BENEDICT ARNOLD’S TREASON EXPOSED

Benedict Arnold’s treason exposed

Two days after André’s capture, events reached a crisis on September 25th, 1780, when General Washington traveled to inspect West Point and discovered that Benedict Arnold had fled. Warned that his British contact had been seized with incriminating papers, Arnold abandoned his command and raced down the Hudson to reach a British warship waiting offshore. His sudden disappearance and the documents found on André confirmed that a senior American general, once celebrated for his bravery at earlier battles, had agreed to deliver a major stronghold to the enemy. Officers and soldiers on both sides of the Atlantic were stunned that a man with such a record would turn his coat in exchange for money and rank in the British Army. The fortress itself remained in American hands, but the psychological damage was real, forcing Washington and his officers to think hard about loyalty, promotion, and grievance within a revolutionary army that depended on personal honor as much as formal institutions. Arnold’s name would become a lasting American synonym for treason.