Benedict Arnold è stato un generale statunitense durante la Guerra d'indipendenza che nel 1780 tradì la causa rivoluzionaria e passò nel campo britannico.
Combattente valoroso e aggressivo, Arnold si dimostrò nei primi anni della guerra un comandante abile e determinato dando un contributo decisivo ai successi dell'esercito continentale soprattutto durante la campagna di Saratoga che fu vinta dai ribelli in gran parte per merito suo.
Nonostante il brillante servizio, Benedict Arnold, ambizioso e polemico, entrò in conflitto con i suoi colleghi e decise infine di tradire la causa indipendentista e di passare nell'esercito britannico guidando negli ultimi anni di guerra le truppe lealiste in Virginia e mostrando grande animosità verso i suoi vecchi compagni d'armi.
Massone, fu membro della Hiram Lodge No. 1 di New Haven, Connecticut.
Rimane uno tra i personaggi più noti e controversi della Rivoluzione americana.
Wikipedia
“What do you think would be my fate if my misguided countrymen were to take me prisoner?”
Reportedly asked to a captured captain from the Colonial Army, as quoted in The Picturesque Hudson http://www.kellscraft.com/PicturesqueHudson/PicturesqueHudson08.html (1915) by Clifton Johnson; the captain is said to have replied, "They would cut off the leg that was wounded at Saratoga and bury it with the honors of war, and the rest of you they would hang on a gibbet."
Unverified, but reportedly said by Arnold on his deathbed in 1801, requesting to wear the uniform of the Colonial Army from before his defection to the British, as quoted in The Picturesque Hudson http://www.kellscraft.com/PicturesqueHudson/PicturesqueHudson08.html (1915) by Clifton Johnson
Letter to General Gates (7 September 1776), in Battle of Valcour on Lake Champlain, October 11th, 1776 by Peter Sailly Palmer(1876) p. 5
Letter to General Horatio Gates (31 May 1776) published in The Life of Benedict Arnold : His Patriotism and His Treason (1880) by Isaac Newton Arnold, p. 96
Contesto: Neglected by Congress below; pinched with every want here; distressed with the small-pox; want of Generals and discipline in our Army — which may rather be called a great rabble — our late unhappy retreat from Quebec, and loss of the Cedars; our credit and reputation lost, and great part of the country; and a powerful foreign enemy advancing upon us; are so many difficulties we cannot surmount them. My whole thoughts are now bent on making a safe retreat out of this country; however, I hope we shall not be obliged to leave it until we have had one bout more for the honour of America. I think we can make a stand at Isle-aux-Noix, and keep the Lake this summer from an invasion that way. We have little to fear; but I am heartily chagrined to think we have ldst in one month all the immortal Montgomery was a whole campaign in gaining, together with our credit, and many men and an amazing sum of money. The commissioners this day leave us, as our good fortune has long since; but as Miss, like most other Misses, is fickle, and often changes, I still hope for her favors again; and that we shall have the pleasure of dying or living happy together.
Letter to General Gates (21 September 1776), in Battle of Valcour on Lake Champlain, October 11th, 1776 by Peter Sailly Palmer(1876) p. 5
Letter to General Gates (21 September 1776), in Battle of Valcour on Lake Champlain, October 11th, 1776 by Peter Sailly Palmer(1876) p. 5
