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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
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Seitenzahl: 379
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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LIFE AND TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD
Jordan Sparks
NISYROS PUBLISHERS
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This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
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Copyright © 2015 by Jordan Sparks
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVII.
Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold
By
Jared Sparks
FOREWORD
“NEGLECTED BY CONGRESS BELOW, distressed with the small-pox; want of Generals and discipline in our Army, which may rather be called a great rabble, 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.” – Benedict Arnold
On October 7, 1777, Benedict Arnold rode out against orders and led an American assault against British forces led by General John Burgoyne in one of the climactic battles and ultimate turning point of the war at Saratoga. Near the end of the most important American victory of the Revolution, Arnold’s leg was shattered by a volley that also hit his horse, which fell on the leg as well.
Arnold would later remark that he wish the shot had hit him in the chest. If it had, Benedict Arnold would be remembered as one of America’s greatest war heroes, and probably second only to George Washington among the generals of the Revolution. In fact, when Arnold was injured at the height of his success in October 1777, he had been the most successful leader of American forces during the war. Arnold had been instrumental in the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, he constructed the first makeshift American navy to defend Lake Champlain and delay British campaigning in 1776, and he was the principal leader at Saratoga in 1777. Even his unsuccessful campaign to Quebec in the winter of 1775 is remembered primarily for the amazing logistical feats undertaken by Arnold and his men to even reach the target.
History has accorded Arnold his fair share of credit for the fighting he participated in from 1775-1777. The problem is his contemporaries did not. Arnold was better on the field than any other American general in those years, but his mercurial personality rubbed some the wrong way, and other self-promoting generals, from Ethan Allen to Horatio Gates, credited themselves with success at Arnold’s expense. Meanwhile, the Second Continental Congress frequently if inadvertently slighted Arnold, failing to duly promote him in a timely fashion and failing to pay him four years of back pay even as he spent his own private fortune training, equipping, and feeding his army and navy. Historian William Sterne Randall estimates Congress shorted Arnold out of the equivalent of $275,000.
Today, of course, all of that has been overshadowed by Arnold’s treacherous plot to turn over West Point to the British in 1780. The infamous plot came about while Arnold convalesced as the military governor in Philadelphia, where he met and married the Tory-affiliated Peggy Shippen. Arnold grew more concerned about the patriot cause, and combined with the perceived insults, exposure to Loyalist leanings, and another Congressional rebuke for living extravagantly in Philadelphia, Arnold decided to secretly offer his services to the British.
As every American knows, Arnold’s plot was uncovered, and he barely escaped to the British side, where he was just as distrusted and nearly as despised. Though he would serve as a brigadier-general for the British through the end of the war, his personal fortune and reputation were permanently tarnished. The man who could have been one of his country’s greatest heroes became its most despised traitor.
PREFACE
IT IS THE CHIEF object of the following narrative to give an account of the treason of Arnold, its causes, the plans for carrying it forward, and its final issue. In executing this design, it was necessary to touch upon the events of his previous life; and, as many of these have a real interest in themselves, and others a direct bearing on the subject, it is believed no apology for introducing them will be required.
The author has of course consulted all the printed books and documents, which he could find; and among others he acknowledges his obligation to M. de Mar-bois’ Complot d’Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton, published several years ago in Paris, and soon afterwards translated by Mr. Walsh for the second volume of the American Register. The parts of M. de Marbois’ book, which he wrote from personal knowledge and observation, have a special value; some of the other parts would have been varied, if his materials had been more abundant and exact.
Besides printed sources of information, the author has been fortunate in procuring the use of a large number of original papers in manuscript, which have not before been inspected. In the public archives of London he was allowed to peruse the entire correspondence, between the British commander in America and the ministry, concerning Arnold’s defection; particularly a very ample narrative of all the transactions, dated nine days after the death of Andre, methodically drawn up, and signed by Sir Henry Clinton. This correspondence exhibits in a clear view the British side of the question.
Among General Washington’s manuscripts are also original materials, including the papers that were laid before the board of general officers to whom Andre’s case was submitted, and the drafts of letters and other papers left behind by Arnold when he escaped. Arnold’s letters to Congress are curious, and indicate the workings of his mind while maturing his plot. The same may be said of some of his miscellaneous letters, which have fallen into the author’s hands.
For that portion of the narrative in which the agency of Andre is described, the principal authority has been the records of the trial of Joshua H. Smith. This person was arraigned before a court-martial, upon the charge of having been an accomplice with Arnold, but his guilt was not proved. The trial lasted for nearly a month. Numerous witnesses were examined, and among others the captors of Andre. All the testimony was taken down in detail, and the papers have been preserved. They are voluminous and important.
Several gentlemen now living, who were personally acquainted with circumstances attending the treason of Arnold, have made valuable communications, either written or verbal, for the present work.
The author will only add, that he has everywhere aimed at strict accuracy in his viii statements, and verified them whenever it was possible by reference to manuscript authorities. If his labors should be found to have contributed any thing to illustrate an interesting point of history, his end will be answered and his wishes gratified.
CHAPTER I.
Arnold’s Birth and Early Life.
Among the first settlers and proprietors of Rhode Island was William Arnold, a name of some note in the local annals of his time. He had three sons, Benedict, Thomas, and Stephen. The eldest, that is, Benedict Arnold, succeeded Roger Williams as president of the colony under the first charter, and he was at different times governor under the second charter during a period of fifteen years; a proof of the respect in which he was held by his contemporaries.
The family spread out into several branches. One of these was established at Newport, from which place two brothers, Benedict Arnold and Oliver Arnold, emigrated to Norwich in Connecticut, the former about the year 1730, or perhaps a little earlier, the latter several years afterwards. They were coopers by trade, but Benedict discontinued that occupation soon after his removal to Norwich, and engaged in commerce. He made one or two voyages to England, but was principally concerned in navigation to the West Indies, and was owner of the vessels he commanded. Having accumulated means sufficient to enable him to change this pursuit for one which he liked better, he became a merchant, and for several years carried on an extensive business at Norwich. He was a man of suspicious integrity, little respected, and less esteemed. Prosperity deserted him, and by degrees he sank into intemperance, poverty, and contempt.
In the mean time he had married Mrs. Hannah King, a widow lady, whose name before her first marriage was Waterman. Her family connexions were highly respectable, and she is represented as having been eminent for her amiable temper, piety, and Christian virtues. The children of this second marriage were three sons and three daughters. Benedict, the eldest, died in infancy. The same name was given to the next son. Of the six children, only he and his sister Hannah survived the years of childhood.
Benedict Arnold, the second son above named, and the subject of this notice, was born at Norwich, on the 3d of January, 1740. As his father’s affairs were then in a successful train, it is probable he enjoyed the advantage of as good schools as the town or its vicinity afforded.
For a time he was under the tuition of Dr. Jewett, a teacher of some celebrity at Montville. There is no evidence, however, that his acquirements reached beyond those usually attained in the common schools. While yet a lad he was apprenticed to two gentlemen by the name of Lathrop, who were partners as druggists in a large establishment at Norwich, and alike distinguished for their probity, worth, and the wide extent of their business. Being allied by a distant relationship to the mother of the young apprentice, they felt a personal interest in his welfare, especially as no benefit to him was now to be hoped from the example or guidance of his father.
It was soon made obvious to these gentlemen, that they had neither an agreeable nor an easy task before them. To an innate love of mischief, young Arnold added an obduracy of conscience, a cruelty of disposition, an irritability of temper, and a reckless indifference to the good or ill opinion of others, that left but a slender foundation upon which to erect a system of correct principles or habits. Anecdotes have been preserved illustrative of these traits. One of his earliest amusements was the robbing of birds’ nests, and it was his custom to maim and mangle young birds in sight of the old ones, that he might be diverted by their cries. Near the druggist’s shop was a schoolhouse, and he would scatter in the path broken pieces of glass taken from the crates, by which the children would cut their feet in coming from the school. The cracked and imperfect phials, which came in the crates, were perquisites of the apprentices. Hopkins, a fellow apprentice and an amiable youth, was in the habit of placing his share on the outside of the shop near the door, and permitting the small boys to take them away, who were pleased with this token of his good will. Arnold followed the same practice; but, when he had decoyed the boys, and they were busy in picking up the broken phials, he would rush out of the shop with a horsewhip in his hand, call them thieves, and beat them without mercy. These and similar acts afforded him pleasure. He was likewise fond of rash feats of daring, always foremost in danger, and as fearless as he was wickedly mischievous. Sometimes he took corn to a gristmill in the neighbourhood; and, while waiting for the meal, he would amuse himself and astonish his playmates, by clinging to the arms of a large water-wheel and passing with it beneath and above the water.
Weary of the monotonous duties of the shop, and smitten with the attractions of a military life, he enlisted as a soldier in the army without the knowledge of his friends when he was sixteen years old, and went off with other recruits to Hartford. This caused such deep distress to his mother, that the Reverend Dr. Lord, pastor of the church to which she belonged, and some other persons, took a lively interest in the matter, and succeeded in getting him released and brought back. Not long afterwards he ran away, enlisted a second time, and was stationed at Ticonderoga and different places on the frontiers; but being employed in garrison duty, and subjected to more restraint and discipline than were suited to his restless spirit and unyielding obstinacy, and seeing no prospect of an opportunity for gratifying his ambition and love of bold adventure, he deserted, returned to Norwich, and resumed his former employment. When a British officer passed through the town in pursuit of deserters, his friends, fearing a discovery, secreted him in a cellar till night, and then sent him several miles into the country, where he remained concealed till the officer was gone.
During the whole of his apprenticeship he gave infinite trouble to Dr. Lathrop, in whose family he resided; and his conduct was a source of perpetual anxiety and grief to his mother. He was her only surviving son, her husband was lost to himself and to the world, and it was natural that the maternal hopes and fears of a lady of her sensibility and excellence should be powerfully wrought upon, by such wayward exhibitions of character in one, to whom she was bound by the strongest and tenderest ties, and on whom she relied as the support of her declining years. Borne down with the weight of present affliction, her forebodings of the future must have been melancholy and fearful. Heaven relieved her from the anguish of witnessing her son’s career of ambition without virtue, of glory tarnished with crime, and of depravity ending in infamy and ruin. She died before he reached the age of manhood.
After he had served out his apprenticeship, Arnold left Norwich and commenced business as a druggist in New Haven. He was assisted by his former masters in setting up his new establishment, which at first was on a small scale; but, by his enterprise and activity, his business was extended, and to the occupation of an apothecary he added that of a general merchant. At length he took up the profession of a navigator, shipped horses, cattle, and provisions to the West Indies, and commanded his own vessels. Turbulent, impetuous, presuming, and unprincipled, it was to be expected that he would raise up a host of enemies against him, and be involved in many difficulties. He fought a duel with a Frenchman somewhere in the West Indies, and was engaged in frequent quarrels both at home and abroad. His speculations ended in bankruptcy, and under circumstances, which, in the opinion of the world, left a stain upon his honesty and good faith. He resumed his business, and applied himself to it with his accustomed vigor and resource, and with the same obliquity of moral purpose, hazard, and disregard of public sentiment, that had always marked his conduct.
On one occasion, just after he had returned from a West India voyage, a sailor who had been with him spread a report, that he had smuggled contraband goods and got them ashore without the knowledge of a custom-house officer. Arnold sought out the sailor, beat him severely, and compelled him to leave the town and take a solemn oath, that he would never enter it again. Within two or three days, however, the sailor was found in the streets; and Arnold collected a small party, seized him, and took him to the whipping-post, where about forty lashes were inflicted upon him with a small cord, and he was conducted a second time out of town. The affair was noised abroad, and excited the indignation of the populace. The sailor came back, and the case was submitted to Colonel Wooster and another gentleman, who, as Arnold said in his public vindication, “were of opinion, that the fellow was not whipped too much, and gave him fifty shillings damages only.” He grounded this summary mode of punishment on what he considered the infamous nature of the offence, and its tendency to injure the community by casting suspicion upon honest dealers and obstructing the course of trade.
An exploit is remembered, which was characteristic of his rashness and courage. While driving cattle on board a vessel, which he was freighting for a voyage, a refractory ox refused obedience. He grew furious, ran off, and set his pursuers at defiance. Arnold mounted a fleet horse, overtook the ox, seized the enraged animal by a tender part of the nostrils, and held him in that position till he was subdued and secured.
Arnold’s father died about the time he settled in New Haven, and his sister, Hannah Arnold, being the only remaining individual of the family, joined him at that place. He was early married at New Haven to a lady by the name of Mansfield. They had three sons, Benedict, Richard, and Henry. The first died young in the West Indies. He was a violent, headstrong youth, and it is supposed he came to an untimely end. He had a commission in the British service after the revolution. There is a letter written by Hannah Arnold, in which, after mentioning that this nephew had gone to the West Indies, she says, “He went entirely contrary to the wishes of his father; what has been his fate, God only knows, but my prophetic heart forbodes the worst.” All accounts agree in extolling the accomplishments of this lady, her rare endowments of mind, her refinement, delicacy, and other qualities of female excellence. Several of her letters, which I have seen, fully justify this tribute to her good name, which dwelt on the lips of those that knew her, and which the voice of tradition has perpetuated. Her ardent and unceasing attachment to her brother, at the same time that it proves the depth of her own feelings, may argue the existence of better traits in his domestic character, than would be inferred from his public conduct. His sister was his devoted friend, his adviser, and a watchful guardian over his family and his interests. She adhered to him through good and evil report, and never forsook him, till he proved himself unworthy even of a sister’s love. She lived many years after the war, at one time in Troy on Hudson’s River, and afterwards near York, in Upper Canada, where it is believed she closed her days. Her two nephews, Richard and Henry, resided with her in Troy, and were employed in mercantile affairs. They likewise removed to Canada, where they received lands from the British government. The wife of Arnold died at New Haven about the time that the war began.
CHAPTER II.
He begins his Military Career.—Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
There were in Connecticut two companies of militia called the Governor’s Guards, and organized in conformity to an act of the legislature. One of these companies belonged to New Haven, and in March, 1775, Arnold was chosen to be its commander. This company consisted of fifty-eight men. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached New Haven, the bells were rung, and great excitement prevailed among the people. Moved by a common impulse, they assembled on the green in the centre of the town, where the Captain of the Guards took occasion to harangue the multitude, and, after addressing himself to their patriotic feelings, and rousing their martial spirit by suitable appeals and representations, he proposed to head any number of volunteers that would join him, and march with them immediately to the scene of action. He ended his address by appointing a time and place for all such to meet, and form themselves into a company.
When the hour arrived, sixty volunteers appeared on the ground, belonging mostly to the Guards, with a few students from the College. No time was lost in preparing for their departure, and on the morning of the next day they were ready to march. The company was destitute of ammunition, which the rulers of the town refused to supply, not being satisfied as to the expediency of taking up arms, or of abetting such a movement, without the previous direction or countenance of a higher authority. This was a point, which Arnold was not in the humor to discuss. He drew out his volunteers in martial array, and despatched a message to the Selectmen, stating that, unless the keys of the magazine were delivered to him immediately, he would break it open by force. This threat was effectual, and perhaps it was not reluctantly heeded by the Selectmen themselves, as it afforded an apology for their acquiescence. A sense of responsibility often excites quicker fears, than the distant and uncertain consequences of a rash action. Being thus provided, and participating the ardor of their leader, the company hastened forward by a rapid march to Cambridge, the head-quarters of the troops, who were collecting from various parts to resist any further aggressions from the British army in Boston.
At the same time a few individuals at Hartford, in Connecticut, where the legislature of the colony was then sitting, secretly formed a plan to surprise and capture Ticonderoga. It is probable, that Arnold had received a hint of this project before he left New Haven; for, as soon as he arrived in Cambridge, he waited on the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, and proposed the same scheme, explaining its practicability, portraying in vivid colors the advantages that would result from it, and offering to take the lead of the enterprise, if they would invest him with proper authority, and furnish the means. The committee eagerly embraced his proposal, and on the 3d of May commissioned Benedict Arnold as a colonel in the service of Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of a body of troops not to exceed four hundred, with whom he was to proceed on an expedition to subdue and take Fort Ticonderoga. The men were to be enlisted for this purpose in the western parts of Massachusetts, and the other colonies bordering on those parts. The Colonel was moreover instructed, after taking possession of Ticonderoga, to leave a small garrison there sufficient for its defence, and to bring to Cambridge such of the cannon, mortars, and stores, as he should judge would be serviceable to the army. In the siege of Boston, now begun by the Provincial forces, the cannon and mortars were extremely wanted, and the hope of obtaining them was a principal motive with the Committee for favoring the expedition.
By a vote of the Committee of Safety, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts was likewise desired to supply Colonel Arnold with one hundred pounds in cash, two hundred pounds’ weight of gun-powder, the same quantity of leaden balls, one thousand flints, and ten horses, for the use of the colony. He was authorized to procure stores and provisions for his troops, and to draw on the Committee for the sums expended in the purchase of them.
The temperament of Colonel Arnold admitted no delay after matters had been thus arranged, and he made all haste to the theatre of operations. He arrived at Stockbridge, on the frontier of Massachusetts, within three days of the time of receiving his commission. To his great disappointment he there ascertained, that a party of men from Connecticut had already gone forward, with the design of raising the Green Mountain Boys, and making an assault upon the fortress. The laurels, which he had gathered in anticipation, seemed now to be escaping from his grasp, and he waited not a moment longer on the way than was requisite to engage a few officers to enlist troops and follow him.
A small party of men from Connecticut, and another from Berkshire County under Colonel Easton, had proceeded to Bennington, and joined themselves to Ethan Allen at the head of a still larger number of his mountaineers. They had all marched towards Lake Champlain. Arnold overtook them at Castleton, about twenty-five miles from Ticonderoga. A council of war had just been held, in which the command of the combined forces was assigned to Colonel Ethan Allen, and a plan of operations was fully agreed upon. All things were in readiness for pushing forward the next morning. At this juncture Arnold made his appearance, introduced himself to the officers, drew his commission from his pocket, and in virtue of it claimed the command of the expedition.
This bold assurance in a person, with whom the troops were not acquainted, who had taken no part in calling them together, and who pretended to act under an authority, which none of them recognised, was received with equal astonishment and indignation. Arnold had come accompanied by one attendant only. It is true, there was a small body of volunteers from Massachusetts in the party; but these had turned out under Colonel Easton, at the request of the committee from Connecticut, who superintended the expedition, and by whom all the troops were to be paid. The Green Mountain Boys constituted much the larger portion of the whole number, and they were too warmly attached to their officers, and particularly to their chivalrous leader and early champion, Ethan Allen, to be prevailed upon to move a step further if Arnold’s pretensions were allowed. Confusion and symptoms of mutiny among the men ensued, and seemed to threaten a defeat of the enterprise. For once the discretion of Arnold got the better of his ambition, and he yielded to a necessity, which he could not control. He assented to a compromise, and agreed to join the party as a volunteer, maintaining his rank but exercising no command.
Harmony being restored, the party advanced to Ticonderoga, took the fort by surprise on the morning of the 10th of May, and made the whole garrison prisoners. Ethan Allen, as the commander, entered the fort at the head of his men. Arnold, ever foremost in scenes of danger and feats of courage, assumed the privilege of passing through the gate at his left hand. Thus the love of glory, common to them both, was gratified; and the pride of Arnold was soothed, after the wound it had received by the disappointment of his ambitious hopes.
It soon appeared, however, that the aims of so aspiring and restless a spirit were not to be easily frustrated, and that the conciliatory acquiescence at Castleton was no more than the evidence of a truce, and not the pledge of a permanent peace. A few hours after the surrender of the garrison, Arnold again insisted on taking the command of the post and all the troops, affirming that no other person present was vested with an authority equal to that conferred by his commission. To prevent these fresh seeds of dissension from taking root, the committee from Connecticut interfered, and by a formal written instrument appointed Colonel Allen commandant of Ticonderoga and its dependencies, till further orders should be received from the colony of Connecticut or the Continental Congress. Unsustained by a single voice, and deeming it an idle show of power to issue orders, which no one would obey, Arnold again made a virtue of necessity by submission, contenting himself with a protest, and with sending a catalogue of his grievances to the legislature of Massachusetts.
But it was not in his nature to be idle. Four days after the capture of the fortress, about fifty men, who had been enlisted in compliance with the orders given by him on the road, joined him with two captains at Ticonderoga. These were properly under his command. They came by the way of Skenesborough, and brought forward the schooner taken at that place, which belonged to Major Skene. He manned this vessel, proceeded immediately down the Lake to St. John’s, where he surprised the garrison, taking a sergeant and twelve men prisoners, and captured a King’s sloop with seven men. After destroying five batteaux, seizing four others, and putting on board some of the valuable stores from the fort, he returned to Ticonderoga. Colonel Allen went upon the same expedition with one hundred and fifty men in batteaux from Crown Point, but, as the batteaux moved with less speed than the schooner, he met Arnold returning about fifteen miles from St. John’s.
Thus, within the space of eight days, the once formidable posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, renowned in former wars, with all their dependencies on Lake Champlain, fell into the hands of the Americans. A reinforcement of more than four hundred British and Canadians very shortly afterwards arrived at St. John’s, and it was rumored that water-craft would be brought from Montreal and Chamblee, and an expedition would proceed up the Lake to attack the forts. This gave Arnold an opportunity of separating from Allen. Having some experience in seamanship, he chose to consider himself the commander of the navy on the Lake, consisting of Major Skene’s schooner, the King’s sloop, and a small flotilla of batteaux. With these he left Ticonderoga and took post at Crown Point, resolved there to make a stand and meet the enemy whenever they should approach. The number of his men was now increased to about one hundred and fifty.
His first care was to arm his vessels, having previously commissioned a captain for each. In the sloop he fixed six carriage guns and twelve swivels, and in the schooner four carriage guns and eight swivels. In compliance with the orders of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, which accompanied his commission, he likewise busied himself in sending off some of the cannon and mortars from Crown Point, with the intention that they should be transported by way of Lake George to the army at Cambridge. Abundant supplies of pork and flour were received from Albany, collected and sent forward by the committee of that town.
While these things were in train, letters were written and messages despatched from Ticonderoga to the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Full details of all the proceedings were communicated, in which the conduct of Arnold was set forth in no favorable light. A man’s enemies seldom have the acuteness to discover his merits, or the charity to overlook his faults, and are as little disposed to proclaim the former as to conceal the latter. Arnold’s presumption and arrogance were themes of censure; his zeal and energy in contributing to effect the main objects of the expedition were passed over unnoticed. These representations by degrees impaired the confidence of the Massachusetts legislature in their colonel, and caused them to regard with indifference his complaints and demands.
Another reason, also, operated to the same end. When it was known that Connecticut had gone foremost in the enterprise, and when the doubtful issue of so bold a step was more calmly considered, the government of Massachusetts seemed not reluctant to relinquish both the honor and charge of maintaining the conquered posts. It was finally agreed between the parties, and approved by the Continental Congress, that Connecticut should send up troops, and an officer to take the general command, and that such forces as were on the spot from Massachusetts, or as might afterwards be enlisted for that service, should be under the same officer.
Arnold sent a messenger to Montreal and Caghnawaga, for the purpose of ascertaining the designs of the Canadians and Indians, and the actual force of General Carleton. About the middle of June he wrote to the Continental Congress, communicating all the facts he had obtained, and expressing a conviction that the whole of Canada might be taken with two thousand men. He even proposed a general plan of operations, and offered to head the expedition and be responsible for consequences. It seems he was personally acquainted with the country, and had several friends in Montreal and Quebec, which places he had probably visited in prosecuting his mercantile affairs. Certain persons in Montreal, he said, had agreed to open the gates, as soon as an American force should appear before the city; and he added, that General Carleton had under his command only five hundred and fifty effective men, who were scattered at different posts. Such were his representations, and they were, doubtless, nearly accurate; but Congress were not yet prepared to second his views or approve his counsels.
In the mean time the legislature of Massachusetts delegated three of their number as a committee to proceed to Lake Champlain, and inquire into the state of affairs in that quarter. The members of this committee were instructed to ascertain in what manner Colonel Arnold had executed his commission, and, after acquainting themselves with his “spirit, capacity, and conduct,” they were authorized, should they think proper, to order his immediate return to Massachusetts, that he might render an account of the money, ammunition, and stores, which he had received, and of the debts he had contracted in behalf of the colony. If he remained, he was in any event to be subordinate to Colonel Hinman, the commanding officer from Connecticut. The committee were likewise empowered to regulate other matters, relating to the supplies and arrangements of the Massachusetts troops.
They found Colonel Arnold at Crown Point, acting in the double capacity of commandant of the fortress and admiral of his little fleet, consisting of the armed sloop, schooner, and batteaux, which he had contrived to keep together at that place. At his request, they laid before him a copy of their instructions. It may easily be imagined in what manner these would affect such a temperament as that of Arnold. He was exceedingly indignant, and complained of being treated with injustice and disrespect, in which he was perhaps not entirely in the wrong. He said that he had omitted no efforts to comply with the intentions of the Committee of Safety, signified in their commission to him; that an order to inquire into his conduct, when no charge had been exhibited against him, was unprecedented; that the assumption to judge of his capacity and spirit was an indignity; that this point ought to have been decided before they honored him with their confidence; that he had already paid out of his own pocket for the public service more than one hundred pounds, and contracted debts on his personal credit in procuring necessaries for the army, which he was bound to pay, or leave the post with dishonor; and finally, that he would not submit to the degradation of being superseded by a junior officer. After he had thus enumerated his grievances, and his warmth had a little subsided, he wrote to the committee a formal letter of resignation.
He next discharged the men, who were engaged to serve under him, which was a signal for a new scene of difficulties. Some of them, who had become attached to their leader, espoused his cause, and gave tokens of dissatisfaction, which it may be presumed he would not strive either by persuasion or authority to pacify. The pay of all the troops was in arrears, and the rumor went abroad, that, since the colonel had resigned and the troops were disbanded, their claims would not be received by the government. They began to be turbulent and mutinous; but the committee at last succeeded in quieting them, by assurances that every man should be paid, and by embodying under Colonel Easton all such as chose to reenlist. *
* A more extended account of the capture of Ticonderoga, and the subsequent operations on Lake Champlain may be found in Sparks’s Life of Ethan Allen, contained in the Library of American Biography, Vol. I. pp. 270-288.
Having nothing more to do on the frontiers. Arnold made haste back to Cambridge, where he arrived early in July, uttering audible murmurs of discontent, and complaints of ill treatment against the legislature of Massachusetts. His accounts were allowed and settled, although, if we may judge from the journals, some of his drafts presented from time to time by the holders were met with a reluctance, which indicated doubt and suspicion.
CHAPTER III.
Expedition through the Wilderness to Quebec.
Arnold was now unemployed, but a project was soon set on foot suited to his genius and capacity. General Washington had taken command of the army at Cambridge. The Continental Congress had resolved that an incursion into Canada should be made by the troops under General Schuyler. To facilitate this object, a plan was devised about the middle of August, by the Commander-in-chief and several members of Congress then on a visit to the army during an adjournment of that body, to send an expedition to Quebec through the eastern wilderness, by way of the Kennebec River, which should eventually cooperate with the other party, or cause a diversion of the enemy, that would be favorable to its movements. Arnold was selected to be the conductor of this expedition, and he received from Washington a commission of colonel in the Continental service. The enterprise was bold and perilous, encompassed with untried difficulties, and not less hazardous in its execution, than uncertain as to its results. These features, repelling as they were in themselves, appeared attractive in the eyes of a man, whose aliment was glory, and whose spirit was sanguine, restless, and daring. About eleven hundred effective men were detached and put under his command, being ten companies of musketmen from New England, and three companies of riflemen from Virginia and Pennsylvania. The field-officers, in addition to the chief, were Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Greene, afterwards the hero of Red Bank, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Enos, and Majors Bigelow and Meigs. At the head of the riflemen was Captain Daniel Morgan, renowned in the subsequent annals of the war.
These troops marched from Cambridge to Newburyport, where they embarked on board eleven transports, September 18th, and sailed the next day for the Kennebec River. Three small boats were previously despatched down the coast, to ascertain if any of the enemy’s ships of war or cruisers were in sight. At the end of two days after leaving Newbury port, all the transports had entered the Kennebec, and sailed up the river to the town of Gardiner, without any material accident. Two or three of them had grounded in shoal water, but they were got off uninjured. A company of carpenters had been sent from Cambridge, several days before the detachment left that place, with orders to construct two hundred batteaux at Pittston, on the bank of the river opposite to Gardiner. These were now in readiness, and the men and provisions were transferred to them from the shipping. They all rendezvoused a few miles higher up the river at Fort Western, opposite to the present town of Augusta.
Here the hard struggles, sufferings, and dangers were to begin. Eleven hundred men, with arms, ammunition, and all the apparatus of war, burthened with the provisions for their sustenance and clothing to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, were to pass through a region uninhabited, wild, and desolate, forcing their batteaux against a swift current, and carrying them and their contents on their own shoulders around rapids and cataracts, over craggy precipices, and through morasses, till they should reach the French settlements on the Canada frontiers, a distance of more than two hundred miles.
The commander was not ignorant of the obstacles with which he had to contend. Colonel Montresor, an officer in the British army, had passed over the same route fifteen years before, and written a journal of his tour, an imperfect copy of which had fallen into the hands of Arnold. The remarks of Montresor afforded valuable hints. He came from Quebec, ascending the Rivers Chaudiere and Des Loups, crossing the highlands near the head-waters of the Penobscot, pursuing his way through Moosehead Lake, and entering the Kennebec by its eastern branch. He returned up the western branch, or Dead River, and through Lake Megantic into the Chaudiere. This latter route was to be pursued by the expedition. Intelligence had likewise been derived from several St. Francis Indians, who had recently visited Washington’s camp, and who were familiar with these interior regions. Two persons had been secretly despatched towards Quebec as an exploring party, from whom Arnold received a communication at Fort Western. They had proceeded no farther than the headwaters of the Dead River, being deterred by the extravagant tales of Natanis, called “the last of the Norridgewocks,” who had a cabin in that quarter, and who was then probably in the interest of the enemy, though he joined the Americans in their march. Colonel Arnold had moreover been furnished with a manuscript map and a journal by Mr. Samuel Goodwin of Pownalborough, who had been a resident and surveyor in the Kennebec country for twenty-five years.
From these sources of information Colonel Arnold was as well prepared, as the nature of the case would admit, for the arduous task before him. While the preparations were making at Fort Western for the departure of the army, a small reconnoitring party of six or seven men was sent forward in two birch canoes under the command of Lieutenant Steel, with orders to go as far as Lake Megantic, or Chaudiere Pond as it was sometimes called, and procure such intelligence as they could from the Indians, who were said to be in that neighborhood on a hunting excursion; and also Lieutenant Church with another party of seven men, a surveyor, and guide, to take the exact courses and distances of the Dead River. Next the army began to move in four divisions, each setting off a day before the other, and thus allowing sufficient space between them to prevent any interference in passing up the rapids and around the falls. Morgan went ahead with the riflemen; then came Greene and Bigelow with three companies of musketeers; these were followed by Meigs with four others; and last of all was Enos, who brought up the rear with the three remaining companies.
Having seen all the troops embarked, Arnold followed them in a birch canoe, and pushing forward he passed the whole line at different points, overtaking Morgan’s advanced party the third day at Norridgewock Falls.
At a short distance below these falls, on the eastern bank of the river, was a wide and beautiful plain, once the site of an Indian village, belonging to a tribe from whom the falls took their name, and memorable in the annals of former days as the theatre of a tragical event, in which many of the tribe were slain in a sudden attack, and among them Father Ralle, the venerable and learned missionary, who had dwelt there twenty-six years. The foundations of a church and of an altar in ruins were still visible, the only remaining memorials of a people, whose name was once feared, and of a man who exiled himself from all the enjoyments of civilization to plant the cross in a savage wilderness, and who lost his life in its defence. Let history tell the story as it may, and let it assign such motives as it may for the conduct of the assailants, the heart of him is little to be envied, who can behold unmoved these melancholy vestiges of a race extinct, or pass by the grave of Ralle without a tear of sympathy or a sigh of regret.
But we must not detain the reader upon a theme so foreign from the purpose of our narrative. Justice claimed the tribute of this brief record. At the Norridgewock Falls was a portage, where all the batteaux were to be taken out of the river and transported a mile and a quarter by land. The task was slow and fatiguing. The banks on each side were uneven and rocky. It was found that much of the provisions, particularly the bread, was damaged. The boats had been imperfectly made, and were leaky: the men were unskilled in navigating them, and divers accidents had happened in ascending the rapids. The carpenters were set to work in repairing the most defective boats. This caused a detention, and seven days were expended in getting the whole line of the army around the falls. As soon as the last batteau was launched in the waters above, Arnold betook himself again to his birch canoe with his Indian guide, quickly shot ahead of the rear division, passed the portage at the Carratunc Falls, and in two days arrived at the Great Carrying-place, twelve miles below the junction of the Dead River with the eastern branch of the Kennebec. Here he found the two first divisions of the army.
