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- American General, Benedict Arnold,
has just learned that his plot to surrender West Point
to the British has been foiled.
Leaving behind his wife and infant son,
he flees to a waiting boat on the Hudson River.
♪ music playing ♪
- Born for a curse to virtue and mankind.
Earth's broadest realms can't show so black a mind.
Night's sable veil your crimes can never hide.
Each one's so great, they glut the historic tide.
Defunct, your memory will live in all the glare
that infamy can give.
Curses of ages will attend your name,
traitors alone will glory in your shame.
Almighty justice sternly waits to roll.
Rivers of sulphur on your traitorous soul.
Nature looks back, with conscious error sad,
on such a tainted blot that she has made.
Let Hell receive you rivetted in chains,
damned to the hottest of its flames.
♪ music playing ♪
- For Americans, his name is synonymous
with treason, disloyalty and treachery.
But before he returned his allegiance to the King
of England, he was a heroic patriot leader
of the American Revolution.
♪ music playing ♪
- The Arnold story deepens and enriches
our comprehension of the American Revolution
and what it was all about.
By investigating his life, and by investigating what made
him a hero, and ultimately investigating what perhaps
turned him into the greatest villain of the Revolution,
we will learn much more about what this Revolution was all
about, and in the end, what it did actually accomplish.
♪ music playing ♪
- Benedict Arnold was born into a culture
and family environment that would shape his destiny.
One of the largest cities in the Colonies, Norwich,
Connecticut was a center of wealth, commerce and trade.
Dating back to the founding of Rhode Island,
the Arnold family was one of the wealthiest
and most influential in all of New England.
But early in his life, his alcoholic father ruined
the family finances, and disgraced their social
standing in the eyes of the pious
and unforgiving community.
♪ music playing ♪
(Crow sounds)
- They lost three children one terrible winter,
and it devastated the father.
He took to liquor, and he drank so much that
he suffered dementia because of alcoholism.
- "Brothers and sisters in Christ..."
- A woman of deep faith, Benedict's mother
was drawn to a puritanical movement in
New England known as "the Great Awakening, "
which taught followers to fear a vengeful God.
- "In Exodus, chapter 20..."
- The local community's judgement of Arnold's father
was swift and brutal.
- That whispering that you can just imagine through
the byways of the Norwich community,
and Arnold could feel that.
There's a resentment that begins to build in him.
♪ music playing ♪
- They lost their place of honor in
the front pew of the church, a devastating rebuke
to Arnold's mother.
- "Thou shalt not kill..."
- If you had a mother like Arnold had,
who took all of this very deeply to heart
and pounded it into a child's mind,
that you had to be ready at any moment,
that God could take you, and that there was a possibility
that if you hadn't lived the right life,
you would burn forever in the fires of Hell;
especially if Arnold's father, who took to drink,
one would have to assume that your own father was
destined for damnation.
Not an easy thing for a boy to handle at any age.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- This is a fellow who is being confronted at
a very early age with what his mother
is teaching him is arbitrary power,
that it could just strike you dead.
- "We're members of the congregation of God."
- A God of wrath, judgmental neighbors,
these adversaries were just the beginning of Arnold's
fight against arbitrary power, that will follow him for
the rest of his life.
Impoverished, Benedict's mother sent him to live
with relatives in their Norwich home.
They ran an apothecary, and took the boy
in as an apprentice.
- It must have been an enormous blow to Arnold,
who expected, as sons of gentry and merchants did,
that they would go to college.
He really expected a trajectory of a gentleman.
(Wind sounds)
- While he was living away from home,
Benedict's mother died, making his situation
even more desperate.
♪ music playing ♪
The rest of his life was spent in a
constant search for honor.
♪ Sprightly violin music playing ♪
- After seven long years of indentured servitude,
he got his first chance to rebuild the family
wealth and restore its good name,
when the relatives, who had sponsored his apprenticeship,
set him up in an apothecary shop of his own.
Proud of his new venture, he christened it with
a Latin motto: "Sibi Totique," meaning
"For Himself and Everyone."
- Arnold grew his business into a major shipping
and trading enterprise, operating between New England
and the Caribbean.
Even though he was at sea for long stretches,
his wife and family were never far from his thoughts.
- "My dear girl, you and you only can imagine how long
the time seems since we parted, and how impatient I am to see
you and the dear little pledge of our mutual love.
God bless you both and send us a happy meeting soon. "
(Shore sounds)
- While ashore on business,
another ship's captain insulted Arnold's wife.
This affront to her honor did not go unchallenged.
♪ music playing ♪
- Reputation is very much a part of gentility
in the 18th century, so we can tell how sensitive
he is while he's in the Caribbean.
He actually does engage in at least one duel,
for somebody who said something that he
considered slighting to his honor or his reputation.
Arnold really wanted to shoot somebody.
He does have a rather ferocious reputation.
Other people tend to back off.
This is a guy who's not afraid to kill somebody
if his honor requires it.
♪ sad music playing ♪
- Even though he became one of the wealthiest
merchants in the Colonies, Arnold himself
was never fully accepted into prominent
social circles.
- I think that if one makes a great deal
of money in America today, your past is sort
of forgotten.
You are what you are at the moment.
But New England had a pretty long memory;
it's not so easy to move in and out of that level
in society for someone like Arnold.
- This social rejection made him particularly receptive
to the revolutionary ideals sweeping though the Colonies.
- We're talking about a society that is more
egalitarian, where there are more and more people believing
that they are equal to all other peoples socially.
♪ music playing ♪
- This may explain why Arnold so strongly
identified with the independence movement,
which was to end the aristocratic control of
the colonial economy and unleash entrepreneurs,
like him.
He thought a man should be rewarded for his own
accomplishments, not just by being born
into the right family.
- In 1765, the British Parliament imposed a new tax
on all of the paper the American colonists printed.
The money raised was used to pay for defending
the American frontier.
The Stamp Tax came like a bolt out of the blue.
It broke the club rules, which had always allowed
the Colonies to govern themselves.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- Arnold was an outspoken critic of the Stamp Tax.
After five years of bitter recriminations,
the dispute turned into open conflict,
when British soldiers opened fire on protestors in Boston.
When he heard about the "Boston Massacre, "
he was astonished.
- "I am very much shocked by the accounts
of the most cruel, wanton and inhuman murders committed
in Boston by the soldiers.
Good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving
up their liberties?"
- Arnold was an individual who did not and would not tolerate
other individuals trying to control and manipulate him.
Arnold was an opposer of arbitrary power throughout
his lifetime.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- Arnold didn't like to be dictated to,
and I think the things that he rebelled against personally,
he saw on a larger level nationally.
He didn't want his state, his Colonies,
to be subservient to the British in the same way that
he was not going to be subservient to another man.
♪ Violin music playing ♪
- After the first shots were fired at Lexington
and Concord in 1775, Arnold was ready to put
his personal fortune and his life on the line.
- As animosity between the Colonists
and Crown escalated, Arnold organized and financed
the Connecticut Militia Company and served as
its first captain.
Arnold was an idealist from the start,
he had his men sign a pledge:
- "Driven to the last necessity
and obliged to have recourse to arms in defense
of our lives and liberties, we promise to conduct
ourselves decently and inoffensively as we march.
A truly virtuous deportment will be ours at all times in
serving so great and glorious a cause."
- That's a very, very important statement
that is being made at that particular point in time,
and that Arnold will live up to that ideal.
- Arnold marched his men to Boston to help
contain the British.
When he arrived, the rebels were in desperate
need of artillery.
And he knew just where to get it.
Having made several trading expeditions through
the Champlain Valley, he knew that Ticonderoga,
the British fort on Lake Champlain,
was likely defended, and that cannon and other armaments,
which could be easily captured.
Massachusetts commissioned him to go to Ticonderoga
and take the cannon.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- Connecticut commissioned Ethan Allen for exactly
the same mission to Fort Ticonderoga.
Among the men Arnold recruited for his mission
was John Brown.
They were related by marriage, and had known each other
for years, but at Ticonderoga, Brown sided with Allen against
Arnold, becoming one of his most fierce rivals.
♪ Fiddle music playing ♪
Allen's band of militiamen, known as the Green
Mountain Boys, was more numerous than
Arnold's recruits.
- According to New York authorities,
they were a bunch of frontier squatters and bandits
squatting on New York land, so they had sort of
a mixed reputation.
- The two parties converged in a small town near
Fort Ticonderoga.
- I think if you want to claim one place in terms of
a geographic location as to where Benedict Arnold's
troubles began, I really think it's probably
Castleton, Vermont.
- "How goes it with you all?"
"Gentlemen, if I may have your attention.
please.
My name is Benedict Arnold, I've been sent here
from Massachusetts."
- He sets a bad impression right off the bat by coming
into the tavern in Castleton and wanting
to meet with the leaders of this raid on Ticonderoga,
and saying that "I have authority to take Fort
Ticonderoga by the Colony of Massachusetts Bay."
- "... to join me."
- Arnold and Allen eventually agreed to a
tenuous joint command.
♪ Sprightly violin music playing ♪
In a daring night raid,
Ticonderoga was surrendered to the Americans.
- With the fort capture, Arnold expected the Green
Mountain Boys to conduct themselves with dignity
and decorum.
Instead, they raided the alcohol stores,
got drunk, and started pilfering the fort.
Arnold was horrified.
- "Had it not been for Arnold, everything at Fort Ticonderoga
would have been in the utmost confusion and disorder.
People would have been plundered of their private
property, and no man's person would be safe that was not
of the Green Mountain party."
Barnabas Dean
- The Green Mountain Boys get so tired of
Arnold trying to tell them what to do,
they just shoot at him a few times.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- He put a stop to the plundering,
but made an enemy of Ethan Allen.
Likely because of shared interests in some land rights,
Brown sided with Allen.
This will have a far-reaching impact on Arnold's future as
an American officer.
(Wind sound)
- To attack Ticonderoga,
this huge fort full of cannon, garrisoned by
the King's troops, this was truly an act of war.
- Arnold knew this monumental act of
defiance called for a public justification,
so in June of 1775, a full year before the Declaration
of Independence, he committed to paper a declaration of
principles, in which thirty fighting revolutionaries
signed and vowed, in the most solemn manner,
never to become slaves to Britain.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Arnold inventoried 200 artillery pieces.
The following winter, 59 of the best cannon would
be carried 300 miles over 56 days,
and used to pound British forces from Dorchester
Heights in Boston.
- Arnold initially goes to Ticonderoga to
get the cannons.
When he is there, he starts to recognize that this
is a bigger thing.
- (He) Looks up the lake and realizes that the lake itself
is the key strategic geographical item in that
whole area.
Anyone trying to come from Canada south,
or trying to go from New York north into Canada has to
use the lake between the mountains,
There are no highways, there are no other ways
to transport equipment of troops.
- Lake Champlain is the 18th century version of I-95.
The British strategy obviously was if you could drive down
Lake Champlain with troops and a small navy flotilla,
you can control the entire region.
- So, he puts together a little makeshift fleet,
a captured schooner that he puts artillery on,
and several bateaux.
♪ music playing ♪
- Arnold went to St. Jean,
the British outpost on the north end of the lake.
He was actually invading Canada.
He would go on to capture a ship and some valuable
supplies, even though no war had yet been declared.
- And he's now the master of the lake.
- He wanted to hold the strategic passage at all
costs, but he privately worried about material support
from the Continental Congress.
- His instinct was right; Congress would not commit
resources.
- (Shouting) "It's insolence!
Out! Out!
Go on, begone!"
- At the same time, Arnold's nemesis, Ethan Allen,
along with John Brown and others,
openly challenged his command authority.
- "Blackhearts!"
- And if you are going to publicly, especially publicly,
go against Benedict Arnold, in the presence of others,
Benedict Arnold is going to make sure that he returns
the favor.
- Allen and Brown vow to do everything
they could to destroy Arnold.
They used their influence to get him removed from command
of the Champlain legion.
- Putting pen to paper, they would set up Arnold
as a scapegoat, should their actions get them into trouble.
- And they're going to write very derogatory comments
and reports against Benedict Arnold.
Benedict Arnold is not doing any of this.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Benedict Arnold, I think, goes into
this rebellion with a sense of that politics
should not override the military situation,
the safety, the causes of liberty,
the ideals of republicanism and equality.
- So, Arnold gets displaced and essentially removed.
It's his first taste of the kind of injustice that
he would come to resent.
- Settlers in the region appreciated his efforts
and bid him a fond farewell.
(Cheering people)
♪ Music playing ♪
Arnold was eager for a new mission.
- He will visit General Philip Schuyler in Albany, New York.
- A wealthy landholder and merchant,
Schuyler was a patriot of far-reaching influence.
- He understood that Benedict Arnold did not have the
connections like he did, he understood that Benedict
Arnold did not have the upbringing and the class
like he did.
And so he thought he would use his power and influence,
which he had, to help Benedict Arnold out,
because he had such a high opinion of Benedict Arnold.
♪ Sad flute music playing ♪
- While visiting at the Schuyler mansion,
Arnold will receive very sad word that his wife,
Peggy Mansfield, had passed away,
and so he will pack up very quickly,
and he will travel overland back to New Haven.
- "Every recollection of past happiness heightens my present
grief, which would be intolerable were it not buried
in the public calamity."
- The cause of her illness is unknown,
but her death left Arnold a widower with
three young sons.
His sister, Hannah, was now in charge of the family shipping
and trading business.
She was not alone, many other women took on great
responsibilities during the war effort.
- These women literally kept the businesses going,
kept the shops going, they kept the blacksmith's
shop running, they ran the printing presses,
they got out in the fields.
♪ Guitar music playing ♪
It was really interesting because the image
had been that women couldn't do many
of these things.
They learned all of this is five minutes.
- With barely enough time to grieve
and attend to his family, Arnold continued to sacrifice
his personal life for the patriot cause,
and traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts,
where George Washington had made his headquarters.
- Washington is looking for someone who
can command a detachment that will march
into Canada, and will seize Quebec City as the key to
bringing Quebec province into the rebellion.
- Washington is convinced that Arnold is the man to do it.
He gives him a commission, makes him a colonel in
the Continental Army, and gives him the command
of the expedition.
- Among the volunteers for Arnold's mission
was Captain Daniel Morgan.
He had marched his company of riflemen
to the Boston area from the Virginia frontier.
- Morgan was a big, imposing man,
we know he was at least six feet tall or more,
very muscular, colorful, colloquial,
joked about himself.
Daniel Morgan was, in my opinion,
one of the two most effective combat leaders
in the Revolutionary War.
Arnold and Morgan were furiously effective
on the battlefield.
- Quebec, and indeed, much of Canada,
much of eastern Canada, was going to be used as a staging
point from which British troops would move south
to suppress the rebellious Colonies.
The attack on Quebec made great strategic sense.
- Arnold had to prevent his column from being detected.
- The route that Arnold had to pick,
if he was going to have any possibility of surprise at
all, had to be through a march almost due north through
a wilderness that had been mapped, and that only vaguely,
just once.
If I can paraphrase another historian,
he was attacking without fear and without maps.
He really had very little idea of what he was to find in
the way of terrain and the natural obstacles
that might be out there.
- The season was already turning cold
when the expedition finally moved up the Kennebec
River into the main wilderness.
The bateaux, small, flat-bottomed boats,
were constructed from green wood,
which caused major problems for the men.
- "Our bateau began to leak profusely.
A swift current, shallow water,
and rocks aplenty soon ground out many of the bottoms."
Dr. Isaac Senter.
- "When you consider the badness and weight
of the bateau, and the large quantity
of provisions we've been obliged to force up
against a very rapid stream,
you would have taken the men for amphibious animals,
as they were a great part of the time under water."
Benedict Arnold.
- Water in the boats had ruined precious food supplies.
Daily rationing is now required.
To make matters worse, evening temperatures had started to
dip below the freezing mark.
Arnold supported his exhausted troops by maintaining a bold
command presence, exuding confidence as he moved
through the column.
- "We are stumbling over old fallen logs,
one leg sinking deeper in the mire than the other,
then down goes a boat, and the carriers with it."
Private George Morrison.
- It was not uncommon for families
to follow soldiers on expeditions.
One of these women, Jemima Warner,
stayed back with her sick husband.
- "She tarried by him until the end.
Since she had no implements to dig a grave,
she covered him with leaves, took his gun, and left him,
with a heavy heart." Private Abner Stocking.
- This courageous young woman took her husband's
place in the line, and was later killed
by artillery fire.
- "A prodigious fall of rain has raised
the river upwards of three feet.
With our provisions almost exhausted,
we have but a melancholy prospect before us."
- Now into late fall, the expedition had reached
a critical juncture: to go forward with
what little food supplies remained,
or risk death from severe weather or starvation.
Arnold assembled his officers for a
council of war.
One by one, they spoke their minds.
To come this far and fall short of
George Washington's objective of capturing Canada was
unthinkable to Arnold.
The officers agreed to press on to Quebec.
- With plans written, Arnold ordered Colonel Roger Enos
to send his best troops forward with provisions.
In blatant disregard to those orders,
Enos refused to send any food, and instead turned
back in retreat.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- Colonel Enos will later be charged
with desertion, and though acquitted,
his retreat had dire consequences for
the 600 troops he left behind to starve.
- He cuts out about forty percent of Arnold's strength.
Not only did Enos lead 350 to 400 soldiers back to
Cambridge, but he took the supplies that would feed
those soldiers with him.
- "The men were obliged, in order to sustain life,
to eat their dogs, cartridge boxes, old shoes,
and clothes."
Private Simon Fobes.
- "I found them almost destitute of any
eatable whatever, except a few candles,
which were used for supper and breakfast the next morning,
by boiling them in a watery gruel."
Dr. Isaac Senter.
- "The company awoke with their clothes frozen
a pane of thick glass, which proved very disagreeable."
Captain Simeon
Thayer.
- Some of them lay down to go to sleep,
and they don't wake up the next morning.
They have frozen to death, and you're leaving bodies,
then, in the snow.
It's not just footsteps, you're leaving bodies
in the snow.
- As they approached Canada, Arnold starts to send men
ahead to try to arrange for supplies.
Finally, he himself goes on, reaches the very edge
of civilization, and purchases cattle, supplies,
actually sending cattle on the hoof.
"We thought we were seeing a mirage when
we were blessed with the finest sight
my eyes ever beheld."
Private Matthias Ogden.
- "We shed tears of joy in our happy delivery from
the hand of death."
Captain Simeon Thayer.
- Arnold took great personal interest in
the well-being of his suffering men.
A young private named John Henry,
who was near death with fever, would recount.
- "The commander knew my name, and good-naturedly inquired
after my health.
He ran down to the riverside, and hailed the owner of
the house which stood opposite across the water."
Private John Henry.
- He made arrangements for Henry's care,
and paid the Canadian settlers for food and lodging.
- Extraordinarily, Arnold's column makes it
to Quebec, and really through the force
of Arnold's personality.
Quebec is this massive-walled fortress,
perched on top of these huge cliffs looming over the river.
It seems impregnable.
- Arnold knew crossing the St. Lawrence River
would be treacherous.
On November 13th, weather conditions were favorable.
It proved to be even more harrowing than George
Washington's later, more famous crossing
of the Delaware River.
Once they were across, Arnold and his men
lay siege to the city.
- Arnold continued the siege, to posture, to bluff,
to try to get the British to surrender, but they wouldn't.
- Governor Sir Guy Carleton, the British commander,
refused to be lured out of the walled city and onto
the open plains.
He knew that was exactly how the previous French commander
of Quebec lost the city to the British sixteen years earlier.
- (Military drums) Meanwhile, having conquered Montreal to
the west, American General Richard Montgomery joined
the American siege with another 300 troops,
the total attack force now numbering 900 men.
- Montgomery takes command, and they look at
the situation.
They attempt also to convince the British to surrender,
they won't.
Both men know they don't have adequate
force to attack the fortress at Quebec.
They also know, however, that at the end of December,
most of their troops are going home,
their enlistments run out on the last day of December.
So, if they're going to do anything,
it's got to be done right then,
and they resolve tFo assault Quebec.
- To attack this formidable fortress with such a handful
of men was really a terrific gamble.
But yet, that was the quintessential Arnold,
he was ready to do it.
- The rebels prepared for the assault,
and marked their hats to recognize
each other in battle.
- So, the night of December the 31st turned out to be a
perfect night in one sense, in that they beat their deadline
for enlistments, but also it was a very snowy night,
which gave them some measure of protection.
- Arnold and Montgomery assaulted the fortress city
of Quebec with a relative handful of men.
♪ music playing ♪
They came at it in two columns;
up the cliffs from the St. Lawrence River into one
side of the town, and Arnold came from the opposite
side of the town.
Along with him was Daniel Morgan.
They stormed the city in a blinding snowstorm.
The wind was so fierce, one of the men who kept a diary said
the snow was blowing horizontally into their faces.
That's how strong the wind was.
- The snow and the wetness would cause
weapons to typically malfunction.
So, you basically could see only about maybe ten
or fifteen soldiers around you, and you couldn't count on
anything happening to the left or to your right,
and moreover, the dampness and the difficulty of fighting
in that sort of condition made it very,
very difficult for you to be successful.
That's generally why 18th century armies didn't fight
in the wintertime.
- Just at the point where Montgomery was
about to break into the city, he encountered an outpost.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Montgomery and two of his aids were killed in
the first blast of gunfire.
The New York troops, who were, Montgomery had referred to
them as the "sweepings of the New York streets, "
they weren't the classiest guys in the world,
they ran for their lives.
Arnold and Morgan and their men were left assaulting
the city on one side, and the British quickly caught
on that they'd routed the other American column,
so they threw all the men that they had in the city,
three or four thousand, at Arnold's men.
Arnold was hit in the leg in one of
the first exchanges of fire, and was horribly,
painfully wounded.
- "Our commander called to the troops
in a cheering voice, urging us forward.
For many, however, the sight of their disabled leader
dampened their spirits.
They kept moving toward the barricade,
but whispered to each other, 'We are sold.'"
Private John Henry
- As the sun started to rise the next morning,
the snowstorm had ended.
(Men shouting, "Vive la liberté!" )
Morgan and his men break through into the lower part
of the city.
(Gunfire sounds)
But they were not received as liberators.
(Shouting intensifies)
- Pretty soon it became obvious that there
was no hope, they were being shot at from
house windows, they were taking casualties,
and they fell back, pretty soon surrounded.
- "I'll fight you!"
- Morgan was cornered, just outside a small
Catholic church.
- Ultimately, Morgan put his back against a wall and was
enraged and pulled out his sword, and said,
"Shoot me, I will never surrender to you."
- Morgan wouldn't surrender his sword
to the British, he was too proud to do that.
So a French priest was milling around on the edge,
and Morgan saw him, and he said, "Are you a priest?"
The guy said, "Yes."
"I'll surrender my sword to you,
but not to these despicable British."
Morgan really hated the British, I should add.
- While Morgan was being captured,
Arnold was in surgery.
- "The ball entered the outer side of the leg,
about mid-way between the knee and ankle,
before taking an oblique course downward and lodging
at the rise of the Achilles tendon.
I, and others, entreated Colonel Arnold,
for his own safety, to be carried back into
the country where the enemy would
not readily find him, but to no purpose.
Instead, he ordered his weapons loaded,
with a sword on his bed.
He was determined to kill as many as possible if
they came into the room."
Dr. Isaac Senter.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- Arnold refused to give up, this is the amazing thing,
he was in agony and pain,
yet he managed to rally.
He maintained a siege of Quebec throughout the winter
of 1776, it was sheer legendry.
The British had three or four times as many men
inside the city as he had outside, but yet,
he managed to intimidate them into not attacking them.
Of course, he was sending desperate messages back
to Philadelphia, saying, "Please send us men,
we can still win this struggle for this fourteenth colony."
- "Everything is at a standstill for want
of resources, and if not obtained soon,
our affairs in this country will be entirely ruined."
- Winter turned to spring as Arnold waited for
news from Congress.
Morgan and the others who had been captured languished
as prisoners of war.
- "We are neglected by Congress and pinched with
every want here, with the soldiers reduced
to the condition of a great rabble.
I hold out little prospect for a return of good fortune.
♪ sad music playing ♪
We labor under almost as many difficulties
as the Israelites did of old,
obliged to make break without straw."
- Once again, he was disappointed
by the lack of support and leadership
form Congress.
♪ Slow march music playing ♪
- With British troops pouring into Quebec,
Arnold knew that the prospects for
the Americans were bleak.
He decided that a strategic withdrawal was the best
course of action.
Dropping back through Montreal,
he ordered his troops to leave behind nothing
of use to the enemy.
- "We destroyed all the bateaux and all
the bridges in our rear.
There will be more honor in making a safe retreat than
hazarding a battle against such superiority.
I am content to be the last man who quits this country
and fall, so that my country will rise. "
Benedict Arnold.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- Arnold's column makes it to Quebec,
and really, through the force
of Arnold's personality.
They started referring to him him as the "American Hannibal"
for leading the men through the wilderness in this way,
it was quite extraordinary.
- Even in London the British ministrate had come to
grudgingly appreciate Arnold's military abilities.
- "I am sorry Arnold's escaped from Canada.
I think he has shown himself the most enterprising man
amongst the rebels." Lord George Germain.
- By the spring of 1776, the war for independence
was hanging by a thread.
What began as patriot fervor and high idealism had faded
into the realization that this war would be a long
and painful struggle.
After sacrificing great blood and treasure for years
to defend the Colonies against the French,
the British were not about to surrender this valuable piece
of their empire.
- In that year, landing in Staten Island
in New York Harbor, was the largest expeditionary
force England had ever sent anywhere.
All told, 48,000 British and Hessians came to America,
13,000 into Canada, 35,000 into New York City,
and 500 ships.
The Americans were flabbergasted.
- The British government now began to realize it had
a full-scale rebellion on it hands.
How is it going to respond?
Its plan was simple and direct.
The plan was to take and hold the Hudson River corridor,
in order to cut off the rebellious New England
colonies from the rest of North America,
in order to cut Washington's supply lines,
to enable the army of Canada under Carleton,
and the British army of the Atlantic under General Sir
William Howe, to link up together to form a potent,
combined force.
♪ Tense music playing ♪
- Horatio Gates is now the man responsible
for the defenses of the Lake Champlain area.
- Because of his experience as a sea merchant and trader,
Washington sent Arnold to assist General Gates.
- Arnold knows about ships, he knows about sailing,
he knows about seamanship.
So, he puts Arnold in charge of building the fleet and
fighting the British on the lake.
- "Arnold, who is perfectly skilled in
maritime affairs, has most nobly undertaken to command
our fleet upon the lake.
With infinite satisfaction, I have committed the whole
of that department to his care." General Horatio Gates.
- Arnold faced the daunting task: create a fleet with very
little resources and few seasoned sailors.
- He doesn't have skilled carpenters,
he doesn't have skilled mariners.
They don't know how to make the boats,
they're very crudely made.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- As he was building the fleet,
congressional delegates in Philadelphia were approving
the Declaration of Independence.
Above their signatures, the closing line read,
"We mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes and our sacred honor."
- To Arnold, these were not just
empty words.
He had already sacrificed his own finances, risked his life,
and shed blood for the cause, and nothing was more valuable
than his sacred honor.
- Unfortunately, not everyone in the
independence movement aspired to such high ideals.
♪ dark music playing ♪
That summer, Moses Hazen,
a friend of John Brown and Ethan Allen,
was court-martialed for the loss of valuable
baggage during the retreat from Quebec.
Because Arnold had charged Hazen with this misconduct,
he had to testify against him, but Brown manipulated
the proceedings to focus on Arnold's conduct,
and the hearing erupted into mayhem.
One of the rival officers admonished Arnold.
- "You have drawn upon yourself
the hearing board's just resentment,
and nothing but an open acknowledgement of your
error will be conceived as satisfactory."
Colonel Enoch Poor.
- Arnold was outraged.
- "I cannot but think it extremely cruel when I have
sacrificed my ease, health, and a great part of my private
property in the cause of my country,
to be calumniated as a robber and thief.
At a time, too, when I have it not in my power to be
heard in my own defense."
♪ Dark music playing ♪
- Infuriated by the board's conduct
and his honor in question, Arnold challenged the hearing
board members to a duel.
- "Since I have injured the very nice and delicate honor
of the hearing board officers, I will by no means withhold
from any gentlemen of the court the satisfaction his
nice honor may require."
- No one accepted his offer,
but this confrontation is just one of many political brawls
that he will have with his fellow compatriots.
- In the early summer of 1776,
General Sir Guy Carleton, who is both commander in Canada
and Governor General of Canada,
understands that if he's to move south,
he must be able to conquer the lakes.
In order to do that, he needs to build ships.
- A naval arms race began.
Arnold understood that Fort Ticonderoga did not have
enough ammunition to defend itself from
a major naval attack.
His only hope was to block the British advance well north
of the strategic fort.
- So, he tarts north with ten ships.
He has let word be known that he is going to raid St. Jean,
where Carleton is building his fleet,
knowing that spies will carry that word up.
He's bluffing.
He doesn't have the ships at all to do that.
He goes up to about the Canadian border,
and postures there, long enough to make
the British worry.
And it works.
- It's not until early September that Carleton
returns and discovers the full extent of
the threat he's facing.
He realizes he needs the fire power of HMS Inflexible,
which has to be dismantled, brought overland,
and reassembled at Lake Champlain.
Twenty-eight crucial days are lost.
- The clock was ticking, and the longer he could keep
the British at bay, the less likely they were to be able to
capture Ticonderoga before the winter winds started to blow,
and everybody had to go back to Canada and get into a hut.
- Arnold understood if they went head to head with these
larger British vessels, they would be destroyed.
- The American gunboats and gondolas needed an advantage.
- Arnold tries various positions at the north end of
the lake, trying to find what is tactically going to
be the most advantageous.
He finally hits on this idea of setting his ships up
between Valcour Island and the shore of New York to the west.
It's basically a narrow gap between the islands that
forms a little bit of a bay on the south end.
- So, as the British ships move south
with the wind, they would sail right past Valcour Island,
and would even see Arnold's fleet.
- This is a brilliant maneuver on his part.
A ship in the 18th century could not sail up against
the wind.
- But some of his officers doubted the plan.
They were afraid Carleton might come down the New York
side of the island and trap them.
- Arnold had a dinner for his officers.
He basically calls them together...
- "To death or glory."
- ...sort of like a band of
brothers technique that Horatio Nelson's going
to later use at the Battle of Trafalgar.
It's an amazing night for the Americans.
- A strong north wind sweeps down the lake.
Arnold knows it will soon bring the British armada
with it.
Arnold and his men ready for battle.
♪ dark music playing ♪
Wet blankets are placed over powder
kegs to protect them from flying sparks.
Sand is spread on the decks to provide traction when
they are covered in blood.
And they wait.
- Like most British commanders, General Sir Guy Carleton
completely underestimated the capacity
of the Americans to fight.
Confident that with the fire power of HMS
Inflexible and the gun boats he had built,
he could achieve an easy victory.
He sails serenely down Lake Champlain.
- Arnold, I suspect, was afraid that the British
would sail right past him and not even notice him.
He sends two of his vessels out,
just to make sure that the British are aware
that he's there.
He doesn't want them to ignore him,
he wants them to turn and fight.
- The British cannot get their larger,
heavier ships in close, so it essentially negates
their ability to bring their heavier ordinance
into play against the lighter,
less-defended American flotilla, and as a result,
the British have to move in their gun boats
to get in close.
- And it was a tremendous battle that lasted
six or seven hours, a very bloody battle.
There ere Indians on the shore,
they were firing on all those men.
(Cannon blasts)
- The two fleets just pound away at each other.
The Americans had guns that shot a nine-pound ball
or a twelve-pound ball, or on some occasions,
an eighteen-pound ball.
The British had much larger guns, twenty-four pounders,
that shot a massive, twenty-four-pound iron ball,
which was enough to pass clean through any
one of Arnold's ships.
(Cannon explodes)
This is devastating fire power,
and the British and Germans used it very effectively,
pounding away at Arnold's fleet, hour after hour.
- Naval fights of the 18th century are bloody affairs,
because they're close-quarters, with splinters and shot,
and grape shot, and metal flying everywhere,
and wood, and people dying, rigging falling,
and the death and carnage is absolutely astounding.
Screams and shrieks and yells, with cannon balls
careening about the decks and people
falling overboard, drowning.
Arnold was one of the few who knew how to
train a cannon, so he was running from gun to gun.
- I think Arnold's idea was that his men
needed to see him.
As long as you were standing out there,
the men would be inspired by your example,
and that's exactly what he did for most of the fight.
- And all the officers followed
Arnold's example, and they stood up in their ships.
- The American fleet takes by far the greater
amount of damage.
Only one of the British vessels is actually destroyed,
one of the gun boats that has its powder magazine blow up.
Other than that, British gun boats,
which were very small targets, very difficult to hit,
were largely unscathed.
(Cannon blasts)
- After six hours of close-quarters naval combat,
neither fleet has won the day,
but the Americans have taken a severe beating,
losing over 60 men during the first day of the engagement.
- And night began to fall.
The British decided that they would pull back and blockade
Arnold inside Valcour Bay, and then in the morning they'd
have this 20-gun ship lead their fleet in and blow what
was left of Arnold's fleet to pieces.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- He had a conference with his captains,
and they decided there's no future in going another
round with the British in Valcour Bay.
A lot of men in a battle get rattled,
but he never stopped thinking.
- Arnold noticed that the British,
because they have larger ships,
didn't really hug the shoreline all that much.
- As darkness blankets the area,
Arnold implements a daring and nearly impossible plan,
that could either save the flotilla and its men,
or end in complete destruction.
- He puts a lantern on the back of each
one of his ships so that you could only
see the light itself, and each ship follows one behind the
other like horses in a line.
- The badly injured men struggled to suppress
their moans, as he quietly leads his
ghostlike fleet through the nighttime fog.
♪ Tense music playing ♪
- Now the British are astounded the next morning
when the fog finally lifts, it was like he magically
transported his entire fleet past the British
fleet without being discovered.
It was an amazing feat of seamanship and skill.
- Having barely escaped the British fleet,
then men must now row for their lives.
- They hadn't eaten, they hadn't slept,
you got an enemy bearing down on you,
and you've been rowing all night long, you're tired,
you're worn out.
- The winds on Lake Champlain are very fickle,
and Arnold's fleet is trying to head south.
The wind is coming right out of the south,
impeding their progress.
They can't sail, all they can do is try to row into it.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- The powerful Royal Navy is now stalking them.
- To stay ahead of the British,
Arnold's sailors had to row all day.
They take refuge in the shallow waters
of a small island.
It's still 35 miles before Ticonderoga,
and they are still in enormous danger.
Arnold's intention was to use the larger vessels,
the row galleys, as sort of a rear guard
to try to protect the more vulnerable gondolas,
as they ran south on the lake trying to
reach Ticonderoga.
(Cannon blasts)
- Like a wounded animal, the American ship
at the rear is struggling to keep pace
with the rest of the fleet, and is easy prey.
(Cannon blasts)
After receiving several broadsides,
the ship's captain surrenders.
- Arnold is alone in staging a rear-guard action.
- "Gentlemen, your attention!
Captain!"
- And at this point, he does what is perhaps one of
the most amazing and courageous things in this entire
three-day running battle.
He holds the congress back,
and engages with the larger British ships that
are coming after his fleet.
For two and a half hours, he fights them,
dodging and weaving and firing and running,
in this crazy, ongoing battle,
that he couldn't possibly win.
(Gun shots)
They were so incredibly outmatched,
but Arnold holds himself back, and holds the British ships
back, to give his vessels that last little moment to escape.
Four of the gondolas and his vessel run aground.
Arnold sets them all on fire.
He never surrenders them.
Their flags were still flying when the ships went up
in flames, and he leads his men through the woods
back to Ticonderoga.
- It was a significant amount of
leadership and command presence for him to even
get back with the four ships that he does,
and then to get into Ticonderoga in safety was an
amazing feat of officership.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- Carleton, always a cautious officer,
decided to return to Canada rather than forge ahead.
He blamed his hasty retreat on the approaching
winter weather.
♪ Music continues ♪
- "The season is so far advanced that
I cannot yet pretend to inform your Lordship whether anything
can be done this year."
- So, Benedict Arnold, by sheer bravado and seamanship,
has delayed the British invasion of America from
the north for what amounts to one full year.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- When news of Arnold's heroics
reached the public, praise and accolades followed.
Delegate Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania proclaimed
in Congress, "General Arnold has conducted himself
like a hero."
(Men shouting)
His exploits were also the topic
of conversation in London, in a widely read paper
of the time.
A British naval officer wrote:
- "Arnold not only acted the part of
a brave soldier, but also amply filled that
of an able naval commander."
- What Arnold did at Valcour Island was
prove that it's entirely possible to lose a battle,
but win a campaign.
- I think Valcour Island is one of the most unheralded
battles in the entire American Revolution.
I believe that it was crucial to maintaining that door
closed to the British.
- I would argue that the battle of Valcour Island was
Benedict Arnold's crowning achievement,
for a number of reasons.
One, because he was entirely on his own.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
He had no one to defer to.
He was taking his fleet up against overwhelming odds,
with nobody to turn to except himself.
This was entirely his doing, it was a fleet that he had
been largely responsible for creating,
there were men that he had personally trained,
and tactical decisions that he alone had made.
♪ Music continues ♪
- As 1776 drew to a close,
the rebellious Americans had little else to give them hope.
Washington's army has suffered defeat in Brooklyn,
and is forced to retreat into Pennsylvania.
But with Arnold eliminating the British threat from
the north, troops and resources became available for George
Washington's heroic crossing of the Delaware River,
and victory at the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
The rebellion would live on, for now.
♪ music playing ♪
- Benedict Arnold returned home to a hero's welcome.
He finally received the honor and respect
he had so long sought.
He now believes more than ever that the ideals of the
revolution will support his quest to return his family
name to great prominence.
- Following the capture of Newport,
Rhode Island by British forces in December 1776,
General Washington assigned Arnold to a command position
in the New England region.
♪ dark music playing ♪
- It was a position General Horatio
Gates expected for himself, but Washington did
not trust Gates.
He needed a general in that region who was not afraid
to harass and even engage the British,
if circumstances called for military action.
- Because Arnold, the junior officer,
now has been favored over Gates, the senior officer,
Gates begins to think of Arnold not as a compatriot
in arms, but as a rival in arms.
♪ Music darkens ♪
- In retaliation,
Gates made common cause with Arnold's old nemesis,
John Brown.
In January of 1777, Brown was actively lobbying Congress to
block Arnold's promotion to Major General.
He published a broadside, defaming Arnold with the
litany of "alleged crimes" he'd committed.
General Gates was more than happy to bring
Brown's allegations to the attention of his
own friends in Congress.
- In February, Congress promoted five
officers over Arnold.
The reasons were basically political.
- "The delegates have chosen a very civil way of
requesting my resignation."
- But Washington would not accept
Arnold's resignation.
Instead, he wrote to Congress in an attempt to correct
the situation.
- "I am anxious to know whether General Arnold's
non-promotion was owing to accident or design."
- It was no accident.
Congress had set limits on the number of Major Generals
to be appointed from each state.
Connecticut already had its quota.
- One of the most important things that we have to look at
in the American Revolution is looking at the fact that these
are a union, not from one central country,
but of, really, independent communities.
A person would identify themselves as a Virginian
or a Pennsylvanian before they would identify
themselves as an American.
- All the things that America was supposed to be fighting
against, this is what's happening to him.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Promotions are being doled out based on what
state you're from, who your friends are,
and of course, there is all this intrigue going
on behind Arnold's back.
- Arnold saw this political favoritism for other,
less-deserving, officers as an example of arbitrary power,
no better than the corrupt British system of awarding
military rank based on social class.
- At this point in their relationship,
Arnold still viewed Gates as his ally,
and asked him for help in securing the promotion
he thought he deserved.
In frustration, he personally confided to Gates in a letter.
- "I am surely the victim of some villain who has been
busy with my fame and basely slandered me.
I'm conscious of committing no crime,
except it be a crime to have sacrificed my interest, ease,
and happiness in the public cause.
Their extremely cruel actions surprises and mortifies me.
My heavens, I will have justice,
and I'm a villain if I seek not a brave revenge for
injured honor."
- Tragically during this time,
Arnold mistakenly believed Gates would be his ally,
and that General Washington was no longer his advocate.
In reality, Washington was his best ally,
and he pleaded with Congress on Arnold's behalf.
- "Surely, a more active, a more spirited,
insensible officer fills no department in your army.
Arnold, being the oldest brigadier,
will not continue in service under such a slight."
- Amid the political infighting and backstabbing,
Arnold's friends tried to warn him about the situation.
- Samuel Chase was one of them, and he wrote to Arnold,
and he warned him, kind of cryptically,
"your best friends are not your countrymen, "
trying to indicate to Arnold that there is intrigue going
on, that there is talk behind his back,
and it's not helping him.
- Frustrated, Arnold was about to leave for
Philadelphia to protest his non-promotion,
when word arrived of a new British attack
in his jurisdiction.
♪ Dark piano music playing ♪
Duty called.
His trip to Philadelphia would have to wait.
- In April 1777, British General William Tryon and a
force of 2,000 men plundered and burned their way through
the Connecticut countryside.
The former Royal Governor of New York,
Tryon had long advocated punishing the civilian
population for their rebellion.
- Arnold was hoping, of course, that the militia was going to
rise in force and help in the fight against the British.
The militia didn't turn out in the way that Arnold
had hoped they would.
About 200 or so militia against 2,000 British regulars;
so that in itself is a pretty gutsy maneuver.
- "All right, men, don't be scared..."
- He prepares to take a stand against Tryon's
overwhelming force at the small village of Ridgefield.
- With so few men in support...
- "All right, men, hold on!"
- ... Arnold positions himself in front of the American line
to encourage his men.
- "Steady!
Be brave!
Steady!"
(Gunfire)
- "Arnold rode up to our front line and,
ignoring the enemy's fire of musketry and grape shot,
exhorted the troops by the love of themselves, posterity,
and all that's sacred, not to desert him."
- "Hold the line! Hold the line!"
- When a British detachment climbs a ridge,
they put the Americans in a crossfire,
and the thinly spread line of militia cracks.
(Gunfire)
- "Hold the line! We can take them!"
- In a fierce volley, Arnold's horse is hit,
and crumbles to the ground as an enemy soldier shouts,
"Surrender! You are my prisoner!"
- "Not yet."
(Gunshot)
- Over the next two days, his ragtag band of
soldiers harassed the British as they circled
back to the coast.
- As the British boarded their ships,
they reported seeing a relentless Arnold attempting
one last assault.
A musket ball ripped through the collar
of his coat, and he had a second horse shot out
from under him.
- "I wish we could strike a medal showing
a platoon firing at General Arnold,
on horseback, his horse falling dead under him,
before his retreat." John Adams.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- "The ballots been taken, Brigadier General Benedict
Arnold is promoted to the rank of Major General."
John Hancock.
- When Congress learned of Arnold's heroics at
Ridgefield, he was finally promoted to Major General,
but his seniority of rank was still behind those
promoted back in February.
Consequently, other officers of the same rank,
who had once served under Arnold,
would now have command authority over him.
- He goes to Philadelphia to try
to get his promotion backdated and his name cleared of
Brown's false allegations, however he was quickly
reminded of the tensions between the civilian
and military leadership.
- "I am weary to death with the wrangles between military
officers, high and low.
They quarrel like cats and dogs.
They worry one another like mastiffs,
scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts."
John Adams.
- This was sort of like a back of the hand sort of thing.
It was like, "remember soldier,
we're the civilian authority and we can punish you
any time we want to."
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- This attitude fed Arnold's growing disillusionment
with Congress.
- Arnold was not a political animal,
and very often he was quite nalïve in this respect.
♪ Music continues ♪
A board charged with investigating
Brown's allegations got brought down over
accounting details.
When the board finally issued a statement that it was
satisfied with his character and conduct,
Congress would still not restore Arnold's seniority.
- Arnold had had enough.
He tendered a letter of resignation to Congress.
- In Canada, General John Burgoyne was
placed in command of British forces.
- The year 1777 began with the loyalists calling it
"the year of the hangman, " because the three sevens
looked like gallows.
They were going to crush the Americans completely.
- ♪ Somber music playing ♪
- The new offensive was to have three armies
converge on Albany, New York.
Burgoyne would lead an army south out of Canada.
General Sir William Howe would come north out of New York
City, and Colonel Barry St. Leger from the west.
This three-pronged pincer move would effectively cut
the Colonies in half.
- The war escalated to a ferocious level of violence,
as nearly 400 Native Americans allied with the British,
joining General Burgoyne's march out of Canada.
- The Americans retreated ahead of
the relentless British march south,
and the British army recaptured Fort Ticonderoga,
the prize stronghold on Lake Champlain that Arnold
had helped capture two years earlier.
- George Washington needed his fighting
general back in the northern theatre.
- "If General Arnold has settled his affairs and can be
spared from Philadelphia, he should be immediately
set out for the northern department.
He is active, judicious, and brave,
and an officer in whom the militia will repose
a greatest of confidence."
- Arnold set aside his disagreements with
Congress, and immediately rode north to join General
Schuyler, as Washington had requested.
- Schuyler's troops tried to do everything they could to hold
the British advance, felling huge trees,
flooding lowlands and destroying bridges.
- We're really talking about primeval forest, here.
We're talking about places where men
have not cultivated the land at all, huge trees,
huge underbrush and overgrowth.
Literally fighting your way through the forest as you're
fighting through the war.
- It's going to create a delay, and that delay in Burgoyne's
advance is going to really be what the American army needs
to reconstitute itself so that they can finally defend
against Burgoyne's invasion.
♪ Tense drum music playing ♪
- As the British continued south,
their Indian allies captured two loyalist women,
Sarah McNeil and Jane McCrea.
A fiancé of one of Burgoyne's officers,
Jane was held for ransom, but when two warriors argued over
the reward for her capture, one settled the dispute
in tragic fashion.
- "The Indians scalped, stripped and butchered
her in the most shocking manner."
- Arnold was stationed nearby and was
the first to report on the incident.
♪ Tense music playing ♪
He knew the story of this bloody
murder would stir the local settlers to rise up against
Burgoyne's brutal terror campaign,
so he sent messengers to spread work of the massacre
throughout the region.
- It was like a lightning bolt that
went through, the news of Jane McCrea's massacre
spread everywhere.
And the idea that this is what the British brought,
they brought death to women, they brought people taking
your cattle and your crops, and this radicalized people
in upstate New York.
- ♪ dark music playing ♪
Patriot volunteers rallied to help defend
the upper Hudson Valley,
but on the western front, the British forces had
the Americans at Fort Stanwix under siege.
- So, a small contingent of British
forces and a lot of Indians, that's very dangerous,
and Schuyler decides that has to be stopped.
- It's within Philip Schuyler's jurisdiction
to lift the siege if he can, but of course,
he's facing John Burgoyne's army,
which is his real problem at the moment.
♪ Cello music playing ♪
- He looks around for a colonel or
a brigadier to lead forces out to encounter that.
None want to go.
It looks like a lost cause, and it's going to be very
dangerous, very, very risky for anyone who accepts it.
They all back off.
Arnold, who's a Major General, says well,
if no one else will go, I'll take it.
- Schuyler could not spare many men for the mission,
so Arnold comes up with an
ingenious trick to make up for the lack of manpower.
- Along the way to Fort Stanwix,
Arnold's men captured a loyalist named
Hon Yost Schuyler.
He held great influence over the Mohawk,
because they saw the mental affliction he suffered as a
sign of being touched by the great spirit.
(Gunshot)
- Facing a death sentence as a British
conspirator, Hon Yost agreed under pressure to cooperate.
With bullet holes shot through his clothes to prove it,
he warned the Indians that Benedict Arnold,
who they called "the dark eagle, "
was fast approaching with as many men as there
are leaves on the trees.
- The Indians huddled together and decided
they're going to leave, so they do.
They take off, leaving the small British force alone,
and the British commander decides well,
I can't fight them without the Indian allies,
I certainly don't have the power to confront Benedict
Arnold and his force, so he takes off.
So, Arnold, without ever having
to engage in a major battle,
has relieved the threat to the American flank out there.
♪ Guitar music playing ♪
- One prong of the three-pronged British strategy to capture
Albany was defeated.
The second prong, led by General Sir William Howe
coming north though the Hudson Valley, failed to materialize.
- General Howe, who was the commander-in-chief
in New York City, and General Burgoyne,
who was coming down from Canada,
cordially detested each other.
- As early as May 1777, General Sir William Howe
was warning Burgoyne not to expect any
troops from him.
- Burgoyne cheerfully wrote a sort of snotty note to Howe,
saying that he didn't need any help from Howe.
So, Howe said well great, then instead I'll conquer
Philadelphia, and left Burgoyne on his own in
northern New York.
- ♪ Somber music playing ♪ Burgoyne is left with little
prospect of reinforcement and an unreliable supply line.
On August the 16th,1777, he sends a raiding party
of some 700 Hessians to nearby Bennington
to obtain provisions.
But they are met by an overwhelming force
of patriot militia.
(Multiple gun shots)
By the end of the engagement,
all 700 Germans are killed or captured.
- But meanwhile, the Americans were also
endangering their posture, because there was an ongoing
feud between the Americans in New York state
and in New England.
- With General Philip Schuyler caught
in the middle of internal strife,
Congress forced Washington to make a command change.
When Arnold returned from his Fort Stanwix
expedition, he found that Schuyler, the New Yorker,
was replaced by the New Englander's favorite...
- "Major General Gates."
- General Horatio Gates.
- Daniel Morgan, who had been released
in a prisoner exchange, joined Arnold
and Gates with his riflemen.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Among the new arrivals are free Blacks.
Numbering over 400, these free Black soldiers will serve
with valor at Saratoga.
- This "fighting for freedom" became very,
very important for the free Black, and many of them,
many of them enlisted and volunteered to fight.
This will be the most integrated army that
we will see until, really, the 1960's in Vietnam.
- ♪ Somber music playing ♪
By September of 1777, American troop strength
was building.
Altogether, more than 1,400 militia and Continental
regulars rallied to confront Burgoyne's army.
- Arnold and Gage moved the army up to
Bemis Heights, and that's picked because it's high
ground right overlooking the Hudson River.
- And it's understood that Burgoyne, no matter what,
has to go down that valley because of the way that his
army is being transported.
He cannot fully separate his army from
the river, no matter what he does.
He has to go down the river valley.
In order for him to do that, he has to defeat the American
defenses at Bemis Heights.
In order to do that, he has to strike at the summit.
- Time is running out for Burgoyne.
His supplies are short, and he must reach
Albany before winter.
Though far from supplies and reinforcements,
the British army is still dangerous,
and searching for an opportunity to deal the
Americans a decisive blow, Oneida scouts,
allied with the Americans, report that the
British are on the move.
On the morning of September 19th,
Arnold hears a cannon fire.
He knows the signal means the British are coming.
- Arnold, who is always very aggressive,
who wanted to be the one attacking,
urged Gates to send the troops forward to drive Burgoyne
back to the Hudson River.
Gates was very reluctant to leave his defenses.
- After these two generals were arguing back and forth,
Gates agreed to a compromise.
He said, all right, you can order out Daniel Morgan's
riflemen and Henry Dearborn's light infantry for support.
When the British picket of the center
column comes to move against them,
they fire upon them very quickly,
doing very direct damage.
- "Come on, boys!
Come on, let's go!"
(Men yelling)
- Daniel Morgan's men, of course,
seeing this British retreat of the pickets, were elated.
- Seeing confusion on the British side,
Morgan's men pressed the attack.
- So what does Benedict Arnold do?
He is going to send out a reserve for Daniel Morgan.
He's going to support him, and he's going to support him
via individual regiments.
(Multiple guns firing)
Throughout the day,
his entire division of the army.
- "Aim...
fire!"
Morgan's probing maneuver has stirred
up a hornet's nest, and the first battle
of Saratoga begins near the farm
of a loyalist named John Freeman.
The grand armies trade blows.
- Arnold is able to throw the British
back, inflict a lot of casualties.
Arnold has the British in a position where
they can be wiped out,
if Gates will just counter-attack,
if Gates will just move forward out of
his defensive positions.
- "General Gates."
- He rides back to Gates and tells him,
here's our opportunity, we can do it now, we can end the war.
we can defeat him right here.
- "Sir, this is our time!
We can crush them!"
- Gates allows one small unit to go out,
but he orders Arnold to stay back.
- Sensing the resistance by American forces
and the pressure mounting against his lines,
Burgoyne sends for Hessian troops waiting
in reserve.
But Gates refuses to send reinforcements.
Without Arnold on the field, the battle rages
without leadership.
Disgusted by his commander's lack of
action, Arnold races back to the fight, yelling,
"By God, I will soon put an end to it!"
Gates thinks the battle is going according
to plan and fears Arnold may do something rash.
He sends a young agitant to track
him down and force him back to camp.
- "You are to return to headquarters at once!"
♪ dark music playing ♪
That action of Gates, when he refused to
let Arnold go back into the battle,
and he pulls out of the mix,
the one person who is going to make it happen,
that speaks volumes about his ability, or his inability,
as a battlefield leader.
The Hessians' reinforcements join
the battle, and the fighting intensifies.
Both sides suffer substantial casualties,
but the British hold the field as night approaches.
- That would be as much as the Americans would
accomplish that day.
Without the reinforcements and without Arnold's leadership,
nothing else was going to happen.
They weren't going to accomplish anything without
the one man who had been out there leading
them all day long.
"The crash of cannon and musketry
never ceased until darkness parted us.
When they were tired, they'd camp,
leaving us masters of the field.
But it was a dear bought victory,
if I can give it that name, as we lost many men."
William Digby, British 53rd Light Company.
- The British were basically stopped
in their tracks, and they fell back.
- Arnold had proven to the British
and to his own satisfaction,
and to the satisfaction of the American troops,
that they could meet the British head-on in a face
to face battle and hold their own.
This was crucial, the Americans hadn't
done this before.
- "The courage with which the Americans fought were
the astonishment of everyone, and we've now become fully
convinced they are not the contemptible enemy we had
hither to imagine."
Lieutenant Thomas Ambry,
British 24th Foot.
- "On this day has bene fought one of
the greatest battles ever fought in America,
and I trust we have convinced the British butchers that
the cowardly Yankees can, and where there is a
call for it, fight."
Major Henry Dearborn.
Tactically speaking, an American loss,
but it was strategically a victory,
because it stopped the British on the field.
The British would have gained the initiative,
had Benedict Arnold not brought his division to the
field of battle.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Battlefield loss or no battlefield loss,
it is Benedict Arnold who
strategically won the first battle of Saratoga.
"Arnold was not only the hero of the field,
but he had won the admiration
of the whole army."
Captain Ebenezer Wakefield.
But his commanding officer, General Gates,
was jealous of the admiration and heroics
displayed by Arnold on the battlefield.
- He wrote a report to Congress in which he didn't
mention Arnold's name, or Morgan's name.
He pretended that he was the genius behind the whole thing.
Arnold took this omission as an affront
to his personal honor, and to the honor
of those who served under him.
- "Stand aside!"
- Pretty soon Arnold was storming into Gates' tent,
screaming curses at his face.
He was not a timid soul, to put it mildly.
Arnold was infuriated, and let me say,
every officer in any army in the world would have been
infuriated by this kind of treatment.
- "You have no business calling
yourself a general!"
- That's their bread and butter,
to get mentioned in dispatches,
if they do something worth mentioning,
and Arnold had done tremendous things that day,
and he was totally ignored by this intriguer, General Gates.
- Finally, Gates relieves Arnold.
He takes him out of command, tells him it's perfectly
okay for him to leave and go back to join Washington.
The officers in the army realized
that Gates is not the kind of man to lead them into a fight,
and Arnold is.
They want to go into the next battle with Arnold.
They signed a petition for Arnold to stay.
- "I did not choose to serve General Gates.
I will sooner see him drawn and quartered than do anything
for him out of my line.
But Arnold, I will cheerfully serve."
Lieutenant Richard Varick.
- "Arnold alone is due the honor of our late victory.
He is the light and soul of the troops,
enjoying the confidence and affection of his
officers and soldiers.
They would, to a person, follow him to conquest
or death."
Lieutenant Henry Livingston.
Arnold wrote a letter to Gates, outlining his grievances,
while reconfirming his commitment to the cause.
- "I have every reason to think your treatment proceeds
from a spirit of jealousy.
I do not wish to command the army or to outshine you,
I only express my zeal for the cause of my country in which
I expect to rise or fall.
I am determined to sacrifice my feelings to the public
good, and continue in the army at this critical juncture
when my country needs every support."
- Two long weeks pass.
Despite the urging of Arnold and other officers,
Gates refuses to go on the offensive.
This hesitation allows the British time to strengthen
their fortified lines.
- Burgoyne was getting increasingly desperate.
As the weeks passed, his supply line back to Canada was
getting weaker and weaker.
- So, he's either got to retreat,
or he's got to attack them.
On the 7th of October, he sends out a third of
his army in a drawing reconnaissance of force,
to find the American's left flank.
And when he finds it, he is either the next day going to
attack them, around that flank,
or withdraw back toward Canada.
That's his plan.
- "I know we can do it."
- Aware of the British troop movement,
Morgan pleads with Gates to send troops to meet them.
- "As you will, Morgan."
- "Thank you, sir."
- Finally, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
Gates agrees to "let the game begin."
The second battle of Saratoga is unleashed,
and the fighting is fierce.
The Americans are taking heavy losses.
Arnold, having no command authority, waits at his
headquarters, listening to the roar of distant cannons.
- "General Arnold.
I've received report..."
- An aide reports that the Americans are
disorganized on the field, and losing ground
to the British advance.
- "... are in danger."
Frustrated, he disobeys orders.
He rallies the man back to the fight.
The troops are inspired by the return of their beloved
commander, and follow him valiantly.
- "Arnold's back!"
- "The general!
The general is back!"
- When he arrives on the scene,
the American line is in total disarray.
- "Fall in, men!
Fall in!
Fall in!"
"Where did the commando go to?"
The smoke, the shrieks of the dying,
the groans of the wounded,
the cannonballs whizzing overhead,
it's just chaos reigning supreme.
And then suddenly on the battlefield,
arrives this leader, this person that they
all know and respect.
It's Benedict Arnold, and his presence on the field
electrifies the men, and they are confident at that point
in this counter-attack that he's now taking charge of,
that things are going to turn out all right.
They're confident that now he's here,
he knows what he's doing, we'll follow him.
- Arnold spots Brigadier General Simon Fraser,
one of the most revered and accomplished
commanders of the whole British army.
He orders Morgan to place one of his sharpshooters
in position to kill this crucial enemy officer.
(Gunshot) This sniper attack on an officer was
inconceivable to the British and their sense
of battlefield honor.
- Fraser is mortally wounded,
and will die the next day.
He is one of the first British
generals to be killed in combat by a U.S. marksman.
- "The loss of General Fraser turned
the fate of the day."
Lieutenant William Digby, British 53rd Light Company.
- Under Arnold's bold leadership,
they drive them back behind fortifications designed to
protect Burgoyne's left flank.
- Blasts of British cannon and musket
fire force the Americans back.
- "On my command, we will charge the redoubt!"
- The Americans find it very difficult to advance,
as the battle becomes a stalemate,
with each army trading volleys of lead,
until Arnold rallies his men.
- "Forward!
Company, move out!"
- "Arnold, inspired by the fury of a demon,
led one of the patriot charges.
Riding in front of the line, his eyes flashing,
with a voice that rang clear as a trumpet,
he called upon the men to follow him,
and he hurled them like a tornado on the British line.
Nothing could exceed the bravery of Arnold on this day.
There seemed to shoot out from him a magnetic flame
that electrified his men, and made heroes of them all."
Captain Ebenezer Wakefield.
- He breaks through the redoubt commanded
by the highly disciplined Hessian colonel,
Heinrich von Breymann.
Rebels pour into the gaping hole and overwhelm
the Germans, their pots and pans still boiling
as they flee.
Until this day, no American commander or army ever
defeated a standing British force in battle.
Saratoga will be the pinnacle of Arnold's military career
as a rebel officer, and a personal triumph
over tremendous hardship.
Fighting alongside his men, they have overcome brutal
conditions in the Maine wilderness,
the Canadian winter at the walls of Quebec,
starvation and horrific death from smallpox.
They have confronted the Royal Navy at Lake Champlain,
and have routed the most professional
army in the world.
And it is Benedict Arnold who led them.
Amid the chaos, a young Hessian soldier
fires at Arnold.
- "Our general thought little of danger
and forced his way though and spared none,
till a ball broke his leg and killed his horse."
Oliver Borden, Continental Soldier.
- American troops rushed to his side.
Slammed to the ground by the attacking American troops,
the young Hessian is about to be killed.
- "No.
Spare the boy."
(Somber music playing)
- Major Henry Dearborn asked if he was badly hurt.
Arnold is reported to have said, "The same leg.
I wish the ball had passed through my heart."
A messenger sent by Gates informs him that
he is being removed from the field of battle
for disobeying orders.
Before the first battle of Saratoga at
Freeman's farm, Arnold had run into a group of men from
the Connecticut militia, and promised all of them one
thing that morning, that if the day be long enough,
they would have all the British in Hell
before nightfall.
Now, as the sun set at the close of the Battles
of Saratoga, Arnold held true to his promise,
but he could not foresee the personal toll of victory.
- And Arnold was carried back to his tent
in agony again, but the Battle of Saratoga
was as good as over.
It was as good as won, because the British now
had to retreat.
- The British were surrounded by American forces.
After four months of campaigning,
Burgoyne had lost over one-third of his entire army.
He credited Arnold publicly for,
in his words, the success obtained over him.
And he must have known how his failure would be received
in Parliament.
- "Under perpetual fire, I have been with my armies in
the jaws of famine, shot through my hat and waistcoat,
my nearest friends killed around me.
From these combined misfortunes,
I imagine I am reserved to stand a war with ministers in
London, who will always lay the blame upon the employed
who miscarries."
"I won't lose my leg, doctor.
I will not have it amputated."
- Benedict Arnold lay wounded in an Albany hospital...
- "Save it!"
- ...his leg shattered.
He threatened to shoot anybody who tried to amputate it.
- ♪ Somber music playing ♪
He must have been devastated, destroyed as a man.
He gave everything.
Gates gave nothing, and Gates walked away with the honor,
with the glory, and the sword of General Burgoyne.
- "Thank you, General.
I accept your sword of surrender."
- The strategic significance of Saratoga cannot
be overestimated.
It really is the birth of liberty in the modern world,
because what it does, it sets in train a set of falling
dominoes, which ultimately lead to British defeat in
North America.
It was Benedict Arnold,
his military skill, his courage, his heroism,
that pushes over the first domino.
And my word, do the dominoes start falling.
- It shocked the British confidence in their ability
to win the war, but most important,
it amazed the French.
Now, they decided, maybe the Americans can actually win
this war, and Benjamin Franklin had been over
there in France for well over a year,
trying to persuade them to sign a treaty of alliance.
Finally got some attention, and the next thing you know,
the French had signed the treaty of alliance.
- It calls Britain's bluff.
Britain has gone to war with a peacetime navy
and a peacetime army.
Now it's faced with a global conflict,
which it does not have the resources to win.
- And if Arnold had been killed at Saratoga,
today in Washington there would be two monuments,
one for George Washington and one for Benedict Arnold.
- Gates is the victor of Saratoga,
gets all of the credit, all of the praise that comes
to the victor of such a critical battle,
one that turns the tide of the war, and Arnold,
who's in agony in a hospital fighting to keep his leg,
goes into pretty deep depression.
- His leg was saved from amputation,
but he suffered a long and slow recuperation.
While recovering, he had time to reflect on all he had done
for the cause, on all of his sacrifices.
- Now having very grave doubts as to whether there's really
anything there at the core, except another regime,
with another set of leaders that are just as willful
and selfish, and potentially tyrannical as those this
revolution seemingly was trying to overthrow.
- Arnold was very concerned with this idea of corruption,
he had felt that the British system was corrupt,
and now he was starting to wonder if perhaps the American
system was equally corrupt.
- In this depression that he's in,
something clicks in his mind.
He makes a decision.
Others have been profiting from the war in all kinds
of ways, he's been losing in all kinds of ways.
He decides that for his role, from now on he will worry
about himself, about his family, about his money,
about his position.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
- And he will send a letter to Washington,
and twice in that letter,
he will say to Washington that I wish you all good luck,
all Godspeed, all good everything in terms of
your cause and your country.
And I think that was an unconscious thing,
I'm not sure that Arnold realized that he was saying
twice "your" country to Washington.
♪ Very dark music playing ♪
He no longer sees himself as a
vital part of the cause, in that it is no longer really
his cause, that he has dedicated himself to,
that he has fought and bled over,
as he wrote so many times.
- Nevertheless, Arnold was a Major General
in the American army, and he needed a new assignment.
His wounded leg rendered him incapable of taking a field
command, but Washington wanted to reward him with
an assignment worthy of his valor.
To Washington, Military Governor of Philadelphia
seemed like a suitable position.
- In Philadelphia, after the British left,
you started to see almost a mob rule.
It was a pretty chaotic situation.
You had the patriots who were hanging those who cooperated
with the British during the occupation, no due process,
no trial, it was really just a lynching.
- When the British army abruptly ended their
occupation of Philadelphia, they left behind a deeply
divided community.
- Arnold, as the military administrator of Philadelphia,
has to deal with these tensions.
No matter what he does, he's going to infuriate somebody.
Again, this is a man extremely sensitive to
people attacking his reputation on any grounds.
- Even thought the British military
had withdrawn from Philadelphia,
remnants of British high society remained.
Young women of the upper class had grown accustomed
to the company and social life of the handsome
and courtly British officers.
But the radical patriots in Philadelphia disapproved
of anything resembling a British lifestyle.
- They were suspicious.
Who harbors loyalist sympathies?
Who can be trusted?
Rumors and whispers of conspiracies were rampant.
- This, unfortunately, is the world Benedict Arnold entered,
a snake pit of gossip and backbiting.
He was a man of action, not an astute politician.
- Peggy Shippen, a young socialite,
caught his eye.
She had come of age during the carefree days of flirtations
with the young British officers,
and continued correspondence with some of them at their
new post in New York City.
Though her prominent Quaker family was neutral,
many in Philadelphia believed that her family held
loyalist sympathies.
- It was no surprise that as a widower,
Arnold was interested in her.
They courted, married, and moved into one of the finest
homes in Philadelphia, but that really strained his
already weakened finances.
- Arnold spent a lot of his own money during
the course of the revolution to support his troops.
Congress owed him a considerable amount of money,
and they were very stingy about repaying it,
yet another thing that caused Arnold to start
feeling discontent.
- To earn a living, Arnold returned to the business
he knew, trading.
But some of his partners were other Philadelphians who
had conducted businesses during the time of
the British occupation.
♪ dark music playing ♪
In the eyes of the radical patriots,
these associations looked suspicious.
- It certainly didn't look pretty, you know,
and it didn't look virtuous.
Patriotism is supposed to be about virtue.
- He was hardly alone in his troubles with
the radicals in Philadelphia and members of Congress.
Following a long winter when American
soldiers were left starving at Valley Forge,
there were many hard feelings between military
and civilian leaders.
Arnold was deeply offended by the neglect of the soldiers.
- "Our soldiers starve in a land of plenty."
- People have been at war for five years.
This is not an easy win.
It's 1780-81, they still don't know that
they're going to win this.
How many more years is this going to go?
- By 1780, the war had devastated
entire families.
Arnold was personally concerned for the widow
and young children of Dr. Joseph Warren,
an admired Massachusetts leader,
who had fallen at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
His death left his wife and children destitute.
- Arnold felt that it was grossly unfair,
and it was part of the lack of respect that he was starting
to recognize, or starting to become aware of,
by the powers that be.
He conducted a private fund drive on behalf
of Warren's family, and contributed a generous
sun of his own money.
He pressed Congress to establish a pension fund
for all the families of fallen officers,
but the delegates would not fund it.
Arnold finally persuaded the delegates to pay Warren's
widow half of her husband's salary.
- Ironically, the delegates from Warren's own state
of Massachusetts abstained on the vote.
- He comes to doubt, in some form or another,
what the American cause is about,
and what the Americans are doing.
- He was starting to see that perhaps the Continental
Congress didn't view the revolution in the same idyllic
way that he did, that they didn't have what he thought
were the proper principles that should be underpinning
the revolution.
- Years of high idealism, sacrifice,
and selflessness gave way to complete disillusionment.
This disillusionment led him to begin a secret
correspondence with a British officer, Major John André,
whom his wife had known during the British occupation
of Philadelphia.
Arnold signed the letters "George Monck."
This choice of alias may reveal his motivation.
George Monck is considered a British hero to this day,
because he turned against his own revolution and helped
restore the British Monarchy back to power in 1659,
sparing his country years of bloody civil war.
- One of Arnold's most relentless critics
was Joseph Reed, a leader among the city's
radical patriots.
Reed and the radicals were behind an appalling reign
of terror, arresting and executing Tories and Quakers
who had cooperated with the British occupiers.
Not content with that, they'd even seized their property.
- Arnold ended this abuse in profiteering,
so these self-proclaimed patriots turned on him.
Reed wanted Arnold removed as Military Governor
of the city.
He went to General Washington and demanded that Arnold be
court-marshalled for a minor infraction.
He had used government wagons to transport his business
partner's merchandise from the port to the shops
in the city.
- More concerned about his personal honor than the money,
Arnold offered to pay for the use of the wagons.
Reed, however, wanted to disgrace Arnold.
He continued to press Washington,
threatening to pull the Pennsylvania militia
out of the war.
- Already reeling from numerous battlefield setbacks
and a lack of support from Congress,
Washington bowed to Reed's pressure.
In an attempt to appease him, Washington issued a formal
public reprimand of Arnold.
- This was Washington, who was supposed to
be his friend, supposed to be the person
who was backing him.
A fellow soldier, a fellow officer,
and he's reprimanding him.
Arnold felt betrayed.
- Arnold requested and received from
Washington command of the strategic fortification on
the Hudson River, West Point.
They key to the continent.
♪ dark music playing ♪
Major John André, the the British officer
Arnold has been secretly corresponding with,
is traveling back to his post in New York City
following his clandestent meeting
with Arnold.
Having missed his rendezvous with a British vessel,
he must now travel through a dangerous no-man's land
between enemy lines.
It is crawling with bandits.
Out of uniform and disguised in civilian clothes,
if he is captured, he will be considered a spy.
He is stopped by three armed men.
In this region, André is not sure if they are loyalists,
rebels, or thieves looking to steal his wool coat
and fine leather boots.
They force him to disrobe.
Hidden in his stockings, they find papers and plans
detailing the American defenses at West Point,
and a pass signed by the commander,
General Benedict Arnold.
André is arrested, and the suspicious papers
are sent to George Washington,
who was on his way to West Point for a
scheduled inspection.
A message is also sent directly to Arnold
at West Point, informing him that André has been captured.
The instant Arnold receives the message, he flees.
- "Please don't kill my baby.
please!"
- When Washington arrives at Arnold's residence,
Peggy is hysterical.
- "Get away from my baby!"
- The unthinkable becomes obvious.
Benedict Arnold has turned.
- Washington didn't believe that Peggy had any part of this,
and he let her go.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
Once released, Peggy joined her husband
in the British-occupied city
of New York.
- Washington is devastated.
He proclaimed, "Arnold has betrayed us.
Whom can we trust now?"
- Attempting to defend his decision,
Arnold wrote a letter to his once beloved commander,
George Washington.
- "I have ever acted from a principle of love
to my country.
The same principle of love to my country actuates
my present conduct, however it may appear
inconsistent to the world, who very seldom judge
right of any man's actions."
- The end of the Declaration, where Jefferson writes those
poignant words, "to this we commit our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor, "
Arnold had already done that.
He had already risked his life,
he'd already been grievously wounded.
He had already spent a considerable amount
of his fortune.
- I think there was a contract in the Declaration
of Independence.
Clear ideals, so beautifully set out by Jefferson in
the Declaration, being abandoned and being betrayed,
whether on the battlefield or off,
and yet Arnold had actually remained faithful
to those ideals.
There's only so much, I think, that someone who
has given so very much to a cause,
and then finds that the cause has betrayed him.
- I think Arnold was ultimately
disgusted with what had happened to him,
what had happened to the revolution.
- The story of Arnold's career as a leading revolutionary,
from his point of view, was a story of one betrayal after
another betrayal after another betrayal.
- In many respects, America more betrayed Benedict Arnold
than Arnold betrayed America.
- He also explained his actions in an
open letter to the people that was published in newspapers
throughout the Colonies.
- "To the inhabitants of America,
I was only solicitous to accomplish an event of
decisive importance, and to prevent as much as possible in
the execution of it, the affusion of blood.
Reunion with the British Empire is the best and only
means to dry up the streams of misery that have deluged
this country."
- Arnold is the big figure, here,
because he essentially deserted the American cause
in a big way, and went to the other side.
But there were other soldiers who did the same thing.
- Arnold was an extreme case, and of course,
his case led to dire consequences.
But his resentments, his fears, his concern
that the army was not properly supported,
that the officers were not properly appreciated,
were widely shared throughout the officers' corps by 1780.
- And the British were hoping that war officers were going
to follow Arnold's example and come over.
So, obviously, the Congress and Washington had to make
Arnold's actions as evil and villainous
as they possibly could.
They had to portray this as the most heinous of crimes
to discourage anyone else from going over.
- "Treason of the blackest dye was discovered yesterday."
- "Arnold, vile, treacherous, in leagued with Satan. "
- "Never, since the fall of Lucifer,
has a fall equaled his."
- "Curses of ages will attend your name.
Traitors alone will glory in your shame."
Even John Henry, the soldier Arnold had
once saved during the Quebec campaign,
vilified him.
- When he wrote his memoirs, he told this story about how
Arnold helped him along the way, out of his own pocket.
But later in the diary in his memoir,
he couldn't help but mention that Arnold,
from his point of view, was a very greedy individual.
- These people were so angry at what Arnold had done,
it actually started to bring people together,
to sort of unify the cause.
- Many have argued that if Benedict Arnold's plot
had succeeded, it would have dealt a devastating blow
to the American cause.
- For the British, it also was a terrible time,
and they did not have the political will,
the did not have the military resources,
and they did not have the money to press on to victory.
So even if the Arnold-André conspiracy had succeeded,
it would not have made any difference to the outcome
of the Revolutionary War.
♪ Somber music playing ♪
In the spring of 1781, British troops under
Arnold's command raided Richmond, Virginia.
In September of the same year, he attacked his home
state of Connecticut.
Fires set by the invading force resulted in the burning
and destruction of New London.
But as a British General, Benedict Arnold had no
significant impact on the war or its outcome,
and he was never fully trusted by senior British officers.
But Arnold was just so good.
He showed up the laziness, the ineptitude of many
of the British officer corps.
- After the war, Arnold resumed his business in
shipping ventures, operating out of a
loyalist community in Canada.
But he was never forgotten by some of
the men who followed him into battle.
One soldier happened across his path while working
on the docks in Nova Scotia.
He did not have the heart to approach his old commander.
In 1792, Benedict and Peggy moved to London.
Besieged by asthma, gout, and torturous pain in his
twice-wounded leg, Arnold struggled to keep himself
going, until June 14th, 1801.
- "He died after a week's severe illness
and great suffering."
Peggy Arnold.
- His death was hardly noted in the London press.
- ♪ Somber music playing ♪
One of the most impressive
Revolutionary War monuments sits atop of a hill,
and this is a very tall monument,
and it's at the center of Surrender Field.
As you look up, you'll see a statue of Philip Schuyler.
You continue around, you'll see a statue of Daniel Morgan,
and you'll continue around to the third side and you'll see
a statue of Horatio Gates, all leaders in this great
American victory at Saratoga.
But as you continue around to the fourth side,
you look up and you're going to see an empty casing where
that statue of that fourth person would be,
and obviously, that is the place of Benedict Arnold.
- In a small chapel at West Point,
plaques memorialize Generals of the war for independence.
One plaque has no name, only a date of birth and rank.
It is Benedict Arnold's plaque.
- There is a stone monument at Saratoga National Historic
Park, depicting a boot.
It has no name, only an inscription memorializing a
general's sacrifice and injury on the battlefield.
He had joined the patriot cause for the ideals of liberty in
a society that rewards merit.
Instead, he encountered an arbitrary system of personal
favoritism and cronyism.
For well over 200 years, Americans have not appreciated
Benedict Arnold's vital contribution to the fight for
American independence.
Now we're left to wonder, did Benedict Arnold betray
his country?
Or did his country betray him?