Benedict arnold biography book

The name Benedict Arnold is synonymous in American history with the word traitor. His name is almost a synonym for treasonous behavior so despicable, his many contributions to American Independence before becoming a turncoat are largely forgotten.

Arnold actually built a very impressive military career before his defection to the British army. Born in the British colony of Connecticut in 1741, he was the only child out of eleven to survive into adulthood. He spent his young adulthood engaged as an apothecary and merchant but served in the militia as well.

During the American Revolution, Arnold quickly established himself as one of George Washington’s best generals. Realizing the strategic importance of securing New York, Arnold mustered a group of men and headed toward Fort Ticonderoga. Coordinating with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, Arnold helped capture the fort for the Patriots. Arnold suffered two battl

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The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life

Joyce Lee Malcolm knows this story, and yet she has embraced the thankless, if not Sisyphean, task of contextualizing America’s first traitor ... [George] Washington and Arnold were different, to be sure, but Malcolm enables readers to see the very real similarities between the two men ... The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold benefits from Russell Lea’s collection of Arnold’s war correspondence, published in 2008, and a relatively recent upptäckt of a cache of primary sources in Quebec. Malcolm has written a fine biography—the best in recent memory, in fact. But what Arnold really needs now is a miracle.

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Joyce Lee Malcolm describes 'the most infamous man in American history' as a two-dimensional caricature in the minds of most Americans ... that...deserves a fuller consideration, though not necessarily an ursäktande one ... The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold does show that Arnold’s hu

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Benedict Arnold

American-born military officer (1740–1801)

For other people named Benedict Arnold, see Benedict Arnold (disambiguation).

Benedict Arnold (14 January 1741 [O.S. 3 January 1740]^[1][a] – June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecting to the British in 1780. General George Washington had given him his fullest trust and had placed him in command of West Point in New York. Arnold was planning to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780, whereupon he fled to the British lines. In the later part of the war, Arnold was commissioned as a brigadier general in the British Army and placed in command of the American Legion. He led British forces in battle against the army which he had once commanded, and his