By Tom Morrow

Most Americans have heard the name “Benedict Arnold,” usually in a disparaging manner. He was a businessman turned Continental Army officer, serving in America’s Revolutionary War.
The problem was he jumped ships to join the British.
Arnold originally fought with distinction and valor for the Continental Army, but when he thought he was being unfairly mistreated as a hero of the Revolution, he defected to the British Army.
Born in Connecticut, Arnold was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war broke out in 1775. After joining the Army, he was commissioned a captain and rose through the ranks as he distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and valor. Arnold’s actions included leadership and bravery in the battles at Montreal and Quebec. Also during the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.
He was promoted to major general and participated in operations and action during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777.
Despite Arnold’s successes, he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress while other officers claimed credit for some of his accomplishments. 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 the colonists owed Arnold a lot of money because he spent much of his own money on the war effort.
Frustrated and bitter at this, as well the alliance with France and failure of Congress to accept Britain’s 1778 proposal to grant full self-governance in the colonies, Arnold decided to change sides and opened secret negotiations with the British.
In July 1780, he was offered, continued to pursue and was awarded command of West Point (then a Continental Army fortress guarding the Hudson River). Arnold’s scheme to surrender the fort to the British was exposed when American forces captured British Major John André, who was carrying papers that revealed the plot.
Upon learning of André’s capture, Arnold fled down the Hudson River to a British ship, 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. He led British forces on raids in Virginia, 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 Shippen Arnold. He was well received by King George III and the Tories, but frowned upon by the Whigs. In 1787, he returned to the merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry in St. John, New Brunswick. He returned to London to settle permanently in 1791, where he died in 1801.
Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in United States for treason or betrayal. His conflicting legacy is recalled in the ambiguous nature of some of the memorials that have been placed in his honor.

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