Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War

Battle of Ticonderoga
Prior to the war Arnold became a captain in the Governor's Second Company of Guards. Eager for action, Arnold and his men marched off to Cambridge and asked for the commission of the Massachusetts committee of safety to capture Fort Ticonderoga. Along the way Arnold’s group met up with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. Despite their differences the groups successfully captured the fort on May 10th by surprising the British Garrison. As the Green Mountain Boys raided the rum stores Arnold was in an argument about credit in capture of the fort. Arnold lost the argument and he received very little credit in the report to Congress.
Arnold was about to proceed with his own plans until the Massachusetts Committee placed Arnold under the command Colonel Benjamin Hinman. This put Arnold over the edge enough that he dismissed his troops and turned in a resignation as a Massachusetts Militia Colonel.
When Arnold was heading to Connecticut he met Major General Philip Schuyler and urged him to take Canada. Major General Schuyler then developed a plan to take Fort St. Johns at the northern end of Lake Champlain, down the Richelieu River to Montreal. This plan got Arnold reinvigorated with the American cause and he proposed to Congress that in concert with Major General Schuyler’s plan that another force should attack Quebec City by traveling up the Kennebec River in Maine and descending the Chaudière River. Arnold believed that capturing Montreal and Quebec would gain the support of the colonists of Canada. Congress accepted Arnold’s plan and commissioned him as a Colonel under General Schuyler. General Schuyler gave Arnold a free hand to do whatever he wanted.

America’s Hannibal
Washington had a great deal of...

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...ith British Major John André to reveal secret defenses of West Point, New York for money and command in the British Army. This attempt to leak information to the enemy side failed due to British Major John André getting captured in September of 1780 and getting hanged in October. Knowing that his collaborator was captured with papers incriminating him for treason, Arnold escaped to the British side before the patriots could seize him.
After defecting to the British side Arnold received remuneration which included pay land in Canada, pensions for himself and a commission as British Provincial brigadier general. Even though the British provided for Arnold they never truly trusted him and only allowed him to serve in minor engagements with the Americans. One of these engagements was in 1781 where he led the British attack against Virginia destroying the Virginian Navy