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| Benedict Arnold Traitor |
The
story of Benedict Arnold’s treasonous actions at West Point is so well known
that the man’s very name is synonymous with traitor in the United States. He
planned to turn over the fort at West Point along with all the soldiers
stationed there to the British in exchange for a great deal of money and a
commission as a British officer. But how did Arnold get command of the exact
position the British needed him to give up? The answer is his wife.
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| Peggy Shippen Arnold She looked so innocent |
Arnold married Margaret Shippen
(commonly known as Peggy) of Philadelphia in in 1779. Almost immediately she
helped him contact the British to begin arranging the terms under which he
would turn his coat. Their contact was a former suitor of Peggy’s, Major
John Andre, whom she had met while the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777
and 1778. In a touch of irony for the Livingston family, Andre had been
captured by General Richard Montgomery at Fort Saint Jean in Canada in 1775. Had
he not been released later in a prisoner exchange perhaps none of what followed
would have happened.
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| John Andre, self portrait done shortly before he was hung |
Peggy also began making friends with
important Americans in the city in order to further her husband’s aims. One of
these men was Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. Livingston was a fan of Arnold’s
before Peggy got involved. His brother-in-law Montgomery had fought with Arnold
in Canada. His brother Henry had praised and in turn been praised by Arnold for
actions at the Battles of Saratoga. Livingston thought Arnold was a competent
and active officer and much superior in comparison to Israel Putnam, for
instance, who the Chancellor spent most of 1778 trying to have removed from the
army for his inactivity. In February of 1780 when Arnold’s court martial
sentence for corruption was sent to Congress for approval the Chancellor was one
of only three members of Congress to vote against it.
Peggy and the Chancellor spent a
great deal of time together in Philadelphia. By the summer of 1780 he was
convinced that Arnold was the man to command West Point, which was one of the
most tactically important positions in the country as it commanded the Hudson
River but for the Livingstons represented the only real barrier between their
land and a repeat performance of the destruction wrought by the British army in
1777. On June 22, 1780 the Chancellor, long accustomed to providing welcome
military advice to the General, wrote to George Washington:
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| A French Plan of West Point in 1780 nary a stream or a swain to be seen |
“I might presume
so far I shd beg leave to submit it to your Excellency whether this post might
not be most safely confided to Genl Arnold whose courage is undoubted—who is
the favourite of our militia, & who will agree perfectly with our Govr”
General
Philip Schuyler of Albany also put his support behind Arnold to command
West Point and soon Washington responded to the Chancellor that he would give
command of the fort to Arnold at the first opportunity which came in August of
that year.
The Chancellor’s closeness with
Peggy Arnold had not got unnoticed though. On September 4, 1780 Arnold’s sister
Hannah wrote him a gossipy letter, now in the collection of Harvard, from
Philadelphia that included the following warning:
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| Robert R. Livingston dangerous companion |
“As you have
neither purling streams nor sighing swains at West Point, tis no place for me;
nor do I think Mrs. Arnold will be long pleased with it, though I expect it may
be rendered dear to her for a few hours by the presence of a certain
chancellor; who by the by, is a dangerous companion for a particular lady in
the absence of her husband. I could say more than prudence will permit, I could
tell you of frequent private assignations and of numberless billets daux, if I
had an inclination to make mischief. But as I am of a very peaceable temper I’ll
not mention a syllable of the matter.”
It
is important to note here that Arnold’s sister was a bit of a busy body. No one
else has ever accused the Chancellor of anything more than flirtation with pretty
ladies. Furthermore Arnold probably knew and encouraged Peggy to spend time
with the Chancellor as it furthered his goals.
Arnold was now in command of West
Point though and events began to happen very quickly. On September 20, 1780
Andre came up river on the Vulture to
make the final arrangements with Arnold. They met on September 21. On September
22, a distant cousin of the Chancellor’s, Col. James Livingston was in command
at Verplanck’s Point. He took offense to the Vulture idling in the river in front of his post and ordered his
men to open fire with a small cannon. They holed the Vulture several times forcing her to fall back down the river.
Andre could no longer return to New York City by river and was forced to try to
go overland. He was captured and documents he carried revealed the entire plot.
On September 24 Arnold slipped aboard a British ship. Peggy was sent to New York
City to join him a few days later. Andre was hung as a spy on October 2.
In the immediate aftermath of the
revelation some accused both Schuyler and Livingston of being involved with the
plot to turn over West Point to the British. Both men had pushed for Arnold to
receive the post and some no doubt remembered how close Peggy and the
Chancellor had been in Philadelphia. Washington however refused to believe that
either man could have had anything to do with the plot and the matter was
dropped.
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| In the mid to late 19th century Clermont or John Henry Livingston purchased this candelabrum depicting the capture of Andre which now resides in the library of Clermont State Historic Site |
The
letter from Hannah Arnold to Benedict Arnold can be viewed on Harvard’s website
here
A
transcription of the letter from the Chancellor to George Washington can be
viewed here
For
more information see
Secret
History of the American Revolution by Carl Van Doren
Treacherous
Beauty: Peggy Shippen, the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Plot to Betray
America by Mark Jacob and Stephen M. Case.
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