Benedict Arnold. A biography/2

When the War broke out, Arnold was just thirty-five years old. His residence was on Water street, near the shipyard; and within a few years his house was still standing. At this time he was Captain of a military company called the Governor's Guards. The news of the skirmish at Lexington reached New Haven about noon. Capt. Arnold at once called out his company, and proposed to them, while drawn up on the public green, to go on to Boston with him and take part in the fighting there. More than forty out of the entire number, which was fifty-eight, consented to go. But they had no ammunition. That was a serious obstacle indeed. There was a quantity stored in the town powder-house, of which Arnold of course knew. The selectmen of the town were in session the next day, to consider what was best to be done in view of the outbreak at Lexington. While they were in session. Arnold, who had already drawn up the men who had volunteered to follow him to Lexington, put himself at their head and marched forthwith to the house in which they were assembled. He formed the company in front of the house, and proceeded at once to summary measures. He sent in word to the selectmen, that unless the key of the powder-house was delivered up within five minutes, he would give orders to his men to break open the building and help themselves to the contents. The threat produced exactly the effect he desired. The key was surrendered, and a sufficient supply of powder was dealt out. Arnold set off for Cambridge with his company without delay. On the second night of their march, they reached the town of Wethersfield, where the people received them with every demonstration of delight, and offered them all possible attention. The legislature of Connecticut was in session at that time in Hartford, and certain persons were talking up a bold project among themselves, for which they hoped to obtain the favor of that body, to march a force up through the country to Fort Ticonderoga, and suddenly wrest that fortress from the hands of the British. The moment Arnold caught the whispered hint, he was impatient to share the glory which such an expedition, if successful, would be certain to bring. So that as soon as he arrived at Cambridge with his handsomely uniformed company, he laid the plan before the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, as if it were altogether original with himself; and went on to show them how easy it would be to carry it out. He set forth his design with all the enthusiasm of his easily moved nature. He showed to the Committee the splendor of such an achievement, and described in glowing terms the electric effect it would produce on the dejected heart of the country. The expedition was painted in the warmest colors, laid on with a lavish hand. And at the close of his remarks, he declared that he would freely undertake to do all this himself, if they would only furnish him with the necessary means. They accepted his proposal with eagerness; and gave him a commission with the title of Colonel, with authority to enlist not to exceed four hundred soldiers in the western part of Massachusetts, and wherever else along the line he might be able. Accordingly, on the 3d day of May, 1775, Benedict Arnold assumed his new command. Meantime, the Connecticut men already spoken of had been active in carrying forward their plans, and had already started off up the valley of the Connecticut on the projected expedition. They had got the Green Mountain Boys, with the famous Ethan Allen at their head, to join them. The Connecticut legislature voted them a thousand dollars to begin with, although its aid was still kept a secret from the public at large, for prudent reasons. When this party left for Castleton, in Vermont, they numbered two hundred and seventy men. Allen was placed at their head, by a vote of a council of war. The whole body was then divided up into three commands, each one of which was to take a different route, and finally arrive before Ticonderoga at the same time with the others. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety furnished Arnold with an outfit of a hundred pounds in money, two hundred pounds' weight each of powder and lead balls, a thousand flints, and ten horses. They likewise gave him authority to draw on them for a sufficient amount to furnish stores and supplies for his troops by the way. He reached Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, and there learned to his dismay that the Connecticut party was before him. Col. Easton had collected a force of some forty men in Berkshire, and marched on to Bennington, and there joined Ethan Allen. Arnold was in a fury of impatience at receiving this most unexpected intelligence. He now saw his coveted laurels plucked from his brow, and his honors suddenly withered like autumn leaves by a frost. He did not pause long to consider, and certainly he would have been the last living man to turn back because others were before. Accordingly, he left his men to follow after at their own convenient pace, and himself pushed on after the expedition at the top of his speed. At Castleton he came up with the whole of them. There he proceeded to make the first exhibition of his real character. Taking the piece of parchment from his pocket upon which his commission was written, he exhibited it to the officers of the other expedition with an air of haughty triumph, and claimed the right to exercise supreme authority over the entire body himself, by virtue of his title. This was a sorry occurrence, to begin with. The Green Mountain Boys never would have served in any undertaking of the kind, unless they could have been allowed to do so under their favorite commander, Ethan Allen. The men collected from Connecticut, as well as those under Col. Easton, were secretly in the pay of the Connecticut Assembly, and of course refused to obey any directions but such as were received, first and last, from the Legislature itself. And for a time it was feared that the enterprise might fall through altogether, just from an unhappy division of counsels and an irritated state of feeling. But Arnold saw at a glance how the matter stood, and thought best to control his ardor. Had he persisted in his claims, it is very certain he could not have distinguished himself as he did. He made up his mind, therefore, to join the expedition as a volunteer, though he insisted still on retaining his rank and title of Colonel. As such, his services were accepted, and they all went off towards the lake in the three squads just mentioned. The division under Allen arrived at Shoreham, a little village opposite Ticonderoga, in the night time. This was on the tenth day of May. As it happened, the division which was to have captured certain boats at Skenesboro', on the lake, had not yet sent down their boats to Shoreham, as expected, and how to proceed was a truly puzzling problem. There were only eighty-three men with Allen, in all; and to assail an armed fortress like Ticonderoga with a puny force like this, seemed hardly less than madness. Yet it was more dangerous still to remain there idle. Nothing could come of waiting but increased hazard. Allen accordingly procured the services of a young lad in the neighborhood, named Nathan Beman; his father was an honest and patriotic farmer, and was glad to do the party a favor. This little boy had been in the habit of crossing the lake and playing about the fortress with the other lads who belonged within its walls, and by this means had grown familiar with every secret passage and winding way there was about the place. Allen wanted him to go along as a guide. They crossed the lake in such boats as were at hand, dipping their oars silently in the water as they went. It was necessary to save every moment now, for the gray of early morning was just beginning to show itself in the east In good time, however, they reached the opposite shore, where they were drawn up noiselessly in three ranks. Allen now walked rapidly up and down the line, talking to them with a great deal of energy, but in low and earnest whispers. He then called Arnold to his side, and started off at the head of his followers at a quick pace for the fortress before him. It was a bold step, and few men would have dared to take it. But Ethan Allen was a bold man, and one just suited to an emergency of such a character. With the lad to show them the way, they soon came to the sally-port, through which they entered. A sentinel, who was thunderstruck by what he saw, hastily snapped his fusee at Allen, but fortunately it missed fire, and he ran off through a covered way within the fort. Rushing on close behind him, the assailants pushed their way to the parade within the barracks, where they at once found themselves masters. The garrison were of course aroused from their sleep by the loud shoutings and hallooings of the victorious party, and sprang from their beds in a state of great alarm. But as fast as they made their appearance at the doors of the barracks, they were seized by the enthusiastic party of besiegers and made prisoners. Allen told the boy, Beman, to show him the way to the door of the commander's room, Col. Delaplace. In an instant he sprang up the steps and thundered away upon the door with the hilt of his heavy sword. He shouted out to him that he must get up and come to the door at once, or the whole garrison would be sacrificed. Col. Delaplace chanced to have been awakened by the noise of the Americans when they first sent up their shouts in the parade; and he and his young wife hurried out of bed and were all ready to open the door the moment Allen made his startling demand. Both commanders were old friends. As soon as Col. William Delaplace, therefore, could manage to see by the aid of an unsteady light who it was that had so boldly disturbed his slumbers, he rather presumed upon his former acquaintance, and asked Allen in a tone of authority why he was there at such a time of night, and what he wanted. Allen replied, glancing significantly at the men he commanded, "I order you to surrender this fort instantly!" "By what authority do you demand it?" returned Delaplace. "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" answered Allen, in tones that reverberated through the place. Delaplace was on the point of saying something further; but Allen impetuously raised his sword over his head, and ordered him, in a voice whose temper he dared not lightly regard, to keep silence and surrender the fortress at once. Delaplace gave directions to the entire garrison, which consisted of only forty-eight men, to parade without their arms, and gave up everything into the hands of his courageous conqueror. The demand of Allen seemed quite preposterous, since the "Continental Congress" by whose authority he claimed to speak had never met as yet, and did not meet until ten o'clock on that very same day. But the phrase sounded grandly enough for him, and no doubt assisted in striking terror to the heart of the surprised commander of the fortress. The spoils which thus fell into the hands of the Americans, consisted of one hundred and twenty pieces of iron cannon, fifty swivels, two ten-inch mortars, one howitzer, one cohorn, ten tons of musket balls, three cart-loads of flints, thirty new carriages, a considerable quantity of shells, a warehouse filled with materials for boat building, one hundred stand of small arms, ten casks of powder not worth a great deal, two brass cannons, eighteen barrels of pork, thirty barrels of flour, together with a quantity of beans and peas. The garrison were sent, with the women and children, as prisoners of war to Hartford, in Connecticut. But the fortress of Ticonderoga was not surrendered many hours, before the unquiet spirit of Arnold began to hatch further mischief. His pride was for the moment soothed by Allen's asking him to enter the fort side by side with himself; but as soon as the victory was secured, he thought it was a barren triumph for him indeed. He held no authority, and was regarded by none of the men as their commander. To such a situation he did not intend to submit, especially when he thought of the parchment commission in his pocket, and the powers which had been entrusted to him by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. It is needless also to say, that, as human nature is generally made up, there are few men who could have brought themselves tamely to acquiesce in what Arnold thought, in his own case, was a sort of conspiracy against him. And his native perverseness of temper came in to aggravate the wound which his feelings received, and made it much more difficult for him to be reconciled. He therefore set up his authority within the fortress as the commander, and began to issue his orders to the men. But his chagrin and rage were excessive, to find that none of them were obeyed, or, in fact, paid any attention to. The Connecticut Committee held a council and went through a formal election; choosing Ethan Allen their commander, and delegating to him supreme authority over the fortress and its dependencies. They also requested Allen to remain where he was until they could hear again from the Connecticut Legislature, or perhaps from the "Continental Congress" in whose name Allen had demanded the surrender. The Committee declared that this undertaking was one purely their own; they had first conceived the plan, and afterwards first set it on foot. They added that the men who were raised in Massachusetts were in the pay of the Connecticut Legislature, as well as themselves; and that Arnold, by joining them as he did merely as a volunteer, conceded that his parchment commission gave him no authority as an officer over any part of the expedition. The result of the misunderstanding was, Arnold sent a narrative of his wrongs to the Massachusetts Legislature, under whose patronage alone he claimed to act; and the Committee from Connecticut sent their statement directly after his to the same body. The Massachusetts Legislature thought the matter over, and finally concluded that, as long as the other party had entered upon the undertaking first, they would relinquish all claims, and so remove every obstacle to the harmony which was certainly so much to be desired. They therefore sent a message to Arnold, directing him not to attempt to assume any authority there on the strength of their support, but to aid in the enterprises in that locality to the best of his ability. He yielded in silence once more, and became no more a commander than any of the rest of the soldiers about him. But in a few days he saw his opportunity come again. About fifty recruits, whom his captains had drummed up in Western Massachusetts, reached Ticonderoga, and placed themselves under him according to the conditions of their enlistment. These men were in the pay of Massachusetts, as the others were in the pay of Connecticut. They came on to Ticonderoga by way of Skenesboro', bringing with them the vessel that had been captured from Major Skene, of that village. Arnold did not wait a moment to put himself on board this little vessel with the men who were now properly under him, and sailed at once down the lake to St. John's, where was a British sloop-of-war, which he captured with a mere handful of his own men, and also surprised the garrison and captured the fort. He burned several bateaux, and, taking four others, loaded them with provisions from the fort, and proceeded up the lake again with his trophies to Ticonderoga. Allen started off on the same expedition; but Arnold was anxious to distinguish himself, and hurried matters forward with the greatest speed; so that when he was on his return in triumph up the lake, that triumph became doubly sweet to him from fortunately meeting Allen and his hundred and fifty men coming slowly along on the very same errand of war. Lake Champlain, therefore, with its forts and strongholds, came all at once into the control of the Americans. The whole work was accomplished in little more than a week. The capture of two renowned strong-holds like Ticonderoga and Crown Point, was an event worthy of special commemoration all over the country; and that it soon received at the hands of an astonished and admiring people. Just then came a story that the British and loyal Canadians were forming in the vicinity of St. John's, with the intention of coming up the lake in their boats and making an attempt to retake the lost forts. This news was almost exactly what Arnold was waiting for, as he thus had an excuse for separating himself and his little force from Allen, and setting up the business of war rather more on his own account. He therefore hastened to improve the opportunity by taking personal command of the two vessels, the schooner captured at Skenesboro', and the sloop-of-war captured at St. John's, and, joining with them the several bateaux that had likewise been taken, he styled himself the naval commander of the lake, and put out upon the water. His previous experience on board his own vessels between New Haven and the West Indies gave him considerable advantage in this capacity, and he showed himself familiar enough with the manouvring and working of small water craft to really deserve the title and place which he had so eagerly assumed. Once out by himself upon the water, he sailed for Crown Point with the determination to make a stand there and receive the enemy from above. He had at this time some hundred and fifty men under him. Arriving before this other fortress, he proceeded to arm his little fleet with the guns which he took from the same, placing on board the schooner four carriage guns and eight swivels, and on board the sloop six carriage guns and twelve swivels; and he then appointed a commander to each vessel, with the usual title of captain. Thus he busied himself for some time in preparations for the enemy's coming. The cannon, mortars, and stores, which were captured from the British, he got ready to send off to Cambridge to the army, where such things were greatly in demand. At Albany, large quantities of flour and pork were received, and sent forward according to his directions. This was one of the terms on which, in fact, he procured his commission from the Massachusetts Committee. But even had an opportunity offered for action on his part, he would have been deprived of the privilege of distinguishing himself in consequence of the representations that were now freely sent on to the Connecticut and Massachusetts Legislatures. The former body, in order to heal all divisions, appointed Col. Hinman to the command of their troops around the fortresses, while the latter, not altogether satisfied with the way in which Arnold was represented to have employed his authority, despatched a committee to Lake Champlain to inquire into the troubles that had arisen there, and to report exactly how matters stood. Their instructions also were to investigate Arnold's "spirit, capacity, and conduct," and, if thought necessary, to send him back to Cambridge to give an account of his doings at head-quarters. Now for a man already invested with a colonel's commission, as Arnold was, to be weighed and measured by men whom he did not, and could not recognize as his superiors, holding no rank whatever of their own, and by the very nature of their errand casting suspicion on himself and his own character, it is a rather hard thing, it will be confessed on all sides. It is very certain, too, that the letters which had been forwarded by those whom he had alienated by his arrogant manner, had taken pains to set forth the worst points of his conduct, and in the worst possible light. In their eagerness to express their entire dislike of what they thought a high-handed assumption on his part, they went to the other extreme, and forgot even how to be fair and just. It is human nature now, and we can readily believe it was human nature then. But before this Committee of Inquiry came upon the ground to do the work on which they were sent, Arnold had been busy in still another way. Having the advantage of a personal acquaintance in certain parts of Canada, and especially in Montreal, he privately despatched parties to the latter city to serve him as spies and bring back information of the British forces in that quarter. The latter were under the command of General, or Governor Carleton. The result of these investigations he forwarded to Congress as soon as they reached him, and in laying this intelligence before that body, he most urgently set forth the possibility of capturing the whole of Canada with a single effort. He said it could be done with so small a force as two thousand men, and volunteered to put himself at the head of such an expedition and be responsible in his own person for the result. He wrote to Congress that he well knew both Montreal and Quebec, having previously carried on commercial business with persons residing in those two cities; these latter had given him the information he had desired so much. He further represented to Congress that there were less than six hundred fighting men at Montreal under Carleton at that time, and they very much scattered among the various posts thereabout; likewise that certain parties in Montreal, whom he knew, and on whom he could rely, had engaged to throw open the gates of the city to the Americans whenever they should make their appearance. It is told that these representations of Arnold were quite reliable. He knew very well, it is said, what he was talking about. But Congress hesitated; perhaps because the requisite number of men were not to be had as soon as desired. Enough was pressing upon their attention, in the troubles that were going forward at Boston and the country around. Men and means were not to be had so easily, especially the latter. If this proposal of Arnold had been acted upon at that time, however, there is no telling what a new face it might suddenly have put on the character and results of the war just begun. As soon as the Massachusetts Committee came upon the ground to begin their inquiry and investigations, Arnold's temper underwent a change. It has already been shown, too, how natural it was that it should. He was a bold and brave volunteer, even if he was an ambitious and impetuous one, and was serving the common cause; and while engaged in that service, with the proper title and authority in his pocket, he was visited by a Committee of men who pulled out their certificates, and informed him that they had been sent on to look into his conduct and capacity. He could not bear such a thought with patience; few men of spirit would have borne it; he gave loose to his passion, and denounced with fury and indignation the men who sought thus to hold him up to public scorn, declaring that he would submit to no such insults, and that he would continue no longer in any such service. He spoke of his services already, and what they had cost him; of how much he had expended of his own private means, in order to help on this very enterprise upon the shores of the lake; of his great surprise that he should at first be the recipient of the confidence of the Massachusetts Committee, and that afterwards they should send out men to look into the matter and report if he had skill and capacity; and finally, of his indignation that they should have the effrontery to place him now under the command of an inferior officer, which they did by directing him to obey the orders thereafter of Col. Hinman, of Connecticut. With this explosion, he at once forwarded a letter to Cambridge, enclosing his resignation. Then he proceeded to discharge the men who had volunteered to serve under him. This last step made a good deal of trouble for the time, as perhaps he meant it should. For the men under him shared the feelings of their brave commander, and did and said all they could to increase the perplexity. Their pay was behind, and so was that of the other troops; and having thrown out that it would not be remitted to them at all, a scene of confusion and disorder began to show itself which it took all the art and address of the Committee alluded to, to quell. The latter assured the troops of Arnold that they should certainly be paid in good time, and finally succeeded even in inducing the most of them to enroll themselves under Col. Easton, who already had in his command the body of the men from Western Massachusetts, that originally joined the Connecticut troops and Allen's forces in Vermont. Thus thrown out of command, and thoroughly disappointed in his plans, he quitted the region and went back to the American camp in Cambridge. He complained at head-quarters, however, bitterly. Nothing could exceed the intensity of his rage at the course pursued by the legislature of Massachusetts.