An exploit is remembered, which was characteristic of his rashness and courage. While driving cattle on board a vessel, which he was freighting for a voyage, a refractory ox refused obedience. He grew furious, ran off, and set his pursuers at defiance. Arnold mounted a fleet horse, overtook the ox, seized the enraged animal by a tender part of the nostrils, and held him in that position till he was subdued and secured.
Arnold's father died about the time he settled in New Haven, and his sister, Hannah Arnold, being the only remaining individual of the family, joined him at that place. He was early married at New Haven to a lady by the name of Mansfield. They had three sons, Benedict, Richard, and Henry. The first died young in the West Indies. He was a violent, headstrong youth, and it is supposed he came to an untimely end. He had a commission in the British service after the revolution. There is a letter written by Hannah Arnold, in which, after mentioning that this nephew had gone to the West Indies, she says, "He went entirely contrary to the wishes of his father; what has been his fate, God only knows, but my prophetic heart forbodes the worst." All accounts agree in extolling the accomplishments of this lady, her rare endowments of mind, her refinement, delicacy, and other qualities of female excellence. Several of her letters, which I have seen, fully justify this tribute to her good name, which dwelt on the lips of those that knew her, and which the voice of tradition has perpetuated. Her ardent and unceasing attachment to her brother, at the same time that it proves the depth of her own feelings, may argue the existence of better traits in his domestic character, than would be inferred from his public conduct. His sister was his devoted friend, his adviser, and a watchful guardian over his family and his interests. She adhered to him through good and evil report, and never forsook him, till he proved himself unworthy even of a sister's love. She lived many years after the war, at one time in Troy on Hudson's River, and afterwards near York, in Upper Canada, where it is believed she closed her days. Her two nephews, Richard and Henry, resided with her in Troy, and were employed in mercantile affairs. They likewise removed to Canada, where they received lands from the British government. The wife of Arnold died at New Haven about the time that the war began.
[CHAPTER II.]
He begins his Military Career.—Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
There were in Connecticut two companies of militia called the Governor's Guards, and organized in conformity to an act of the legislature. One of these companies belonged to New Haven, and in March, 1775, Arnold was chosen to be its commander. This company consisted of fifty-eight men. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached New Haven, the bells were rung, and great excitement prevailed among the people. Moved by a common impulse, they assembled on the green in the centre of the town, where the Captain of the Guards took occasion to harangue the multitude, and, after addressing himself to their patriotic feelings, and rousing their martial spirit by suitable appeals and representations, he proposed to head any number of volunteers that would join him, and march with them immediately to the scene of action. He ended his address by appointing a time and place for all such to meet, and form themselves into a company.
When the hour arrived, sixty volunteers appeared on the ground, belonging mostly to the Guards, with a few students from the College. No time was lost in preparing for their departure, and on the morning of the next day they were ready to march. The company was destitute of ammunition, which the rulers of the town refused to supply, not being satisfied as to the expediency of taking up arms, or of abetting such a movement, without the previous direction or countenance of a higher authority. This was a point, which Arnold was not in the humor to discuss. He drew out his volunteers in martial array, and despatched a message to the Selectmen, stating that, unless the keys of the magazine were delivered to him immediately, he would break it open by force. This threat was effectual, and perhaps it was not reluctantly heeded by the Selectmen themselves, as it afforded an apology for their acquiescence. A sense of responsibility often excites quicker fears, than the distant and uncertain consequences of a rash action. Being thus provided, and participating the ardor of their leader, the company hastened forward by a rapid march to Cambridge, the head-quarters of the troops, who were collecting from various parts to resist any further aggressions from the British army in Boston.
At the same time a few individuals at Hartford, in Connecticut, where the legislature of the colony was then sitting, secretly formed a plan to surprise and capture Ticonderoga. It is probable, that Arnold had received a hint of this project before he left New Haven; for, as soon as he arrived in Cambridge, he waited on the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and proposed the same scheme, explaining its practicability, portraying in vivid colors the advantages that would result from it, and offering to take the lead of the enterprise, if they would invest him with proper authority, and furnish the means. The committee eagerly embraced his proposal, and on the 3d of May commissioned Benedict Arnold as a colonel in the service of Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of a body of troops not to exceed four hundred, with whom he was to proceed on an expedition to subdue and take Fort Ticonderoga. The men were to be enlisted for this purpose in the western parts of Massachusetts, and the other colonies bordering on those parts. The Colonel was moreover instructed, after taking possession of Ticonderoga, to leave a small garrison there sufficient for its defence, and to bring to Cambridge such of the cannon, mortars, and stores, as he should judge would be serviceable to the army. In the siege of Boston, now begun by the Provincial forces, the cannon and mortars were extremely wanted, and the hope of obtaining them was a principal motive with the Committee for favoring the expedition.