It’s Time to Cut Benedict Arnold Some Slack

In the United States, his name is synonymous with betrayal, backstabbing, and treason: Benedict Arnold, a man who might have gone down in history as one of America’s greatest heroes, is remembered instead as a traitor, with only an unnamed boot statue to honor his contributions. 

To this day, naming a child “Benedict” in the United States just feels shameful on a level with “Judas,” “Adolf,” and “Jody,” a name-shame so harsh, even Benedict Cumberbatch couldn’t rehabilitate it.

While he certainly deserves the ire and disrespect that comes with being a traitor, the coat he turned was hardly the worst thing anyone on the American side of the Revolution (or any U.S. war) ever did. So why do we tend to remember him as the worst? Because he was one of the most (if not the only) competent and consequential leaders of the rebellion? Because he did it to George Washington? Or because he came back in the enemy’s uniform? 

Even if it was any or all of those reasons, there were more and worse criminals and opportunists than Arnold, men who did far less for the cause. Those were men who were also incompetent or cowardly, and no one would ever accuse Benedict Arnold of either of those things. 

With that in mind, it’s time to stop being so dramatic. Refusing to speak his name like a scorned lover in a telenovela is peak petty. Besides, your favorite heroes of the Revolution are partly to blame for his downfall (who also engaged in some questionable war profiteering). Without Benedict Arnold, we would probably still be drinking tea and eating eels right now. 

For any foreigners or Americans who somehow missed being indoctrinated to believe Benedict Arnold was the colonial era’s 9/11, our erstwhile hero was caught trying to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British for 20,000 pounds ($3.5 million today) which was no paltry sum at the time, and would have saved us from more than a hundred Army-Navy Games.

The fort was critical because it dominated the entrance to the Hudson River, preventing British ships from sailing inland and cutting the Patriot forces in two. Had he succeeded, the entire Revolution might have been in jeopardy, and George Washington himself might have been captured.

And yet, all the signs were all there. Upon taking command at West Point, he began liquidating his American assets and transferring cash to London. He let the fort’s defenses fall into disuse. He stopped repairs and lent out the troops stationed there. He was never able to sell out the fort, though. A meeting with Maj. John Andre, his British spy handler, went awry and Andre was captured and outed by patriot spies. Arnold learned about Andre’s capture the morning he was supposed to meet Washington.

Instead of that, he high-tailed it to the British, who made him the commander of the American Legion. 

It was a scummy thing to do, for sure, but resentment had been building inside Arnold for a long time. He had been instrumental in most of the important battles in the first three years of the Revolution. He was part of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, whose guns were used to kick the British out of Boston, and secured a waterway that ran from Montreal to New York. Then Arnold went and captured the only British warship on Lake Champlain, securing the lake, and then used it to take Crown Point. He would build another fleet of ships to fight the British on Lake Champlain in 1776, buying time for the American defenders of Ticonderoga. 

The U.S. Navy probably doesn’t like to highlight that its first commander was Benedict Arnold, but the thing we don’t realize (because history books love to hate this guy) is that he was probably the best thing America had going for it. John Adams even compared him to Julius Caesar in a letter to Abigail and lobbied for a medal to be named after him. And yet, we let him slip away to the other side. In a way, we should be lamenting the loss of a once-great patriot to our American lore.

Benedict Arnold was wounded, cash poor, and passed over, and still a soldier’s soldier. Arnold’s left leg was shattered in Quebec because he led from the front and was often the last American to leave a position during any kind of retreat. He later kicked the shit out of British regulars in Connecticut using only militia, broke the Siege of Fort Stanwix using a ruse, and was critical to the American victories at Saratoga. Those victories convinced France to enter the war, which the U.S. would have likely lost without French intervention. 

Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys get a lot of credit for Fort Ticonderoga, and rightly so – they provided the manpower – but they were kind of a rabble (who were very concerned with the liquor in the fort). Benedict Arnold provided the actual leadership that captured Ticonderoga, and when Allen’s men were done, everything else was the result of Arnold’s initiative. 

When it came time to report in, Allen and James Easton (Allen’s lieutenant) downplayed Arnold's role, which is still downplayed today. After all that effort, Massachusetts sent some clown to take command of what Arnold worked and fought for. So he resigned and went home – where he learned his wife had died. 

Arnold wasn’t one of the aristocratic class, but when it came time for promotions, he expected his actions to earn him a major general’s rank. But he was passed over in favor of lesser leaders for political reasons, despite a recommendation from George Washington himself. Washington even wrote to Congress questioning how Arnold could be passed over.

It’s true that Benedict Arnold didn’t get along well with his fellow officers, but he likely suffered terrible PTSD from all the action he’d seen, not to mention the constant pain in his leg from multiple wounds and a botched procedure that resulted in one leg being shorter than the other. 

None of these facts can excuse his plan to sell West Point, of course. But put yourself in his shoes: Arnold had repeatedly wiped the floor with the British, and while he was out winning the war, five lesser officers got promoted over his head, none of whom had the combat ability or experience. They were:

• William Alexander, who spent most of the war as a POW.

• Thomas Mifflin, who stole from his own troops.

• Arthur St. Clair, court-martialed for not even trying to defend Fort Ticonderoga.

• Benjamin Lincoln, who had much less combat experience.

• Adam Stephen, court-martialed for being drunk during the Battle of Germantown.

This was a public slap in the face for a leader like Arnold, who was considered a living legend at the time. He had poured his personal wealth (which was much more modest than that of other generals) into the war, put his body on the line, and was repeatedly harassed by envious men like Horatio Gates and James Wilkinson, men who were not willing to go into battle the way he did. It’s like the officers who wrote their own bronze star packages getting a fourth star over Chesty Puller (who never got a fourth star, by the way).

The Revolutionary War is full of scummy heroes we still celebrate for some reason. Samuel Chase, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, monopolized flour during the war, driving the price up while the Continental Army starved. Thomas Paine, of “Common Sense” fame, would later publicly deride George Washington. While serving as Quartermaster General, Thomas Mifflin (who was promoted over Arnold) diverted supplies from the troops at Valley Forge to his own businesses for a profit and later tried to oust Washington. These are just a few examples of scummy figures we remember fondly who contributed far less to the American victory.

Writing Benedict Arnold out of the war's history means elevating lesser men who could only take credit for actions they could never have done on their own. This includes “leaders” like Horatio Gates, who drank his own Kool-Aid so hard that he thought he could replace Washington, only to get curb stomped at Camden. In minimizing Arnold’s fall from grace by ignoring his contributions, we forget just how much Benedict Arnold lost by focusing on his own personal gain – a good lesson for anyone in uniform.