Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/141

ARNOLD.ARNOLD. Point, the keys to New York and Canada. He was immediately commissioned as colonel, supplied with money and other accessories, and authorized to raise four hundred men in western Massachusetts for the service.

Learning that another expedition had already started forward on the same errand, he left officers to raise the troops, and, overtaking Col. Ethan Allen's expedition, claimed the command to which he was entitled by his commission. The volunteers refused to serve except under their own leader, and Arnold was forced to cede the point and accompany the "Green Mountain Boys" as a volunteer. He rode with Allen, and on the 10th of May with eighty-three men they took Ticonderoga. On the 14th a detachment of fifty of the men enlisted for Arnold's command arrived, and brought with them a schooner, which they had captured at Skenesborough. Arnold immediately armed this vessel, sailed down the lake, and captured St. John's fort; also a sloop, a number of bateaux, and some valuable stores. He constructed boats to convey the captured guns and stores from the fort to Cambridge, vigorously provided against an expected attack of the British, and was otherwise active and efficient. But his enemies misrepresented him to the Massachusetts legislature, which sent a commission of inquiry into his conduct, and ordered that he should be made subordinate to Colonel Hinman, sent from Connecticut. Arnold immediately resigned his commission, discharged his men, and returned to Cambridge in July, 1775. Here he met Washington, whose confidence and friendship he enjoyed. To Washington he proposed sending troops by way of the Kennebec and the untrodden wilds of Maine, to co-operate with General Schuyler, who was then maturing his plans for the surprise and capture of Quebec. Washington thought well of the enterprise and selected Arnold for its promotion, who left Cambridge with 1,100 men Sept. 11, 1775. Arnold showed admirable capacity as a leader; his personal magnetism and power of inspiring men with enthusiasm was exhibited to an extraordinary degree in this terrible march through the wilderness. An officer in his command thus wrote of him: "Our commander is a gentleman worthy of the trust reposed in him; a man, I believe, of invincible courage, of great prudence; ever serene, he defies the greatest danger to affect him or difficulties to alter his temper; in fine, you will ever find him the intrepid hero and the unruffled Christian." After a two months' march, in which almost incredible hardships were endured, he arrived opposite Quebec, with a half-starved remnant of his army, a third of which had returned to Cambridge with Enos. Nothing daunted, he crossed the closely-guarded river by stealth, and climbed the difficult path to the plains of Abraham. His force was not sufficient to storm the city, and as he could not entice the garrison to make a sortie, he was obliged to await the coming of General Montgomery, immediately on whose arrival with a small corps the attack on Quebec was made, Dec. 31, 1775. Montgomery was killed at the first fire, Arnold was seriously wounded and forced to retreat. General Schuyler, in writing to Washington of the event, says: "Colonel Arnold has great merit. It has been peculiarly unfortunate that one-third of his troops left him. If the whole had been with him when he arrived at Quebec he would probably have had the sole honor of giving that important place to America."

Arnold was promoted by Congress to the rank of brigadier-general, and maintained the blockade of Quebec till the following spring, when he was relieved by General Wooster and given command at Montreal. The Americans, having driven from Canada the British, determined to obtain the supremacy of Lake Champlain. Arnold, who had effected a conjunction with Gates at Ticonderoga, was chosen to superintend the construction of a fleet to aid their designs, and in the encounter which took place between his fleet and that of Sir Guy Carleton near the island of Valcour, Oct. 11, 1776, his bravery and resolute resistance alone prevented the surrender of the defeated Americans to the British, whom he held at bay until night, when they withdrew. The way of escape for the Americans lay through the British lines, and the intrepid Arnold determined to hazard the attempt. The crippled ships, under cover of a heavy mist, passed the hostile lines in safety and reached Schuyler's island, some twelve miles away, where they were compelled to lay-to for repairs. Here they were overtaken by the British. Arnold in the Congress engaged the entire force of the enemy, until his other vessels escaped, when he ran his ship ashore, burned her, and avoiding an Indian ambuscade by taking an unusual route, reached Crown Point in safety. It was the obstinate resistance of Arnold at this time which discouraged Carleton, and caused him to retire into winter quarters at Montreal, thus making it possible for three thousand men to be detached from the northern army and sent to the assistance of Washington, which enabled him to strike his weighty blows at Trenton and at Princeton.

Feb. 19, 1777, Congress appointed five major-generals, all of whom were Arnold's juniors, and none of whom had rendered any conspicuous service to the country. In view of Arnold's distinguished services this was an almost incredible slight, but Arnold, in this more patriotic and magnanimous than some of his fellow officers did not resign, saying, "Every personal