Thanks for being here and there president any we are delighted to have you here for the of book talks and i begin by thanking the Ford Motor Company for their intered partnership in including the book talks series. I personally am pleased to welcome back then bill the third time he has cut back in his many years. I asked because whenever i do that he is seen as a true renaissance man he is from an english did Brown University and also Duke University where he was a fellow and worked as an editor and wrote and edited several books including up passionate seller sailor. He is the author of mayflower in 2010 he published a book called the last end that was a New York Times bestseller was a notable book and has been adapted into a tv series as misspeak rose also a consultant on custers last stand. So the good news is in published in 2013 bunker hill where he spoke about several years ago and one the new england book award for nonfiction the rights to the book have been acquired by Warner Brothers for film adaptation so stay tuned. He has written for vanity fair the wall street journal, the l. A. Times and the boston globe. And that leads me to say we are delighted to have cspan here and like another great historian hailing from pittsburgh to credit his teacher to recognize his talent to encourage him to write. Said as part of the reason why we welcome here this evening to discuss the latest book that was just released today untitled valiant ambition. [applause] if there is great to be here. This is such a special place if you are researching and writing George Washington so was of parity. [laughter] begins with washington as a huge part of the the other as they arrive in your carver. Warda and 40,000 sailors and then the largest urban center in america and then the rise at the doorstep Washington Times had been there at the siege of boston that i read about in my earlier book the king george responded with a real will in this is new for him and would test his talent and after finishing bomb curve held that i realized where he will leave me in the revolution he is not a statue he is in his 47 their red hair and we think of him as up pragmatist that we see on the dollar bill but early on in the military career what then is in boston repeated the would say it is too risky bet he wanted backstroke to finish this because he realized america was hardly a country at all even with the declaration of independence july 1776 now supposedly independent and washington was well aware of his army that did not have enough armaments or gunpowder and now it is completely different it would not go well for him in new york the battle of long island forcing to retreat from the high ground across the east river to new york forced to retreat from york into a the harlem heights. This teva british a toehold on the basis of the hudson river. In my book is set on water believe better not because the hudson river was part that expands the of link of the country he took the hudson river to the south from Lake Champlain more than 300 miles to the now if you have a border of water that went all the way to canada. Now we drive around our multi lane highways eac a port by river or lake in you think why . But the fact is in the 18thcentury could not transport people or provisions within the speed or regularity of less by water the road system was not there. So whoever possessed this corridor is in a position to cut off new england from the rest of the states solid is absolutely critical america maintain some control or the war would be over. With falloffs of new york, the british had the toehold on the scoreboard. By september 15 with the american to evacuating from york, there was one group of soldiers tested between the rock british in taking it Lake Champlain to the north and that was Benedict Arnold arnold. But the interest goes way back beginning with my mother when i was growing up in the 60s she was a renegade for one thing she smoked a pipe. [laughter] as a teenager it was tough to take in a restaurant when mom would light up after dinner. [laughter] she had no problem telling somebody what she believed even if she knew they did not want to hear it in one of her heroes as Benedict Arnold. [laughter] so why does mr. That in my teenage years but after fishing boat for hillary realized i wanted to get at a part of the war of its independence that i knew relatively little about a wrote these books not because i inexpert but im curious and what to know for gore knew there was a story that i had not learned in High School Even though my ap u. S. History teacher was a wonderful woman and ignited my interest, but we grow up thinking of the revolution as heroic as they began to gather to defeat british tyranny in think of it as a stepping stone but the revolution went on eight years and instead of the seemingly relentless course to victory in stagnated even after the french came in at saratoga things wound down there wasnt the money to pay for the army. Congress was suspicious of the of military because every previous revolution the end result was the of military coopted the government even read dictator or emperor would take over so they were greatly concerned. The Continental Congress had real control over washington we think of him being the one controlling the revolution but he had to report to congress and i hate to say it in a Dysfunctional Congress is nothing new. [laughter] washington had to deal with this. One of the things that happened was instead of fighting the british we began to fight among ourselves. Patriot verses loyalist but also the Hudson River Valley to the north of british occupied the york Long Island Sound and coastal new jersey turned into an ugly cabin dogfight neighbor going after neighbor and it was something that was horrible to live through and afterwards people didnt want to remember in those terms so i wanted to dramatize and find personality to get at the dark side of the revolution that i had not appreciated then enters mom with Benedict Arnold weld to be called that growing up was the worst possible thing you could be in the like many historical figures he is the character the worst thing on earth but in the beginning of the revolution he was the best general in washington respected him washington had the aggressive temperament by nature of the earned to tailback for the good of his country but with Benedict Arnold if he sought a Kindred Spirit that washington was 10 years younger and not saddled with a crushing responsibilities of command he could have been on the battlefield with those kinds of victories that he was racking up. And has been the apothecary in seagoing merchant he has a small fleet of ships going down to the caribbean and up the coast to the st. Lawrence river and knows all about though water corridor that says we need to take ticonderoga there also cannons there it is a key to maintain control at this final portion of our country so ethan allen and others have the same idea and so they stormed fort ticonderoga. It is up to Benedict Arnold to lead this band up the river, not down. In the fall it is getting very cold, the river is a virtual current and i followed his trail into the interior maine to quebec. Up there, of north there is still nothing up there. If there is a street name it says arnold. He led his men up there. It is just incredible story on its own. He is there with daniel morgan, the great virginia rifleman. It is ehrenberg, it is an amazing cat, they make it an get to quebec. After that an amazing feat that he would be known as the american hannibal. He was a hero. They finally with storm quebec at the end of the year in a snowstorm, montgomery who had teamed up with him by that point would be killed in the early going, Benedict Arnold would be badly injured when a bullet ricocheted got his left leg and it would not secede. It was still an amazing feat. He would eventually be reassigned to montreal and be a vital element in leading the retreat from canada back down lake champagne. Chapter two of the valiant ambition takes us 360 miles north of new york to the Lake Champlain, right near the Canadian Border where it is Benedict Arnold with a fleet of about 15 vessels. Many of them hacked from the trees surrounding the southern end of Lake Champlain. The galleys and gondolas, these are basically floating platforms for cannons. He has has put this together in record time. General Horatio Gates who is in charge of the Northern Army at fort ticonderoga is his boss and all of this. He has sent arnold up there with his fleet. The british now have new york. Now there is the british general meeting this vast armada down Lake Champlain. They have actual a masted ship, they had schooners, they had thousands of soldiers. They had more than 20 gunboats and they are all headed in arnolds direction. It is october, it is so cold they can see snow in the Adirondack Mountains on one side they are up there alone, it is only a spooner that goes back and forth hundred miles down Lake Champlain. Its their only connection to fort ticonderoga. He knows its going to be a northerly breeze that blows the british down take champlain. So he comes up with a brilliant plan, i did not know Benedict Arnold was a mariner, this was a a surprise to me, wonderful surprise. Even more special is guess where i learned how to sail . Lake champlain. And little did i know that i was sailing on the other side of the lake and on the east side, on the the west side a few miles below what is now Plattsburgh New York is now the island. It contained a little bay inside. Arnold that if he would take his fleet and hide it inside the bay and wait for the british to sail past and then reveal himself, basically wait and say here we are, the british with the have to sail against the wind to attacked his small fleet. Now a three masted british ship with 18 cannons is an awesome force, but it cannot sail against the wind. It is really the maritime equivalent of taking the high ground. It would work beautifully, the the british with this huge armada would sail down, arnold would wave to them, they they would turn around and say we have them. We are between him and his escape route, will destroy this what the americans called the mosquito fleet, appropriately enough. So what will unfold is just a tremendous sea battle on Lake Champlain. Arnold has lined up his 15 vessels across the entrance to what is called the valcourt bay. I was up there with my wife in a pontoon boat circling it and working it all out. The Smithsonian Museum of American History they have one of the vessel vessels. The philadelphia which was sunk during this battle. You can see it its amazing. So the sleep was piled up in his vessels were all lined up, arnold was in the center of his line and they waited and sure enough even the schooners had a hard time making it up, even the gunboats were able to make an get close enough so they would line up and they would just start wailing on one another. Firing cannons back and forth, arnold was at the bow firing his. He even took a shot at shot at general carltons flagship that nearly took him out on the quarterdeck. It was eight hours of just going at it. The philadelphia at the smithsonian would get sunk in the later going. Eventually night would come and arnold had fought them to a draw. His fleet was a mess, many men had died but it was a miracle. He he had done it. But the british were confident with once they have him tracked in the small bay. What they did was create their own line just below arnold so theres no way for him to escape and they were going to get him in the morning. Well, arnold has a counsel with his officers and one of his officers says the only way were going to get out of this is if we sail to the north, go around the top of the bay and the island is the safest thing to do. Arnold had a swashbuckling charisma to him that i think was both inspiring and could be inferior reading. And he said no. Were going to go through their fleet. Theres enough of a gap on the shore side of their line that if we go one vessel after another we are going to get through. And so okay, lets go for it. So vessel after vessel would go by with a light in the stern that could only be seen from behind. They would roll with minimal sail up, one after another they went out. Every vessel got out. Carlton awoke the next morning there is fog on the lake, it took a while to figure out that there was no american fleet. According to one account he ordered them lets go after them without telling everyone else that he was leaving and then he had to come back. While going after arnold, by this time the americans were many miles down the lake and the wind had switched to the south so they were sailing against the wind. It became a battle the british were chasing them. A day passes, arnold is desperately tried to get his fleet to back to fort ticonderoga when the wind comes to the north. Having failed at sail that Lake Champlain, ive experienced experiences. The wind is not always reliable. So arnolds fleet was completely calm as a with my comes down the lake and the british are coming after them. So that great big british ship and two schooners were leading the way. Arnold basically says to his fleet, keep on going although he tried to make one more stand at a place that is known as splits rock. His fleet evaporated around him. So he decided to make a stand so that the rest of the vessels could escape before ticonderoga. So there is arnold surrounded by three british vessels, fighting for hours, eventually theyre beginning to sink and arnold realizes once again this is it. He notices the wind has changed to the east. He he can grow, they cant really do that so well so they go for sure, make it to shore, they pull their vessels onto he is surrounded by few gondolas, they pull their vessels up and he orders his men up into the high ground around, he refuses to lower his leg. The flag is still up but he orders them to blow up their ship. There is gunpowder in there. The british are approaching, they have lit the fuse and he notices that one of his injured officers has been left inadvertently on the deck of the vessel. Even though he insisted that everybody get off, it blows up and for arnold it was crushing. Its interesting, the only account we had of this episode was from a british surgeon who saw body fly in the air. He claimed he used this to say how insensitive arnold was that this was years later an account would be found written by a vermonter who is a young boy lives in the house right on that cold. Late in life when he was looking for a pension he gave an account of what he saw. He described how arnold had done everything he could to get his men often when he found out one of his men had been killed he threatened to run through the officer who had been responsible for getting them off. They didnt leave until they buried the soldier and then they escaped down the lake to fort ticonderoga. They came in at 4 00 a. M. And as Horatio Gates would write, to general schuyler was the head, the theoretical head of the Northern Army, no one has had more hair breath escapes than arnold. So here we are, my book begins with washington at his lowest stage. Heres washington, the man who is destined to be the one person who can hold this country together. And he is at his lowest. Here is arnold, destined to become the man who attempts to tear that country apart. He is a true hero. You could argue that through this action and by the way the british after all of thiss like they were hit by a tornado, what happened here they make their way down to fort ticonderoga, they look at the calendar and realize it is getting late. And they decide no, were not going to do it this year will wait to next year. With that set up a year later would be a battle of saratoga. And it was arnold that achieved it. So thats where the book begins. I follow them through this. The next we see washington at trenton and princeton which was washingtons a great comeback of all time. It is just an amazing feat. But there is another side to it. That is the side of, this book is about loyalty, betrayal, patriotism and selfinterest. These are the issues that people were wrestling with. How much does your country ou and how much do you all your country . Washington, going into the crossing the delaware, that would be the magnificent turnaround. It was not looking good. He lost three quarters of his army, this was a desperate gamble and it was amazing to me was how many of his officers he could not depend on. Horatio gates gates for example comes down from fort ticonderoga. Washington expects gates to help him out and he has helped him by bringing down 500 season soldiers but he claims he is too ill and he cannot help and he needs to go to philadelphia. By this this time with the british knocking on pennsylvanias store the Continental Congress has led to baltimore. Somehow gate says he is ill but does not preclude writing all the way to baltimore where congress is. Its clear that if this expedition into new jersey did not go well that Horatio Gates would be perfectly poised to be the next one in line. Even before this in november his adjutant general, joseph reed who has been at his side throughout the battle of long island, was there for part of the siege of boston, he has begun to lose confidence in him and washington learns this when he inadvertently opens a letter addressed to read from charles lee. Basically the second highest ranking officer in the army. A briton who is now on the american side and by the correspondence washington can see that joseph reed, the general has reached out to charles lee that if this does not go well, what you should do is go south and reform a new army. He is talking at the slowest moment to someone else about and theyre talking about washingtons inability to make up his mind, these kind of things. Washington reads the letter and what i think is really for me the first indication of his incredible political skill because he was okay on the battlefield but it was as a politician for his aggression and cold ruthlessness could really come to the front. Read was not headquarters, he resealed the letter is to read sayed this was addressed to you and when you are not here i open all correspondence to you assuming it is for all of us but i realize this is a different nature. That is all he says. He leaves him twisting in the icy emptiness of his wrath. Read knows the man is anchored but thats the thing about washington. He could control this passion but that does not mean he was not passionate. As a young young man his anger was a real problem. He famously copied more than 100 rules of civility as an attempt to contain himself. As Thomas Jefferson would write for the most part he maintained over those passions. But they were still there. I think that is why washington was able to hang in there for so long because of that. So washington does not confront him directly and read becomes disbanded in december. Instead of being a team player while washington is coming up this plan for trenton, there are several accounts of read not even at headquarter, he he is talking to people about how the cause is pretty much lost. Even according to one account he was poised to go to the other side if she he should hear that trenton did not go well. So so all of this is happening around washington. By the way, charles lee the second highest ranking american officer would be captured about this time by the british, not a bad thing from washingtons point of view. And so there we are, washington pulls it off and you would think congress would be a static, look what we have he has turned it around. But instead what you see is people like john adams. Particularly congressman congressman from new england where the real radicals who push for the revolution and are very fearful of the military potentially coal opting this revolution. He talks talks in congress about the dangers of one man becoming and taking on this status. Theyre concerned about washington so one thing they decide to do is, you think that washingtons military commander would be able to choose his Major General. The officers upon which he depends the most. Not so, remember this is the republic so the civil government and washington understood this and would respect this throughout the revolution even though it was driving him crazy. This is an incredible patience he had. So congress, that winter decides that each state should have two Major Generals. Connecticut where Benedict Arnold is from already had to Major Generals. So this means that five officers ranking below arnold are elevated past him for Major General paul arnold, the highestranking Brigadier General who has just achieved a miracle on Lake Champlain is overlooked for promotion. People would say that arnold was thinskinned but this was outrageous. And it horrified washington. The letter he would write to arnold about this initially he said i heard this was a situation i cannot believe its true but believe me if it is i will do everything for you. He would try but this began arnolds real problems with the Continental Congress. He had a point and others for example john stark from New Hampshire sure the same thing what happened to him and he quit. He would raise his own state army and arnold could have done that but he hung in there. And in typical arnold fashion he is in new haven kind of upset over all of this. His though widower is 36, he better 16yearold girl in boston that he fell in love with. He wrote for the most awful letter you ever read it she turned him down flat. So hes in new haven and its not looking good. And he hears that a royal governor William Tyrone at british occupied new york is leading a raid on danbury connecticut where the americans have a lot of military its very much like the raid on concord that would start revolution. So he goes up long island where westport is today they would offload in march inland, they burned damn berries to the ground. They destroyed a huge amount of stores. Arnold hears about this gets on his horse and by the time the british are leaving danbury he and 500 militiamen are in richfield connecticut and they note the british have to go through, he has created their sort of a cliff on one side of farmhouse on another, they created this barricade, theres not many of them, theres 2000 british and they are there. So the british come at them, arnold is shouting at his men to hold their grounds and if were going to retreat were going to do this in an organized fashion. He is riding his horse up and down the line is the british are perching but the british who have no appetite for attacking headon have worked and flank them and are now firing from the sides and behind them. The militiamen flee and arnold is yelling at them, his horse gets hit by a musket ball. Finally finally the horses killed, it collapses on top of arnold who is pinned to the ground as the british are approaching and leading the way is a noted loyalist with his extended he says to arnold, you are prisoner. Arnold takes the pistols out of the holsters of his saddle, shoots and says not yet, he is able to extricate himself from the stirrup and vanishes into a nearby swamp. Thats arnold. The next day he would do it again, another horse would get shot out from under him. When word reached congress that arnold had done this they began to think what may be we should have made Major General. They would do that but they would not restore his seniority. So that meant those, they did however give him a new horse which it shows you that politicians can somehow sometimes miss the mark. But arnold fought brilliantly, it would come to a crescendo with saratoga where Horatio Gates who had not been washingtons friend prior to trenton now views arnold who they were friends on Lake Champlain is arrival and eventually the battle of saratoga is a misnomer, after the first battle arnold and his men basically fight the british to a draw and inflict huge casualties on the general who is once again come down that corridor and arnold ends up getting dismissed from the army. He sticks it out, the next battle even though he has no standing official standing in the army hes out there and according to some accounts he was a hellion and then leads a very dangerous charge toward the end of the battle through two lines of fire, through the sally ford of the enemies readout. He yells at the hessians to surrender. One fires and hits him in the same lake that had been injured in quebec, the horse was killed in classes on top of them. And Henry Dearborn who had been with them is at his side and he says are you hurt . And he says ive been shot in the same lake, i wish it had gone through my heart. And so that is the turning point. I dont have time to go to any more detail about that. You are going to have to read the book. But that begins arnolds dissent. He would end up in philadelphia as a military governor after this is a horrible injury and arnold was an athlete in this just robbed him. He would end up a military governor and get into all sorts of trouble with none other than joseph reed who it was now the head of basically the state legislature would pursue him in a virtual political witchhunts. Arnold would marry peggy ship lynn, half his age while the british had briefly occupied philadelphia she had gotten to know some british officers, one of whom was major john andre who became head of the british spy network and the rest of the history when arnold decided it was time for him to turn over west point to the british. It would not be successful but it would be arnold would escape new york eventually joined by peggy and the british accepted him but he was a traitor. Traders on either side are tainted. The irony of this story and i would like to finish by reading a paragraph or two, epilogue. The irony of this is that arnold in the first years of the work short of washington had done more than any american for the american cause. But it would be as a traitor where you could argue that he served his former country in the most important fashion because this was a galvanizing moment. Americans were forced to realize in 1780, by this Time Congress hardly had of polls. The Continental Army was barely alive, the French Alliance which arnold had made possible at saratoga had done nothing to win the war. It was all falling to pieces. The treason of arnold was a true wakeup call to the American People that this war was theirs to lose. So ill finish with this from the epilogue. The United States had been created through an act of disloyalty. No matter how eloquently the declaration of independence had attempted to justify the american rebellion a residual guilt hovered over the circumstances of the countrys founding. Arnold changed all of that. By threatening to destroy the newly created republic through ironically is on the trail. Arnold gave this nation of traders the greatest of gifts, a myth of creation. The American People had come to revere George Washington but a hero alone was not sufficient to bring them together. Now they had the despised in Benedict Arnold. They knew knew what they are fighting for and against. The story of american genesis could finally move beyond a break with the mother country and start to focus on the process by which 13 former colonies could become a nation. As arnold had demonstrated the real enemy was not Great Britain , but those americans who sought to undercut their fellow citizens commitment to one another. Whether is joseph reeds willingness to promote a states interest at interest at the expense of what was best for the country as a whole or arnolds decision to sell his loyalty to the highest bidder, the greatest danger to americas future came from selfserving opportunism, masquerading as patriotism. At this fragile stage in the countrys development away away had to be found to strengthen rather than destroy the existing framework of government. The Continental Congress was far from perfect but it offered her start to what could one day be a great nation by turning traitor arnold had alerted the American People how close they had come to be trend the revolution by putting their own interest added their newborn country. I read in the name Benedict Arnold is becoming a byword for that most heat of crimes. Treason against the people of the United States. Thank you very much. [applause]. Thank you. There is time for some questions if you have any out there. You probably have not had time to read the book yet. [laughter] [inaudible question] during your research to what extent did you rely on many scripts and original records and where did you find most of these . When it comes to this story, there are documents everywhere but really for me the cornerstone of this was the Henry Clinton papers. Henry clinton was the commander of the british army at the time of arnolds treason and his correspondence is that the Clemens Library on the university of michigan and this is an treasure trove it came into their possession and i think the 1930s and it is fascinating. It has the correspondence between arnold and major john andre. Up until those papers coming to light the received wisdom was that peggy ship and was an unwitting victim of her husbands treason. That she was as Alexander Hamilton thought because he was at her bedside after arnold had left. She went into this hysterical that seems to have been fairly well stage for her husbands benefit. She thought she was as innocent as the lamb but has proved it was hardly the case. She was actively involved and was actually when arnold had moved from philadelphia she was the real conduit for all of this. So those papers were absolutely important. Its just amazing when you can hold in your hand a coded letter from Benedict Arnold to the british and then there is also, its in my book to you can see that the british had been translated. These kinds of things are absolutely important. Another resource that was hugely important that has now been published several times, in many ways my story is a shakespearean tragedy. Although i focused on washington and arnold this has a greek course to mix the metaphors. And that is a wonderful character named Joseph Plumb Martin. He was 16 when he joined the war of independence from connecticut. Later in in life by the time he moved to maine. His account must be based on notebook he kept because it was a very bright guy. And a wonderful classic. He had no respect for his Commanding Officer and with good reason as it turned out. But its an absolute revelation as to what the common soldiers Continental Army had to deal with. They never had enough food, their clothing was minimal, its all there. So what is great about Joseph Plumb Martin, hes a lot like for school. When something was happening of historic importance he was there. And its just incredible he had never known arnold before the revolution. He claimed he had never liked him. But there he is, is on the banks of the hudson, Joseph Plumb Martin is, days days before arnolds treason. He sees arnold on a horse sizing up various roads and things. Those kinds of sources were very important. I am just curious about first thank you so much i cant wait to read your book. As a sale yourself im wondering if you can talk a little bit more about the deficit that the u. S. Really was as a result of the lack and maybe the resources and times, im a little curious about that. I sneak in maritime stuff into all my books. Even the last stand about the battle of little big horn it begins on a riverboat. This book particularly for me it was so much fun. The battle of alcor island was important. The hudson river, here it is arnold working his way up and down the river on the barge, all of this and then when it comes to philadelphia and its on the delaware river. Water is absolutely important there and Joseph Plumb Martin said that longsuffering continental soldier but the british take philadelphia but they cannot get their ships there because they have to get by a series of fours that the americans had built. Eleven was named mud island. Its just a pile of mud at the confluence of two rivers and they had sort of a fort and its almost like world war i, the french warfare where there there get impounded. If they can hang out for another week the british will be forced to evacuate philadelphia because they will not have the provisions. Theyre out there and eventually they succumb. Once again water was every. The british navy, they had they controlled the coast. That is why the internal waterway was so important. When it came to the battle of long island and the loss of new york washington never really had a chance. The british had command of the water, they could move their armies with ultimate speed on their ships. There is really nothing you could do fighting a force which had control of the waterways. So for me it was part of my Research Process to go to these places. I Love Research trips, theres nothing nothing i enjoy more. One of the things i was able to get someone to take me in a circumnavigation of manhattan and staten island. It was so important. I have lived in manhattan for three years. My two grownup children are in brooklyn but it wasnt until it was on the water and going to all these synchronys and and realizing what it was. The harlem river is just fascinating to this day. As you approach the hudson its pretty wild. There treason things like that,. [laughter] its hard to believe there is a city to the south. So water was a big part of this. I think that speaks to a lot of the genius of George Washington because he was a plantation owner but one of the things is why is it called mount vernon . Its because his brother who served in the british navy so revered admiral vernon who he was with earlier in the century that he name to mount vernon from a british admiral, so put that in your pipe and smoke it. [laughter] sabina sailor i tend to see maritime everywhere, but the fact of the matter is, in the 18th century and for much of the 19th Century Water would determine the strategic, what was strategically important in this country. Thank you very much. You had mentioned that washington saw a certain part of himself and arnold as a younger soldier and all of that. I wonder if you would comment on washingtons attitude after the trader incidents and in particular i believe he issued orders subsequently that if arnold was captured as part of the Virginia Campaign that he would be executed. It quickly became very personal for George Washington. Washington is such a rock, yet there is that personal fire, no wonder he had dentures, he was breaking hickory nuts with his teeth. This is a man whose tensions he was operating under and managing to control were amazing. When arnolds treason is revealed to him this was something he could not help but take personally. This is is a man whose career he respected and fostered, he along with everybody else had no clue this was coming. Washington is at arnolds headquarters at a house about 1 mile below west point when he learns of all of this. He has lafayette with him, henry knox and Alexander Hamilton. He turns to lafayette who has become his surrogate son and says simply, whom can we trust now . Can you imagine what he was feeling . In the wake of this not in hamilton, everyone around him is going crazy, like as not quit right nathanael greene, i cannot get arnold out of my head, this really met with their whole sense of who they were, if this could happen this is really, fundamentally scary stuff. Washington would be able to at this time both the french general had arrived in prior to washingtons learning of this he had met with the french in hartford, their first meeting and it was absolutely fundamentally important how the french were in force for the first time, he had to put the best face on it, he he writes this incredible letter to his french counterpart where there is none of that passion. He says it is absolutely amazing that we have gone this far in the struggle and this has not yet happened. Things like this are what happened. That said, he he then turned his attention to getting Benedict Arnold. Arnold was in new york he got his calgary officer and Whitehorse Harry Lee to find an officer that could infiltrate the british, poses a deserter and get arnold and they had to take arnold alive. They were going to see that he received justice and so this soldiers job in december within minutes of all of this was to ingratiate himself with arnold and he did exactly that and he had it all planned, he was going, he knew that every night around midnight arnold would walk around his property and go to the outhouse and come back. And so he was waiting for him and even pushed a piece of the gate open and he was going to grab him and bodily take him to a boat waiting on the shore and rolled across the hudson where he would get justice, it was on that very day that Henry Clinton orders arnold to head south and to go to virginia and it didnt happen, i wont go into detail, but then arm out arnold would once again fight brilliantly. Jefferson would be forced to flee monticello, washington sends since none other than lafayette town to get him. I wont go into that because im going to be talking about that in my next book. [laughter] [applause]. How about the battle of princeton . Did you cover that in your book . Yes, the battle of princeton is fascinating because washington in the first battle of trenton and its confusing because theres two battles of trenton, the first one where washington famously crosses the delaware and surprises the hessians and theres an incredible turnaround, they then washington takes his army back to pennsylvania and then the decision is made to return back into new jersey, washington is now occupying trenton, the british who by this time fled north hears of this, and the house you could argue were americas greatest asset, because he had the chance at the battle of long island to destroy Washingtons Army, the house had real very positive feelings about the american colonies. Theyre out older brother george have been killed during the french and indian war. The Massachusetts Legislature had money for the memorial in the Westminster Abbey for their older brother and they never forgot that. So these were two brothers, one was an admiral and one was they were a pair. Their hope was not to destroy Washingtons Army but to reach the point where americans would be forced to negotiate. They felt that would ultimately be better for reconciliation. But trenton messed with that scheme. So he sends cornwallis down, cornwallis very much with Benedict Arnold had earlier done at valcourt island. Its very interesting. On either side of the river that flows through trenton and then into the delaware the british send a wave after wave of soldiers across at this very narrow bridge. They are repulsed by boxes canon but the American Army is in a very tight spot. There there is nowhere for them to hide. Cornwallis says as night comes on will get them in the morning. Well what does washington do with some help and this is where joseph read, even though though he had betrayed washington in a very personal way just a month earlier he really helped him out at this stage because he had taken some philadelphians on horseback up to princeton earlier and had sort of figured out the lay of the land up there and with other input they decided to sneak out that night and do an end to run an attack princeton. That would become the great victory at princeton and that would just add to washingtons laurels and have the added effect of basically clearing the british out of that portion of new jersey and leaving philadelphia safe for the winter. The last question. I do not recall my history but could you go over a little bit how Benedict Arnold was exposed . Was colonel andre captured her . It is a wonderful cloak and eger stuff. Arnold and andre have had this correspondence but never met each other personally. The british are not even confident that it was really arnold they are corresponding with. If they need to have a facetoface before they go through with this operation. They have it all set up. They have admiral rodney has arrived in new york, they have an influx of transports and worships to go up the hudson, they have soldiers all set to go after west points. But andre needs to have facetoface with arnold. They they do that and they have a midnight meeting on the western bank of the hudson overlooking have a strawberry. The escape vessel that andre was to take to new york, the appropriately named, vulture, i mean you just cant make this stuff up. [laughter] that is fired on by an officer who on his own initiative fires on it much to arnolds chagrin. So so it is forced on the river. And through a variety of things now andre has to find another way back. Ultimately he would go as someone, a young lawyer would accompany him across the river on the ferry to the Eastern Shore of long island and make their way down westchester. I was talking about how bad it got during the revolution, this was known as the neutral ground where neither american or british side, it was a neighbor fighting neighbor. The americans were called skinners, the british gangs called cowboys and they are going back and forth attacking one another, stealing things. Most people have left. It was a wasteland. And through this wasteland andre must make his way to new york. He is almost there and what is now tarrytown new york when three soldiers stepped out it is early in the morning, out of the shadows and one of them has on a Hessian Yeager coat. Andre assumes they are briti. And he is really happy to see them. They said hey, and then it turns out he is an american, these are three american militiamen, one who recently escape from new york using this jacket as a disguise. That is the unraveling of the pot. It was that close to happening. Andre should never had spilled the beans that early. So it would take several days for all of this to finally get to washington and to arnold through a variety of reasons. Arnold what escape and andre would ultimately be hanged as a spy. What i guess that does it, thank you all very much. [applause]. Nono on. [inaudible] book tv recently visited capitol hill test members of congress what they are reading the summer. Verse well thanks for cspan for all you do on this front, its very Important Service that you give to the country, my kids will get a kick out of this i hope they see the picture behind me. I have a good sense of reading, that not only for the summer but next year, i thought i thought i would start off with recommendation from folks would pray for people under pressure by Jonathan Aitken written by former member of the english parliament. I i think he knows little bit about pressure and i thought i could learn something from him. The second new one, troublesome young men has to do with the rise of a small band of conservatives in the parliament during the churchill. , its motivated by a member of the House Freedom caucus, we have 40 or 50 people were trying to get there things on space and solve physical problems. Just to represent the people more closely. Do what the people want to do so i think this book will give me motivation there. The next one the title may not give it away but its called on civilization by gregory copley. He came in on briefed on policy one day and hes an amazing mind on form policy and i learned so much from him i want to treat his books. This subtitle is urban geopolitics in a time of chaos. So maybe it is an unlikely source of grounding for international policy, but his thesis is that some of the uncertainty and instability, and chaos were seen around the globe which we are is clearly seen is driven by the urban rule split in our country. Just with the growth of the urban cities, a little bit more detachment from the jeffersonian jeffersonian farmer and love of country nationalism in the positive sense and maybe we need a little bigger dose of history in some of those things. I have not not finish the book, ive started reading about it. The next one, the desire of nations by all of her own donovan was recommended to me on political theology. Obviously that is probably the issue of our day right now. Isis and the debate over constitution, the role of the judeochristian, how does islam fit into the conversation and so its with the history of thought i think most of you know, islam the jewish tradition we all used to have a nice cover station about aristotle, so the conversation is possible but it requires some unity of thought. So aristotle is is one nice place to be, theres plenty others and i probably mentioned if you come up. I think we need to urge some of our brothers and sisters over the hot spots that reformation may not be a bad idea. In light metal its really be a good idea. So those are some of the things i will be reading about. The next one more contemporary extortion by peter sweitzer. I read it a few years back. Im going to give it another look, why are the politics of broking . Everyone calm seems to think there is a leftwing rightwing war going on between the parties, the factions and the rightwingers and leftwingers. I talked to Bernie Sanders at a White House Christmas party and he shared my view that is not the case. Most of the the case has to do with maybe the middle and dolan out 4 trillion to the inside cronies in d. C. I think that is a stronger explanation of why politics is broken. I think schweitzer sees that pretty well. Money correlated with elections, committee assignments, everything appear. Voting records, etc. He traces them cetera. He traces them out with footnotes and evidence. The next one, its a shameless plug, skulled american underdog by congressman named david brandt be. Are. Our. A. T. I plug in my own stuff. I had a friend how me put it together. Thats from 18 taught economics and ethics. Basically thesis i ran on a republican creed but since then i went a little 30,000 foot up in the air and condensed it to three, three pillars that made our civilization the greatest i think the greatest country on earth, the three pillars that hold up the foundation and they include but not surprisingly the judeochristian tradition, i went to princeton seminary and i went to madison, the princeton seminary, and studied hebrew. The judeochristian tradition goes into the second rule of law and it in 1776 also, i dont know by divine intervention or not, adam smith, the founder freemarket economic across the pond in england, scotland doing economics and ethics as well. He was the chair of moral philosophy. So a lot of great thinkers weaving together. Religion, philosophy, political theology, in the past not so many doing it today. So that is kind of why the books that for my reading list for the next one was given to me by a fourstar general a few weeks ago, combat ready by thomas hansen. By all accounts are military army, navy, air force, the weakest level since postworld war ii in terms of troop, ships, planes, et cetera. It is an analysis of combat readiness and i recommend that one highly basically on what ive heard already. Next one, how god became king a new testament scholar of notes, again political theology, political political philosophy, how god became king and not necessarily what you might think at first. Maybe a david and goliath Malcolm Gladwell explanation with king in this case is a humble king. Next one by sociologist, the triumph of christianity. Again, not a boastful triumph but a tramp if you look at the country who has strong Civil Liberties from civil rights, political rights, women in the workforce, protections, all sorts of christianity, the the reformation and enlightenment again. Basic themes to explore. And then a whopper of a threeinch biography, George Washington, im washington, im going to try to make my way through sacred fire. It was given to me by a gift by about a year ago after i entered office. Im going to do my best on that one. Washington is one of those amazing figures, when you read about him and what others say about him, all men and women love to and respected him. So there is something to this guy that is extra significant and the more i read about him the more i see that. But i can never get enough of seeing what resonates with such an important founder and some argue the founder, the indispensable man to whom all the others looked up to