You but good evening everyone. [laughter] welcome to tonights lecture on one of this countrys most noted perhaps, though many will say noted for the wrong reasons. For generations the name Benedict Arnold has elicited a oneword description for most americans. Traitor. Perhaps we are wrong. Or perhaps partly wrong. Tonight, we will hear the rest of the story. It is a special pleasure to recognize the sponsor of tonights program, she and her husband have been the foremost supporters since the very beginning. It is in fact no exaggeration to say that the program it would not exist as we know it today without the extreme generosity of the chappell family. We are delighted that mary lou and john have joined us from philadelphia as it gives us the opportunity to express our deep appreciation for all that they have done for our program, not just tonight in particular but every night. John and mary lou, will you stand please . [applause] tonights speaker, dr. Joyce lee malcolm, earned her degree followed by an ma and phd. And comparative the history. She has taught at princeton, northeastern university, and cambridge university. She is currently the Patrick Henry professor of and the Second Amendment at the Scalia School of law george mexican university. Constitutional law. As an acknowledged authority on constitutional history in the areas of gun control control, Second Amendment, and individual rights, she has published essays in the wall street journal, financial times, usa today, boston globe, and other newspapers. She has written eight books. The most recent of which is the tragedy of Benedict Arnold. Evaluating that book, one reviewer wrote that in clear engaging language, malcolm reconstructs the surroundings, relationships, and political atmosphere of the revolution. It is a vivid addition to revolutionary war literature. Another called in a work of genuine excellence. It is persuasive in its argument as it is unsettling. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to welcome dr. Joyce malcolm. [applause] thank you very much, a pleasure to be here. It is a real treat to talk about this subject. Let me get my act together here. I was going to say the state of the union and the time of Benedict Arnold was not good. [laughter] he is widely known for treason, but before that, he was one of the great heroes of the revolution. I would like to get into the details and contacts context contexts of the revolution. He has been blamed for being greedy, but it didnt make sense about someone who risked his life for numerous battlefields, who when congress didnt pay his men, paid them from his own resources, and really took that opportunity to serve his country before he decided to change sides. There is a picture of the man in his younger days. He said during a courtmartial by the way, he was courtmartialed not for any military problem, but for some of the feeling that he had misused his position for financial gain after he was wounded serving in philadelphia as a commander there. He said i have suffered seeing the fair fabric of reputation with so much danger and toil since the present war undermining prosperity will feel the blessed effects of my efforts. Below that is a description by one of the men who fought the side him and who he led at the battle, the battle of saratoga. He said he was dark skinned with black hair and middling height. There wasnt any waste timber in him. He was our fighting general, and a bloody fellow he was. He didnt care for nothing. He would ride right in. It was come on boys. It wasnt, go boys. These judgments didnt make much sense and i wanted to have a better understanding of what he did before hand and why he decided to change size. A classic historian of the british army said this, in natural military genius, neither washington nor green to my my mind are comparable with Benedict Arnold. Quick insight, sound strategic decision, welcome resort, a swift and uncaring i come and true magic of leadership, it was he and no other for sir toca saratoga, and to command his militia, Benedict Arnold was the most formable opponent the could be matched against the british and the americans. Now particularly advertised in the tv series, turn, his lovely young wife has become equally notorious, and is sometimes regarded as the eve who attempted her husband tempted her husband into committing treason. I will say this about peggy when i get to the point in his story, but there are a lot of events and arnolds life that i wont be able to talk about unless you want to stay here for all night, so i would just highlight some of the particular points and key moments in his career. I would like to go into some detail into the battle of Lake Champlain, and this is when people know less about than they do about saratoga and other battles. It started in october, 1776. The british had amassed some 13,000 british, irish, and german troops in canada ready for an assault going down Lake Champlain in an effort to take albany. There was a lot of emphasis on trying to single out new york state separated from new england in order to give them an advantage. They had been bringing over ships, and the americans had no ships on Lake Champlain with which to combat the british. Lake champlain itself is a beautiful lake, about 400 feet deep in some spots, but also very shallow in the inlets. The new York Committee of safety is desperate about trying to build a fleet to stop the british fleet from coming down Lake Champlain and taking albany. They asked arnold to build that fleet. I am from upstate new york. It is not the ideal place to build a fleet of ships. Even in good weather. Arnold had been brought up by a father who was a merchant seaman and spent summers on the sailing ships with his father going across to europe and up and down the coast of north america. His father died after a set career where he became depressed, alcoholic, and bankrupt, and arnold started his own business and became a merchant seaman as well, so he was an ideal person to ask to build ships. He tried to recruit art assistance to build artisans to build the ships. It was hard to get seaman, because most were with washington trying to protect manhattan from the british. He personally selected 20,000 boards of timber to build the ships, and of course the timber as to the age because otherwise it will crack and be useless for the ships. This is the main ship that was going to be his flagship. That is called the royal savage, and he was responsible for taking it from the british after he took ticonderoga a year before, so he got the ship from canada. He also built a couple of schooners, galleys that were 80 feet by 20 feet with two masts. Then a series of ships called gondolas. These are not your venetian gondolas. They are traditional gondolas, and they actually carry a crew of 45. They have six cannons and one mast. They are very shallow, so they could be more maneuverable than the british ships and were very good for the waters there. So in the course of two months, he was able to build this fleet of some 15 ships. The british felt their fleet in canada built their fleet in canada in three months. One of the things they did that was quite amazing is that brought over prefab sections of ships in which they assembled when they got to canada and prepared to come down Lake Champlain. This was the largest of the british ships, thunderer. The british had a much bigger fleet, and these were there two largest ships. They had 20 gunships and five large vessels, and 400 23 pounds was the largest ship seen on Lake Champlain. All of arnolds ships together had a combined counterweight, which is how they a valuate evaluate, 200 73 pounds. The british ships had a combined canon weight of 1300 pounds, so almost twice the firepower of arnolds fleet. Arnold had been surveying Lake Champlain to find the proper place to send his fleet to await the british coming down from canada. He decided he would take his fleet, and if you have a smaller force, you dont want to be in the open, to be in the shadow of an island, which you can see on the map. It looks bigger than it actually is, but arnolds ships are the clear ones in the shadow of that island, and they hid theirthere until he took his ships. He took 500 men to Valcour Island. They were painted red so they could blend with leaves, and camouflaged with spruce trees, sharpened and put around the ships to keep enemy sailors from boarding. They stayed behind that island waiting for the british fleet to appear, and october 11, the british were spotted at 8 00 a. M. The british did not have Valcour Island on their map. They came sailing down, and as arnold houck, they went beyond Valcour Island and didnt even see arnolds fleet until they were five miles south of Valcour Island, at which point they turned and had to go upstream in order to fight the americans. To really get them into action, arnold was on the royal savage, and another of his ships went towards the british ships to lure them into the shallows around Valcour Island, but he got caught in the crossfire and his ship got stuck on a reef and just devastated, so he had to switch to another ship called the congress. By noon, the fighting was general, the noise of the cannon could be heard 30 miles to the south. The battle raged for six hours. It is to his credit that this fleet was able to keep the british, a bigger fleet with experience sailors and his officers, fighting, but by the end, 80 men had been killed or wounded and the use of three quarters of their ammunition, and his ships were in really bad shape, so they retreated further into that channel next to the Valcour Island. As the british just assumed in the morning they would be able to finish off this Little American fleet, but arnold had a plan. Now unfortunately his route of escape was to the south down to crown point and ticonderoga, and the british ships were towards the south end of that island, so he had to figure out what to do. Im going to read you a section from the book about this. General water very and the kernel road through the blackwaters that night to meet on the bore the congress. They were despondant, but arnold had prepared for this moment and had a plan, desperate but doable plan. The fleet would escape by slipping between the british ships, blocking the Valcour Island channel, then dash south to crown point safety. It was an exceedingly risky strategy, and their vessels were badly damaged and some were leaking. The little fleet with its 500 sailors had lost 80 men killed or wounded, including many officers, with 20 captured. If the british spotted them, they would be vulnerable and readily destroyed, but what other option did they have . It was a moonless night and they set out at 7 00, i heavy autumn mist surrounded the american ships as they begin moving in single file. They buckled their oars with the mens shirts and kept the wounded below decks so their cries and moans would not be heard and alert the enemy. Each ship was completely dark except for a small lantern in the stern and a shrouded one in the bow. It was lit by a split in the lantern that made the vessels just visible to the ship immediately behind. One by one, the gondolas and smaller vessels followed. The congress with arnold aboard and the washington were last in line. The procession passed so close to the carlton that one of the british ships that they could hear the sailors chatting as they glided beside it. The british had moved their three largest manofwar a mile up from the western shore of the lake, inadvertently leaving a passageway for the american ships to slip through. They got through that night, and the next morning when the british admiral was convinced he would be able to finish off this american fleet, he discovered that they were gone, now he assumed that they would have gone north to the channel, but they could not have done that because it was far too shallow, but he didnt know that, so first he went north looking for them, and when he couldnt find them, he turned around and went south. The american ships had gone about seven miles to another island to repair some of the ones that were repairable, then they headed for crown point, 28 miles to the south. As they were going, the british eventually caught up with them, and so two of the ships, the Congress Washington was on and the other ship turned to fight the british fleet, while the rest got away. The washington was really badly hit and its commander finally surrendered, leaving arnold and the congress alone against the british fleet. They fought until their masks were torn to pieces, the dont tread on me flag, eventually they ran out of ammunition, and with the ship torn to pieces, he broke through on some of these gondolas and made for a creek that was on the vermont shore then waded ashore with their weapons, their ships and burned their ships of the they then began a march through the woods, carrying the wounded in letters made of the sales from the ships. When they got to crown point, they realized it was unsafe and went on to ticonderoga curing these wounded and finally reached it on october 15. Carlton, the admiral in charge of the british fleet, had caught up, and most of the fleet, now late in october. He did not have any supplies in that part of Lake Champlain in vermonter new york. He didnt know what to do and whether to wait through the spring and stay there through the winter or not, and he decided it was too risky and his ships might get frozen into the ice, so he turned around and went back to canada, and the result was that even though arnolds little fleet was destroyed, they were able to hold the british off long enough that they saved new york and albany for another year. It wasnt until the following year that you have the battle of saratoga. General gates, who was the overall commander of the American Army in that area, wrote to one of the other generals and said if it pleases province to preserve general arnold. Few men ever met with so many escapes in so short a time. Then his general orders on that day as the man to give thanks to general arnold and the officers, seamen, and mariners in the fleet for the gallant defense they made against the great superiority of the enemies force. The historian of the british army was scathing about carlton having decided to go back to canada. Very different it would have been the british had been commanded by such men as arnold, he said, whose amazing skill, gallantry, make him the hero of the short campaign. So after that, arnold went with gates south to washingtons camp, and he was there about the time that washington decided to cross the delaware and attacked trenton. By the way, washington had to do that because the men were on such short enlistments that if he waited any longer, his army would have gone home to us a while he had them under his command, they crossed the delaware and were able to conquer trenton, and it was a great victory for that time. Congress decided that it was really important to give washington an army with longer enlistments, but they exacted something from him for that. They deprived washington of the power of appointing or discharging any of his general officers. We read about all of the soldiers of fortune from france and germany coming across to join the continental army. They were given commands by congress, not washington, and there was a lot of disgruntlement among the officers of the American Army that these people were brought in over and put in superior positions over them. At any rate, they took from washington this ability to appoint and discharge his officers, and then they promoted five Junior Officers to Major General ahead of arnold. Some of these people had never done anything, and washington was really amazed the congress had done that and wasnt sure why. It turned out that apparently you were only allowed to have so many Major Generals, depending on the number of men that were in regiments from your state, but at any rate, he was very disgruntled about that and upset and ready to resign, and of course there are a lot of people now who write he was too prickly, his feelings were hurt, someone was promoted over him, but it was considered then a polite way of telling you that you are no longer wanted, and i was thinking that even today sometimes when somebody is appointed over you that there is this sense that maybe this is a nice way of saying, we are sorry. At any rate, he was ready to resign, but washington asked him to stay on, and he said he would stay as long as washington felt his services were needed. He was sent to rhode island, but on the way he went home, and he was from connecticut, so he went back to connecticut, where he had, his wife had died, but he had three children being looked after by his sister and his business she was looking after, not in a very good way. She sold off virtually all of the equipment and supplies they had, but that was her way. At any rate, he was treated as a hero in new haven, hartford, and middletown. While he was there he got a message that while he was at home trying to figure out his finances, he got a message that the british had, were landing troops in connecticut and were on their way to take some of the supplies the americans had been gathering there. A courier arrived at his home with the news, and some 26 ships were spotted off of norwalk, 20 miles south of new haven, and their object was the supply depot at dan very. Two two of those generals were leading 600 militia and had already marched off, hoping to attack the supplies at danbury. Arnold rushed to rally the militia and help them. The officers and men arrived four from danbury at 2 00 in the morning, and the learned that the double was already in flames. British led by the governor of new york had accomplished their goal and they were gone. The americans werent sure which way they had gone, and were determined to head them off before they got back on the ships, so they divided their exhausted troops to take them on, pursuers and pursued struggle to driving rain. Members of the connecticut militia were proud to rally behind arnold and join him. The british were heading for richfield, and apparently they had some really good information because they set the home of known protestants ablaze. And scorched the Presbyterian Church where the munitions were stored, so they were a lot of people happy to tell them who they should be looking for. One of the men who had taken some of the troops, one had taken two men another route aiming to get behind the enemy, but received a fatal wound. Arnold and another general again the march to richfield with 500 militia and caught up with the regulars at about 11 00 a. M. They had 500 men, but their troops were outnumbered by 2000. I am losing my 2000 of the british regulars. Arnold ordered his men to make a makeshift barrier there we go. Here is richfield. Out of wagons and other materials so they could basically hold off the british behind that makeshift barrier, and they did hold off three charges. They were forced to retreat when a British Force flanked him. During one charge, arnolds horse was shot. He was always having horses shot under him. When you are brave and on a horse, that horse does not have a long life span. In his case the horse fell and trapped his leg under it. A young local torrie dashed to him and said, surrender, you are my prisoner. With a mighty effort, arnold freed himself, saying, not yet, and drawing his pistol he shot the man in his chest and left over a fence and ran through a swamp with bullets around him, and the following day sent a message to one of the generals to waylay the regulars from the front the men attacked them from the rear, but they learned about it and were able to get away. After the rallying of these troops and trying to protect connecticut, congress relented and gave arnold his promotion to Major General, but they did not restore the seniority, but at least they decided to give him that promotion. So this is now 1777, and later that year, as the very decisive battle at saratoga, and i would like to read you a bit about that battle. That was one of the major achievements of arnold, when he talked about how we would all be grateful for some of the things he has done. This is the major one. When he was at saratoga, washington had sent him because he felt that the militia would follow him. He had that tremendous charisma that men would follow him right in to the face of death. It takes a tremendous amount of both selfconfidence and a spirit of being able to rally people in order to do that. The officer who was in charge of the army at saratoga was general gates, who had liked arnold when he built the little fleet on Lake Champlain, but arnold was a protege of washington, and gates was someone who really wanted to replace washington, so he was jealous of arnold and had, in fact, then consigned to his camp during the battle by general gates and left without any command, while the ground was shaking from the pounding of the great guns. After being confined to his tent, and i will go into why that happened to him he could tolerate no more and mounting his horse, he dashed to the battlefield, shouting to his aides, no man shall keep me in my tent today. If i am without command, i will fight in the ranks, but the soldiers will follow my lead. Come on, victory or death. I galloped into the thickest of the fighting, pursued by major john armstrong, who general gates had ordered to bring him back in the but arnold was faster and catching up to the brigade. He asked the men who their officer was. Ia soldier shouted colonel latimer. God bless you. I am glad to see you. Come on, boys. The day is long enough, we will have them all inhale in hell by night. Galloping back and forth on his splendid horse, brandishing his sword over his head, what amazes me, having taught military history is the idea that someone without any official command could get out on that battlefield and the men would follow him. And they did. The reason that he had no command was, as i say, that general gates was not fond of him. He was jealous of him. He wanted him to go back, to basically leave the army there, but the men had petitioned and the officers petitioned that they wanted arnold to stay, so even without a command, he had stayed. I should say that the person who did not leave his tent that day was general Horatio Gates. His tent was in a place where he could not even see the battlefield. Not only could he not see it, he spent the whole day in his tent. One of his men who came to tell him what was going on found gates was spending his time arguing with the wounded british officer about the merits of the revolution. He was very disgruntled that he could not convince this officer that the revolution was a good idea. So here is arnold out there fighting, and there is gates in his tent arguing with a wounded enemy. At any rate, arnold led an assault on the british works being held by light infantry. A first attack was beaten back, but a second with bayonets fixed drove the british light infantry from their brigade. Meeting brooks is regiment arnold attacked, and suddenly he was aware of what is called the sally port come up with the british lines opened up for anybody who needed to retreat, and he led his men right at it. He could see a weakness in that line, and that is where they need to go. Give you the there we have the map of saratoga. You can see the different these are different officers, they were all american officers. There is gate at the back, his headquarters there in the southern part of the map, and then arnold going towards that. Ok. So he attacked at the sally point. The germans facing them fled, firing a final folly as they went. One bullet hit arnolds great dark horse, killing him, and the animal fell, pinning arnold. A musket ball hit arnold, shattering his leg above the bone. It was the leg that had been hurt a year before when he was in a battle to take quebec, but it had healed, and now it was really shattered. One of the men, an American Private who saw arnold fall, rushed to bayonet the german shoulder but arnold shouted to him from the ground where he laid helpless and excruciating pain in the dont hurt him. He did his duty. He is a fine fellow. Then he shouted to his men, rush on, my brave boys, and they did. This is the attack that basically turned the battle and won the battle, but when arnold was hit. One of his fellow officers ask him where he was hurt when he went down, and he said in my leg. I wish it had been my heart. Later on he was carried from the field, bleeding and helpless. He waved away the officers who hurried to help him. When captain dearborn asked where he was hit, he said he wished it had been his heart. Armstrong, who gates had sent to catch him and bring him back, now caught up with him. He was hurt and wasnt going to go anywhere. But he was unwilling to go back to headquarters. The men of the Militia Company carrying for one of their own, carried him to the field hospital. Gates never stepped foot on the field during the battle that day, nor did the secondincommand, but Horatio Gates was given the honor of having won that great battle, and congress had minted a special coin. There is a wonderful painting of the surrender with gates accepting the surrender from the british. This was a great turning point in the revolution, and because of that great victory, the french, who had been quietly helping us, decided to come out openly and support the americans, and it was basically because of them that we won. Once the french got into the war, the british realized they were going to have to pull back a bit in america because they had colonies and interests all over the world where the french would be competing against them, so this was really a tremendous help. Arnold, of course can Something Like three months in a Military Hospital in