Benedict Arnold

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Benedict Arnold’s Other Story
The story of Benedict Arnold's heroism on behalf of America, especially on Lake Champlain, is largely unknown, and it's the story we want to tell here. We'll leave those dark facts of his later defection and traitorous ways to historians. He gets plenty of bad press there...and deserves it too.
As the American Revolution began, Arnold volunteered to lead 1000 men up through the woods of Maine to attack British Canada by surprise, through its back door, at Quebec City (Brody, pg. 126). This journey, which is still talked about in that part of the country, proved to be a disaster for the volunteers who marched off. Half starved, frozen, and making broth by boiling their own shoe leather and cartridge boxes, they stumbled out of the wilds 50 days later...with 40% of them dead (Brody, pg. 126-127). Many believed they would have all perished were it not for Arnold's courage and leadership in those woods.
Valiant battles against overwhelming odds lay ahead through the winter in Canada, but the expedition failed. In June of 1776, Arnold, badly wounded he, led his ravaged men away from Montreal toward the North end of Lake Champlain (Randall, “Lake Champlain”). The British were hot on his trail. He was the last American to leave Canada, having seen to the task of burning anything of value behind. Waiting in the dark, and with one boat left to carry him to safety, he heard the British soldiers march to within musket range. An ardent horse lover, he spurred his steed to the water's edge, then shot it with a single bullet to the head, removed the saddle, and pushed off in his boat.
After rowing, almost a hundred miles, his army finally found safety on July 7th near the Southern end of our lake...at Fort Amherst on Crown Point. They literally crawled into the battered fortification. A Council of War with the American officers stationed at the garrison was under way, and without so much as a bath, Arnold imm...