Until I read the article, I never appreciated the strategic significance of West Point at that time. I just thought of it as a fort that the British wanted to gain. Thanks, Elendil’s Heir.
Adding my kudos. One of the better SDSAB columns.
Did anyone else here besides me learn most of what they knew about Benedict Arnold from that Brady Bunch episode?
Huh. I didn’t even know there was a Brady Bunch episode! Did one of the kids have to do a book report?
Nope. Peter had to portray Arnold in a school play. Mike eventually counselled him to simply give the best performance he was capable of. And he turned out to be a big hit, IIRC.
His death scene on stage was rather touching, for a rat.
The United States of America became a country on July 4, 1776.
Of course, had they lost the war, they certainly would have agreed to some set of conditions whereby most revolutionaries wouldn’t be executed, and the document would say there had never been a country; nevertheless, the United States was a country when Benedict Arnold (secretly) changed sides.
It seems to me that the Americans deserved what they got for trusting a man who was literally named “Benedict Arnold.” That should have been a big red flag.
More seriously, what was Andre’s background, such that he was a British officer with a French-sounding name? (Jean-Luc Picard, please report to the bridge).
I know! And what was Jesus thinking, having a disciple actually named “Judas”? Yeesh. That’s just asking for trouble.
There’s this crazy thing the kids these days are all calling “Wikipedia.” Turns out his parents were Swiss and French Huguenots: John André - Wikipedia.
It’s one of history’s great ironies that Arnold almost single-handedly saved the Union at the little-known battle of Lake Champlain. The article briefly mentions that battle, but doesn’t go into detail.
I once attended a play which had as its premise that the Revolutionary War had failed. The play was a mock trial of Washington for treason.
I giggled.
I only know who he is from an old Bugs Bunny episode. Porky Pig says “B-b-b-b-benedict Arnold.” I had to ask my dad who that was. We’re Canadian so didn’t learn much American history in school.
They got an effective junior general out of it; on the other hand, it made a lot of Britons feel vaguely dirty about the whole war, which may have contributed to the American victory.
That’s what Arnold expected, but the British generally thought him a rather skeevy sort, especially since the death of André was a result of Arnold demanding personal guarantees from a high-ranking officer (André was only a major, but he was Adjutant General of the whole damn BEF) that he’d get his payoff.
cite?
cite?
For the Brits feeling he was a skeevy sort, see **Elendil Heir’s ** column, the very subject of this thread, where it talks about the Brits’ feelings about him. (Which syncs with that Brady Bunch episode too!)
As for helping turn the Brits against the war, I can’t say what role he played in that, but I have read the American Revolution started being viewed in the same vein as the Vietnam War at some point.
In a way, yes. See Stanley Weintraub’s Iron Tears, mentioned in my references list, which is an interesting look at the British side of the American Revolution - political, military, social, economic, etc. British public support for the war dropped with each year it ground on, and Washington’s victory at Yorktown - after six long years of fighting - was the death knell of the King’s and Lord North’s military policy. I actually don’t think that Arnold’s treachery had a major impact on the British war effort, but at best it did little good.
I grew up in Tarrytown, and right on the main street in the center of town is a statue of Major Andre, supposedly at the location where he was captured. All us kids knew the basic story, but I never got the whole picture until this Dope piece. So, kudos.
There’s a monument to André on the spot in Tappan where he was hanged and originally buried. (He was later taken to Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.)
He was a minor poet and artist, and wrote, produced, and designed the costumes for America’s very first Renaissance faire. Washington once said that hanging André was the hardest thing he ever had to do as a soldier. And as early as 1798 he was the hero of an American play, André: a Tragedy in Five Acts by William Dunlap, generally regarded as the first great American play. If you’re interested, the best edition is my own, available to read or print gratis at http://www.john-w-kennedy.name/Andre/Andre.php .
Thanks! Didn’t know that.
Not at all. The British disliked him as well. Edmund Burke argued in Parliament that Arnold should not be given a command in the British Army lest “the sentiments of true honor, which every British officer [holds] dearer than life, should be afflicted.”
Further attempts at British government service were also rejected.
Actually, no, they didn’t. They didn’t want him.