Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold

by Jared Sparks

By a vote of the Committee of Safety, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts was likewise desired to supply Colonel Arnold with one hundred pounds in cash, two hundred pounds' weight of gun-powder, the same quantity of leaden balls, one thousand flints, and ten horses, for the use of the colony. He was authorized to procure stores and provisions for his troops, and to draw on the Committee for the sums expended in the purchase of them.

The temperament of Colonel Arnold admitted no delay after matters had been thus arranged, and he made all haste to the theatre of operations. He arrived at Stockbridge, on the frontier of Massachusetts, within three days of the time of receiving his commission. To his great disappointment he there ascertained, that a party of men from Connecticut had already gone forward, with the design of raising the Green Mountain Boys, and making an assault upon the fortress. The laurels, which he had gathered in anticipation, seemed now to be escaping from his grasp, and he waited not a moment longer on the way than was requisite to engage a few officers to enlist troops and follow him.

A small party of men from Connecticut, and another from Berkshire County under Colonel Easton, had proceeded to Bennington, and joined themselves to Ethan Allen at the head of a still larger number of his mountaineers. They had all marched towards Lake Champlain. Arnold overtook them at Castleton, about twenty-five miles from Ticonderoga. A council of war had just been held, in which the command of the combined forces was assigned to Colonel Ethan Allen, and a plan of operations was fully agreed upon. All things were in readiness for pushing forward the next morning. At this juncture Arnold made his appearance, introduced himself to the officers, drew his commission from his pocket, and in virtue of it claimed the command of the expedition.

This bold assurance in a person, with whom the troops were not acquainted, who had taken no part in calling them together, and who pretended to act under an authority, which none of them recognised, was received with equal astonishment and indignation. Arnold had come accompanied by one attendant only. It is true, there was a small body of volunteers from Massachusetts in the party; but these had turned out under Colonel Easton, at the request of the committee from Connecticut, who superintended the expedition, and by whom all the troops were to be paid. The Green Mountain Boys constituted much the larger portion of the whole number, and they were too warmly attached to their officers, and particularly to their chivalrous leader and early champion, Ethan Allen, to be prevailed upon to move a step further if Arnold's pretensions were allowed. Confusion and symptoms of mutiny among the men ensued, and seemed to threaten a defeat of the enterprise. For once the discretion of Arnold got the better of his ambition, and he yielded to a necessity, which he could not control. He assented to a compromise, and agreed to join the party as a volunteer, maintaining his rank but exercising no command.

Harmony being restored, the party advanced to Ticonderoga, took the fort by surprise on the morning of the 10th of May, and made the whole garrison prisoners. Ethan Allen, as the commander, entered the fort at the head of his men. Arnold, ever foremost in scenes of danger and feats of courage, assumed the privilege of passing through the gate at his left hand. Thus the love of glory, common to them both, was gratified; and the pride of Arnold was soothed, after the wound it had received by the disappointment of his ambitious hopes.

It soon appeared, however, that the aims of so aspiring and restless a spirit were not to be easily frustrated, and that the conciliatory acquiescence at Castleton was no more than the evidence of a truce, and not the pledge of a permanent peace. A few hours after the surrender of the garrison, Arnold again insisted on taking the command of the post and all the troops, affirming that no other person present was vested with an authority equal to that conferred by his commission. To prevent these fresh seeds of dissension from taking root, the committee from Connecticut interfered, and by a formal written instrument appointed Colonel Allen commandant of Ticonderoga and its dependencies, till further orders should be received from the colony of Connecticut or the Continental Congress. Unsustained by a single voice, and deeming it an idle show of power to issue orders, which no one would obey, Arnold again made a virtue of necessity by submission, contenting himself with a protest, and with sending a catalogue of his grievances to the legislature of Massachusetts.

But it was not in his nature to be idle. Four days after the capture of the fortress, about fifty men, who had been enlisted in compliance with the orders given by him on the road, joined him with two captains at Ticonderoga. These were properly under his command. They came by the way of Skenesborough, and brought forward the schooner taken at that place, which belonged to Major Skene. He manned this vessel, proceeded immediately down the Lake to St. John's, where he surprised the garrison, taking a sergeant and twelve men prisoners, and captured a King's sloop with seven men. After destroying five batteaux, seizing four others, and putting on board some of the valuable stores from the fort, he returned to Ticonderoga. Colonel Allen went upon the same expedition with one hundred and fifty men in batteaux from Crown Point, but, as the batteaux moved with less speed than the schooner, he met Arnold returning about fifteen miles from St. John's.

Thus, within the space of eight days, the once formidable posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, renowned in former wars, with all their dependencies on Lake Champlain, fell into the hands of the Americans. A reinforcement of more than four hundred British and Canadians very shortly afterwards arrived at St. John's, and it was rumored that water-craft would be brought from Montreal and Chamblee, and an expedition would proceed up the Lake to attack the forts. This gave Arnold an opportunity of separating from Allen. Having some experience in seamanship, he chose to consider himself the commander of the navy on the Lake, consisting of Major Skene's schooner, the King's sloop, and a small flotilla of batteaux. With these he left Ticonderoga and took post at Crown Point, resolved there to make a stand and meet the enemy whenever they should approach. The number of his men was now increased to about one hundred and fifty.

His first care was to arm his vessels, having previously commissioned a captain for each. In the sloop he fixed six carriage guns and twelve swivels, and in the schooner four carriage guns and eight swivels. In compliance with the orders of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, which accompanied his commission, he likewise busied himself in sending off some of the cannon and mortars from Crown Point, with the intention that they should be transported by way of Lake George to the army at Cambridge. Abundant supplies of pork and flour were received from Albany, collected and sent forward by the committee of that town.

While these things were in train, letters were written and messages despatched from Ticonderoga to the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Full details of all the proceedings were communicated, in which the conduct of Arnold was set forth in no favorable light. A man's enemies seldom have the acuteness to discover his merits, or the charity to overlook his faults, and are as little disposed to proclaim the former as to conceal the latter. Arnold's presumption and arrogance were themes of censure; his zeal and energy in contributing to effect the main objects of the expedition were passed over unnoticed. These representations by degrees impaired the confidence of the Massachusetts legislature in their colonel, and caused them to regard with indifference his complaints and demands.