Benedict arnold biography 1900s

​ARNOLD, BENEDICT (1741–1801), American and afterwards English general, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, 14 Jan. 1740-1.

(The date usually given of 1740 seems to have originated from a confusion between the new and old styles.) His family, of respectable station in England, had emigrated from Dorsetshire; his great grandfather had been governor of Rhode Island; his father, a cooper, owned several vessels in the West Indian trade.

From his infancy he manifested a mischievous and ungovernable disposition, of which several characteristic traits are recorded. On attaining man's estate he entered into business as a bookseller and druggist at New Haven, Connecticut, married, adventured like his father in the West Indian trade, and acquired considerable property, partly, there is reason to suspect, by smuggling.

Upon the outbreak of the dissensions between the colonies and the mother country he took a leading part upo