General Lincoln.
In February, 1777, congress appointed five additional major-generals. According to the usual practice in reference to promotions, Arnold would have been entitled to this honor; but those thus promoted were all his juniors, and one of them, General Lincoln, was taken from the militia. To a man like Arnold, ambitious of military glory, such a neglect could not be otherwise than deeply wounding. In anticipation of his mortified feelings, Washington addressed a kind and soothing letter to him, virtually expressing his disapproval of the course of procedure, and advising Arnold to demean himself with the magnanimity of a soldier, in the hope that justice would still be done him, and others, who were similarly neglected.
Meanwhile, Washington addressed to friends in congress a letter of inquiry on the subject. To this it was replied, that as each state claimed a number of general officers, proportioned to the troops it furnished, and as Connecticut already had two, there existed no vacancy for another. There was at least plausibility in the reason, but it seems not to have satisfied Washington; much less could it be expected to satisfy so sensitive and ambitious a man as Arnold. This disappointment was probably among the causes which soured the mind of the latter, and laid the foundation of those corrodings of the heart, which in after-times led to the utter ruin of his reputation, and came near effecting the ruin of his country.
But this was by no means the only ground of Arnold's complaint. Construing the neglect of congress as an implied censure of his military conduct in past times—and perhaps the inference was not entirely without foundation—Arnold resolved to demand of congress an examination into his conduct. With this object in view, he proceeded to head-quarters, to solicit of Washington permission to proceed to Philadelphia.
Just at the time he was passing through Connecticut, a British force, consisting of two thousand troops, under the infamous General Tryon, had landed at Compo, between Fairfield and Norwalk, for the purpose of penetrating to Danbury, to destroy some public stores, which the Americans had lodged there.
Arnold heard of this invasion; and, for the time, honorably foregoing the object of his journey, and roused by that high military spirit which in no small degree characterized him, he immediately turned his course northward, for the purpose of aiding in repelling the foe.
A militia force of five hundred had been hastily collected by Generals Wooster and Silliman. These, together with about one hundred continental troops, Arnold overtook near Reading, on their march towards Danbury. At Bethel, information was obtained that the town had been fired, and the public stores destroyed. The next morning, the generals divided their forces—General Wooster, with two hundred men, falling in the rear of the enemy, while Arnold and Silliman, with five hundred (their original force having been augmented), by a rapid movement, took post in their front at Ridgefield.