The life of Benedict Arnold; : his patriotism and his treason.

Front matter

THE LIFE

OF

Benedict Arnold;

Introduction

nunciation which has been so constantly poured upon his head.

The time may come — I think there are indications of its approach — when there will mingle with his condemnation that " infinite pity," which George William Curtis, standing on Bemis' Heights, so eloquently expressed in his oration on the Surrender of Burgoyne — " infinite pity," that a nature so heroic, and with a record so brilliant, should have been driven, by a sense of bitter wrong and the violence of his passions, to a crime so inexcusable.

On the exposure of his treason, it became the passionate desire of a whole nation to blacken his character. Instantly he became an outcast and an outlaw. Every pen denounced, and every tongue cursed him. If this had been confined to his treason, none would have questioned its justice, but in their just hatred, the people wished to make him wholly odious. He who had been the trusted friend of Washington and Warren and Schuyler, was now declared guilty of every crime, and denied a single virtue. Even his undeniable bravery, exhibited on so many battle-fields, was declared to be only " Dutch courage." He who in Philadelphia and elsewhere had been the courteous and honored host, at whose table the highest and most intelligent officers of the army and of civil life were glad to meet, was now declared a " low, vulgar, illiterate horse-jockey and skipper." These were the natural results of his odious crime. But Arnold was not the first character in history who has shown that great crimes are not incompatible with great virtues.

The great duke of Marlborough was, according to Macaulay, doubly a traitor: false and treacherous to James and the Prince of Orange in turn — both a spy and a traitor.1 And yet, go to

1. " Not till the archives of the House of Stewart were exposed, was it known " to the world that Talmash had perished by the basest of the hundred villainies "of Marlborough."— Macaulay' a England, V. 7, p. 823.

INTRODUCTION.

the palace of Blenheim, and behold how England forgave his crimes and rewarded his virtues.

It is difficult to conceive of darker and more execrable crimes than those of David, the great king of Israel — murder and perfidy from the vilest motives! And yet the heart that conceived and executed the treacherous murder of Uriah, indicted the Psalms, and was so tender and affectionate that David would have gladly died for the unnatural Absalom!

The king repented and God and man forgave him. If we cannot forgive Arnold, we can and ought to be just to him.

To him " sharper than a serpent's tooth " was the ingratitude of his country, and crazed and maddened by his wrongs, real and imaginary, when the tempter came, be fell. His punishment was, and will be, forever terrible; poor Andre's was comparatively light — "a momentary pang," as he expressed it, when he mounted the scaffold. General Arnold's after life must have been a long agony of remorse, chagrin and disappointment. The ever consciousness of a great crime and a still greater blunder, must have given him a lifelong heartache; and to his name, which down to that fatal event had been among the most brilliant of American soldiers, he brought the punishment of everlasting infamy.

But before his treason he had been a self-sacrificing, zealous patriot, shedding his blood like water for his country. I wish to portray him as such patriot — to tell the story of his life up to the time of his fall, as it would have been told had he died on the bloody field of Saratoga.

This part of his life I shall demonstrate, has not been fairlv,

" He (Marlborough) had while commanding William's troops, while sitting at William's council, while waiting in William's bed-chamber, formed the most artful and dangerous plot for the subversion of William's throne."— Macaulay'e England, V. 7, p. 324.

G

INTRODUCTION.

truthfully written. I wish the American people, the world, to know how his services, his heroism, his energy, his ability, were regarded by "Washington, Schuyler, Montgomery, Gates, Green, and Lamb and Varick and Livingston, his fellow soldiers; and by "Warren, Lee and Chase, and Carroll, of Carrollton, and Jay, Clinton and others, at the time, before the clouds which his defection caused had thrown their dark shadows backward as well as forward, and darkened his whole life. I shall try to exhibit Benedict Arnold as "Washington saw him, as Schuyler knew him, as Warren understood him, and as Varick and Livingston appreciated him. When the story of his life as an American patriot and soldier has been told, then the dark shadows of his treason and subsequent suffering will follow.

His capacities for good and for evil were very great; ever the generous and liberal friend, he was a proud, bitter and unyielding enemy. During one period of his life he was the brilliant, dashing soldier, possessed of a hopeful and sanguine temperament, which no difficulty nor danger could overcome, and his wonderful successes prove, that with all his reckless daring, he united great skill, forethought, and readiness of invention. His life is full of dramatic interest, and while true to his flag, the career of no soldier of the Revolution is more full of thrilling incidents, heroic deeds, and examples of fortitude and energy. "When driven to desperation, wounded by injustice, disappointed and chagrined, he became bitter and revengeful, and seemed willing to sacrifice the cause for which he had so often bled, so that his enemies should be crushed in the ruins. The story of this strange life, Arnold as patriot and traitor, I shall endeavor truthfully to tell, and in such a spirit as to merit, and I trust, to obtain, the sympathy of all lovers of fair play.

The identity in the name of the author and the subject, and

INTRODUCTION.

possibly the treatment, may suggest a relationship which does not exist. Had General Arnold died on Lake Champlain, when desperately fighting with his single vessel the whole British fleet, that the remainder of his own might escape; or had the bullet that shattered his leg while leading his troops in the assault on Quebec pierced his heart, there would have been found among those who now bear the name, many who would have proudly claimed a blood relationship. As it is, I have met very few indeed who admit such kinship. I did, indeed, once hear a beautiful and spirited young lady, of very great taste, culture and talent, audaciously and ironically say she had the best blood of any family in the republic, for she was related to Benedict Arnold by one of her parents, and Aaron Burr by the other!

Two hundred and fifty or three hundred years ago there was a common ancestor of General Arnold and the author, and under these circumstances I shall be pardoned the egotism of saying that my grandfather, Thomas Arnold, was an humble soldier in the war of the Revolution, and w&s faithful/ and that such was his admiration of the commander-in-chief, that he gave to my father the name of George Washington.

I have endeavored to make an exhaustive investigation of facts in relation to General Arnold. I have consulted his manuscript letters in the Force collection in the library of Congress; manuscript letters of Arnold and his wife and sister, in the Department of State at Washington; the very large and valuable Schuyler manuscripts in the possession of the family of General Schuyler; and the Gates and Lamb papers, in the possession of the New York Historical Society.

Also the Shippen papers and Shippen manuscripts, which contain letters from General Arnold and his wife, from the

INTRODUCTION.

time of Arnold's courtship and marriage to the day of his death, in 1801.

Also the correspondence of his children in England, with Chief-Justice Shippen; letters from his wife and children to and from his sister, Hannah Arnold, and his sons by his first wife — Richard and Henry — in Canada. I am especially indebted to Edward Shippen, of Philadelphia, and to the family of a granddaughter of Arnold, in Canada, for very valuable and new material; also to a grandson of General Arnold — the Rev. Edward Gladwin Arnold, of Great Massingham Rectory, Norfolk, England, for many valuable letters and manuscript documents of great historic interest, and many incidents relating to the life of his grandfather and family in England.

From these papers and persons, from the writings of Washington, and Force's American Archives, and other sources, I have drawn the material for the following work. I think I have been able to contribute something new and valuable, and considerable that is not generally known to this part of American history.

For General Arnold, the patriot and soldier, I ask a fair hearing and justice; for Benedict Arnold, the traitor, I have no plea, but " guilty."

September, 1879.

Chapter I. His Early Life

The Ancestors of Benedict Arnold — His own Immediate Family, and Early life — His Feats of Daring — Education — Marriage — His First Duel, . . . ... . . 15-32

Chapter II. Ticonderoga And Crown Point

The Boston Massacre — Arnold's Fiery Patriotism — His Letter — Battle of Lexington — Capt. Arnold Volunteers and Leads his Company to Cambridge—Expedition to Ticonderoga — Captures St. Johns — Warren his Friend — Injustice to Arnold — Death of his Wife — Touching Letter of his Sister, Hannah Arnold, . . ... 33-48

Chapter III. Expedition To Quebec

Expedition to Quebec, and March Through the Wilderness — Arnold proposes the Expedition to Washington — Washington Approves, and Selects for it " Picked Men " of his Army, and Gives the Command to Arnold — Their Difficulties, Sufferings and Dangers — Enos gets frightened and Abandons his Comrades — Arnold, with Morgan, Pushes on — Provisions Exhausted — Arnold with Six Men Makes a Forced March to the Canadian Settlements, Obtains Food, and Saves the Detachment, . . . 49-72

CONTEXTS.

Chapter IV. Assault Upon Quebec

Arnold Holds an Indian Council — His Speech to the Indians — Crosses the St. Lawrence, Climbs to the Plains of Abraham, and Menaces Quebec— Receives thanks of Washington and Schuyler — Montgomery and Arnold Assault Quebec— Montgomery Killed — Arnold Shot while Leading the " Forlorn Hope " — Made a Brigadier-General — Blockades Quebec, . . . . 73-88

Chapter V. Retreat From Canada

The Affair at the Cedars — Visit of Franklin, Chase and Carroll to Arnold's Quarters— The Seizure of Goods in Montreal — Trial of Colonel Hazen by Court-Martial — Controversy Between Arnold and the Court — Charges against Arnold by Lieut. Col. John Brown — Action thereon by Wooster, Schuyler and Gates — Charges Declared by Congress to be Cruel and Groundless— Arnold's Retreat from Canada, . 89-104

Chapter VI. Naval Battle Of Valcour Island

The British, Greatly Superior in Numbers and in Guns, Attack the Ameiican Fleet under Arnold, on Lake Champlain — The Fight Continues from Noon until Night, when the British Retire — The Americans Escape Through the British Line — Are Overtaken, and Arnold, in the Congress, Fights and Retards the Enemy until his other Vessels Escape— He Runs the Congress Ashore, Burns her, and with his Men, Reaches Ticonderoga, . .... 105-120

Chapter VII. Arnold Superseded His Fight At R1dgefield, Etc

Arnold in Washington 's Camp — Sent to Rhode Island — Advances £1,000 to aid Lamb in Raising his Regiment — Offers Himself to the Beautiful Miss Deblois — Five Junior Brigadiers Promoted over Him — Withholds his Resignation, at Washington's request — Desperate Battle, and Escape at Ridgefield — Congress Vote him a Horse, and Commission him a Major-General — Declare the Charges of Brown to be Cruel Aspersions upon his Character — Washington begs Congress to send him North to aid in Repelling Burgoyne, . . 121-139

CONTENTS.

Chapter VIII. Campaign On The Mohawk, And Relief Of Fort Stanwix

St. Leger Invests Fort Stanwix — Herkimer going to its relief, falls into an Ambuscade, and at the Battle of Oriskany is Mortally Wounded — Arnold Volunteers to go to the relief of Gansevoort — Reaches German Flats, and although a Council of War resolve that they must wait for Reinforcements, he determines to " Push forward and hazard a Battle," rather than see the Garrison fall — He resorts to a Ruse — He Frightens the Indians, who abandon the Siege, and Fort Stanwix is relieved 140-162

Chapter IX. First Battle Near Saratoga

Battle of 19th of September— Arnold leads the Troops to Victory — Error of Bancroft — Testimony of Cols. Varick and Livingston, Generals Schuyler, Burgoyne, and others — Verdict of Irving, Lossing, and others, 163-190

Chapter X. Second Battle Of Saratoga

Quarrel between Gates and Arnold — Action of October 7th — Heroism of Arnold — Gates tries in vain to recall him from the Field — Morgan, by direction of Arnold, orders his Riflemen to Fire at Fraser — Fraser Shot — Senator Foster's Account of Arnold's Charge, as witnessed by his Father — Arnold Shot — Saves the Life of the Soldier who Shot him — Congress votes him Thanks and the Rank hitherto Refused — Washington Sends him his New, Ante-dated Commission, and Declares he is Restored " to a Violated Right," .... 191-211

Chapter XI

Washington's friendship — Arnold's generosity. Arnold's Wound — He is carried to Albany, thence to Connecticut — Reception at New Haven — Receives Pistols, Epaulettes and Sword-Knots from Washington — He supplies Money for the Education and Maintenance of the Orphans of General Warren — Goes to Valley Forge — Washington Assigns him to Command of Philadelphia, . 212-221

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII. Arnold's courtship and marriage

Philadelphia during the Revolution — Arnold Assumes Command, and Succeeds Sir William Howe in Occupying the Penn House — The Shippen Family — Major John Andre — The 44 Mischienza " — Peggy Shippen, the Belle of Philadelphia — Arnold her Suitor — His Courtship — Settles upon her Mt. Pleasant — Marriage and Domestic Life — Letter of Hannah Arnold to Mrs. Arnold at West Point, . . 222-236

CHAPTER XIII. Arnold's controversy with the authorities of Pennsylvania

Arnold's Conduct in Command of Philadelphia — His Controversy with President Reed and the Authorities of Pennsylvania — The Action of Congress — Reports of Committees Exonerating Him — A Court-Martial Ordered for his Trial 237-249

CHAPTER XIV. Arnold's trial — Washington's reprimand

Arnold's Trial Continued — His Defense — Judgment of the Court — Washington's Reprimand and Eulogy, ... . 250-264

CHAPTER XV. Arnold's treason

The Motives which Led to Arnold's Treason — His Wrongs — Inducements Held Out to Him by British Emissaries — They try to Convince Him the Contest Hopeless, and that England offers All for Which he Drew his Sword — Supposed Meeting between Him and Beverly Robinson — Letter to Arnold Attributed to Robinson by Marbois — Arnold yields to the Temptations Offered, and Seeks the Command of West Point — Meets Washington at King's Ferry, who Offers Him the Command of the Left Wing of his Army — Tradition that Arnold said his Defection was to Prevent more Bloodshed — Meeting of Arnold and Andre — Supposed Conversation between Them — Andre's Capture — His Letter to Washington, 265-293

CONTENTS.

Chapter XVI

arxold's escape — andee's execution-.

Arnold Hears of Andre's Capture— Flies to the Vulture — Washington Arrives at West Point— Mrs. Arnold's Distress — Arnold's Letter to Washington, Declaring Her Innocence, and Begging Washington to Protect Her — Declares His Military Family Innocent — Hannah Arnold's Letter Begging the Pity of all Her Friends, and Praying Them not to Forsake Her— Andre's Trial as a Spy— Efforts to Save His Life — Arnold's alleged offer to Surrender Himself in Exchange— Andre's Execution, 294-315

Chapter XVII

mes. Arnold's innocence — was andre a spy?

Was Mrs. Arnold Guilty of Complicity with her Husband's Treason? — Was Andre a Spy, and Executed in Accordance with the Laws of War? 316-328

Chapter XVIII. Arnold Vainly Attempts To Justify His Treason

Arnold in New York City — His Address to the American People — His Proclamation to the Officers and Soldiers of the American Army — Attempt to Kidnap Him — His Wife Joins Him in New York, . 329-341

Chapter XIX. Arnold Leads British Soldiers Against His Native Country

Arnold Leads an Expedition Against Virginia and Connecticut — Massacre at Fort Griswold — Arnold's Narrow Escape from Death by the Hands of a Woman at New London, .... 342-354

Chapter XX. Arnold At The Court Op George The III

Arnold's Departure with Lord Cornwallis for England — His Reception by the King and Cabinet — His Paper on a Reunion Between the Colonies and the Crown — General and Mrs. Arnold at Andre's Monument in Westminster Abbey, 355-366

CONTENTS.

Chapter XXI. General Arnold Engages In Business

Arnold Settles in Portman Square, London — He Lives Beyond his Means — Engages in Trade — Removes to St. John's, New Brunswick — His Family Correspondence — Mrs. Arnold Visits her Family at Philaelphia, 367-374

CHAPTER XXII. Arnold's duel with the earl of lauderdale

Arnold and Talleyrand — Arnold's Duel with the Earl of Lauderdale — Statement of Lord Hawke — Mrs. Arnold's Letters to her Father and to Richard Arnold, Giving an Account of the Duel , . 375-384

Chapter XXIII

Arnold's services in the west indies — ins death.

General Arnold in 1794 Fits out a Ship for the West Indies — Ship Lost — At Gaudaloupe — His Danger — Escapes to the English Fleet — His Services to the Government in the West Indies — Receives the Thanks of the Planters — The King Grants to Him 13,500 Acres of Canada Lands for his "Gallantry," &c. — He Begs the Duke of York for Military Service Against the French — His Death. . . . 385-393

Chapter XXIV. The Family Of General Arnold

Mrs. Arnold's Executive Ability — She Settles General Arnold's Estate and Pays his Debts — Educates her Children, and Procures for her Sons Commissions in the Army — Her Death — The Arnold Family in Canada — li Poor Ben's " Death from a Wound Received in Battle — The Family in England — All the Sons in the Public Service — James Appointed Military Aid to the King — Attains the Rank of Lieut. General— A Grandson Killed at Sebastopol, . . . 399-417

APPENDIX, INDEX,

419 429

LIFE OF BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Chapter I. His Early Life

" For I was wayward, bold and wild, A self willed imp."

— Marmion.

"A great, a gifted, but a turbid soul

"Struggled and chafed within that stripling's breast. " Passion which none might conquer or control."

The Ancestors of Benedict Arnold— His own. Immediate Family, and Early Life— His Feats op Daring— Education— Marriage— His First Duel.

Time, by bringing to light new manuscripts, is constantly increasing the accuracy and completeness of our knowledge of the Revolution. As events recede into the past, this period of American history is becoming more and more attractive and picturesque.

The name of Benedict Arnold is doomed to live in that history forever as the only conspicuous instance of treason: " Sadly conspicuous," as Washington Irving says, " to the end of time." His punishment has been terrible but just. In the sense in which Satan has been called the hero of Paradise Lost, he was one of the heroes of the revolutionary war. One great crime obliterated the memory of years of hard and patriotic service. A century has gone since his abortive conspiracy, and there is, I think, a disposition to be less relentless— I mav say more just to his memory.

LIFE OF BENEDICT AENOLD.

There is a willingness to look behind the black shadow of his treason; to recognize behind the traitor of "West Point the hero of Saratoga. In proportion as history is severe, it should be scrupulously just. With the conviction that General Arnold has not had fair treatment; that his life as a patriot and soldier should be truthfully told, I ask a hearing.

William Arnold, born in Leamington, England, in 1587, settled in Providence in 1636, was the ancestor of the Arnolds of Rhode Island and Connecticut. He was a contemporary of Roger Williams, and associated with him as one of the fifty-four proprietors in the first settlement of the first named little commonwealth. His ancestors in Enffland, and still earlier in Wales, were highly respectable, and their lineage has been traced back for several centuries. There is a genealogy of the family of apparent accuracy, going back to the year 1100, and naming Monmouthshire, Wales, as the place where the family originated. William,1 the founder of the family in Rhode Island, had three sons, Benedict, Thomas and Stephen. Benedict, the eldest, removed to Newport about the year 1653.2

1. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, of Mel come Hersey, of Chesel bourne, County of Dorset, England, who was son of Richard Arnold, Lord of the manor of Eagbere, Parish of Middleton, Co. of Dorset.

•;ce Arnold Genealogy in N. Y. His. Society.

2. I have received from a grand daughter of General Arnold, residing in Canada, a curious, atitique paper, apparently of ante-revolutionary origin, containing a genealogy of some of the Arnold family, from 1571 to 1776. Some parts of it seem to have been prepared by Governor Benedict Arnold, the successor of Roger Williams, as President and Governor of the Colony. He says :

"We came from Providence with our family to dwell in Newport, in Rhode Island, the 19th of November, Thursday in afternoon, and arrived ye same night, anno Domini 1651. Memorandum : my father and his family sett sayle from Dartmouth, in old England, the first of May, Friday, and arrived at New England June 24th. anno Domini 1635. Mein'n : We came to Providence to dwell the 20th of April, 1636. Memorandum.

" Benedict and Demaris Arnold were married the 17th of December, anno Domini 1640. Our sonne Benedict was born February 10, 1641— being our first-born, and bearcst therefore his father's name— about two hours before day.

" Our second sonne we named Caleb. He was born the 19th of December, anno

HIS PATRIOTISM AND HIS TREASON.

He succeeded Roger Williams as President of the Colony, under the first charter, and was several times elected Governor under the second charter; serving as Governor from 1663 to 1666, and from May, 1*669, to 1672; also from 1677 to 1678, when he died.1

The son of Governor Benedict Arnold, named Benedict, was a member of the Assembly in 1695, and the grandson, also named Benedict, moved to Norwich, Connecticut, in 1730, and was the father of the subject of this memoir. He was by trade a cooper, carrying on the business quite largely, and in addition he engaged in general traffic, owning several vessels, and sometimes commanding them, and making voyages along the coast, and to the West Indies. As the commander of his own vessels he acquired the title of captain, by which he was generally designated. He was respected by his townsmen, and by their selection held various town offices, such as surveyor, collector, lister (assessor) and selectman. He married Nov. 8, 1733, Hannah, the young and "beautiful " widow of Absalom King, her maiden name being Waterman. Her family was respected, and she herself was distinguished for her piety, good sense and rigid Puritan character. She was a strict Presbyterian, of the type of that day and colony, but in her this form of Christianity was softened and made gentle and sweet by a most affectionate, and kind disposition.2

1646, about 8 o'clock in the evening. We called him Caleb, in memory of that worthy Caleb, which only accompanied Josiah into ye land of promise of all yt came out of Egypt, <fec.

" Our third sonne was born December 22nd, 1647, about midnight. He was our third child, and we named him Josiah, in memory of that good Josiah which purged the house of Israel from idolatry, &c.

" Our fourth sonne was born ye 21st of October, 1651, and we named him William, i ntending he should have the name of his grandfather, but God pleased in his wisdom to take him away."

1. Arnold's History of Rhode Island, 565.

It is mentioned in the genealogy above quoted, that a daughter " lyeth interred under a tomb in my land, between my dwelling house and a stone wind-mill." This is the old stone wind-mill still standing in Newport.

2. I have received the following memorandum from a descendant of the mother

LIFE OF BENEDICT AENOLD.

The children of this marriage were six, three sons and three daughters.

Benedict (a family name running through several generations), the eldest, died in infancy, and to the second son, the subject of this memoir, the same family name was given. He was born at Norwich, on the 14th of January, 1741.1

Of all the six children of Captain Benedict Arnold, this son and a sister, Hannah, only survived the period of childhood.

It has been quite the fashion for our historians and annalists to stigmatize Benedict Arnold as of low birth and vulgar habits, but in this, as in many other particulars, the passionate desire to throw discredit upon the traitor, has

of Benedict Arnold, claiming for her, as will be seen, very distinguished ancestry. I have no means of determining the truth of its statements, but insert it for the curious in such matters:

Genealogy— Mrs. Waterman— Arnold —Mother op B. Arnold.— Lieut. Thomas Tracy, one of the original proprietors of Norwich, Conn., born in England in 1611, was a lineal descendant of the 29th generation from Egbert, the first Saxon king of all England. He had seven children, viz.: John, Jonathan, Thomas, Miriam, Solomon, David, and Samuel.

John Tracy was an ancestor of Hon. Reuben Hyde Walworth, Chancellor of the State of New York, and also of Mrs. Gideon M. Davidson, the mother of C. M. Davidson.

Jonathan Tracy, born in 1644, married Mary Griswold and had nine children, the second of whom was

Hannah Tracy, who was married in 1695 to Thomas Davison, 1st, the great, great grandfather of Gideon M. Davison, the father of Clement M. Davison.

Mirriam Tracy, born in 1648, the only daughter of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, was married in 1668, to Thomas Waterman, one of the original proprietors of Norwich, son of Kobert Waterman, of Elizabeth Brown, an ancestress of Mrs. G. M. Davison. They had eight children, viz. : Thomas, Elizabeth. John, Miriam, Martha, Lydia, Joseph and Anne.

John Waterman, born in 1672, married in 1701 Elizabeth Lathrop, second daughter of Samuel Lathrop and Hannah Adgate, of Norwich; they had four children, one of whom was the mother of Gen. Benedict Arnold, who was the third cousin of Thos. Davison, 2nd, the great grand father of C. M. Davison. The grand children of Gen. Arnold, and the father of C. M. Davison are consequently 5th cousins, and are of the 33d generation, in a lineal descent from King Egbert.

Windsor. Canada, Sept. 6th, 1862.

i. Genealogy of Arnold family— also manuscript letter of his grandson, Rev. Edward Gladwin Arnold. See, also, Miss Caulkins' History of Norwich, p. 409.

HIS PATRIOTISM AND HIS TREASON.

rendered them inaccurate and unjust. His ancestors in England, and his forefathers in Rhode Island, were, as has been stated, men of character, education and position, and certainly no family in Rhode Island, up to the time of the Revolution, had been more honored in official positions, and it is but simple justice to place them among the most prominent of the founders of that small, but admirable State. Whether of great or little importance, it is a fact that there were few colonial families whose lineage, by both father and mother, was more entirely respectable.

Captain Benedict Arnold died in 1761. The house occupied by him, and in which the subject of this memoir was born, stood in the old part of the town of Norwich, and was not demolished until 1853. There were in and around it many memorials of young Benedict. After his removal to New Haven, the house and house-lot were sold by him to one Hugh Ledlie, for seven hundred pounds sterling. In consequence of the insanity of the wife of Ledlie, and exaggerated tales growing out of this circumstance, the house was believed to be haunted, and many wild stories of supernatural appearances were told of it, and credited by the superstitious.

In the year 1775, Deacon William Phillips, of Boston, father of Lieutenant Governor Phillips,moved to Norwich and occupied the old Arnold mansion until the British left Boston.1

The famous Malbones, of Newport, were the next occupants, and the misfortunes of that family added to its weird reputation.

Next, Col. Moore, of Norfolk, Virginia, father of Richard Channing Moore, Bishop of Virginia, occupied it, and died there in 1784. It was afterwards purchased by Uriah

1. See Miss Caulkins' History of Norwich, page 411, manuscript letter of C. C. P. Waterman.

LIFE OF BENEDICT ARNOLD.

Tracy, who lived in it for many years undisturbed. The strange noises and sights for which it had been so long noted now ceased. The garden and groves were no longer infested with strange visitants, and the chambers were now quiet and peaceful.

The mother of Benedict Arnold has been described by her contemporaries, and by tradition, as a woman of extraordinary strength of character, and entirely devoted to her family. " Benedict Arnold's mother," said one who knew her well, " was a saint on earth, and is now an angel in heaven." 1

Several letters of hers still extant, prove that all which was said in her praise was true. She died Aug. 15th, 1758. The inscription on her tomb-stone confirms what has been said.

" In memory of Hannah, the well-beloved wife of Captain Benedict Arnold, and daughter of Mr. John and Mrs. Elizabeth Waterman. She was a pattern of piety, patience and virtue: who died Aug. 15th, 1758. .Etatis 52." 1

Captain Oliver Arnold, the uncle of Benedict, died in New Haven, in 1781. He had long been an invalid, and left very little for the support and maintenance of his family. After the death of his uncle, Benedict was always liberal and kind to them ; and even after his exile in England, did not forget his cousins, and his remittances to them are said to have been generous. He assisted the eldest son to a liberal education; but the young man, grieved and indignant at the conduct of his cousin, joined the naval service of the United States, and attaching himself to the celebrated Paul Jones, hoped by deeds of desperate daring to efface the disgrace which his cousin's treason had attached to the name. He returned to New Haven with his health broken, and soon died.