Benedict Arnold, American Traitor (Part Two)

Benedict Arnold is the ultimate American traitor, his life was actually much more complicated Peggy Shippen, sketched by John Andre During the British occupation, Peggy Shippen interacted closely with several British officers and enjoyed a flirtation with Major John Andre, a member of British commander Sir Henry Clinton’s staff.  Peggy continued to communicate with Andre after the British retreat from Philadelphia and when the British officer was appointed to head Clinton’s intelligence efforts, the Arnolds exploited this connection. John Andre On Arnold’s behalf, A Philadelphia loyalist named Joseph Stansbury covertly met personally with Andre in New York City  and established ground rules for communication by letter involving secret code and invisible ink.  Throughout 1779 Arnold provided Andre and Sir Henry Clinton information about troop movements.  When he began to request large sums of money for his defection, Andre made it clear that this must involve the surrender of a major army or military installation. John Andre, self portrait the day of his execution At noon on October 2, 1780, when he was conveyed to a peach orchard in Tappan, NY, nearby the stone house where he was confined, John Andre was greeted by a gathering of over two thousand people.  By then, his story had gripped the public imagination.  Accounts of the British officer toasting his captors and insisting that they remain in good cheer and sending a distraught servant from his presence “until you can show yourself more manly,” had only endeared him further as a tragic hero merely doing his duty.  Andre, a gifted artist, blithely sketched a self-portrait on the day before his execution and as he walked briskly to the gallows he is said to have only hesitated when he saw that he was to be hanged and not shot. Idealized version of Andre's capture Although the three men who detained John Andre, John Paulding, Isaac Van Wert and Daniel Williams have entered the history books as heroes of the Revolution, they were in fact thugs operating in the shadow of British lines, intent on robbing any loyalists who happened into their midst.  When Andre approached their hiding place near what is now the Tarrytown Sleepy Hollow border the three suddenly darted out onto the road and detained Andre at musket point.  Andre, confused by Paulding’s Hessian coat worn to facilitate an escape from a British jail in New York City only days earlier, believed that he had to be way beyond British lines.  He blurted out that he was a British officer and was glad to be among friends.  Informed roughly that he was among Americans, Andre tried to backtrack and protest that he was actually on official business from General Arnold and presented his pass.  Aggressively intent on money, his three captors ignored Andre’s threats of Arnold’s retribution and forced him into the woods.  Correctly understanding that he was a British officer, they insisted that he must have valuables, stripped him naked and found only his gold watch and a few continental dollars that Smith had given him. Leaving Andre wearing only his boots they even ripped apart his coat and his saddle in search of cash.  Convinced it had to be somewhere they finally forced him to take off his footwear, revealing the folded papers in one of his stockings.  Only Paulding was barely literate but he quickly deduced that Andre was a spy. Hanging of John Andre Although Washington conducted a brief negotiation with Henry Clinton, the price he demanded for Andre’s freedom was impossible to meet.  Arnold for Andre, a trade that would have contradicted British military regulations regarding deserters.  Clinton refused, also having personally guaranteed Arnold’s safety if the plot failed, but asked for a postponement to allow for an official meeting in which the case could be reviewed.  Clinton also enlisted Benedict Arnold to compose a letter threatening Washington with retribution against the numerous captives under British control.  By the time this letter was delivered, Andre’s fate had been sealed.  Although his hand is said by observers to have been shaking, George Washington personally signed the order for John Andre’s execution for ”treason against the United States.”  He refused Andre’s last request that he be shot by firing squad.  Washington reasoned that Andre was a spy and spies are to be hanged and he did not want to appear to be softening during one of the darkest periods of the Revolution. Peggy Shippen and daughter, painted after she fled to England But, probably realizing that he was going nowhere in Britain, Arnold purchased a ship and attempted to rebuild the trading business that he successfully conducted before the revolution.  He downsized his household, left his wife and family in London and moved to St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.  Spending much of his time at sea, Arnold had several business conflicts, was involved in a suspicious warehouse fire and even fathered an illegitimate son.  His unpopularity was such that he decided to sell all of his holdings in 1791 and return to London. Possibly ironic inscription on Arnold's last London address The last five years of Arnold’s life were a dreary existence in which his health failed, his eldest son died during military service in Jamaica and his only daughter suffered a stroke that left her an invalid.  His wife also was greatly affected by her social isolation and while she remained with her husband and handled his business affairs, her letters indicate a household permeated with economic uncertainty and despair. The London tombstone of Benedict Arnold Although a plaque in the basement of tiny St. Mary’s Church in Battersea, London memorializes Arnold, his wife and daughter, in fact Arnold’s remains lie unidentified in a common grave that resulted from a renovation of the church over a century later.  The stone tablet was actually donated in 2004 by an American who felt that Arnold’s initial achievements in the Revolution were not properly acknowledged.  Its basement location is currently occasionally used as a parish kindergarten so the memorial shares space with various children’s drawings and a fish tank.  So obscure is this monument that it can only be viewed by special appointment, a legacy in keeping with Benedict Arnold’s all consuming personal bitterness.