commander, who did later appear and surrender his sword.^[38] With the capture of the fort, the Patriot forces obtained a large supply of cannons and other armaments, much of which Henry Knox transported to Boston during the winter of 1775–1776. Ticonderoga's cannons were instrumental in ending the Siege of Boston when they were used to fortify Dorchester Heights.^[39] Arnold remained in control of the fort until 1,000 Connecticut troops under the command of Benjamin Hinman arrived in June 1775. Because of a series of political maneuvers and miscommunications, Arnold was never notified that Hinman was to take command. After a delegation from Massachusetts (which had issued Arnold's commission) arrived to clarify the matter, Arnold resigned his commission and departed, leaving the fort in Hinman's hands.^[40]

Ethan Allen, demanding that the fort be surrendered

Beginning in July 1775, Ticonderoga was used as a staging area for the invasion of Quebec to begin in September. Under the leadership of generals Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery, men and materiel for the invasion accumulated there through July and August.^[41] On August 28, after receiving word that British forces at Fort Saint-Jean, not far from the New York–Quebec border, were nearing completion of boats to launch onto Lake Champlain, Montgomery launched the invasion, leading 1,200 troops down the lake.^[42] Ticonderoga continued to serve as a staging base for the action in Quebec until the battle and siege at Quebec City that resulted in Montgomery's death.^[43]

In May 1776, British troops began to arrive at Quebec City, where they broke the Continental Army's siege.^[44] The British chased the American forces back to Ticonderoga in June, and, after several months of shipbuilding, moved down Lake Champlain under Guy Carleton in October. The British destroyed a small fleet of American gunboats in the Battle of Valcour Island in mid-October, but snow was already falling, so the British retreated to winter quarters in Quebec. About 1,700 troops from the Continental Army, under the command of Colonel Anthony Wayne, wintered at Ticonderoga.^[43][45] The British offensive resumed the next year in the Saratoga campaign under General John Burgoyne.^[46]

Saratoga campaign[link]

During the summer of 1776, the Americans, under the direction of General Schuyler, and later under General Horatio Gates, added substantial defensive works to the area. Mount Independence, which is almost completely surrounded by water, was fortified with trenches near the water, a horseshoe battery part way up the side, a citadel at the summit, and redoubts armed with cannons surrounding the summit area. These defenses were linked to Ticonderoga with a pontoon bridge that was protected by land batteries on both sides. The works on Mount Hope, the heights above the site of Montcalm's victory, were improved to include a star-shaped fort. Mount Defiance remained unfortified.^[47]

Fort Ticonderoga as seen from Lake Champlain

In March 1777, American generals were strategizing about possible British military movements and considered an attempt on the Hudson River corridor a likely possibility. General Schuyler, heading the forces stationed at Ticonderoga, requested 10,000 troops to guard Ticonderoga and 2,000 to guard the Mohawk River valley against British invasion from the north. George Washington, who had never been to Ticonderoga (his only visit was to be in 1783),^[48] believed that an overland attack from the north was unlikely, because of the alleged impregnability of Ticonderoga.^[30] This, combined with continuing incursions up the Hudson River valley by British forces occupying New York City, led Washington to believe that any attack on the Albany area would be from the south, which, as it was part of the supply line to Ticonderoga, would necessitate a withdrawal from the fort. As a result, no significant actions were taken to further fortify Ticonderoga or significantly increase its garrison.^[49] The garrison, about 2,000 men under General Arthur St. Clair, was too small to man all the defenses.^[50]

General Gates, who oversaw the northern defenses, was aware that Mount Defiance threatened the fort.^[51] John Trumbull had pointed this out as early as 1776, when a shot fired from the fort was able to reach Defiance's summit, and several officers inspecting the hill noted that there were approaches to its summit where gun carriages could be pulled up the sides.^[51] As the garrison was too small to properly defend all the existing works in area, Mount Defiance was left undefended.^[52] Anthony Wayne left Ticonderoga in April 1777 to join Washington's army; he reported to Washington that "all was well", and that the fort "can never be carried, without much loss of blood".^[53]

General Burgoyne led 7,800 British and Hessian forces south from Quebec in June 1777.^[54] After occupying nearby Fort Crown Point without opposition on June 30, he prepared to besiege Ticonderoga.^[55] Burgoyne realized the tactical advantage of the high ground, and had his troops haul cannons to the top of Mount Defiance. Faced with bombardment from the heights (even before any shots had been fired from those cannons), General St. Clair ordered Ticonderoga abandoned on July 5, 1777. Burgoyne's troops moved in the next day,^[56] with advance guards pursuing the retreating Americans.^[57] Washington, on hearing of Burgoyne's advance and the retreat from Ticonderoga, stated that the event was "not apprehended, nor within the compass of my reasoning".^[58] News of the abandonment of the "Impregnable Bastion" without a fight, caused "the greatest surprise and alarm" throughout the colonies.^[59] After public outcry over his actions, General St. Clair was court-martialed in 1778. He was cleared on all charges.^[58]

One last attack[link]

Following the British capture of Ticonderoga, it and the surrounding defenses were garrisoned by 700 British and Hessian troops under the command of Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell. Most of these forces were on Mount Independence, with only 100 each at Fort Ticonderoga and a blockhouse they were constructing on top of Mount Defiance.^[60] George Washington sent General Benjamin Lincoln into Vermont to "divide and distract the enemy".^[61] Aware that the British were housing American prisoners in the area, Lincoln decided to test the British defenses. On September 13, he sent 500 men to Skenesboro, which they found the British had abandoned, and 500 each against the defenses on either side of the lake at Ticonderoga. Colonel John Brown led the troops on the west side, with instructions to release prisoners if possible, and attack the fort if it seemed feasible.^[62]

John Trumbull's depiction of the Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga

Early on September 18, Brown's troops surprised a British contingent holding some prisoners near the Lake George landing, while a detachment of his troops snuck up Mount Defiance, and captured most of the sleeping construction crew. Brown and his men then moved down the portage trail toward the fort, surprising more troops and releasing prisoners along the way.^[63] The fort's occupants were unaware of the action until Brown's men and British troops occupying the old French lines skirmished. At this point Brown's men dragged two captured six-pound guns up to the lines, and began firing on the fort. The men who had captured Mount Defiance began firing a twelve-pounder from that site.^[64] The column that was to attack Mount Independence was delayed, and its numerous defenders were alerted to the action at the fort below before the attack on their position began. Their musket fire, as well as grapeshot fired from ships anchored nearby, intimidated the Americans sufficiently that they never launched an assault on the defensive positions on Mount Independence.^[64] A stalemate persisted, with regular exchanges of cannon fire, until September 21, when 100 Hessians, returning from the Mohawk Valley to support Burgoyne, arrived on the scene to provide reinforcement to the besieged fort.^[65] Brown eventually sent a truce party to the fort to open negotiations; the party was fired on, and three of its five members were killed.^[66] Brown, realizing that the weaponry they had was insufficient to take the fort, decided to withdraw. Destroying many bateaux and seizing a ship on Lake George, he set off to annoy British positions on that lake.^[66] His action resulted in the freeing of 118 Americans and the capture of 293 British troops, while suffering fewer than ten casualties.^[64]

Abandonment[link]

Following Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga, the fort at Ticonderoga became increasingly irrelevant. The British abandoned it and nearby Fort Crown Point in November 1777, destroying both as best they could prior to their withdrawal.^[67] The fort was occasionally reoccupied by British raiding parties in the following years, but it no longer held a prominent strategic role in the war. It was finally abandoned by the British for good in 1781, following the surrender at Yorktown.^[68] Area residents began stripping the fort of usable building materials, even melting some of the cannons down for their metal in the years following the war.^[69]

Tourist attraction[link]

Thomas Cole's Gelyna, View near Ticonderoga

In 1785, the fort's lands became the property of the state of New York. The state donated the property to Columbia and Union colleges in 1803,^[70] which sold it to William Ferris Pell in 1820.^[71] Pell first used the property as a summer retreat, but the completion of railroads and canals connecting the area to New York City brought tourists to the area,^[72] so he converted his summer house, known as The Pavilion, into a hotel to serve the tourist trade. In 1848, the Hudson River School artist Russell Smith painted Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga, depicting the condition of the fort.^[73]

The Pell family, a politically important clan with influence throughout American history (from William C. C. Claiborne, the first Governor of Louisiana, to a Senator from Rhode Island, Claiborne Pell), restored the fort in 1909 and formally opened it to the public. The ceremonies, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by European explorers, were attended by President William Howard Taft.^[74] Stephen Hyatt Pell, who spearheaded the restoration effort, founded the Fort Ticonderoga Association in 1931, which is now responsible for the fort.^[75] Funding for the restoration also came from Robert M. Thompson, father of Steven's wife Sarah Gibbs Thompson.^[76] Between 1900 and 1950, the historically important lands around the fort, including Mount Defiance, Mount Independence, and much of Mount Hope, were also acquired by the foundation.^[77] The fort was rearmed with fourteen 24-pound cannons provided by the British government. These cannons had been cast in England for use during the Revolution, but the war ended before they were shipped over.^[78]

A view of the restored Fort Ticonderoga

The fort is now a tourist attraction, early American military museum, and research center. The fort opens around May 10, the anniversary of the 1775 capture, every year, closing in late October.^[79] It has been on a watchlist of National Historic Landmarks since 1998, because of the poor condition of some of the walls and the 19th-century pavilion constructed by William Ferris Pell.^[2] The pavilion is, as of early 2009, undergoing restoration. In 2008, the powder magazine destroyed by the French in 1759 was recreated, based in part on the original 1755 plans.^[80] Also in 2008, the withdrawal of a major backer's financial support forced the museum, facing significant budget deficits, to consider selling one of its major art works, Thomas Cole's Gelyna, View near Ticonderoga. However, fundraising activities succeeded in making this unnecessary.^[81]

The not-for-profit Living History Education Foundation has teacher programs at Fort Ticonderoga that run in the summer and last approximately one week. The program trains teachers in how to teach Living History techniques, and to understand and interpret the importance of Fort Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.^[82]

Memorials[link]

Stamp issued in 1955 marking Fort Ticonderoga's 200th anniversary

The name Ticonderoga has been given to five different U.S. Navy vessels and entire classes of cruisers and aircraft carriers.^[83][84] The fort was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.^[2] Included in the landmarked area are the fort itself, as well as Mount Independence and Mount Defiance.^[85] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.^[2] The Ticonderoga pencil, manufactured by the Dixon Ticonderoga Corporation, is named for the fort.^[86]

See also[link]

	New France portal
	Capital District portal

	Book: Fort Ticonderoga
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Battle on Snowshoes (1757)
• Battle on Snowshoes (1758)
• List of French forts in North America

Notes[link]

References[link]

Fort history sources[link]

Battle history sources[link]

Other sources[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fort Ticonderoga

• Official site: Fort Ticonderoga webpage

• Timeline 18th, 19th century

• Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Ticonderoga, Essex, NY: 5 photos and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
• Fort Ticonderoga history at Historic Lakes
• Battle of Ticonderoga – 1758 at British Battles
• Capture of Ticonderoga at Thrilling Incidents in American History

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Benedict Arnold V
Benedict Arnold Engraving by H.B. Hall after John Trumbull.
Born	(1741-01-14)January 14, 1741 Norwich, Connecticut
Died	June 14, 1801(1801-06-14) (aged 60) London, England, Great Britain
Place of burial	London, England
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 (January–April 1776 siege) Montreal (April–June 1776) Lake Champlain (August–October 1776) Philadelphia (June 1778–April 1780) West Point (August–September 1780) American Legion (September 1780–1781)
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Arnold's expedition to Quebec Battle of Quebec Battle of The Cedars Battle of Valcour Island Battle of Ridgefield Relief of Fort Stanwix Battles of Saratoga Battle of Blandford Battle of Groton Heights
Awards	Boot Monument

Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 [O.S. January 3, 1740]^[1][2] – June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces. After the plot was exposed in September 1780, he was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general.

Born in Connecticut, Arnold was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. After joining the growing army outside Boston, he distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery. His actions included 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 was 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 suffered leg injuries that ended his combat career for several years.

Despite Arnold's successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments.^[3] Adversaries in military and political circles brought charges of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries. Congress investigated his accounts and found he was indebted to Congress after spending much of his own money on the war effort. Frustrated and bitter, Arnold decided to change sides in 1779, and opened secret negotiations with the British. In July 1780, he was offered, continued to pursue and was awarded command of West Point. Arnold's scheme to surrender the fort to the British was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. Upon learning of André's capture, Arnold fled 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 received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000.^[4] He led British forces on raids in Virginia, and nearly captured Thomas Jefferson, and against New London and Groton, Connecticut, before the war effectively ended with the American victory at Yorktown. In the winter of 1782, Arnold moved to London with his second wife, Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he entered into mercantile business 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.^[5] His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor.

Early life[link]

Benedict was born the second of six children to Benedict Arnold III (1683–1761) and Hannah Waterman King in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 14, 1741.^[1] He was named after his great-grandfather Benedict Arnold, an early governor of the Colony of Rhode Island, and his brother Benedict IV, who died in infancy.^[1] Only Benedict and his sister Hannah survived to adulthood; his other siblings succumbed to yellow fever in childhood.^[6] His siblings were, in order of birth: Benedict IV (August 15, 1738 – April 30, 1739), Hannah (December 9, 1742 – August 11, 1803), Mary (June 4, 1745 – September 10, 1753), Absolom (April 4, 1747 – July 22, 1750) and Elizabeth (November 19, 1749 – September 29, 1755). Through his maternal grandmother, Arnold was a descendant of John Lothropp, an ancestor of at least four U.S. presidents.^[7]

Arnold's father was a successful businessman, and the family moved in the upper levels of Norwich society. When he was ten, Arnold was enrolled in a private school in nearby Canterbury, with the expectation that he would eventually attend Yale. However, the deaths of his siblings two years later may have contributed to a decline in the family fortunes, since his father took up drinking. By the time he was fourteen, there was no money for private education. His father's alcoholism and ill health kept him from training Arnold in the family mercantile business, but his mother's family connections secured an apprenticeship for Arnold with two of her cousins, brothers Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, who operated a successful apothecary and general merchandise trade in Norwich.^[8] His apprenticeship with the Lathrops lasted seven years.^[9]

In 1755, Arnold, attracted by the sound of a drummer, attempted to enlist in the provincial militia for service against the French, but his mother refused permission.^[10] In 1757, when he was sixteen, he did enlist in the militia, which marched off toward Albany and Lake George. The French had besieged Fort William Henry, and their Indian allies had committed atrocities after their victory. Word of the siege's disastrous outcome led the company to turn around; Arnold served for 13 days.^[11] A commonly accepted story that Arnold deserted from militia service in 1758^[12] is based on uncertain documentary evidence.^[13]

Arnold's mother, to whom he was very close, died in 1759. His father's alcoholism worsened after the death of his wife, and the youth took on the responsibility of supporting his father and younger sister. His father was arrested on several occasions for public drunkenness, was refused communion by his church, and eventually died in 1761.^[9]

Businessman[link]

In 1762, with the help of the Lathrops, Arnold established himself in business as a pharmacist and bookseller in New Haven, Connecticut.^[14] Arnold was hardworking and successful, and was able to rapidly expand his business. In 1763 he repaid money borrowed from the Lathrops,^[15] repurchased the family homestead that his father had sold when deeply in debt, and re-sold it a year later for a substantial profit. In 1764 he formed a partnership with Adam Babcock, another young New Haven merchant. Using the profits from the sale of his homestead they bought three trading ships and established a lucrative West Indies trade. During this time he brought his sister Hannah to New Haven and established her in his apothecary to manage the business in his absence. He traveled extensively in the course of his business, throughout New England and from Quebec to the West Indies, often in command of one of his own ships.^[16] On one of his voyages, Arnold fought a duel in Honduras with a British sea captain who had called him a "damned Yankee, destitute of good manners or those of a gentleman".^[17][18] The captain was wounded after the first exchange of gunfire, and apologized after Arnold threatened to aim to kill on the second.^[19]

A 1766 political cartoon on the repeal of the Stamp Act

The Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765 severely curtailed mercantile trade in the colonies.^[20] The latter act prompted Arnold to join the chorus of voices in opposition to those taxes, and also led to his entry into the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization that was not afraid to use violence to oppose implementation of those and other unpopular Parliamentary measures.^[21] Arnold initially took no part in any public demonstrations but, like many merchants, continued to trade as if the Stamp Act did not exist, in effect becoming a smuggler in defiance of the act. Arnold also faced financial ruin, falling £16,000 in debt, with creditors spreading rumors of his insolvency to the point where he took legal action against them.^[22] On the night of January 28, 1767, Arnold and members of his crew, watched by a crowd of Sons, roughed up a man suspected of attempting to inform authorities of Arnold's smuggling. Arnold was convicted of a disorderly conduct charge and fined the relatively small amount of 50 shillings; publicity of the case and widespread sympathy for his view probably contributed to the light sentence.^[23]

On February 22, 1767, he married Margaret Mansfield, daughter of Samuel Mansfield, the sheriff of New Haven, an acquaintance that may have been made through the membership of both Mansfield and Arnold in the local Masonic Lodge.^[24] Their first son, Benedict VI, was born the following year,^[25] and was followed by brothers Richard in 1769, and Henry in 1772.^[24] Margaret died early in the revolution, on June 19, 1775, while Arnold was at Fort Ticonderoga following its capture.^[26] The household, even while she lived, was dominated by Arnold's sister Hannah. Arnold benefited from his relationship with Mansfield, who became a partner in his business and used his position as sheriff to shield Arnold from creditors.^[27]

Arnold was in the West Indies when the Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770. He wrote he was "very much shocked" and wondered "good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties, or are they all turned philosophers, that they don't take immediate vengeance on such miscreants".^[28]

Early Revolutionary War[link]

Arnold began the war as a captain in Connecticut's militia, a position to which he was elected in March 1775. Following the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord the following month, his company marched northeast to assist in the siege of Boston that followed. Arnold proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety an action to seize Fort Ticonderoga in New York, which he knew was poorly defended. They issued him a colonel's commission on May 3, 1775, and he immediately rode off to the west, arriving at Castleton in the disputed New Hampshire Grants (present-day Vermont) in time to participate with Ethan Allen and his men in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. He followed up that action with a bold raid on Fort Saint-Jean on the Richelieu River north of Lake Champlain. When a Connecticut militia force arrived at Ticonderoga in June, he had a dispute with its commander over control of the fort, and resigned his Massachusetts commission. He was on his way home from Ticonderoga when he learned that his wife had died earlier in June.^[29]

Quebec Governor Guy Carleton opposed Arnold at Quebec and Valcour Island

When the Second Continental Congress authorized an invasion of Quebec, in part on the urging of Arnold, he was passed over for command of the expedition. Arnold then went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and suggested to George Washington a second expedition to attack Quebec City via a wilderness route through present-day Maine. This expedition, for which Arnold received a colonel's commission in the Continental Army, left Cambridge in September 1775 with 1,100 men. After a difficult passage in which 300 men turned back and another 200 died en route, Arnold arrived before Quebec City in November. Joined by Richard Montgomery's small army, he participated in the December 31 assault on Quebec City in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold's leg was shattered. Rev. Samuel Spring, his chaplain, carried him to the makeshift hospital at the Hotel Dieu. Arnold, who was promoted to brigadier general for his role in reaching Quebec, maintained an ineffectual siege of the city until he was replaced by Major General David Wooster in April 1776.^[30]

Arnold then traveled to Montreal, where he served as military commander of the city until forced to retreat by an advancing British army that had arrived at Quebec in May. He presided over the rear of the Continental Army during its retreat from Saint-Jean, where he was reported by James Wilkinson to be the last person to leave before the British arrived. He then directed the construction of a fleet to defend Lake Champlain, which was defeated in the October 1776 Battle of Valcour Island. His actions at Saint-Jean and Valcour Island played a notable role in delaying the British advance against Ticonderoga until 1777.^[31]

During these actions, Arnold made a number of friends and a larger number of enemies within the army power structure and in Congress. He had established decent relationships with George Washington, commander of the army, as well as Philip Schuyler and Horatio Gates, both of whom had command of the army's Northern Department during 1775 and 1776.^[32] However, an acrimonious dispute with Moses Hazen, commander of the 2nd Canadian Regiment, boiled over into a court martial of Hazen at Ticonderoga during the summer of 1776. Only action by Gates, then his superior at Ticonderoga, prevented his own arrest on countercharges leveled by Hazen.^[33] He had also had disagreements with John Brown and James Easton, two lower-level officers with political connections that resulted in ongoing suggestions of improprieties on his part. Brown was particularly vicious, publishing a handbill that claimed of Arnold, "Money is this man's God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country".^[34]

Saratoga and Philadelphia[link]

General Horatio Gates led the forces at Saratoga (portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1793–94)

General Washington assigned Arnold to the defense of Rhode Island following the British seizure of Newport in December 1776, where the militia were too poorly equipped to even consider an attack on the British.^[35] Arnold took the opportunity while near his home in New Haven to visit his children, and he spent much of the winter socializing in Boston, where he unsuccessfully courted a young belle named Betsy Deblois.^[36] In February 1777, he learned that he had been passed over for promotion to major general by Congress. Washington refused his offer to resign, and wrote to members of Congress in an attempt to correct this, noting that "two or three other very good officers" might be lost if they persisted in making politically motivated promotions.^[37] Arnold was on his way to Philadelphia to discuss his future when he was alerted that a British force was marching toward a supply depot in Danbury, Connecticut. Along with David Wooster and Connecticut militia General Gold S. Silliman he organized the militia response. In the Battle of Ridgefield, he led a small contingent of militia attempting to stop or slow the British return to the coast, and was again wounded in his left leg. Arnold continued on to Philadelphia, where he met with members of Congress about his rank. His action at Ridgefield, coupled with the death of Wooster due to wounds sustained in the action, resulted in Arnold's promotion to major general, although his seniority was not restored over those who had been promoted before him.^[38] Amid negotiations over that issue, Arnold wrote out a letter of resignation on July 11, the same day word arrived in Philadelphia that Fort Ticonderoga had fallen to the British. Washington refused his resignation and ordered him north to assist with the defense there.^[39]

Arnold arrived in Schuyler's camp at Fort Edward, New York on July 24. On August 13 Schuyler dispatched him with a force of 900 to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix, where he succeeded in the use of a ruse to lift the siege. Arnold had an Indian messenger sent into the camp of British Brigadier General Barry St. Leger with news that the approaching force was much larger and closer than it actually was; this convinced St. Leger's Indian support to abandon him, forcing him to give up the effort.^[40]

Arnold then returned to the Hudson, where General Gates had taken over command of the American army, which had by then retreated to a camp south of Stillwater.^[41] He then distinguished himself in both Battles of Saratoga, even though General Gates, following a series of escalating disagreements and disputes that culminated in a shouting match, removed him from field command after the first battle.^[42] During the fighting in the second battle, Arnold, operating against Gates' orders, took to the battlefield and led attacks on the British defenses. He was again severely wounded in the left leg late in the fighting. Arnold himself said it would have been better had it been in the chest instead of the leg.^[43] Burgoyne surrendered ten days after the second battle, on October 17, 1777. In response to Arnold's valor at Saratoga, Congress restored his command seniority.^[44] However, Arnold interpreted the manner in which they did so as an act of sympathy for his wounds, and not an apology or recognition that they were righting a wrong.^[45]

Arnold's Oath of Allegiance, May 30, 1778

Arnold spent several months recovering from his injuries. Rather than allowing his shattered left leg to be amputated, he had it crudely set, leaving it 2 inches (5 cm) shorter than the right. He returned to the army at Valley Forge in May 1778 to the applause of men who had served under him at Saratoga.^[46] There he participated in the first recorded Oath of Allegiance along with many other soldiers, as a sign of loyalty to the United States.^[47]

After the British withdrew from Philadelphia in June 1778 Washington appointed Arnold military commander of the city.^[48] Even before the Americans reoccupied Philadelphia, Arnold began planning to capitalize financially on the change in power there, engaging in a variety of business deals designed to profit from war-related supply movements and benefiting from the protection of his authority.^[49] These schemes were sometimes frustrated by powerful local politicians, who eventually amassed enough evidence to publicly air charges. Arnold demanded a court martial to clear the charges, writing to Washington in May 1779, "Having become a cripple in the service of my country, I little expected to meet [such] ungrateful returns".^[50]

President's House, Philadelphia. Arnold made the Masters-Penn mansion, as it was then called, his headquarters while military commander of Philadelphia. It later served as the presidential mansion of George Washington and John Adams, 1790–1800.^[51]

Arnold lived extravagantly in Philadelphia, and was a prominent figure on the social scene. During the summer of 1778 Arnold met Peggy Shippen, the 18-year-old daughter of Judge Edward Shippen, a Loyalist sympathizer who had done business with the British while they occupied the city.^[52] Peggy had been courted by British Major John André during the British occupation of Philadelphia.^[53] Peggy and Arnold married on April 8, 1779.^[54] Peggy and her circle of friends had found methods of staying in contact with paramours across the battle lines, despite military bans on communication with the enemy.^[55] Some of this communication was effected through the services of Joseph Stansbury, a Philadelphia merchant.^[56]

Plotting to change sides[link]

As early as 1778 there were signs that Arnold was unhappy with his situation and pessimistic about the country's future. On November 10, 1778, General Nathanael Greene wrote to General John Cadwalader, "I am told General Arnold is become very unpopular among you oweing to his associateing too much with the Tories."^[57] A few days later, Greene received a letter from Arnold, where Arnold lamented over the "deplorable" and "horrid" situation of the country at that particular moment, citing the depreciating currency, disaffection of the army, and internal fighting in Congress for the country's problems, while predicting "impending ruin" if things would not soon change.^[58]

Sometime early in May 1779, Arnold met with Stansbury (whose testimony before a British commission apparently erroneously placed his meeting with Arnold in June). Stansbury said he then "went secretly to New York with a tender of [Arnold's] services to Sir Henry Clinton."^[59] Ignoring instructions from Arnold to involve no one else in the plot, Stansbury crossed the British lines and went to see Jonathan Odell in New York. Odell was a Loyalist working with William Franklin, the last colonial governor of New Jersey and the son of Benjamin Franklin. On May 9, Franklin introduced Stansbury to Major André, who had just been named the British spy chief.^[60] This was the beginning of a secret correspondence between Arnold and André, sometimes using his wife Peggy as a willing intermediary, that culminated over a year later with Arnold's change of sides.^[50]

Secret communications[link]

One of Arnold's coded letters. Cipher lines by Arnold are interspersed with lines by his wife Peggy.

André conferred with General Clinton, who gave him broad authority to pursue Arnold's offer. André then drafted instructions to Stansbury and Arnold.^[61] This initial letter opened a discussion on the types of assistance and intelligence Arnold might provide, and included instructions for how to communicate in the future. Letters would be passed through the women's circle that Peggy Arnold was a part of, but only Peggy would be aware that some letters contained instructions written in both code and invisible ink that were to be passed on to André, using Stansbury as the courier.^[62]

By July 1779, Arnold was providing the British with troop locations and strengths, as well as the locations of supply depots, all the while negotiating over compensation. At first, he asked for indemnification of his losses and £10,000, an amount the Continental Congress had given Charles Lee for his services in the Continental Army.^[63] General Clinton, who was pursuing a campaign to gain control of the Hudson River Valley, was interested in plans and information on the defenses of West Point and other defenses on the Hudson River. He also began to insist on a face-to-face meeting, and suggested to Arnold that he pursue another high-level command.^[64] By October 1779, the negotiations had ground to a halt.^[65] Furthermore, Patriot mobs were scouring Philadelphia for Loyalists, and Arnold and the Shippen family were being threatened. Arnold was rebuffed by Congress and by local authorities in requests for security details for himself and his in-laws.^[66]

Court martial[link]

The court martial to consider the charges against Arnold began meeting on June 1, 1779, but was delayed until December 1779 by General Clinton's capture of Stony Point, New York, throwing the army into a flurry of activity to react.^[67] Although a number of members of the panel of judges were ill-disposed to Arnold over actions and disputes earlier in the war, Arnold was cleared of all but two minor charges on January 26, 1780.^[68] Arnold worked over the next few months to publicize this fact; however, in early April, just one week after Washington congratulated Arnold on the March 19 birth of his son, Edward Shippen Arnold, Washington published a formal rebuke of Arnold's behavior.^[69]

The Commander-in-Chief would have been much happier in an occasion of bestowing commendations on an officer who had rendered such distinguished services to his country as Major General Arnold; but in the present case, a sense of duty and a regard to candor oblige him to declare that he considers his conduct [in the convicted actions] as imprudent and improper.

— Notice published by George Washington, April 6, 1780^[70]

Major John André, British General Henry Clinton's spy chief, was captured and hanged for his role in the plot

Shortly after Washington's rebuke, a Congressional inquiry into his expenditures concluded that Arnold had failed to fully account for his expenditures incurred during the Quebec invasion, and that he owed the Congress some £1,000, largely because he was unable to document them.^[71] A significant number of these documents had been lost during the retreat from Quebec. Angry and frustrated, Arnold resigned his military command of Philadelphia in late April.^[72]

Offer to surrender West Point[link]

Early in April, Philip Schuyler had approached Arnold with the possibility of giving him the command at West Point. Discussions between Schuyler and Washington on the subject had not borne fruit by early June. Arnold reopened the secret channels with the British, informing them of Schuyler's proposals and including Schuyler's assessment of conditions and West Point. He also provided information on a proposed French-American invasion of Quebec that was to go up the Connecticut River. (Arnold did not know that this proposed invasion was a ruse intended to divert British resources.) On June 16, Arnold inspected West Point while on his way home to Connecticut to take care of personal business, and sent a highly detailed report through the secret channel.^[73] When he reached Connecticut Arnold arranged to sell his home there, and began transferring assets to London through intermediaries in New York. By early July he was back in Philadelphia, where he wrote another secret message to Clinton on July 7, which implied that his appointment to West Point was assured and that he might even provide a "drawing of the works ... by which you might take [West Point] without loss".^[74]

General Clinton and Major André, who returned victorious from the Siege of Charleston on June 18, were immediately caught up in this news. Clinton, concerned that Washington's army and the French fleet would join in Rhode Island, again fixed on West Point as a strategic point to capture. André, who had spies and informers keeping track of Arnold, verified his movements. Excited by the prospects, Clinton informed his superiors of his intelligence coups, but failed to respond to Arnold's July 7 letter.^[75]

Arnold next wrote a series of letters to Clinton, even before he might have expected a response to the July 7 letter. In a July 11 letter, he complained that the British did not appear to trust him, and threatened to break off negotiations unless progress was made. On July 12 he wrote again, making explicit the offer to surrender West Point, although his price (in addition to indemnification for his losses) rose to £20,000, with a £1,000 downpayment to be delivered with the response. These letters were delivered not by Stansbury but by Samuel Wallis, another Philadelphia businessman who spied for the British.^[76]

Command at West Point[link]

Col. Beverley Robinson's house, Arnold's headquarters at West Point

On August 3, 1780, Arnold obtained command of West Point. On August 15 he received a coded letter from André with Clinton's final offer: £20,000, and no indemnification for his losses. Due to difficulties in getting the messages across the lines, neither side knew for some days that the other was in agreement to that offer. Arnold's letters continued to detail Washington's troop movements and provide information about French reinforcements that were being organized. On August 25, Peggy finally delivered to him Clinton's agreement to the terms.^[77]

Washington, in assigning Arnold to the command at West Point, also gave him authority over the entire American-controlled Hudson River, from Albany down to the British lines outside New York City. While en route to West Point, Arnold renewed an acquaintance with Joshua Hett Smith, someone Arnold knew had spied for both sides and who owned a house near the western bank of the Hudson just south of West Point.^[78]

Once he established himself at West Point, Arnold began systematically weakening its defenses and military strength. Needed repairs on the chain across the Hudson were never ordered. Troops were liberally distributed within Arnold's command area (but only minimally at West Point itself), or furnished to Washington on request. He also peppered Washington with complaints about the lack of supplies, writing, "Everything is wanting."^[79] At the same time, he tried to drain West Point's supplies, so that a siege would be more likely to succeed. His subordinates, some long-time associates, grumbled about Arnold's unnecessary distribution of supplies and eventually concluded that Arnold was selling supplies on the black market for personal gain.^[79]

A French map of West Point in 1780

On August 30, Arnold sent a letter accepting Clinton's terms and proposing a meeting to André through yet another intermediary: William Heron, a member of the Connecticut Assembly he thought he could trust. Heron, in a comic twist, went into New York unaware of the significance of the letter, and offered his own services to the British as a spy. He then took the letter back to Connecticut, where, suspicious of Arnold's actions, he delivered it to the head of the Connecticut militia. General Parsons, seeing a letter written as a coded business discussion, laid it aside. Four days later, Arnold sent a ciphered letter with similar content into New York through the services of a prisoner-of-war's wife.^[80] Eventually, a meeting was set for September 11 near Dobb's Ferry. This meeting was thwarted when British gunboats in the river, not having been informed of his impending arrival, fired on his boat.^[81]

Plot exposed[link]

Arnold and André finally met on September 21 at Joshua Hett Smith's house. On the morning of September 22, James Livingston, the colonel in charge of the outpost at Verplanck's Point, fired on HMS Vulture, the ship that was intended to carry André back to New York. This action did sufficient damage that she was retreated downriver, forcing André to return to New York overland. Arnold wrote out passes for André so that he would be able to pass through the lines, and also gave him plans for West Point.^[82] On Saturday, September 23, André was captured, near Tarrytown, by three Westchester patriots named John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart and David Williams;^[83] the papers exposing the plot to capture West Point were found and sent to Washington, and Arnold's treachery came to light after Washington examined them.^[84] Meanwhile, André convinced the unsuspecting commanding officer to whom he was delivered, Colonel John Jameson, to send him back to Arnold at West Point. However, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, a member of Washington's secret service, insisted Jameson order the prisoner intercepted and brought back. Jameson reluctantly recalled the lieutenant delivering André into Arnold's custody, but then sent the same lieutenant as a messenger to notify Arnold of André's arrest.^[85]

Arnold learned of André's capture the following morning, September 24, when he received Jameson's message that André was in his custody and that the papers André was carrying had been sent to General Washington. Arnold received Jameson's letter while waiting for Washington, with whom he had planned to have breakfast.^[86] He made all haste to the shore and ordered bargemen to row him downriver to where the Vulture was anchored, which then took him to New York.^[87] From the ship Arnold wrote a letter to Washington,^[88] requesting that Peggy be given safe passage to her family in Philadelphia, a request Washington granted.^[89] When presented with evidence of Arnold's betrayal, it is reported that Washington was calm. He did, however, investigate the extent of the betrayal, and suggested in negotiations with General Clinton over the fate of Major André that he was willing to exchange André for Arnold. This suggestion Clinton refused; after a military tribunal, André was hanged at Tappan, New York on October 2. Washington also infiltrated men into New York in an attempt to kidnap Arnold; this plan, which very nearly succeeded, failed when Arnold changed living quarters prior to sailing for Virginia in December.^[90]

Arnold attempted to justify his actions in an open letter titled To the Inhabitants of America, published in newspapers in October 1780.^[91] In the letter to Washington requesting safe passage for Peggy, he wrote that "Love to my country actuates my present conduct, however it may appear inconsistent to the world, who very seldom judge right of any man's actions."^[88]

After switching sides[link]

British Army service[link]

The British gave Arnold a brigadier general's commission with an annual income of several hundred pounds, but paid him only £6,315 plus an annual pension of £360 because his plot had failed.^[4] In December 1780, under orders from Clinton, Arnold led a force of 1,600 troops into Virginia, where he captured Richmond by surprise and then went on a rampage through Virginia, destroying supply houses, foundries, and mills.^[92] This activity brought Virginia's militia out, and Arnold eventually retreated to Portsmouth to either be evacuated or reinforced. The pursuing American army included the Marquis de Lafayette, who was under orders from Washington to hang Arnold summarily if he was captured. Reinforcements led by William Phillips (who served under Burgoyne at Saratoga) arrived in late March, and Phillips led further raids across Virginia, including a defeat of Baron von Steuben at Petersburg, until his death of fever on May 12, 1781. Arnold commanded the army only until May 20, when Lord Cornwallis arrived with the southern army and took over. One colonel wrote to Clinton of Arnold, "there are many officers who must wish some other general in command."^[93] Cornwallis ignored advice proffered by Arnold to locate a permanent base away from the coast, advice that might have averted Cornwallis's later surrender at Yorktown.^[93]

General Sir Henry Clinton

On his return to New York in June, Arnold made a variety of proposals for attacks on economic targets to force the Americans to end the war. Clinton was uninterested in most of Arnold's aggressive ideas but finally authorized Arnold to raid the port of New London, Connecticut. On September 4, not long after the birth of his and Peggy's second son, Arnold's force of over 1,700 men raided and burned New London and captured Fort Griswold, causing damage estimated at $500,000.^[94] British casualties were high; nearly one quarter of the force was killed or wounded. Clinton declared he could ill afford any more such victories.^[95]

Even before Cornwallis' surrender in October, Arnold had requested permission from Clinton to go to England to give Lord Germain his thoughts on the war in person.^[96] When word of the surrender reached New York, Arnold renewed the request, which Clinton then granted. On December 8, 1781, Arnold and his family left New York for England.^[97] In London he aligned himself with the Tories, advising Germain and King George III to renew the fight against the Americans. In the House of Commons, Edmund Burke expressed the hope that the government would not put Arnold "at the head of a part of a British army" lest "the sentiments of true honor, which every British officer [holds] dearer than life, should be afflicted."^[89] To Arnold's detriment the anti-war Whigs had gotten the upper hand in Parliament, and Germain was forced to resign, with the government of Lord North falling not long after.^[98]

Arnold then applied to accompany General Carleton, who was going to New York to replace Clinton as commander-in-chief; this request went nowhere.^[98] Other attempts to gain positions within the government or the British East India Company over the next few years all failed, and he was forced to subsist on the reduced pay of non-wartime service.^[99] His reputation also came under criticism in the British press, especially when compared to that of Major André, who was celebrated for his patriotism. One particularly harsh critic said that he was a "mean mercenary, who, having adopted a cause for the sake of plunder, quits it when convicted of that charge."^[98] In turning him down for an East India Company posting, George Johnstone wrote, "Although I am satisfied with the purity of your conduct, the generality do not think so. While this is the case, no power in this country could suddenly place you in the situation you aim at under the East India Company."^[100]

New business opportunities[link]

Arnold duellist, the Earl of Lauderdale, portrait by Thomas Gainsborough

In 1785 Arnold and his son Richard moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, where they speculated in land, and established a business doing trade with the West Indies. Arnold purchased large tracts of land in the Maugerville area, and acquired city lots in Saint John and Fredericton.^[101] Delivery of his first ship, the Lord Sheffield, was accompanied by accusations from the builder that Arnold had cheated him; Arnold claimed that he had merely deducted the contractually agreed amount when the ship was delivered late.^[102] After her first voyage, Arnold returned to London in 1786 to bring his family to Saint John. While there he disentangled himself from a lawsuit over an unpaid debt that Peggy had been fighting while he was away, paying £900 to settle a £12,000 loan he had taken while living in Philadelphia.^[103] The family moved to Saint John in 1787, where Arnold created an uproar with a series of bad business deals and petty lawsuits.^[104] Following the most serious, a slander suit he won against a former business partner, townspeople burned him in effigy in front of his house as Peggy and the children watched.^[105] The family left Saint John to return to London in December 1791.^[106]

In July 1792 he fought a bloodless duel with the Earl of Lauderdale after the Earl impugned his honor in the House of Lords.^[4] With the outbreak of the French Revolution Arnold outfitted a privateer, while continuing to do business in the West Indies, even though the hostilities increased the risk. He was imprisoned by French authorities on Guadeloupe amid accusations of spying for the British, and narrowly eluded hanging by escaping to the blockading British fleet after bribing his guards. He helped organize militia forces on British-held islands, receiving praise from the landowners for his efforts on their behalf. This work, which he hoped would earn him wider respect and a new command, instead earned him and his sons a land grant of 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) in Upper Canada,^[101] near present-day Renfrew, Ontario.^[107]

Death[link]

In January 1801 Arnold's health began to decline.^[89] Gout, from which he had suffered since 1775,^[108] attacked his unwounded leg to the point where he was unable to go to sea; the other ached constantly, and he walked only with a cane. His physicians diagnosed him as having dropsy, and a visit to the countryside only temporarily improved his condition. He died after four days of delirium, on June 14, 1801, at the age of 60.^[89] Legend has it that when he was on his deathbed he said, "Let me die in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever having put on another,"^[109] but this may be apocryphal.^[3] Arnold was buried at St. Mary's Church, Battersea in London, England. As a result of a clerical error in the parish records, his remains were removed to an unmarked mass grave during church renovations a century later.^[110] His funeral procession boasted "seven mourning coaches and four state carriages";^[89] the funeral was without military honors.^[111]

He left a small estate, reduced in size by his debts, which Peggy undertook to clear.^[4][89] Among his bequests were considerable gifts to one John Sage, perhaps an illegitimate son.^[112]

Legacy[link]

Demonization in the United States[link]

Arnold's contributions to American independence are largely underrepresented in popular culture, while his name became synonymous with traitor in the 19th century. The demonization of Arnold began immediately after his betrayal became public. Biblical themes were often invoked; Benjamin Franklin wrote that "Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions", and Alexander Scammel described Arnold's actions as "black as hell".^[113]

An 1865 political cartoon depicting Jefferson Davis and Benedict Arnold in Hell.

Early biographers attempted to describe Arnold's entire life in terms of treacherous or morally questionable behavior. The first major biography of Arnold, The Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold, published in 1832 by historian Jared Sparks, was particularly harsh in showing how Arnold's treacherous character was allegedly formed out of childhood experiences.^[114] George Canning Hill, who authored a series of moralistic biographies in the mid-19th century, began his 1865 biography of Arnold "Benedict, the Traitor, was born ...".^[115] Social historian Brian Carso notes that as the 19th century progressed, the story of Arnold's betrayal took on near-mythic proportions as a part of the national creation story, and was again invoked as sectional conflicts leading up the American Civil War increased. Washington Irving used it as part of an argument against dismemberment of the union in his 1857 Life of George Washington, pointing out that only the unity of New England and the southern states that led to independence was made possible in part by holding West Point.^[116] Jefferson Davis and other southern secessionist leaders were unfavorably compared to Arnold, implicitly and explicitly likening the idea of secession to treason. Harper's Weekly published an article in 1861 describing Confederate leaders as "a few men directing this colossal treason, by whose side Benedict Arnold shines white as a saint."^[117]

Fictional invocations of Arnold's name also carried strongly negative overtones. A moralistic children's tale entitled "The Cruel Boy" was widely circulated in the 19th century. It described a boy who stole eggs from birds' nests, pulled wings off insects, and engaged in other sorts of wanton cruelty, who then grew up to become a traitor to his country. The boy is not identified until the end of the story, when his place of birth is given as Norwich, Connecticut, and his name is given as Benedict Arnold.^[118] However, not all depictions of Arnold were strongly negative. Some theatrical treatments of the 19th century explored his duplicity, seeking to understand rather than demonize it.^[119]

The connection between Arnold and treason continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. On an episode of The Brady Bunch, "Everyone Can't Be George Washington", after Peter is assigned the role of Arnold in the school play, everyone hates him.^[120] Dan Gilbert, owner of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers, subtly invoked Arnold in 2010. Upset over the manner in which LeBron James announced his departure from the team, Gilbert's company lowered the price of posters bearing James's likeness to $17.41, referring to the year of Arnold's birth.^[121][122]

Novelistic treatments of the American Revolutionary war sometimes feature Arnold as a character. One notable treatment, depicting Arnold very much in a positive light, is Kenneth Roberts' Arundel novels, which cover many of the campaigns in which he participated:

• Arundel (1929) – The American Revolution through the Battle of Quebec
• Rabble in Arms (1933) – The American Revolution through the Battles of Saratoga
• Oliver Wiswell (1940) – The American Revolution from a Loyalist's perspective

Canada[link]

In contrast to how Arnold is remembered in the United States, his legacy in Canada is virtually unknown, and he has been treated by many Canadian historians as a relatively minor figure. His difficult time in New Brunswick led historians to summarize it as full of "controversy, resentment, and legal entanglements", and that he was disliked by both Americans and Loyalists.^[123] Historian Barry Wilson points out, however, that Arnold's descendants ended up establishing deep roots in the country, becoming leading settlers not just in Upper Canada, but later in lands further west, where they established settlements in Saskatchewan.^[124] His descendants, most of all those of John Sage, who apparently adopted the Arnold surname, are spread across Canada.^[125] His long woollen British scarlet military jacket with a buff lining continues to be owned by the family, and was, as of 2001, held in Saskatchewan. It has supposedly been passed in each generation to the eldest male of the family.^[126]

Family[link]

Peggy Shippen Arnold and daughter Sophia, by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

During his marriage to Margaret Mansfield, Arnold had the following children:^[127][128]

Benedict Arnold VI (1768–1795) (captain in the British Army, killed in action)

Richard Arnold (1769–1847)

Henry Arnold (1772–1826)

and with Peggy Shippen, he raised a family active in British military service:

Edward Shippen Arnold (1780–1813) (lieutenant)

James Robertson Arnold (1781–1854) (lieutenant general)

George Arnold (1787–1828) (lieutenant colonel)

Sophia Matilda Arnold (1785–1828)

William Fitch Arnold (1794–1846) (captain)

Tributes[link]

The Boot Monument at Saratoga

There is a memorial to Arnold on the Saratoga battlefield, now preserved within Saratoga National Historical Park, that does not mention his name. Donated by Civil War General John Watts DePeyster, the inscription on the Boot Monument reads: "In memory of the most brilliant soldier of the Continental army, who was desperately wounded on this spot, winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the American Revolution, and for himself the rank of Major General."^[129] The victory monument at Saratoga has four niches, three of which are occupied by statues of Generals Gates, Schuyler, and Morgan. The fourth niche is empty.^[130]

On the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point there are plaques commemorating all of the generals that served in the Revolution. One plaque bears only a rank and a date ("major general...born 1740")^[2] but no name.^[114]

A historical marker in Danvers, Massachusetts commemorates Arnold's 1775 expedition to Quebec.^[131] There are also historical markers bearing Arnold's name in Moscow, Maine, on the western bank of Lake Champlain, New York, and two in Skowhegan, Maine.^[132]

The house where Arnold lived at 62 Gloucester Place in central London bears a plaque describing Arnold as an "American Patriot."^[133] The church where Arnold was buried, St. Mary's Church, Battersea, England, has a commemorative stained-glass window, added between 1976 and 1982.^[134] The faculty club at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, has a Benedict Arnold Room, in which framed original letters written by Arnold hang on the walls.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Jane Teurs
• John Champe (soldier)

Notes[link]