Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: bobebam here. One of the oddest monuments in America is
Speaker 1: the Boot Monument in Saratoga National Park in New York,
Speaker 1: which commemorates, but does not name, a soldier on the
Speaker 1: American side of the Revolution who was wounded and nearly
Speaker 1: lost his leg as he led troops in the defeat
Speaker 1: of the British and the Battle of Saratoga in October
Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy seven. But this isn't a Boot of
Speaker 1: the Unknown Soldier kind of situation. The hero's name was
Speaker 1: left off of the monument for a reason. Benedict Arnold,
Speaker 1: despite his bravery on the battlefield, eventually switched sides and
Speaker 1: became the most infamous trader in American history. After trying
Speaker 1: and failing to hand the Continental fort at West Point
Speaker 1: over to the British, he joined the Royal Army and
Speaker 1: took up arms against the rebellious colonists and even put
Speaker 1: a Connecticut town to the torch. For the article, this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Steve Shinkin,
Speaker 1: the author of an award winning biography for young adult readers.
Speaker 1: Called the Notorious Benedict Arnold a true story of adventure,
Speaker 1: heroism and treachery. He said, there's no other story like Arnold's.
Speaker 1: He was at the absolute top, one of the great
Speaker 1: American heroes, and fell all the way to the bottom,
Speaker 1: a kind of devil figure. And in both cases rise
Speaker 1: and fall, he did it by himself. It's a measure
Speaker 1: of Arnold's infamy that nearly two centuries after his death
Speaker 1: he remained so infamously reviled that Americans still sometimes refer
Speaker 1: to someone viewed as disloyal as a Benedict Arnold. Houstuff
Speaker 1: Works also spoke by email with Eric D. Lemmon, an
Speaker 1: associate professor of English at the University of Bridgeport and
Speaker 1: author of Homegrown Terror, Benedict Arnold and the Burning of
Speaker 1: New London. He said Arnold's case is so disturbing not
Speaker 1: because he decided to back the British, which which many
Speaker 1: others in America did. It's because he was a hero
Speaker 1: to the American side. First, because he had so many
Speaker 1: friends and comrades who fought beside him. To fight beside
Speaker 1: someone and then to switch sides and fight against them
Speaker 1: is anathema to most people. It is so much more
Speaker 1: troubling than the mere political betrayal, and that is why
Speaker 1: it's so incredibly rare, particularly for a general in the army.
Speaker 1: Lemon sees parallels between Arnold and another infamous figure in
Speaker 1: early American history, Aaron Burr, who yes killed Alexander Hamilton
Speaker 1: in a duel, but was also later tried unsuccessfully for
Speaker 1: treason for his role in an ill fated plot to
Speaker 1: lore States to leave the US and join a new empire.
Speaker 1: Lemon said both were competent war heroes who, in one
Speaker 1: way or another, had their careers stalled or ruined by
Speaker 1: their own actions, and then plotted against their perceived enemies
Speaker 1: in the American government. Both had the misperception or a flaw,
Speaker 1: that the government was the name, and when elements in
Speaker 1: that government, in Arnold's case, Congress or in Burr's case,
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson became antagonistic to them, they responded by trying
Speaker 1: to burn the whole thing down. In some ways, Arnold's
Speaker 1: treachery may have been forged by resentment and frustration. Born
Speaker 1: in Norwich, Connecticut, in seventeen forty one, he spent his
Speaker 1: youth preparing to attend Yale, but the bankruptcy of his
Speaker 1: alcoholic father dashed those dreams. He instead apprenticed as an
Speaker 1: apothecary the eighteenth century version of a pharmacy, and served
Speaker 1: in the French and Indian War before settling in New Haven, Connecticut,
Speaker 1: where he built a drug store business and worked as
Speaker 1: a merchant and sea captain, involved in trade with the
Speaker 1: Caribbean and Canada. By the time Arnold was in his
Speaker 1: mid thirties, he had become successful enough to build one
Speaker 1: of the grandest homes in New Haven, but he was
Speaker 1: never quite content. A lemon said, he had great gifts
Speaker 1: of intelligence and physical prowess. He always felt that they
Speaker 1: were being overlooked. He had the sort of prickly personality
Speaker 1: that took offense very easily. He was often threatening to
Speaker 1: quit or to fight a duel with someone who insulted him.
Speaker 1: I would say he was certainly a narcissist, but the
Speaker 1: tragedy is that he could have gone another way. He
Speaker 1: had a lot of people pulling for him, helping him
Speaker 1: and loving him, but he ultimately chose to betray many
Speaker 1: of them. In the spring of seventeen seventy five, Arnold
Speaker 1: was serving as the captain of a local militia in
Speaker 1: new Haven. When the British attacked Lexington in Concord, Arnold
Speaker 1: took some of New Haven's gunpowder supply and headed to
Speaker 1: Massachusetts to join the fight. Early on, Arnold distinguished himself
Speaker 1: as a competent, even gifted military leader, but one who
Speaker 1: frequently became immersed in political squabbles that stymied his rise.
Speaker 1: Arnold got Massachusetts officials to back his plan to capture
Speaker 1: Fort Taekwonderoga in New York so that the rebels could
Speaker 1: seize its eighty or so cannons. But as it turned out,
Speaker 1: Arnold wasn't the only one who wanted that artillery, and
Speaker 1: when he got to New York with his expedition, he
Speaker 1: was compelled to team up with Ethan Allen and his
Speaker 1: Green Mountain Boys. The Americans rode across Lake Champlain from
Speaker 1: what's now Vermont and staged daring late night surprise attack
Speaker 1: to seize the fort. Their success was a major early
Speaker 1: victory in the war. Though Arnold and Alan coled the raid,
Speaker 1: it was Allan who rashly demanded the British render quote
Speaker 1: in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental
Speaker 1: Congress who ended up with more of the credit. But
Speaker 1: Arnold had even bigger ambitions. He pitched the Continental Congress
Speaker 1: and George Washington, the new head of the American forces,
Speaker 1: on a scheme to invade Canada, overwhelmed the few hundred
Speaker 1: troops that the British kept there, and emboldened Canadian colonists
Speaker 1: to join the American cause. A Washington agreed, but appointed
Speaker 1: Major General Richard Montgomery to head the effort and relegated
Speaker 1: Arnold to commanding a small force that made up its
Speaker 1: way through the main wilderness to Quebec City. The New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve assault on the Canadian city turned into a debacle,
Speaker 1: in which Montgomery was killed. Arnold, though severely wounded, managed
Speaker 1: to rally the remaining troops and continue the siege until spring,
Speaker 1: when he was ordered to return home. Arnold went on
Speaker 1: to distinguish himself in September seventeen seventy seven in the
Speaker 1: aforementioned Battle of Saratoga. He quarreled with Major General Horatio Gates,
Speaker 1: his commander, who tried to keep him back at headquarters
Speaker 1: as a punishment, but Arnold eventually ignored his orders and
Speaker 1: rode his horse to the front, where he led a
Speaker 1: charge that outflanked a force of German mercenaries. During the fighting,
Speaker 1: Arnold was shot and a bullet killed his horse and
Speaker 1: caused it to fall on him, crushing the leg had
Speaker 1: injured in Quebec. He had to be carried off the
Speaker 1: field and walked with a limp for the rest of
Speaker 1: his life. Arnold's courage had helped the Americans win a
Speaker 1: crucial victory, but again he didn't get the credit or
Speaker 1: position he felt he deserved. Instead, in July seventeen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Washington put Arnold in charge of the city of Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: which the British had abandoned kept out of action. Arnold
Speaker 1: married the young daughter of a local judge, Peggy Shippen,
Speaker 1: and the couple lived in extravagant lifestyle that was beyond
Speaker 1: an American general's means. Congress refused to pay some of
Speaker 1: his expense vouchers, and eventually, in June of seventeen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: he was court martialed on charges of corruption. Although Arnold
Speaker 1: eventually was acquitted, the humiliation might have been the final straw.
Speaker 1: Even before the trial began, he secretly reached out to
Speaker 1: the British and began communicating with British spy Major John
Speaker 1: Andre through coded correspondence. Meanwhile, Arnold asked to be reassigned
Speaker 1: to West Point, the fort that served as Washington's headquarters.
Speaker 1: In September of seventeen eighty he met with Andre at
Speaker 1: a house near the Hudson River and hatched a plot
Speaker 1: to hand the fort over to the British in exchange
Speaker 1: for command in the Royal Army and twenty thousand British
Speaker 1: pounds that's worth something like four million pounds today or
Speaker 1: about five million US dollars. But once again Arnold was
Speaker 1: foiled by fate. Before John Andre could make his way
Speaker 1: back into British held territory, he was captured by American militiamen.
Speaker 1: When Arnold heard the news, he managed to escape on
Speaker 1: the Hudson in a British ship, the Vulture. Before he
Speaker 1: could be arrested. From on board, Arnold wrote a letter
Speaker 1: to Washington complaining of the quote ingratitude of my country
Speaker 1: and asking that his former superior protect Arnold's wife. He wrote,
Speaker 1: it ought only to fall on me, and Arnold was
Speaker 1: about to get even further into the thick of it.
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty one, having become a British officer. He
Speaker 1: ordered his troops to burn the town of New London
Speaker 1: in Connecticut, just ten miles away from where he was
Speaker 1: born and raised. That's around fifteen kilometers. This action was
Speaker 1: ostensibly meant to punish private who operated out of New
Speaker 1: London for capturing a British merchant ship. Arnold's forces torched
Speaker 1: some one hundred and forty buildings, including residence homes, and
Speaker 1: after capturing the fort overlooking the town's harbor, slaughtered eighty
Speaker 1: American militiamen who had already surrendered. Lemon said, I think
Speaker 1: that once Arnold made the choice to go over to
Speaker 1: the British, he knew he had to succeed, and he
Speaker 1: was willing to do anything to make that happen. That's
Speaker 1: a dangerous place to be in for anyone, and it
Speaker 1: led him to a very dark place. In December of
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty one, Arnold and his wife and children went
Speaker 1: to live in London, England, supported in part by a
Speaker 1: portion of the fee had been guaranteed for the failed
Speaker 1: West Point plot. After America's Revolutionary War was over, he
Speaker 1: moved to Canada and tried to revive his career as
Speaker 1: a merchant but his fortune was mostly gone by the
Speaker 1: time he died in eighteen oh one. Shankin said, this
Speaker 1: is a classic rise in falset. We see them over
Speaker 1: and over, and of course it's usually some character flaw
Speaker 1: that brings the hero down. That's not just in fiction
Speaker 1: and theater. And that's happened throughout history and we'll continue
Speaker 1: to happen. It's a dynamic and in some ways sympathetic story.
Speaker 1: But to this day, in New London, the city Arnold torched,
Speaker 1: local residents return the favor by burning an effigy of
Speaker 1: him each September. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: how did Benedict Arnold Become America's Most Infamous Trader? On
Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot Com written by Patrick J. Kyder. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of my Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.