Benedict Arnold Hero then Traitor

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Many think of Benedict Arnold as only a traitor but before he turned coats he was one of the Colonials best leaders.

Benedict Arnold: General in the Battle of Saratoga
Benedict Arnold's performance at the Battles of Saratoga contributed to the American victory there. But a bitter rivalry with his commander helped start Arnold down the road to treason.

The season was changing. Hot afternoons gave way to cool evenings and cooler mornings as summer turned to autumn in New York's upper Hudson Valley. Beneath the green, red, and orange canopy of leaves shrouding the hills that straddled the Hudson River, a different sort of transformation was taking place. Four months into British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's invasion of the northern colonies, his army had collided with Major General Horatio Gates's entrenched Americans. Now, on September 19, 1777, the first of two fateful battles--bound to alter the course of the American Revolution--had begun.

At Gates's headquarters behind the American lines on Bemis Heights (named for Jotham Bemis, a local tavern keeper), 36-year-old Major General Benedict Arnold seethed with impatience. The fiery Connecticut native held command of the American left wing, which Burgoyne had attacked that morning. After directing the American defense for much of the day, Arnold now found himself wasting his energy by repeatedly requesting that Gates give him reinforcements. He ached to sweep the field before dark.

Gates eventually sent portions of Brigadier General Ebenezer Learned's brigade to support the Americans who were battling across a wide, stump-filled field called Freeman's Farm. Shortly afterward, Deputy Quartermaster Colonel Morgan Lewis reported in at headquarters and told Gates of the indecisive fighting. That was enough for Arnold. "By God, I will soon put an end to it" he declared, and mounted a horse to go and lead the troops himself.

"You had better order him back," Lewis told Gates. "The action is going well. He may, by some rash act, do mischief."

Gates immediately sent an aide to bring him back, and Arnold angrily complied. By this time Learned's unguided infantry had wandered too far to the west, where they were all but wiped out by Brigadier General Simon Fraser's British troops. Meanwhile, 500 German soldiers under Major General Baron Friedrich von Riedesel had marched to Freeman's Farm and stopped the final American advance. Darkness then descended, ending the contest.

Left in command of the field, Burgoyne could technically claim victory in the First Battle of Saratoga (also known as the Battle of Freeman's Farm), but he had suffered 560 casualties, almost twice the American total. The British Army had shrunk to less than 7,000 effectives, while Gates could boast of nearly 12,000 Continentals and militia. The Americans could still win a victory. All the soldiers needed, Arnold believed, was inspiration, but he doubted it would come from his commander.

Horatio Gates, American commander of the Northern Department, held a military position in America that far exceeded anything he could have achieved in his native England, where he had been born a commoner. Writer Hoffman Nickerson characterized Gates as "a snob of the first water" who possessed "an unctuously pious way with him." Although Gates was an ambitious man, dynamic leadership was not part of his makeup. The former British officer did not believe American troops could stand up to British infantry in the open field. Though his men clearly outnumbered those of his opponent, Gates remained cautious and believed his army was better off fighting from behind fortifications.

Arnold, in contrast, was daring and imaginative. He had proven his abilities during the doomed attempt to capture Quebec in 1775 and at the Battle of Valcour Island the next year. At Saratoga his views differed from those held by Gates. From the first reports of British movement on the morning of September 19, Arnold pestered his commander for permission to send riflemen to the woods west of Freeman's Farm. There, Arnold believed, the quick-moving Americans could set an ambush for the approaching columns. Gates permitted him to send out a "reconnaissance in force" shortly before 1:00 p.m., and Arnold eagerly dispatched Colonel Daniel Morgan's famed Rangers and Major Henry Dearborn's light infantry.

Arnold fed additional regiments into the fray, about 3,000 Continental troops and militia in total. Captain Ebenezer Wakefield remembered Arnold "in front of the line, his eyes flashing, pointing with his sword to the advancing foe, with a voice that rang clear as a trumpet and electrified the line." Arnold's division tangled with Fraser's column on the left and Burgoyne's personally led column in the center. Hemmed in by the river and Gates's right wing on the heights, Riedesel's German units sat motionless until 5:00 p.m., when Burgoyne sent for him to reinforce his besieged center. If Gates had countered this move, Arnold felt, the Americans would have carried the day. But Gates, citing a shortage of ammunition, was content with a draw.

Within days of the battle, tension between Gates and Arnold boiled over. Gates made no mention of Arnold or his division in his battle report to Congress, though they had done all of the fighting. Even more galling to the ultra-sensitive Arnold was his commander's September 22 decree that Daniel Morgan would thereafter report only to him. Arnold stormed into Gates's headquarters. A loud argument ensued, and the two men exchanged "high words and gross language." Gates questioned Arnold's very qualification for command. He also told Arnold that he planned to assume direct command of the left wing as soon as Major General Benjamin Lincoln arrived to take over the right.

The eruption between Gates and Arnold had been coming for some time. The two had once been friends, but army politics and petty jealousy had turned them into rivals. Arnold had angrily resigned his commission in July after Congress promoted five junior officers to major general ahead of him. The promotions were part of a new political system that balanced the number of generals from each state, and Connecticut already had their fair share with two major generals, Israel Putnam and Joseph Spencer. At General George Washington's request, Arnold had agreed to set the issue aside.

Arnold had infuriated Gates by becoming friendly with Major General Philip Schuyler while serving under Schuyler in the Northern Department. Gates hated Schuyler because Schuyler held a command that Gates desired for himself. Arnold's friendship with his enemy irked him. Congress replaced Schuyler with Gates in August, but friction between Gates and Arnold remained. Arnold immediately annoyed Gates by adding two Schuyler partisans, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Brockholst Livingston and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick, to his staff. Gates, in turn, leaned increasingly on his aide, James Wilkinson, a 20-year-old lieutenant colonel and schemer of questionable principles. Arnold soon became an unwelcome guest at army headquarters.