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- American General,
Benedict Arnold,

has just learned that his
plot to surrender West Point

to the British
has been foiled.

Leaving behind his
wife and infant son,

he flees to a waiting
boat on the Hudson River.

♪ music playing ♪

- Born for a
curse to virtue and mankind.

Earth's broadest realms
can't show so black a mind.

Night's sable veil your
crimes can never hide.

Each one's so great, they
glut the historic tide.

Defunct, your memory
will live in all the glare

that infamy can give.

Curses of ages will
attend your name,

traitors alone will
glory in your shame.

Almighty justice
sternly waits to roll.

Rivers of sulphur on
your traitorous soul.

Nature looks back, with
conscious error sad,

on such a tainted blot
that she has made.

Let Hell receive you
rivetted in chains,

damned to the hottest
of its flames.

♪ music playing ♪

- For Americans,
his name is synonymous

with treason,
disloyalty and treachery.

But before he returned his
allegiance to the King

of England, he was
a heroic patriot leader

of the American Revolution.

♪ music playing ♪

- The Arnold story
deepens and enriches

our comprehension of
the American Revolution

and what it was all about.

By investigating his life,
and by investigating what made

him a hero, and ultimately
investigating what perhaps

turned him into the greatest
villain of the Revolution,

we will learn much more about
what this Revolution was all

about, and in the end, what
it did actually accomplish.

♪ music playing ♪

- Benedict Arnold
was born into a culture

and family environment that
would shape his destiny.

One of the largest cities
in the Colonies, Norwich,

Connecticut was a center of
wealth, commerce and trade.

Dating back to the
founding of Rhode Island,

the Arnold family was
one of the wealthiest

and most influential
in all of New England.

But early in his life,
his alcoholic father ruined

the family finances,
and disgraced their social

standing in
the eyes of the pious

and unforgiving community.

♪ music playing ♪

(Crow sounds)

- They lost three children
one terrible winter,

and it
devastated the father.

He took to liquor,
and he drank so much that

he suffered dementia
because of alcoholism.

- "Brothers and
sisters in Christ..."

- A woman of deep faith,
Benedict's mother

was drawn to
a puritanical movement in

New England known
as "the Great Awakening, "

which taught followers
to fear a vengeful God.

- "In Exodus, chapter 20..."

- The local community's
judgement of Arnold's father

was swift and brutal.

- That whispering that you
can just imagine through

the byways of the
Norwich community,

and Arnold could feel that.

There's a resentment that
begins to build in him.

♪ music playing ♪

- They lost
their place of honor in

the front pew of the church,
a devastating rebuke

to Arnold's mother.

- "Thou shalt not kill..."

- If you had a
mother like Arnold had,

who took all of
this very deeply to heart

and pounded it into
a child's mind,

that you had to be
ready at any moment,

that God could take you, and
that there was a possibility

that if you hadn't
lived the right life,

you would burn forever
in the fires of Hell;

especially if Arnold's
father, who took to drink,

one would have to assume
that your own father was

destined for damnation.

Not an easy thing for a
boy to handle at any age.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- This is a fellow
who is being confronted at

a very early
age with what his mother

is teaching him is
arbitrary power,

that it could just
strike you dead.

- "We're members of the
congregation of God."

- A God of wrath,
judgmental neighbors,

these adversaries were just
the beginning of Arnold's

fight against arbitrary power,
that will follow him for

the rest of his life.

Impoverished, Benedict's
mother sent him to live

with relatives in their
Norwich home.

They ran an apothecary,
and took the boy

in as an apprentice.

- It must have been an
enormous blow to Arnold,

who expected, as sons of
gentry and merchants did,

that they
would go to college.

He really expected a
trajectory of a gentleman.

(Wind sounds)

- While he was
living away from home,

Benedict's mother died,
making his situation

even more desperate.

♪ music playing ♪

The rest of his
life was spent in a

constant search for honor.

♪ Sprightly
violin music playing ♪

- After seven long years
of indentured servitude,

he got his first chance
to rebuild the family

wealth and restore
its good name,

when the relatives, who had
sponsored his apprenticeship,

set him up in an
apothecary shop of his own.

Proud of his new venture,
he christened it with

a Latin motto:
"Sibi Totique," meaning

"For Himself and Everyone."

- Arnold grew his business
into a major shipping

and trading enterprise,
operating between New England

and the Caribbean.

Even though he was at
sea for long stretches,

his wife and family were
never far from his thoughts.

- "My dear girl, you and you
only can imagine how long

the time seems since we parted,
and how impatient I am to see

you and the dear little
pledge of our mutual love.

God bless you both and send
us a happy meeting soon. "

(Shore sounds)

- While ashore
on business,

another ship's captain
insulted Arnold's wife.

This affront to her honor
did not go unchallenged.

♪ music playing ♪

- Reputation is very
much a part of gentility

in the 18th century,
so we can tell how sensitive

he is while he's
in the Caribbean.

He actually does engage
in at least one duel,

for somebody
who said something that he

considered slighting to his
honor or his reputation.

Arnold really wanted
to shoot somebody.

He does have a
rather ferocious reputation.

Other people
tend to back off.

This is a guy who's not
afraid to kill somebody

if his honor requires it.

♪ sad music playing ♪

- Even though he became
one of the wealthiest

merchants in the Colonies,
Arnold himself

was never fully
accepted into prominent

social circles.

- I think that if
one makes a great deal

of money in America today,
your past is sort

of forgotten.

You are what you
are at the moment.

But New England had
a pretty long memory;

it's not so easy to move
in and out of that level

in society for
someone like Arnold.

- This social rejection made
him particularly receptive

to the revolutionary ideals
sweeping though the Colonies.

- We're talking about
a society that is more

egalitarian, where there are
more and more people believing

that they are equal to all
other peoples socially.

♪ music playing ♪

- This may explain
why Arnold so strongly

identified with the
independence movement,

which was to end the
aristocratic control of

the colonial economy and
unleash entrepreneurs,

like him.

He thought a man should
be rewarded for his own

accomplishments,
not just by being born

into the right family.

- In 1765, the British
Parliament imposed a new tax

on all of the paper the
American colonists printed.

The money raised was
used to pay for defending

the American frontier.

The Stamp Tax came like
a bolt out of the blue.

It broke the club rules,
which had always allowed

the Colonies
to govern themselves.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- Arnold was an outspoken
critic of the Stamp Tax.

After five years
of bitter recriminations,

the dispute
turned into open conflict,

when British soldiers opened
fire on protestors in Boston.

When he heard about
the "Boston Massacre, "

he was astonished.

- "I am very much
shocked by the accounts

of the most cruel, wanton and
inhuman murders committed

in Boston by the soldiers.

Good God, are the Americans
all asleep and tamely giving

up their liberties?"

- Arnold was an individual who
did not and would not tolerate

other individuals trying to
control and manipulate him.

Arnold was an opposer of
arbitrary power throughout

his lifetime.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- Arnold didn't
like to be dictated to,

and I think the things that he
rebelled against personally,

he saw on a larger
level nationally.

He didn't want his
state, his Colonies,

to be subservient to the
British in the same way that

he was not going to be
subservient to another man.

♪ Violin music playing ♪

- After the first
shots were fired at Lexington

and Concord in 1775,
Arnold was ready to put

his personal fortune
and his life on the line.

- As animosity
between the Colonists

and Crown escalated,
Arnold organized and financed

the Connecticut Militia
Company and served as

its first captain.

Arnold was an idealist
from the start,

he had his men sign a pledge:

- "Driven to
the last necessity

and obliged to have
recourse to arms in defense

of our lives and liberties,
we promise to conduct

ourselves decently and
inoffensively as we march.

A truly virtuous deportment
will be ours at all times in

serving so great
and glorious a cause."

- That's a very,
very important statement

that is being made at that
particular point in time,

and that Arnold will
live up to that ideal.

- Arnold marched
his men to Boston to help

contain the British.

When he arrived,
the rebels were in desperate

need of artillery.

And he knew just
where to get it.

Having made several trading
expeditions through

the Champlain Valley,
he knew that Ticonderoga,

the British fort
on Lake Champlain,

was likely defended, and that
cannon and other armaments,

which could be
easily captured.

Massachusetts commissioned
him to go to Ticonderoga

and take the cannon.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- Connecticut commissioned
Ethan Allen for exactly

the same
mission to Fort Ticonderoga.

Among the men Arnold
recruited for his mission

was John Brown.

They were related by marriage,
and had known each other

for years, but at Ticonderoga,
Brown sided with Allen against

Arnold, becoming one of
his most fierce rivals.

♪ Fiddle music playing ♪

Allen's band of militiamen,
known as the Green

Mountain Boys,
was more numerous than

Arnold's recruits.

- According to New
York authorities,

they were a bunch of frontier
squatters and bandits

squatting on New York land,
so they had sort of

a mixed reputation.

- The two parties converged
in a small town near

Fort Ticonderoga.

- I think if you want to
claim one place in terms of

a geographic location as to
where Benedict Arnold's

troubles began,
I really think it's probably

Castleton, Vermont.

- "How goes it with you all?"

"Gentlemen, if I
may have your attention.

please.

My name is Benedict Arnold,
I've been sent here

from Massachusetts."

- He sets a bad impression
right off the bat by coming

into the tavern
in Castleton and wanting

to meet with the leaders of
this raid on Ticonderoga,

and saying that "I have
authority to take Fort

Ticonderoga by the Colony of
Massachusetts Bay."

- "... to join me."

- Arnold and Allen
eventually agreed to a

tenuous joint command.

♪ Sprightly
violin music playing ♪

In a daring
night raid,

Ticonderoga was surrendered
to the Americans.

- With the fort capture,
Arnold expected the Green

Mountain Boys to conduct
themselves with dignity

and decorum.

Instead, they raided the
alcohol stores,

got drunk, and started
pilfering the fort.

Arnold was horrified.

- "Had it not been for Arnold,
everything at Fort Ticonderoga

would have been in the utmost
confusion and disorder.

People would have been
plundered of their private

property, and no man's person
would be safe that was not

of the Green Mountain party."

Barnabas Dean

- The Green Mountain
Boys get so tired of

Arnold trying to
tell them what to do,

they just
shoot at him a few times.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- He put a
stop to the plundering,

but made an enemy
of Ethan Allen.

Likely because of shared
interests in some land rights,

Brown sided with Allen.

This will have a far-reaching
impact on Arnold's future as

an American officer.

(Wind sound)

- To attack
Ticonderoga,

this huge fort full
of cannon, garrisoned by

the King's troops, this was
truly an act of war.

- Arnold knew this
monumental act of

defiance called for a
public justification,

so in June of 1775, a full
year before the Declaration

of Independence, he committed
to paper a declaration of

principles, in which thirty
fighting revolutionaries

signed and vowed, in
the most solemn manner,

never to become
slaves to Britain.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Arnold inventoried
200 artillery pieces.

The following winter,
59 of the best cannon would

be carried 300 miles
over 56 days,

and used to pound British
forces from Dorchester

Heights in Boston.

- Arnold initially goes
to Ticonderoga to

get the cannons.

When he is there, he starts
to recognize that this

is a bigger thing.

- (He) Looks up the lake and
realizes that the lake itself

is the key strategic
geographical item in that

whole area.

Anyone trying to come
from Canada south,

or trying to go from New York
north into Canada has to

use the lake between
the mountains,

There are no highways,
there are no other ways

to transport
equipment of troops.

- Lake Champlain is the 18th
century version of I-95.

The British strategy obviously
was if you could drive down

Lake Champlain with troops
and a small navy flotilla,

you can control
the entire region.

- So, he puts together a
little makeshift fleet,

a captured schooner that
he puts artillery on,

and several bateaux.

♪ music playing ♪

- Arnold went
to St. Jean,

the British outpost on
the north end of the lake.

He was actually
invading Canada.

He would go on to capture
a ship and some valuable

supplies, even though no
war had yet been declared.

- And he's now
the master of the lake.

- He wanted to hold the
strategic passage at all

costs, but he privately
worried about material support

from the Continental Congress.

- His instinct was right;
Congress would not commit

resources.

- (Shouting) "It's insolence!

Out! Out!

Go on, begone!"

- At the same time, Arnold's
nemesis, Ethan Allen,

along with John
Brown and others,

openly challenged his
command authority.

- "Blackhearts!"

- And if you are going to
publicly, especially publicly,

go against Benedict Arnold,
in the presence of others,

Benedict Arnold is going to
make sure that he returns

the favor.

- Allen and
Brown vow to do everything

they could to destroy Arnold.

They used their influence to
get him removed from command

of the Champlain legion.

- Putting pen to paper,
they would set up Arnold

as a scapegoat, should their
actions get them into trouble.

- And they're going to write
very derogatory comments

and reports against
Benedict Arnold.

Benedict Arnold is
not doing any of this.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Benedict Arnold,
I think, goes into

this rebellion
with a sense of that politics

should not override
the military situation,

the safety, the
causes of liberty,

the ideals of
republicanism and equality.

- So, Arnold gets displaced
and essentially removed.

It's his first taste of
the kind of injustice that

he would come to resent.

- Settlers in the region
appreciated his efforts

and bid him
a fond farewell.

(Cheering people)

♪ Music playing ♪

Arnold was eager
for a new mission.

- He will visit General Philip
Schuyler in Albany, New York.

- A wealthy landholder
and merchant,

Schuyler was a patriot of
far-reaching influence.

- He understood that Benedict
Arnold did not have the

connections like he did,
he understood that Benedict

Arnold did not have the
upbringing and the class

like he did.

And so he thought he would
use his power and influence,

which he had, to help
Benedict Arnold out,

because he had such a high
opinion of Benedict Arnold.

♪ Sad flute music playing ♪

- While visiting
at the Schuyler mansion,

Arnold will receive
very sad word that his wife,

Peggy Mansfield,
had passed away,

and so he will pack
up very quickly,

and he will travel
overland back to New Haven.

- "Every recollection of past
happiness heightens my present

grief, which would be
intolerable were it not buried

in the public calamity."

- The cause of
her illness is unknown,

but her death left
Arnold a widower with

three young sons.

His sister, Hannah, was now in
charge of the family shipping

and trading business.

She was not alone, many
other women took on great

responsibilities
during the war effort.

- These women literally
kept the businesses going,

kept the shops going,
they kept the blacksmith's

shop running, they ran
the printing presses,

they got out in the fields.

♪ Guitar music playing ♪

It was really interesting
because the image

had been that women
couldn't do many

of these things.

They learned all of
this is five minutes.

- With barely enough
time to grieve

and attend to his family,
Arnold continued to sacrifice

his personal life
for the patriot cause,

and traveled
to Cambridge, Massachusetts,

where George Washington
had made his headquarters.

- Washington is
looking for someone who

can command a
detachment that will march

into Canada, and will seize
Quebec City as the key to

bringing Quebec province
into the rebellion.

- Washington is convinced that
Arnold is the man to do it.

He gives him a commission,
makes him a colonel in

the Continental Army,
and gives him the command

of the expedition.

- Among the volunteers
for Arnold's mission

was Captain Daniel Morgan.

He had marched
his company of riflemen

to the Boston area
from the Virginia frontier.

- Morgan was a
big, imposing man,

we know he was at least
six feet tall or more,

very muscular,
colorful, colloquial,

joked about himself.

Daniel Morgan was,
in my opinion,

one of the two most
effective combat leaders

in the Revolutionary War.

Arnold and Morgan were
furiously effective

on the battlefield.

- Quebec, and indeed,
much of Canada,

much of eastern Canada, was
going to be used as a staging

point from which British
troops would move south

to suppress the
rebellious Colonies.

The attack on Quebec
made great strategic sense.

- Arnold had to prevent his
column from being detected.

- The route that
Arnold had to pick,

if he was going to have any
possibility of surprise at

all, had to be through a march
almost due north through

a wilderness that had been
mapped, and that only vaguely,

just once.

If I can paraphrase
another historian,

he was attacking without
fear and without maps.

He really had very little idea
of what he was to find in

the way of terrain
and the natural obstacles

that might be out there.

- The season was
already turning cold

when the expedition
finally moved up the Kennebec

River into the
main wilderness.

The bateaux, small,
flat-bottomed boats,

were constructed
from green wood,

which caused major
problems for the men.

- "Our bateau
began to leak profusely.

A swift current,
shallow water,

and rocks aplenty soon ground
out many of the bottoms."

Dr. Isaac Senter.

- "When you consider
the badness and weight

of the bateau,
and the large quantity

of provisions we've
been obliged to force up

against a very
rapid stream,

you would have taken the
men for amphibious animals,

as they were a great part
of the time under water."

Benedict Arnold.

- Water in the boats had
ruined precious food supplies.

Daily rationing
is now required.

To make matters worse, evening
temperatures had started to

dip below the freezing mark.

Arnold supported his exhausted
troops by maintaining a bold

command presence, exuding
confidence as he moved

through the column.

- "We are stumbling
over old fallen logs,

one leg sinking deeper in
the mire than the other,

then down goes a boat, and
the carriers with it."

Private George Morrison.

- It was not
uncommon for families

to follow soldiers
on expeditions.

One of these women,
Jemima Warner,

stayed back with
her sick husband.

- "She tarried by
him until the end.

Since she had no
implements to dig a grave,

she covered him with leaves,
took his gun, and left him,

with a heavy heart."
Private Abner Stocking.

- This courageous
young woman took her husband's

place in the line,
and was later killed

by artillery fire.

- "A prodigious
fall of rain has raised

the river
upwards of three feet.

With our provisions
almost exhausted,

we have but a melancholy
prospect before us."

- Now into late fall,
the expedition had reached

a critical juncture:
to go forward with

what little food
supplies remained,

or risk death from
severe weather or starvation.

Arnold assembled
his officers for a

council of war.

One by one, they
spoke their minds.

To come this
far and fall short of

George Washington's objective
of capturing Canada was

unthinkable to Arnold.

The officers agreed
to press on to Quebec.

- With plans written, Arnold
ordered Colonel Roger Enos

to send his best troops
forward with provisions.

In blatant disregard
to those orders,

Enos refused to send any food,
and instead turned

back in retreat.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- Colonel Enos
will later be charged

with desertion,
and though acquitted,

his retreat had dire
consequences for

the 600 troops he left
behind to starve.

- He cuts out about forty
percent of Arnold's strength.

Not only did Enos lead 350
to 400 soldiers back to

Cambridge, but he took the
supplies that would feed

those soldiers with him.

- "The men were obliged,
in order to sustain life,

to eat their dogs,
cartridge boxes, old shoes,

and clothes."

Private Simon Fobes.

- "I found them
almost destitute of any

eatable whatever,
except a few candles,

which were used for supper and
breakfast the next morning,

by boiling
them in a watery gruel."

Dr. Isaac Senter.

- "The company awoke
with their clothes frozen

a pane of thick glass, which
proved very disagreeable."

Captain Simeon

Thayer.

- Some of them lay
down to go to sleep,

and they don't wake
up the next morning.

They have frozen to death,
and you're leaving bodies,

then, in the snow.

It's not just footsteps,
you're leaving bodies

in the snow.

- As they approached Canada,
Arnold starts to send men

ahead to try to
arrange for supplies.

Finally, he himself goes
on, reaches the very edge

of civilization, and
purchases cattle, supplies,

actually sending
cattle on the hoof.

"We thought we were
seeing a mirage when

we were blessed with
the finest sight

my eyes ever beheld."

Private Matthias Ogden.

- "We shed tears of joy
in our happy delivery from

the hand of death."

Captain Simeon Thayer.

- Arnold took
great personal interest in

the well-being of his
suffering men.

A young private
named John Henry,

who was near death with
fever, would recount.

- "The commander knew my name,
and good-naturedly inquired

after my health.

He ran down to the riverside,
and hailed the owner of

the house which stood
opposite across the water."

Private John Henry.

- He made arrangements
for Henry's care,

and paid the Canadian
settlers for food and lodging.

- Extraordinarily,
Arnold's column makes it

to Quebec, and really
through the force

of Arnold's personality.

Quebec is this
massive-walled fortress,

perched on top of these huge
cliffs looming over the river.

It seems impregnable.

- Arnold knew crossing
the St. Lawrence River

would be treacherous.

On November 13th, weather
conditions were favorable.

It proved to be even more
harrowing than George

Washington's later,
more famous crossing

of the Delaware River.

Once they were across,
Arnold and his men

lay siege to the city.

- Arnold continued the
siege, to posture, to bluff,

to try to get the British to
surrender, but they wouldn't.

- Governor Sir Guy Carleton,
the British commander,

refused to be lured out of
the walled city and onto

the open plains.

He knew that was exactly how
the previous French commander

of Quebec lost the city to the
British sixteen years earlier.

- (Military drums) Meanwhile,
having conquered Montreal to

the west, American General
Richard Montgomery joined

the American siege with
another 300 troops,

the total attack force
now numbering 900 men.

- Montgomery takes command,
and they look at

the situation.

They attempt also to convince
the British to surrender,

they won't.

Both men know
they don't have adequate

force to attack
the fortress at Quebec.

They also know, however,
that at the end of December,

most of their troops
are going home,

their enlistments run out
on the last day of December.

So, if they're going
to do anything,

it's got to be
done right then,

and they resolve
tFo assault Quebec.

- To attack this formidable
fortress with such a handful

of men was really
a terrific gamble.

But yet, that was the
quintessential Arnold,

he was ready to do it.

- The rebels prepared
for the assault,

and marked their
hats to recognize

each other in battle.

- So, the night of December
the 31st turned out to be a

perfect night in one sense, in
that they beat their deadline

for enlistments, but also
it was a very snowy night,

which gave them some
measure of protection.

- Arnold and Montgomery
assaulted the fortress city

of Quebec with a relative
handful of men.

♪ music playing ♪

They came
at it in two columns;

up the cliffs from the St.
Lawrence River into one

side of the town, and Arnold
came from the opposite

side of the town.

Along with him
was Daniel Morgan.

They stormed the city
in a blinding snowstorm.

The wind was so fierce, one of
the men who kept a diary said

the snow was blowing
horizontally into their faces.

That's how strong
the wind was.

- The snow
and the wetness would cause

weapons to
typically malfunction.

So, you basically could
see only about maybe ten

or fifteen soldiers around you,
and you couldn't count on

anything happening to the
left or to your right,

and moreover, the dampness and
the difficulty of fighting

in that sort of condition
made it very,

very difficult for
you to be successful.

That's generally why 18th
century armies didn't fight

in the wintertime.

- Just at the point
where Montgomery was

about to break into the city,
he encountered an outpost.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Montgomery and two of
his aids were killed in

the first
blast of gunfire.

The New York troops, who were,
Montgomery had referred to

them as the "sweepings
of the New York streets, "

they weren't the
classiest guys in the world,

they ran for their lives.

Arnold and Morgan and their
men were left assaulting

the city on one side,
and the British quickly caught

on that they'd routed
the other American column,

so they threw all the men
that they had in the city,

three or four thousand,
at Arnold's men.

Arnold was hit
in the leg in one of

the first exchanges of
fire, and was horribly,

painfully wounded.

- "Our commander
called to the troops

in a cheering voice,
urging us forward.

For many, however, the sight
of their disabled leader

dampened their spirits.

They kept moving
toward the barricade,

but whispered to each other,
'We are sold.'"

Private John Henry

- As the sun started
to rise the next morning,

the snowstorm had ended.

(Men shouting,
"Vive la liberté!" )

Morgan and his men break
through into the lower part

of the city.

(Gunfire sounds)

But they were not received as
liberators.

(Shouting intensifies)

- Pretty soon it became
obvious that there

was no hope, they
were being shot at from

house windows, they were
taking casualties,

and they fell back,
pretty soon surrounded.

- "I'll fight you!"

- Morgan was cornered,
just outside a small

Catholic church.

- Ultimately, Morgan put his
back against a wall and was

enraged and pulled
out his sword, and said,

"Shoot me, I will never
surrender to you."

- Morgan wouldn't
surrender his sword

to the British,
he was too proud to do that.

So a French priest was
milling around on the edge,

and Morgan saw him, and he
said, "Are you a priest?"

The guy said, "Yes."

"I'll surrender
my sword to you,

but not to these
despicable British."

Morgan really hated
the British, I should add.

- While Morgan was
being captured,

Arnold was in surgery.

- "The ball entered the
outer side of the leg,

about mid-way between
the knee and ankle,

before taking an oblique
course downward and lodging

at the rise of the
Achilles tendon.

I, and others,
entreated Colonel Arnold,

for his own safety,
to be carried back into

the country where
the enemy would

not readily find him,
but to no purpose.

Instead, he ordered
his weapons loaded,

with a sword on his bed.

He was determined to kill
as many as possible if

they came into the room."

Dr. Isaac Senter.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- Arnold refused to give up,
this is the amazing thing,

he was in
agony and pain,

yet he managed to rally.

He maintained a siege of
Quebec throughout the winter

of 1776, it was
sheer legendry.

The British had three
or four times as many men

inside the city as he
had outside, but yet,

he managed to intimidate
them into not attacking them.

Of course, he was sending
desperate messages back

to Philadelphia, saying,
"Please send us men,

we can still win this struggle
for this fourteenth colony."

- "Everything is
at a standstill for want

of resources, and if
not obtained soon,

our affairs in this country
will be entirely ruined."

- Winter turned to spring
as Arnold waited for

news from Congress.

Morgan and the others who had
been captured languished

as prisoners of war.

- "We are neglected by
Congress and pinched with

every want here,
with the soldiers reduced

to the condition
of a great rabble.

I hold out little prospect
for a return of good fortune.

♪ sad music playing ♪

We labor under
almost as many difficulties

as the
Israelites did of old,

obliged to make break
without straw."

- Once again,
he was disappointed

by the lack of
support and leadership

form Congress.

♪ Slow march music playing ♪

- With British
troops pouring into Quebec,

Arnold knew
that the prospects for

the Americans were bleak.

He decided that a strategic
withdrawal was the best

course of action.

Dropping back
through Montreal,

he ordered his troops to
leave behind nothing

of use to the enemy.

- "We destroyed all
the bateaux and all

the bridges in our rear.

There will be more honor in
making a safe retreat than

hazarding a battle
against such superiority.

I am content to be the last
man who quits this country

and fall, so that my
country will rise. "

Benedict Arnold.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- Arnold's column
makes it to Quebec,

and really,
through the force

of Arnold's personality.

They started referring to him
him as the "American Hannibal"

for leading the men through
the wilderness in this way,

it was quite extraordinary.

- Even in London the British
ministrate had come to

grudgingly appreciate
Arnold's military abilities.

- "I am sorry Arnold's
escaped from Canada.

I think he has shown himself
the most enterprising man

amongst the rebels."
Lord George Germain.

- By the spring of 1776,
the war for independence

was hanging by a thread.

What began as patriot fervor
and high idealism had faded

into the realization that
this war would be a long

and painful struggle.

After sacrificing great blood
and treasure for years

to defend the Colonies
against the French,

the British were not about to
surrender this valuable piece

of their empire.

- In that year,
landing in Staten Island

in New York Harbor,
was the largest expeditionary

force England
had ever sent anywhere.

All told, 48,000 British
and Hessians came to America,

13,000 into Canada,
35,000 into New York City,

and 500 ships.

The Americans were
flabbergasted.

- The British government now
began to realize it had

a full-scale rebellion
on it hands.

How is it
going to respond?

Its plan was
simple and direct.

The plan was to take and hold
the Hudson River corridor,

in order to cut off the
rebellious New England

colonies from the
rest of North America,

in order to cut
Washington's supply lines,

to enable the army of
Canada under Carleton,

and the British army of the
Atlantic under General Sir

William Howe, to link up
together to form a potent,

combined force.

♪ Tense music playing ♪

- Horatio Gates is
now the man responsible

for the defenses
of the Lake Champlain area.

- Because of his experience
as a sea merchant and trader,

Washington sent Arnold
to assist General Gates.

- Arnold knows about ships,
he knows about sailing,

he knows about seamanship.

So, he puts Arnold in charge
of building the fleet and

fighting the
British on the lake.

- "Arnold,
who is perfectly skilled in

maritime affairs, has most
nobly undertaken to command

our fleet upon the lake.

With infinite satisfaction,
I have committed the whole

of that department to his
care." General Horatio Gates.

- Arnold faced the daunting
task: create a fleet with very

little resources and
few seasoned sailors.

- He doesn't have
skilled carpenters,

he doesn't have
skilled mariners.

They don't know how
to make the boats,

they're very crudely made.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- As he was
building the fleet,

congressional delegates in
Philadelphia were approving

the Declaration
of Independence.

Above their signatures,
the closing line read,

"We mutually pledge to
each other our lives,

our fortunes
and our sacred honor."

- To Arnold,
these were not just

empty words.

He had already sacrificed his
own finances, risked his life,

and shed blood for the cause,
and nothing was more valuable

than his sacred honor.

- Unfortunately,
not everyone in the

independence movement
aspired to such high ideals.

♪ dark music playing ♪

That summer,
Moses Hazen,

a friend of John
Brown and Ethan Allen,

was court-martialed for
the loss of valuable

baggage during
the retreat from Quebec.

Because Arnold had charged
Hazen with this misconduct,

he had to testify against
him, but Brown manipulated

the proceedings to focus
on Arnold's conduct,

and the hearing
erupted into mayhem.

One of the rival officers
admonished Arnold.

- "You have
drawn upon yourself

the hearing board's
just resentment,

and nothing but an open
acknowledgement of your

error will be conceived
as satisfactory."

Colonel Enoch Poor.

- Arnold was outraged.

- "I cannot but think it
extremely cruel when I have

sacrificed my ease, health,
and a great part of my private

property in the
cause of my country,

to be calumniated as
a robber and thief.

At a time, too, when I have
it not in my power to be

heard in my own defense."

♪ Dark music playing ♪

- Infuriated by
the board's conduct

and his honor in question,
Arnold challenged the hearing

board members to a duel.

- "Since I have injured the
very nice and delicate honor

of the hearing board officers,
I will by no means withhold

from any gentlemen of the
court the satisfaction his

nice honor may require."

- No one
accepted his offer,

but this confrontation is just
one of many political brawls

that he will have with
his fellow compatriots.

- In the early
summer of 1776,

General Sir Guy Carleton, who
is both commander in Canada

and Governor
General of Canada,

understands that if
he's to move south,

he must be able to
conquer the lakes.

In order to do that, he
needs to build ships.

- A naval arms
race began.

Arnold understood that Fort
Ticonderoga did not have

enough ammunition to
defend itself from

a major naval attack.

His only hope was to block the
British advance well north

of the strategic fort.

- So, he tarts north
with ten ships.

He has let word be known that
he is going to raid St. Jean,

where Carleton is
building his fleet,

knowing that spies will
carry that word up.

He's bluffing.

He doesn't have the
ships at all to do that.

He goes up to about
the Canadian border,

and postures there,
long enough to make

the British worry.

And it works.

- It's not until early
September that Carleton

returns and discovers
the full extent of

the threat he's facing.

He realizes he needs the
fire power of HMS Inflexible,

which has to be dismantled,
brought overland,

and reassembled
at Lake Champlain.

Twenty-eight crucial
days are lost.

- The clock was ticking,
and the longer he could keep

the British at bay, the less
likely they were to be able to

capture Ticonderoga before the
winter winds started to blow,

and everybody had to go back
to Canada and get into a hut.

- Arnold understood if they
went head to head with these

larger British vessels,
they would be destroyed.

- The American gunboats and
gondolas needed an advantage.

- Arnold tries various
positions at the north end of

the lake, trying to find
what is tactically going to

be the most advantageous.

He finally hits on this
idea of setting his ships up

between Valcour Island and the
shore of New York to the west.

It's basically a narrow gap
between the islands that

forms a little bit of a
bay on the south end.

- So, as the British
ships move south

with the wind, they would sail
right past Valcour Island,

and would even see
Arnold's fleet.

- This is a brilliant
maneuver on his part.

A ship in the 18th century
could not sail up against

the wind.

- But some of his
officers doubted the plan.

They were afraid Carleton
might come down the New York

side of the island
and trap them.

- Arnold had a
dinner for his officers.

He basically calls
them together...

- "To death or glory."

- ...sort of
like a band of

brothers technique that
Horatio Nelson's going

to later use at the
Battle of Trafalgar.

It's an amazing night
for the Americans.

- A strong north
wind sweeps down the lake.

Arnold knows it will soon
bring the British armada

with it.

Arnold and his men
ready for battle.

♪ dark music playing ♪

Wet blankets are
placed over powder

kegs to protect
them from flying sparks.

Sand is spread on the decks
to provide traction when

they are covered in blood.

And they wait.

- Like most British commanders,
General Sir Guy Carleton

completely underestimated
the capacity

of the Americans to fight.

Confident that with
the fire power of HMS

Inflexible and the
gun boats he had built,

he could achieve
an easy victory.

He sails serenely
down Lake Champlain.

- Arnold, I suspect, was
afraid that the British

would sail right past him
and not even notice him.

He sends two of
his vessels out,

just to make sure that
the British are aware

that he's there.

He doesn't want
them to ignore him,

he wants them to
turn and fight.

- The British cannot
get their larger,

heavier ships in close,
so it essentially negates

their ability to bring
their heavier ordinance

into play
against the lighter,

less-defended American
flotilla, and as a result,

the British have to
move in their gun boats

to get in close.

- And it was a
tremendous battle that lasted

six or seven hours,
a very bloody battle.

There ere Indians
on the shore,

they were firing
on all those men.

(Cannon blasts)

- The two fleets
just pound away at each other.

The Americans had guns that
shot a nine-pound ball

or a twelve-pound ball,
or on some occasions,

an eighteen-pound ball.

The British had much larger
guns, twenty-four pounders,

that shot a massive,
twenty-four-pound iron ball,

which was enough to
pass clean through any

one of Arnold's ships.

(Cannon explodes)

This is devastating
fire power,

and the British and Germans
used it very effectively,

pounding away at Arnold's
fleet, hour after hour.

- Naval fights of the 18th
century are bloody affairs,

because they're close-quarters,
with splinters and shot,

and grape shot,
and metal flying everywhere,

and wood, and people dying,
rigging falling,

and the death and carnage
is absolutely astounding.

Screams and shrieks and yells,
with cannon balls

careening about
the decks and people

falling overboard, drowning.

Arnold was one
of the few who knew how to

train a cannon, so he was
running from gun to gun.

- I think Arnold's
idea was that his men

needed to see him.

As long as
you were standing out there,

the men would be
inspired by your example,

and that's exactly what he
did for most of the fight.

- And all
the officers followed

Arnold's example, and they
stood up in their ships.

- The American fleet
takes by far the greater

amount of damage.

Only one of the British
vessels is actually destroyed,

one of the gun boats that has
its powder magazine blow up.

Other than that,
British gun boats,

which were very small targets,
very difficult to hit,

were largely unscathed.

(Cannon blasts)

- After six hours of
close-quarters naval combat,

neither fleet
has won the day,

but the Americans have
taken a severe beating,

losing over 60 men during the
first day of the engagement.

- And night
began to fall.

The British decided that they
would pull back and blockade

Arnold inside Valcour Bay,
and then in the morning they'd

have this 20-gun ship lead
their fleet in and blow what

was left of Arnold's
fleet to pieces.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- He had a conference
with his captains,

and they decided there's no
future in going another

round with the British
in Valcour Bay.

A lot of men in a
battle get rattled,

but he never stopped thinking.

- Arnold noticed
that the British,

because they
have larger ships,

didn't really hug the
shoreline all that much.

- As darkness
blankets the area,

Arnold implements a daring
and nearly impossible plan,

that could either save
the flotilla and its men,

or end in complete
destruction.

- He puts a lantern
on the back of each

one of his ships
so that you could only

see the light itself, and each
ship follows one behind the

other like horses in a line.

- The badly injured
men struggled to suppress

their moans,
as he quietly leads his

ghostlike fleet through
the nighttime fog.

♪ Tense music playing ♪

- Now the British are
astounded the next morning

when the fog finally lifts,
it was like he magically

transported his
entire fleet past the British

fleet without
being discovered.

It was an amazing feat
of seamanship and skill.

- Having barely escaped
the British fleet,

then men must now
row for their lives.

- They hadn't eaten,
they hadn't slept,

you got an enemy
bearing down on you,

and you've been rowing all
night long, you're tired,

you're worn out.

- The winds on Lake Champlain
are very fickle,

and Arnold's fleet
is trying to head south.

The wind is coming
right out of the south,

impeding their progress.

They can't sail, all they
can do is try to row into it.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- The powerful Royal Navy
is now stalking them.

- To stay ahead
of the British,

Arnold's sailors
had to row all day.

They take
refuge in the shallow waters

of a small island.

It's still 35 miles
before Ticonderoga,

and they are still
in enormous danger.

Arnold's intention was
to use the larger vessels,

the row galleys,
as sort of a rear guard

to try to protect
the more vulnerable gondolas,

as they ran south
on the lake trying to

reach Ticonderoga.

(Cannon blasts)

- Like a wounded animal,
the American ship

at the rear
is struggling to keep pace

with the rest of the
fleet, and is easy prey.

(Cannon blasts)

After receiving
several broadsides,

the ship's
captain surrenders.

- Arnold is alone in
staging a rear-guard action.

- "Gentlemen, your attention!

Captain!"

- And at this point, he does
what is perhaps one of

the most amazing and courageous
things in this entire

three-day running battle.

He holds
the congress back,

and engages with the
larger British ships that

are coming after his fleet.

For two and a half hours,
he fights them,

dodging and weaving
and firing and running,

in this crazy,
ongoing battle,

that he couldn't
possibly win.

(Gun shots)

They were so
incredibly outmatched,

but Arnold holds himself back,
and holds the British ships

back, to give his vessels that
last little moment to escape.

Four of the gondolas
and his vessel run aground.

Arnold sets
them all on fire.

He never surrenders them.

Their flags were still flying
when the ships went up

in flames, and he leads
his men through the woods

back to Ticonderoga.

- It was a
significant amount of

leadership and command
presence for him to even

get back with the four
ships that he does,

and then to get into
Ticonderoga in safety was an

amazing feat of officership.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- Carleton, always
a cautious officer,

decided to return to Canada
rather than forge ahead.

He blamed his hasty
retreat on the approaching

winter weather.

♪ Music continues ♪

- "The season is
so far advanced that

I cannot yet pretend to inform
your Lordship whether anything

can be done this year."

- So, Benedict Arnold,
by sheer bravado and seamanship,

has delayed the British
invasion of America from

the north for what amounts
to one full year.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- When news
of Arnold's heroics

reached the public, praise
and accolades followed.

Delegate Benjamin Rush of
Pennsylvania proclaimed

in Congress, "General Arnold
has conducted himself

like a hero."

(Men shouting)

His exploits were
also the topic

of conversation in London,
in a widely read paper

of the time.

A British
naval officer wrote:

- "Arnold not only
acted the part of

a brave soldier, but
also amply filled that

of an able naval commander."

- What Arnold did
at Valcour Island was

prove that it's entirely
possible to lose a battle,

but win a campaign.

- I think Valcour Island is
one of the most unheralded

battles in the entire
American Revolution.

I believe that it was crucial
to maintaining that door

closed to the British.

- I would argue that the
battle of Valcour Island was

Benedict Arnold's
crowning achievement,

for a number of reasons.

One, because he was
entirely on his own.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

He had no
one to defer to.

He was taking his fleet up
against overwhelming odds,

with nobody to turn
to except himself.

This was entirely his doing,
it was a fleet that he had

been largely responsible
for creating,

there were men that he
had personally trained,

and tactical decisions
that he alone had made.

♪ Music continues ♪

- As 1776 drew
to a close,

the rebellious Americans had
little else to give them hope.

Washington's army has
suffered defeat in Brooklyn,

and is forced to
retreat into Pennsylvania.

But with Arnold eliminating
the British threat from

the north, troops and resources
became available for George

Washington's heroic crossing
of the Delaware River,

and victory at the Battle
of Trenton in New Jersey.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

The rebellion would
live on, for now.

♪ music playing ♪

- Benedict Arnold returned
home to a hero's welcome.

He finally received
the honor and respect

he had so long sought.

He now believes more than
ever that the ideals of the

revolution will support his
quest to return his family

name to great prominence.

- Following
the capture of Newport,

Rhode Island by British
forces in December 1776,

General Washington assigned
Arnold to a command position

in the New England region.

♪ dark music playing ♪

- It was
a position General Horatio

Gates expected for himself,
but Washington did

not trust Gates.

He needed a general in that
region who was not afraid

to harass and even
engage the British,

if circumstances called
for military action.

- Because Arnold,
the junior officer,

now has been favored over
Gates, the senior officer,

Gates begins to think of
Arnold not as a compatriot

in arms,
but as a rival in arms.

♪ Music darkens ♪

- In retaliation,

Gates made common cause
with Arnold's old nemesis,

John Brown.

In January of 1777, Brown was
actively lobbying Congress to

block Arnold's promotion
to Major General.

He published a broadside,
defaming Arnold with the

litany of "alleged
crimes" he'd committed.

General Gates was
more than happy to bring

Brown's allegations
to the attention of his

own friends in Congress.

- In February,
Congress promoted five

officers over Arnold.

The reasons
were basically political.

- "The delegates have chosen
a very civil way of

requesting my resignation."

- But Washington
would not accept

Arnold's resignation.

Instead, he wrote to Congress
in an attempt to correct

the situation.

- "I am anxious to know
whether General Arnold's

non-promotion was owing to
accident or design."

- It was no accident.

Congress had set limits on the
number of Major Generals

to be
appointed from each state.

Connecticut already
had its quota.

- One of the most important
things that we have to look at

in the American Revolution is
looking at the fact that these

are a union, not from
one central country,

but of, really,
independent communities.

A person would identify
themselves as a Virginian

or a Pennsylvanian before
they would identify

themselves as an American.

- All the things that America
was supposed to be fighting

against, this is what's
happening to him.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Promotions are being
doled out based on what

state you're from,
who your friends are,

and of course, there is
all this intrigue going

on behind Arnold's back.

- Arnold saw this political
favoritism for other,

less-deserving, officers as
an example of arbitrary power,

no better than the corrupt
British system of awarding

military rank based
on social class.

- At this
point in their relationship,

Arnold still viewed
Gates as his ally,

and asked him for help in
securing the promotion

he thought he deserved.

In frustration, he personally
confided to Gates in a letter.

- "I am surely the victim of
some villain who has been

busy with my fame
and basely slandered me.

I'm conscious of
committing no crime,

except it be a crime to have
sacrificed my interest, ease,

and happiness in
the public cause.

Their extremely cruel actions
surprises and mortifies me.

My heavens, I
will have justice,

and I'm a villain if I seek
not a brave revenge for

injured honor."

- Tragically
during this time,

Arnold mistakenly believed
Gates would be his ally,

and that General Washington
was no longer his advocate.

In reality, Washington
was his best ally,

and he pleaded with
Congress on Arnold's behalf.

- "Surely, a more
active, a more spirited,

insensible officer fills
no department in your army.

Arnold, being the
oldest brigadier,

will not continue in service
under such a slight."

- Amid the political
infighting and backstabbing,

Arnold's friends tried to
warn him about the situation.

- Samuel Chase was one of
them, and he wrote to Arnold,

and he warned him,
kind of cryptically,

"your best friends are
not your countrymen, "

trying to indicate to Arnold
that there is intrigue going

on, that there is
talk behind his back,

and it's not helping him.

- Frustrated, Arnold
was about to leave for

Philadelphia to protest
his non-promotion,

when word arrived
of a new British attack

in his jurisdiction.

♪ Dark piano music playing ♪

Duty called.

His trip to Philadelphia
would have to wait.

- In April 1777, British
General William Tryon and a

force of 2,000 men plundered
and burned their way through

the Connecticut countryside.

The former Royal
Governor of New York,

Tryon had long advocated
punishing the civilian

population for
their rebellion.

- Arnold was hoping, of course,
that the militia was going to

rise in force and help in
the fight against the British.

The militia didn't turn
out in the way that Arnold

had hoped they would.

About 200 or so militia
against 2,000 British regulars;

so that in itself is a
pretty gutsy maneuver.

- "All right, men,
don't be scared..."

- He prepares to take
a stand against Tryon's

overwhelming force at the small
village of Ridgefield.

- With so few
men in support...

- "All right, men, hold on!"

- ... Arnold positions himself
in front of the American line

to encourage his men.

- "Steady!

Be brave!

Steady!"

(Gunfire)

- "Arnold rode
up to our front line and,

ignoring the enemy's fire
of musketry and grape shot,

exhorted the troops by the
love of themselves, posterity,

and all that's sacred,
not to desert him."

- "Hold the line!
Hold the line!"

- When a British
detachment climbs a ridge,

they put the
Americans in a crossfire,

and the thinly spread
line of militia cracks.

(Gunfire)

- "Hold the line!
We can take them!"

- In a fierce volley,
Arnold's horse is hit,

and crumbles to the ground
as an enemy soldier shouts,

"Surrender!
You are my prisoner!"

- "Not yet."

(Gunshot)

- Over the next two days,
his ragtag band of

soldiers harassed
the British as they circled

back to the coast.

- As the British
boarded their ships,

they reported seeing a
relentless Arnold attempting

one last assault.

A musket ball
ripped through the collar

of his coat, and he had
a second horse shot out

from under him.

- "I wish we could
strike a medal showing

a platoon
firing at General Arnold,

on horseback, his horse
falling dead under him,

before his retreat."
John Adams.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- "The ballots been taken,
Brigadier General Benedict

Arnold is promoted to
the rank of Major General."

John Hancock.

- When Congress learned
of Arnold's heroics at

Ridgefield, he was finally
promoted to Major General,

but his seniority of rank
was still behind those

promoted back in February.

Consequently, other
officers of the same rank,

who had once served
under Arnold,

would now have command
authority over him.

- He goes
to Philadelphia to try

to get his promotion backdated
and his name cleared of

Brown's false allegations,
however he was quickly

reminded of the tensions
between the civilian

and military leadership.

- "I am weary to death with
the wrangles between military

officers, high and low.

They quarrel like
cats and dogs.

They worry one
another like mastiffs,

scrambling for rank
and pay like apes for nuts."

John Adams.

- This was sort of like a back
of the hand sort of thing.

It was like,
"remember soldier,

we're the civilian authority
and we can punish you

any time we want to."

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- This attitude fed
Arnold's growing disillusionment

with Congress.

- Arnold was not a
political animal,

and very often he was quite
nalïve in this respect.

♪ Music continues ♪

A board charged
with investigating

Brown's allegations got
brought down over

accounting details.

When the board finally issued
a statement that it was

satisfied with his
character and conduct,

Congress would still not
restore Arnold's seniority.

- Arnold had had enough.

He tendered a letter of
resignation to Congress.

- In Canada,
General John Burgoyne was

placed in
command of British forces.

- The year 1777 began
with the loyalists calling it

"the year of the hangman, "
because the three sevens

looked like gallows.

They were going to crush
the Americans completely.

- ♪ Somber music playing ♪

- The new offensive
was to have three armies

converge on Albany, New York.

Burgoyne would lead an
army south out of Canada.

General Sir William Howe would
come north out of New York

City, and Colonel Barry
St. Leger from the west.

This three-pronged pincer
move would effectively cut

the Colonies in half.

- The war escalated to a
ferocious level of violence,

as nearly 400 Native Americans
allied with the British,

joining General Burgoyne's
march out of Canada.

- The Americans
retreated ahead of

the relentless
British march south,

and the British army
recaptured Fort Ticonderoga,

the prize stronghold on
Lake Champlain that Arnold

had helped capture
two years earlier.

- George Washington
needed his fighting

general back in the
northern theatre.

- "If General Arnold has
settled his affairs and can be

spared from Philadelphia,
he should be immediately

set out for
the northern department.

He is active,
judicious, and brave,

and an officer in whom the
militia will repose

a greatest of confidence."

- Arnold set aside
his disagreements with

Congress, and immediately
rode north to join General

Schuyler, as Washington
had requested.

- Schuyler's troops tried to do
everything they could to hold

the British advance,
felling huge trees,

flooding lowlands and
destroying bridges.

- We're really talking about
primeval forest, here.

We're talking about
places where men

have not cultivated the
land at all, huge trees,

huge underbrush
and overgrowth.

Literally fighting your way
through the forest as you're

fighting through the war.

- It's going to create a delay,
and that delay in Burgoyne's

advance is going to really be
what the American army needs

to reconstitute itself so
that they can finally defend

against Burgoyne's invasion.

♪ Tense drum music playing ♪

- As the British
continued south,

their Indian allies
captured two loyalist women,

Sarah McNeil and Jane McCrea.

A fiancé of one of
Burgoyne's officers,

Jane was held for ransom, but
when two warriors argued over

the reward for her capture,
one settled the dispute

in tragic fashion.

- "The Indians scalped,
stripped and butchered

her in the
most shocking manner."

- Arnold was stationed
nearby and was

the first to report
on the incident.

♪ Tense music playing ♪

He knew the
story of this bloody

murder would stir the local
settlers to rise up against

Burgoyne's brutal
terror campaign,

so he sent messengers to
spread work of the massacre

throughout the region.

- It was
like a lightning bolt that

went through, the news of
Jane McCrea's massacre

spread everywhere.

And the idea that this is
what the British brought,

they brought death to women,
they brought people taking

your cattle and your crops,
and this radicalized people

in upstate New York.

- ♪ dark music playing ♪

Patriot volunteers
rallied to help defend

the upper
Hudson Valley,

but on the western front,
the British forces had

the Americans at Fort
Stanwix under siege.

- So, a small
contingent of British

forces and a lot of Indians,
that's very dangerous,

and Schuyler decides
that has to be stopped.

- It's within Philip
Schuyler's jurisdiction

to lift the siege if he
can, but of course,

he's facing John
Burgoyne's army,

which is his real
problem at the moment.

♪ Cello music playing ♪

- He looks around
for a colonel or

a brigadier to lead forces
out to encounter that.

None want to go.

It looks like a lost cause,
and it's going to be very

dangerous, very, very risky
for anyone who accepts it.

They all back off.

Arnold, who's a Major
General, says well,

if no one else will
go, I'll take it.

- Schuyler could not spare
many men for the mission,

so Arnold comes up with an

ingenious trick to make up
for the lack of manpower.

- Along the way
to Fort Stanwix,

Arnold's men captured a
loyalist named

Hon Yost Schuyler.

He held great influence
over the Mohawk,

because they saw the mental
affliction he suffered as a

sign of being touched
by the great spirit.

(Gunshot)

- Facing a death
sentence as a British

conspirator, Hon Yost agreed
under pressure to cooperate.

With bullet holes shot through
his clothes to prove it,

he warned the Indians
that Benedict Arnold,

who they called
"the dark eagle, "

was fast approaching
with as many men as there

are leaves on the trees.

- The Indians
huddled together and decided

they're going
to leave, so they do.

They take off, leaving the
small British force alone,

and the British
commander decides well,

I can't fight them
without the Indian allies,

I certainly don't have the
power to confront Benedict

Arnold and his force,
so he takes off.

So, Arnold,
without ever having

to engage
in a major battle,

has relieved the threat to
the American flank out there.

♪ Guitar music playing ♪

- One prong of the three-pronged
British strategy to capture

Albany was defeated.

The second prong, led by
General Sir William Howe

coming north though the Hudson
Valley, failed to materialize.

- General Howe,
who was the commander-in-chief

in New York City,
and General Burgoyne,

who was coming
down from Canada,

cordially detested each other.

- As early as May 1777,
General Sir William Howe

was warning Burgoyne
not to expect any

troops from him.

- Burgoyne cheerfully wrote a
sort of snotty note to Howe,

saying that he didn't
need any help from Howe.

So, Howe said well great,
then instead I'll conquer

Philadelphia, and left
Burgoyne on his own in

northern New York.

- ♪ Somber music playing ♪
Burgoyne is left with little

prospect of reinforcement and
an unreliable supply line.

On August the 16th,1777,
he sends a raiding party

of some 700 Hessians
to nearby Bennington

to obtain provisions.

But they are met by an
overwhelming force

of patriot militia.

(Multiple gun shots)

By the end
of the engagement,

all 700 Germans are
killed or captured.

- But meanwhile,
the Americans were also

endangering their posture,
because there was an ongoing

feud between the Americans
in New York state

and in New England.

- With General
Philip Schuyler caught

in the middle of
internal strife,

Congress forced Washington
to make a command change.

When Arnold returned
from his Fort Stanwix

expedition, he found
that Schuyler, the New Yorker,

was replaced by the New
Englander's favorite...

- "Major General Gates."

- General Horatio Gates.

- Daniel Morgan,
who had been released

in a prisoner exchange,
joined Arnold

and Gates
with his riflemen.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Among the new arrivals
are free Blacks.

Numbering over 400, these free
Black soldiers will serve

with valor at Saratoga.

- This "fighting for
freedom" became very,

very important for the free
Black, and many of them,

many of them enlisted
and volunteered to fight.

This will be the most
integrated army that

we will see until, really,
the 1960's in Vietnam.

- ♪ Somber music playing ♪

By September of 1777,
American troop strength

was building.

Altogether, more than 1,400
militia and Continental

regulars rallied to
confront Burgoyne's army.

- Arnold and Gage
moved the army up to

Bemis Heights, and that's
picked because it's high

ground right overlooking
the Hudson River.

- And it's understood that
Burgoyne, no matter what,

has to go down that valley
because of the way that his

army is being transported.

He cannot fully
separate his army from

the river, no
matter what he does.

He has to go down
the river valley.

In order for him to do that,
he has to defeat the American

defenses at Bemis Heights.

In order to do that, he has
to strike at the summit.

- Time is running
out for Burgoyne.

His supplies are short,
and he must reach

Albany before winter.

Though far from supplies
and reinforcements,

the British army
is still dangerous,

and searching for an
opportunity to deal the

Americans a decisive blow,
Oneida scouts,

allied with the Americans,
report that the

British are on the move.

On the morning
of September 19th,

Arnold hears
a cannon fire.

He knows the signal means
the British are coming.

- Arnold, who is
always very aggressive,

who wanted to be
the one attacking,

urged Gates to send the troops
forward to drive Burgoyne

back to the Hudson River.

Gates was very reluctant
to leave his defenses.

- After these two generals
were arguing back and forth,

Gates agreed to a compromise.

He said, all right, you can
order out Daniel Morgan's

riflemen and Henry Dearborn's
light infantry for support.

When the British
picket of the center

column comes to
move against them,

they fire upon
them very quickly,

doing very
direct damage.

- "Come on, boys!

Come on, let's go!"

(Men yelling)

- Daniel Morgan's
men, of course,

seeing this British retreat
of the pickets, were elated.

- Seeing confusion on
the British side,

Morgan's men
pressed the attack.

- So what does
Benedict Arnold do?

He is going to send out a
reserve for Daniel Morgan.

He's going to support him,
and he's going to support him

via individual regiments.

(Multiple guns firing)

Throughout the day,

his entire division
of the army.

- "Aim...

fire!"

Morgan's probing
maneuver has stirred

up a hornet's nest,
and the first battle

of Saratoga begins
near the farm

of a loyalist
named John Freeman.

The grand
armies trade blows.

- Arnold is able
to throw the British

back, inflict a
lot of casualties.

Arnold has the British
in a position where

they can be wiped out,

if Gates will
just counter-attack,

if Gates will
just move forward out of

his defensive positions.

- "General Gates."

- He rides back
to Gates and tells him,

here's our opportunity, we can
do it now, we can end the war.

we can defeat
him right here.

- "Sir, this is our time!

We can crush them!"

- Gates allows one
small unit to go out,

but he orders
Arnold to stay back.

- Sensing the resistance by
American forces

and the pressure
mounting against his lines,

Burgoyne sends for
Hessian troops waiting

in reserve.

But Gates refuses
to send reinforcements.

Without Arnold on the field,
the battle rages

without leadership.

Disgusted by
his commander's lack of

action, Arnold races back to
the fight, yelling,

"By God,
I will soon put an end to it!"

Gates thinks the battle
is going according

to plan and fears Arnold
may do something rash.

He sends a
young agitant to track

him down and force
him back to camp.

- "You are to return to
headquarters at once!"

♪ dark music playing ♪

That action of Gates,
when he refused to

let Arnold go back
into the battle,

and he pulls
out of the mix,

the one person who is
going to make it happen,

that speaks volumes about his
ability, or his inability,

as a battlefield leader.

The Hessians'
reinforcements join

the battle, and the
fighting intensifies.

Both sides suffer
substantial casualties,

but the British hold the
field as night approaches.

- That would be as much
as the Americans would

accomplish that day.

Without the reinforcements and
without Arnold's leadership,

nothing else was
going to happen.

They weren't going to
accomplish anything without

the one man who had
been out there leading

them all day long.

"The crash of
cannon and musketry

never ceased until
darkness parted us.

When they were
tired, they'd camp,

leaving us masters
of the field.

But it was a dear
bought victory,

if I can give it that name,
as we lost many men."

William Digby, British
53rd Light Company.

- The British
were basically stopped

in their tracks,
and they fell back.

- Arnold had proven
to the British

and to his
own satisfaction,

and to the satisfaction
of the American troops,

that they could meet the
British head-on in a face

to face battle and
hold their own.

This was crucial,
the Americans hadn't

done this before.

- "The courage with which
the Americans fought were

the astonishment of everyone,
and we've now become fully

convinced they are not the
contemptible enemy we had

hither to imagine."

Lieutenant Thomas Ambry,

British 24th Foot.

- "On this
day has bene fought one of

the greatest battles ever
fought in America,

and I trust we have convinced
the British butchers that

the cowardly Yankees can,
and where there is a

call for it, fight."

Major Henry Dearborn.

Tactically
speaking, an American loss,

but it was
strategically a victory,

because it stopped the
British on the field.

The British would have
gained the initiative,

had Benedict Arnold not
brought his division to the

field of battle.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Battlefield loss
or no battlefield loss,

it is Benedict Arnold who

strategically won the
first battle of Saratoga.

"Arnold was not only
the hero of the field,

but he had
won the admiration

of the whole army."

Captain Ebenezer Wakefield.

But his commanding officer,
General Gates,

was jealous of
the admiration and heroics

displayed by
Arnold on the battlefield.

- He wrote a report to
Congress in which he didn't

mention Arnold's name,
or Morgan's name.

He pretended that he was the
genius behind the whole thing.

Arnold took this
omission as an affront

to his personal honor,
and to the honor

of those
who served under him.

- "Stand aside!"

- Pretty soon Arnold was
storming into Gates' tent,

screaming curses at his face.

He was not a timid
soul, to put it mildly.

Arnold was infuriated,
and let me say,

every officer in any army
in the world would have been

infuriated by this
kind of treatment.

- "You have no
business calling

yourself a general!"

- That's their
bread and butter,

to get mentioned
in dispatches,

if they do something
worth mentioning,

and Arnold had done
tremendous things that day,

and he was totally ignored by
this intriguer, General Gates.

- Finally, Gates
relieves Arnold.

He takes him out of command,
tells him it's perfectly

okay for him to leave and go
back to join Washington.

The officers in
the army realized

that Gates is not the kind of
man to lead them into a fight,

and Arnold is.

They want to go into the
next battle with Arnold.

They signed a petition
for Arnold to stay.

- "I did not choose to
serve General Gates.

I will sooner see him drawn
and quartered than do anything

for him out of my line.

But Arnold,
I will cheerfully serve."

Lieutenant Richard Varick.

- "Arnold alone is due the
honor of our late victory.

He is the light and
soul of the troops,

enjoying the confidence
and affection of his

officers and soldiers.

They would, to a person,
follow him to conquest

or death."

Lieutenant
Henry Livingston.

Arnold wrote a letter to Gates,
outlining his grievances,

while reconfirming his
commitment to the cause.

- "I have every reason to
think your treatment proceeds

from a spirit of jealousy.

I do not wish to command
the army or to outshine you,

I only express my zeal for the
cause of my country in which

I expect to rise or fall.

I am determined to sacrifice
my feelings to the public

good, and continue in the army
at this critical juncture

when my country
needs every support."

- Two long weeks pass.

Despite the urging of
Arnold and other officers,

Gates refuses to go
on the offensive.

This hesitation allows the
British time to strengthen

their fortified lines.

- Burgoyne was getting
increasingly desperate.

As the weeks passed, his
supply line back to Canada was

getting weaker and weaker.

- So, he's either
got to retreat,

or he's got to attack them.

On the 7th of October,
he sends out a third of

his army in a drawing
reconnaissance of force,

to find the
American's left flank.

And when he finds it, he is
either the next day going to

attack them,
around that flank,

or withdraw back
toward Canada.

That's his plan.

- "I know
we can do it."

- Aware of
the British troop movement,

Morgan pleads with Gates
to send troops to meet them.

- "As you will, Morgan."

- "Thank you, sir."

- Finally, at 2 o'clock
in the afternoon,

Gates agrees to
"let the game begin."

The second battle
of Saratoga is unleashed,

and the fighting is fierce.

The Americans
are taking heavy losses.

Arnold, having no command
authority, waits at his

headquarters, listening to
the roar of distant cannons.

- "General Arnold.

I've received report..."

- An aide reports that
the Americans are

disorganized on the field,
and losing ground

to the British advance.

- "... are in danger."

Frustrated, he
disobeys orders.

He rallies
the man back to the fight.

The troops are inspired by
the return of their beloved

commander, and
follow him valiantly.

- "Arnold's back!"

- "The general!

The general is back!"

- When he arrives
on the scene,

the American line is
in total disarray.

- "Fall in, men!

Fall in!

Fall in!"

"Where did
the commando go to?"

The smoke,
the shrieks of the dying,

the groans
of the wounded,

the cannonballs
whizzing overhead,

it's just chaos
reigning supreme.

And then suddenly
on the battlefield,

arrives this leader,
this person that they

all know and respect.

It's Benedict Arnold, and
his presence on the field

electrifies the men, and they
are confident at that point

in this counter-attack that
he's now taking charge of,

that things are going
to turn out all right.

They're confident
that now he's here,

he knows what he's
doing, we'll follow him.

- Arnold spots
Brigadier General Simon Fraser,

one of the
most revered and accomplished

commanders of the
whole British army.

He orders Morgan to place
one of his sharpshooters

in position to kill this
crucial enemy officer.

(Gunshot) This sniper
attack on an officer was

inconceivable to
the British and their sense

of battlefield honor.

- Fraser is
mortally wounded,

and will die the next day.

He is one
of the first British

generals to be killed
in combat by a U.S. marksman.

- "The loss of
General Fraser turned

the fate of the day."

Lieutenant William Digby,
British 53rd Light Company.

- Under Arnold's
bold leadership,

they drive them back behind
fortifications designed to

protect Burgoyne's left flank.

- Blasts of British
cannon and musket

fire force
the Americans back.

- "On my command,
we will charge the redoubt!"

- The Americans find it
very difficult to advance,

as the battle
becomes a stalemate,

with each army trading
volleys of lead,

until Arnold rallies his men.

- "Forward!

Company, move out!"

- "Arnold, inspired by
the fury of a demon,

led one of the
patriot charges.

Riding in front of the
line, his eyes flashing,

with a voice that rang
clear as a trumpet,

he called upon the
men to follow him,

and he hurled them like a
tornado on the British line.

Nothing could exceed the
bravery of Arnold on this day.

There seemed to shoot out
from him a magnetic flame

that electrified his men,
and made heroes of them all."

Captain Ebenezer Wakefield.

- He breaks through
the redoubt commanded

by the highly disciplined
Hessian colonel,

Heinrich von Breymann.

Rebels pour into
the gaping hole and overwhelm

the Germans, their
pots and pans still boiling

as they flee.

Until this day, no American
commander or army ever

defeated a standing
British force in battle.

Saratoga will be the pinnacle
of Arnold's military career

as a rebel officer,
and a personal triumph

over tremendous hardship.

Fighting alongside his men,
they have overcome brutal

conditions in the
Maine wilderness,

the Canadian winter at
the walls of Quebec,

starvation and horrific
death from smallpox.

They have confronted the
Royal Navy at Lake Champlain,

and have routed
the most professional

army in the world.

And it is Benedict
Arnold who led them.

Amid the chaos,
a young Hessian soldier

fires at Arnold.

- "Our general
thought little of danger

and forced his way
though and spared none,

till a ball broke his leg
and killed his horse."

Oliver Borden,
Continental Soldier.

- American troops
rushed to his side.

Slammed to the ground by the
attacking American troops,

the young Hessian is
about to be killed.

- "No.

Spare the boy."

(Somber music playing)

- Major Henry Dearborn
asked if he was badly hurt.

Arnold is reported to
have said, "The same leg.

I wish the ball had passed
through my heart."

A messenger sent by
Gates informs him that

he is being removed from
the field of battle

for disobeying orders.

Before the
first battle of Saratoga at

Freeman's farm, Arnold had run
into a group of men from

the Connecticut militia,
and promised all of them one

thing that morning, that if
the day be long enough,

they would have all
the British in Hell

before nightfall.

Now, as the sun set at the
close of the Battles

of Saratoga, Arnold held
true to his promise,

but he could not foresee the
personal toll of victory.

- And Arnold was
carried back to his tent

in agony again,
but the Battle of Saratoga

was as good as over.

It was as good as won,
because the British now

had to retreat.

- The British were surrounded
by American forces.

After four months
of campaigning,

Burgoyne had lost over
one-third of his entire army.

He credited
Arnold publicly for,

in his words, the success
obtained over him.

And he must have known how
his failure would be received

in Parliament.

- "Under perpetual fire, I
have been with my armies in

the jaws of famine, shot
through my hat and waistcoat,

my nearest friends
killed around me.

From these combined
misfortunes,

I imagine I am reserved to
stand a war with ministers in

London, who will always lay
the blame upon the employed

who miscarries."

"I won't lose
my leg, doctor.

I will not have it amputated."

- Benedict Arnold lay
wounded in an Albany hospital...

- "Save it!"

- ...his leg shattered.

He threatened to shoot anybody
who tried to amputate it.

- ♪ Somber music playing ♪

He must have been devastated,
destroyed as a man.

He gave everything.

Gates gave nothing, and Gates
walked away with the honor,

with the glory, and the
sword of General Burgoyne.

- "Thank you, General.

I accept your
sword of surrender."

- The strategic significance
of Saratoga cannot

be overestimated.

It really is the birth of
liberty in the modern world,

because what it does, it sets
in train a set of falling

dominoes, which ultimately
lead to British defeat in

North America.

It was
Benedict Arnold,

his military skill, his
courage, his heroism,

that pushes over
the first domino.

And my word, do the
dominoes start falling.

- It shocked the British
confidence in their ability

to win the war, but
most important,

it amazed the French.

Now, they decided, maybe the
Americans can actually win

this war, and Benjamin
Franklin had been over

there in France for
well over a year,

trying to persuade them to
sign a treaty of alliance.

Finally got some attention,
and the next thing you know,

the French had signed
the treaty of alliance.

- It calls Britain's bluff.

Britain has gone to war
with a peacetime navy

and a peacetime army.

Now it's faced with
a global conflict,

which it does not have
the resources to win.

- And if Arnold had
been killed at Saratoga,

today in Washington there
would be two monuments,

one for George Washington
and one for Benedict Arnold.

- Gates is the
victor of Saratoga,

gets all of the credit,
all of the praise that comes

to the victor of such
a critical battle,

one that turns the tide
of the war, and Arnold,

who's in agony in a hospital
fighting to keep his leg,

goes into pretty
deep depression.

- His leg was
saved from amputation,

but he suffered a
long and slow recuperation.

While recovering, he had time
to reflect on all he had done

for the cause, on all
of his sacrifices.

- Now having very grave doubts
as to whether there's really

anything there at the core,
except another regime,

with another set of leaders
that are just as willful

and selfish, and potentially
tyrannical as those this

revolution seemingly
was trying to overthrow.

- Arnold was very concerned
with this idea of corruption,

he had felt that the
British system was corrupt,

and now he was starting to
wonder if perhaps the American

system was equally corrupt.

- In this depression
that he's in,

something clicks in his mind.

He makes a decision.

Others have been profiting
from the war in all kinds

of ways, he's been losing
in all kinds of ways.

He decides that for his role,
from now on he will worry

about himself, about his
family, about his money,

about his position.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

- And he will
send a letter to Washington,

and twice
in that letter,

he will say to Washington
that I wish you all good luck,

all Godspeed, all good
everything in terms of

your cause and your country.

And I think that was
an unconscious thing,

I'm not sure that Arnold
realized that he was saying

twice "your" country
to Washington.

♪ Very dark music playing ♪

He no longer
sees himself as a

vital part of the cause, in
that it is no longer really

his cause, that he has
dedicated himself to,

that he has fought
and bled over,

as he wrote so many times.

- Nevertheless, Arnold
was a Major General

in the American army,
and he needed a new assignment.

His wounded leg rendered him
incapable of taking a field

command, but Washington
wanted to reward him with

an assignment worthy
of his valor.

To Washington, Military
Governor of Philadelphia

seemed like a
suitable position.

- In Philadelphia,
after the British left,

you started to
see almost a mob rule.

It was a pretty
chaotic situation.

You had the patriots who were
hanging those who cooperated

with the British during the
occupation, no due process,

no trial, it was
really just a lynching.

- When the British army
abruptly ended their

occupation of Philadelphia,
they left behind a deeply

divided community.

- Arnold, as the military
administrator of Philadelphia,

has to deal with
these tensions.

No matter what he does, he's
going to infuriate somebody.

Again, this is a man
extremely sensitive to

people attacking his
reputation on any grounds.

- Even thought
the British military

had withdrawn
from Philadelphia,

remnants of British
high society remained.

Young women of the upper
class had grown accustomed

to the company
and social life of the handsome

and courtly British officers.

But the radical patriots in
Philadelphia disapproved

of anything resembling
a British lifestyle.

- They were suspicious.

Who harbors
loyalist sympathies?

Who can be trusted?

Rumors and whispers of
conspiracies were rampant.

- This, unfortunately, is the
world Benedict Arnold entered,

a snake pit of gossip
and backbiting.

He was a man of action,
not an astute politician.

- Peggy Shippen,
a young socialite,

caught his eye.

She had come of age during the
carefree days of flirtations

with the young
British officers,

and continued correspondence
with some of them at their

new post in New York City.

Though her prominent
Quaker family was neutral,

many in Philadelphia
believed that her family held

loyalist sympathies.

- It was no surprise
that as a widower,

Arnold was interested in her.

They courted, married, and
moved into one of the finest

homes in Philadelphia, but
that really strained his

already weakened finances.

- Arnold spent a lot
of his own money during

the course of the revolution to
support his troops.

Congress owed him a
considerable amount of money,

and they were very
stingy about repaying it,

yet another thing that
caused Arnold to start

feeling discontent.

- To earn a living, Arnold
returned to the business

he knew, trading.

But some of his partners were
other Philadelphians who

had conducted businesses
during the time of

the British occupation.

♪ dark music playing ♪

In the eyes of
the radical patriots,

these associations
looked suspicious.

- It certainly didn't
look pretty, you know,

and it didn't look virtuous.

Patriotism is supposed
to be about virtue.

- He was hardly
alone in his troubles with

the radicals in Philadelphia
and members of Congress.

Following a long
winter when American

soldiers were left
starving at Valley Forge,

there were many hard
feelings between military

and civilian leaders.

Arnold was deeply offended by
the neglect of the soldiers.

- "Our soldiers starve
in a land of plenty."

- People have been
at war for five years.

This is not an easy win.

It's 1780-81,
they still don't know that

they're going to win this.

How many more years
is this going to go?

- By 1780,
the war had devastated

entire families.

Arnold was personally
concerned for the widow

and young children of
Dr. Joseph Warren,

an admired
Massachusetts leader,

who had fallen at the
Battle of Bunker Hill.

His death left his wife
and children destitute.

- Arnold felt that it
was grossly unfair,

and it was part of the lack of
respect that he was starting

to recognize, or starting
to become aware of,

by the powers that be.

He conducted
a private fund drive on behalf

of Warren's family, and
contributed a generous

sun of his own money.

He pressed Congress to
establish a pension fund

for all the families
of fallen officers,

but the delegates
would not fund it.

Arnold finally persuaded the
delegates to pay Warren's

widow half of her
husband's salary.

- Ironically, the delegates
from Warren's own state

of Massachusetts
abstained on the vote.

- He comes to doubt, in
some form or another,

what the American
cause is about,

and what the
Americans are doing.

- He was starting to see
that perhaps the Continental

Congress didn't view the
revolution in the same idyllic

way that he did, that they
didn't have what he thought

were the proper principles
that should be underpinning

the revolution.

- Years of
high idealism, sacrifice,

and selflessness gave way
to complete disillusionment.

This disillusionment led
him to begin a secret

correspondence with a British
officer, Major John André,

whom his wife had known during
the British occupation

of Philadelphia.

Arnold signed the letters
"George Monck."

This choice of alias may
reveal his motivation.

George Monck is considered
a British hero to this day,

because he turned against
his own revolution and helped

restore the British Monarchy
back to power in 1659,

sparing his country years
of bloody civil war.

- One of Arnold's most
relentless critics

was Joseph Reed,
a leader among the city's

radical patriots.

Reed and the radicals were
behind an appalling reign

of terror, arresting and
executing Tories and Quakers

who had cooperated with
the British occupiers.

Not content with that, they'd
even seized their property.

- Arnold ended this
abuse in profiteering,

so these self-proclaimed
patriots turned on him.

Reed wanted Arnold
removed as Military Governor

of the city.

He went to General Washington
and demanded that Arnold be

court-marshalled for
a minor infraction.

He had used government wagons
to transport his business

partner's merchandise
from the port to the shops

in the city.

- More concerned about his
personal honor than the money,

Arnold offered to pay for
the use of the wagons.

Reed, however, wanted
to disgrace Arnold.

He continued to
press Washington,

threatening to pull
the Pennsylvania militia

out of the war.

- Already reeling from
numerous battlefield setbacks

and a lack of support
from Congress,

Washington bowed
to Reed's pressure.

In an attempt to appease him,
Washington issued a formal

public reprimand of Arnold.

- This was Washington,
who was supposed to

be his friend,
supposed to be the person

who was backing him.

A fellow soldier,
a fellow officer,

and he's reprimanding him.

Arnold felt betrayed.

- Arnold requested
and received from

Washington command of the
strategic fortification on

the Hudson River, West Point.

They key to the continent.

♪ dark music playing ♪

Major John André,
the the British officer

Arnold has been secretly
corresponding with,

is traveling back
to his post in New York City

following his
clandestent meeting

with Arnold.

Having missed his rendezvous
with a British vessel,

he must now travel through
a dangerous no-man's land

between enemy lines.

It is crawling with bandits.

Out of uniform and disguised
in civilian clothes,

if he is captured, he
will be considered a spy.

He is stopped
by three armed men.

In this region, André is not
sure if they are loyalists,

rebels, or thieves looking
to steal his wool coat

and fine leather boots.

They force him to disrobe.

Hidden in his stockings,
they find papers and plans

detailing the American
defenses at West Point,

and a pass
signed by the commander,

General Benedict Arnold.

André is arrested,
and the suspicious papers

are sent to
George Washington,

who was on his way to
West Point for a

scheduled inspection.

A message is also
sent directly to Arnold

at West Point, informing him
that André has been captured.

The instant Arnold receives
the message, he flees.

- "Please don't
kill my baby.

please!"

- When Washington arrives
at Arnold's residence,

Peggy is hysterical.

- "Get away from my baby!"

- The unthinkable
becomes obvious.

Benedict Arnold has turned.

- Washington didn't believe that
Peggy had any part of this,

and he let her go.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

Once released,
Peggy joined her husband

in the
British-occupied city

of New York.

- Washington is devastated.

He proclaimed, "Arnold
has betrayed us.

Whom can we trust now?"

- Attempting to
defend his decision,

Arnold wrote a letter to
his once beloved commander,

George Washington.

- "I have ever acted from
a principle of love

to my country.

The same principle of
love to my country actuates

my present conduct,
however it may appear

inconsistent to the world,
who very seldom judge

right of any man's actions."

- The end of the Declaration,
where Jefferson writes those

poignant words,
"to this we commit our lives,

our fortunes,
and our sacred honor, "

Arnold had
already done that.

He had already
risked his life,

he'd already been
grievously wounded.

He had already spent a
considerable amount

of his fortune.

- I think there was a
contract in the Declaration

of Independence.

Clear ideals, so beautifully
set out by Jefferson in

the Declaration, being
abandoned and being betrayed,

whether on the
battlefield or off,

and yet Arnold had
actually remained faithful

to those ideals.

There's only so much,
I think, that someone who

has given so
very much to a cause,

and then finds that
the cause has betrayed him.

- I think Arnold
was ultimately

disgusted with what
had happened to him,

what had happened
to the revolution.

- The story of Arnold's career
as a leading revolutionary,

from his point of view, was
a story of one betrayal after

another betrayal after
another betrayal.

- In many respects, America
more betrayed Benedict Arnold

than Arnold betrayed America.

- He also
explained his actions in an

open letter to the people that
was published in newspapers

throughout the Colonies.

- "To the inhabitants
of America,

I was only solicitous to
accomplish an event of

decisive importance, and to
prevent as much as possible in

the execution of it,
the affusion of blood.

Reunion with the British
Empire is the best and only

means to dry up the streams
of misery that have deluged

this country."

- Arnold is
the big figure, here,

because he essentially
deserted the American cause

in a big way, and went
to the other side.

But there were other soldiers
who did the same thing.

- Arnold was an extreme
case, and of course,

his case led to
dire consequences.

But his resentments,
his fears, his concern

that the army
was not properly supported,

that the officers were
not properly appreciated,

were widely shared throughout
the officers' corps by 1780.

- And the British were hoping
that war officers were going

to follow Arnold's
example and come over.

So, obviously, the Congress
and Washington had to make

Arnold's actions as
evil and villainous

as they possibly could.

They had to portray this as
the most heinous of crimes

to discourage anyone
else from going over.

- "Treason of the blackest dye
was discovered yesterday."

- "Arnold, vile, treacherous,
in leagued with Satan. "

- "Never, since
the fall of Lucifer,

has a fall equaled his."

- "Curses of ages
will attend your name.

Traitors alone will
glory in your shame."

Even John Henry,
the soldier Arnold had

once saved during
the Quebec campaign,

vilified him.

- When he wrote his memoirs,
he told this story about how

Arnold helped him along the
way, out of his own pocket.

But later in the
diary in his memoir,

he couldn't help but
mention that Arnold,

from his point of view, was
a very greedy individual.

- These people were so angry
at what Arnold had done,

it actually started to
bring people together,

to sort of unify the cause.

- Many have argued that if
Benedict Arnold's plot

had succeeded, it would have
dealt a devastating blow

to the American cause.

- For the British,
it also was a terrible time,

and they did not have
the political will,

the did not
have the military resources,

and they did not have the
money to press on to victory.

So even if the Arnold-André
conspiracy had succeeded,

it would not have made any
difference to the outcome

of the Revolutionary War.

♪ Somber music playing ♪

In the spring of 1781,
British troops under

Arnold's command
raided Richmond, Virginia.

In September of the same year,
he attacked his home

state of Connecticut.

Fires set by the invading
force resulted in the burning

and destruction of New London.

But as a British General,
Benedict Arnold had no

significant impact on
the war or its outcome,

and he was never fully trusted
by senior British officers.

But Arnold was just so good.

He showed up the laziness,
the ineptitude of many

of the British officer corps.

- After the war, Arnold
resumed his business in

shipping ventures,
operating out of a

loyalist community in Canada.

But he was never
forgotten by some of

the men who followed
him into battle.

One soldier happened across
his path while working

on the docks in Nova Scotia.

He did not have the heart to
approach his old commander.

In 1792, Benedict and
Peggy moved to London.

Besieged by asthma, gout,
and torturous pain in his

twice-wounded leg, Arnold
struggled to keep himself

going, until June 14th, 1801.

- "He died after
a week's severe illness

and great suffering."

Peggy Arnold.

- His death was hardly
noted in the London press.

- ♪ Somber music playing ♪

One of the
most impressive

Revolutionary War monuments
sits atop of a hill,

and this is a very
tall monument,

and it's at the center
of Surrender Field.

As you look up, you'll see
a statue of Philip Schuyler.

You continue around, you'll
see a statue of Daniel Morgan,

and you'll continue around to
the third side and you'll see

a statue of Horatio Gates,
all leaders in this great

American victory at Saratoga.

But as you continue
around to the fourth side,

you look up and you're going
to see an empty casing where

that statue of that
fourth person would be,

and obviously, that is the
place of Benedict Arnold.

- In a small
chapel at West Point,

plaques memorialize Generals
of the war for independence.

One plaque has no name, only
a date of birth and rank.

It is Benedict
Arnold's plaque.

- There is a stone monument
at Saratoga National Historic

Park, depicting a boot.

It has no name, only an
inscription memorializing a

general's sacrifice and
injury on the battlefield.

He had joined the patriot cause
for the ideals of liberty in

a society that rewards merit.

Instead, he encountered an
arbitrary system of personal

favoritism and cronyism.

For well over 200 years,
Americans have not appreciated

Benedict Arnold's vital
contribution to the fight for

American independence.

Now we're left to wonder,
did Benedict Arnold betray

his country?

Or did his
country betray him?