Unmasking Betrayal: The Complex Loyalties of Benedict Arnold

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Benedict Arnold: led like sheep to slaughter “We fight for those who repress us, but we will betray those who adore us”; that’s what my father used to always tell me. My father and I were inseparable, we did everything together, I remember every afternoon when my mom and sister went to the market to fetch supplies for supper, my father and I would gather wood from the old maples behind the house. However, one afternoon instead of getting wood from the maple trees we got it from the Andre’s house across the way. The Andre’s were a wealthy family that served at the pleasure of the crown. Their son John was one of my close friends, who also wanted to be a British solider just like his father and his father’s father. John was always the helpful …show more content…

I have not heard from my Lieutenant about the battle erupting outside my quarters for hours. When I exit my quarters I can see Lieutenant Revere running up to me with a limp in his foot. “General, the normals have advanced passed the defense and are heading this way to collect your head!” “How many men do we have left Lieutenant?” I asked. “Less than two-thousand sir.” “And even those men can’t fight sir.” He added. “Well Lieutenant, round up those who can fight and tell them we advance on the Redcoats at dusk!” As I walk around to evaluate the soldiers who can fight, I am dismayed at the sight. Only a quarter of the able body soldiers do not have a bullet in their body or a splint around their legs. By the time we are ready to advance, I can only bring eleven hundreds of the men out of the nineteen hundred to fight alongside me. Just when my eleven hundred soldiers and I were getting ready to set out, I receive a letter that was intercepted from the British. The men who intercepted the letter claimed to have a prisoner who was suspected of delivering the letter, his name was Abraham Woodhull. As I process that name I can recall the moment when General Washington gave him a piece of paper and whispered something in his ear. I wondered if this was the letter given to him by Washington. The only way I could be certain was to read the letters content. The letter read as

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