Trusted Writing on History, Travel, Food and Culture Since 1949
Benedict Arnold
While Arnold is a villain in the eyes of most Americans, he was considered the most brilliant officer on either side of the Revolutionary War. Why would he commit a crime so inexcusable?
Excerpted from the George Washington Book Prize finalist The Tragedy of Bene Read more >>
It became convenient to portray Benedict Arnold as a conniving traitor, but the truth is more complex. The brilliant general often failed to get credit for his military wins, suffered painful wounds, lost his fortune while others profiteered, and finally gave up on the disorganized and often ineffective efforts to win the American Revolution.
A new look at a famous Revolutionary figure questions whether history’s long-standing judgment is accurate
AT 9 O’CLOCK ON THE morning of September 25, 1775, a French Canadian habitant banged on the main gate of Montreal. The Americans were coming, he blurted breathlessly to a British officer. Read more >>
Dorchester Heights, Boston, September 3, 1775 Read more >>
1741 Born in Norwich, Connecticut.
1758 Enlists in a New York company for service in the French and Indian War. Read more >>
Some of the infuriating questions surrounding the great hero-traitor can be answered by visiting the fields where he fought. The trip will also take you to many of the most beautiful places in the Northeast. Read more >>
The Battle of Jutland, the largest fight between battleships, was largely meaningless, while Benedict Arnold's often-forgotten action at Valcour helped win the American Revolution.
Overrated Read more >>
Without his brilliance at espionage the Revolution could not have been won
A few hundred yards west of the Hudson, as you enter Schuylerville on Route 29, the sign is on your right. It’s an old, faded sign, not very large, and unless you slow down, you’ll miss it. Read more >>
Benedict Arnold never quite understood the cause he served superbly and then betrayed
A good many Americans have been accused of betraying their country over the past two centuries. Yet only Benedict Arnold’s name has entered the language as a synonym for treason. Read more >>
To the end of his life America’s most infamous traitor believed he was the hero of the Revolution
Shortly after noon on Thursday, April 20, 1775, a weary postrider swung out of the saddle at Hunt’s Tavern in New Haven, Connecticut, with an urgent message from the Massachusetts Committee of Cor- respondence. Read more >>
The old school is alive with the memory of men like Lee, Grant, Pershing, and Eisenhower
Each year most of West Point’s three million visitors enter the U.S. Military Academy through the Thayer Gate. Read more >>
A few months after the shooting began, the besiegers and the beleaguered of Boston became aware of a new presence on the scene. Read more >>
Who today remembers John Paulding, Isaac Van Wert, or
David Williams? Yet for a century they were renowned as the
rustic militiamen who captured Major John André
Before September 23, 1780, the three seemed unlikely stuff for heroes. But on that day Major John André came their way, and fame for the trio followed. Read more >>
BATTLES OF THE REVOLUTION
On July first of 1777 the able, affable “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne set out from Crown Point on Lake Champlain with his competent Hessian ally, Baron Friedrich von Riedesel, thereby opening a campaign that he had wagered would see him home victorious by Chris Read more >>
Fifth in a series of painting for
AMERICAN HERITAGE
One of the ghastliest incidents of the Revolution took place at Groton, Connecticut, during the last engagement of the war in the north. Read more >>
The key to control of Canada was a city whose defenders doubted they could hold out for long once the American Rebels attacked
Sixteen years after General James Wolfe’s famous assault on Quebec, the city was subjected to another siege—and another storming—that, though less celebrated, was vitally important to Americans in the early months oj their revolution. Read more >>
“Whom can we trust now?” cried out General Washington when he discovered his friend’s “villainous perfidy.”
The most famous, or infamous, traitor in American history was Major General Benedict Arnold—a brilliant officer, a whirlwind hero, a trusted military comrade of George Washington’s. Read more >>
The traitor was not destitute, but his family's life was not comfortable after the Revolutionary War.
Unless the makeshift Yankee admiral with his tiny homemade fleet could hold Lake Champlain, the formidable invasion from Canada might overwhelm the rebel army
General Washington wanted Benedict Arnold taken alive, right in the heart of British-held New York.