Benedict Arnold Research Paper

Benedict Arnold was born on January 14. 1741, in Norwich, Connecticut. At the young age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to an apothecary. He was briefly part of the Connecticut and New York militias during the French and Indian War. He, however, never took part in any military actions at the time. After the war was over, he continued to work as an apothecary and as a book seller. He was also a smuggler of both sugar and rum. Later, Arnold joined the Continental Army in April 1775 when the Revolutionary War broke out. Once the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, he proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety a plan to capture Fort Ticonderoga. The Committee made Arnold colonel and ordered him to enlist as many as 400 men to

He quickly went up north to meet up with them. After some intense negotiations, Allen and Arnold agreed to share command and they successfully captured the Fort on May 10, 1775. Later, in the fall of 1775, Arnold led an ill-fated expedition from Maine to Quebec. The purpose of the expedition was to get people from Canada behind the Patriot cause and to deprive the British of their northern base, which was going to strike into the 13 colonies. The desperate attack was launched on December 31, 1775 in a blizzard. Early in the battle, Benedict Arnold received a wound to his left leg. This was not the only catosphere because many other American soldiers were either killed, wounded, or captured. This resulted in a loss for Arnold and Canada still remained in British hands. By the end of 1776, Arnold recovered from his wound and once again took to the battlefield. He played a pivotal role in hindering a British invasion from Canada into New York in the fall. In October of 1776, he directed the construction of a small fleet of ships on Lake Champlain in New York. Under Arnold’s command, the fleet engaged the British fleet in Valcour Bay near the western shore in mid-October. Although his fleet was defeated, its presence on the lake caused the British plans to invade New York to be impeded for another