The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold

Joyce Lee Malcolm

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781643132396
• eBook ISBN:
  9781681778167
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

History remembers this proud, talented, and conflicted man solely through the lens of his last desperate act of treason. Yet the fall of Benedict Arnold remains one of the Revolutionary period's great puzzles. Why did a brilliant military commander, who repeatedly risked his life fighting the British, who was grievously injured in the line of duty, and fell into debt personally funding his own troops, ultimately became a traitor to the patriot cause? Throughout, Malcolm weaves in portraits of Arnold's great allies—George Washington, General Schuyler, his beautiful and beloved wife Peggy Shippen, and others—as well as his unrelenting enemy John Adams, British General Clinton, and master spy John Andre. Thrilling and thought-provoking, The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold sheds new light on a man—as well on the nuanced and complicated time in which he lived.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• One: The Price of Honor
• Two: Great Expectations
• Three: Descent
• Four: The Fortunes of War
• Five: Taking Charge
• Six: Smooth and Choppy Waters
• Seven: Love, Marriage, Duels, and Honor
• Eight: “My Country Called”
• Nine: The Race to Seize Forts
• Ten: Buried in the Public Calamity
• Eleven: Honor in a “Direful Howling Wilderness”
• Twelve: A Fierce Attack, A Winter Siege
• Thirteen: Defending the Lakes
• Fourteen: Don’t Tread on Me
• Fifteen: “Besmirched Honor”
• Sixteen: Savage Warfare
• Seventeen: Defending New York, Again
• Eighteen: The Fatal Blow
• Nineteen: The Wages of Victory
• Twenty: The Eye of The Storm
• Twenty-One: The Court-Martial
• Twenty-Two: Becoming Gustavus Monk
• Twenty-Three: Treason
• Twenty-Four: Bridges Burned
• Twenty-Five: Afterword
• Final Thoughts
• Acknowledgments
• Endnotes
• Illustrations Insert
• Index
• Also by Joyce Lee Malcolm
• Copyright