Please disable your Ad Blocker to better interact with this website.

MENU

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Written by:

Published on: August 30, 2014

Benedict Arnold was one of America’s most popular leaders for capturing Fort Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen, and for leading a daring charge at the Battle of Saratoga, though he disobeyed an order to do it.

A court-marshal cleared Benedict Arnold of wrong, but his loyalist wife, Peggy, felt the Americans did not appreciate him.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

She developed a relationship with a British spy in Philadelphia, Major John Andre, with whom, in 1779, she finally got her husband to make contact.

Meanwhile, in 1779, the Continental Congress declared a Day of Public Prayer to Almighty God, which Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson observed by signing a State Proclamation of Prayer:

“Congress…hath thought proper…to recommend to the several States…a day of public and solemn Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for his mercies, and of Prayer, for the continuance of his favour… That He would go forth with our hosts and crown our arms with victory; That He would grant to His church, the plentiful effusions of Divine Grace, and pour out His Holy Spirit on all Ministers of the Gospel; That He would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth… I do therefore…issue this proclamation…appointing…a day of public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God…Given under by hand…this 11th day of November, in the year of our Lord,
1779…Thomas Jefferson.”

The next spring, April 6, 1780, General Washington issued the order from his headquarters at Morristown:

“Congress having been pleased by their Proclamation of the 11th of last month to appoint Wednesday the 22nd instant to be set apart and observed as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer…there should be no labor or recreations on that day.”

On August 3, 1780, General Benedict Arnold was put in charge of West Point and immediately began weakening its defenses.

He neglected repairs and removed supplies, all the while complaining to General Washington of shortages.

By AUGUST 30, 1780, General Benedict Arnold made his decision final.

Through British spy John Andre, Arnold conspired with British General Henry Clinton to surrender West Point for 20,000 pounds, equivalent to a million dollars today.

West Point was a very strategic fort on the Hudson River.

It not only controlled the entire Hudson River Valley, extending from near Canada in the north to New York City in the south, but it effectively divided colonial America in half, with the New England Colonies to the east and Middle and Southern Colonies to the west.

Therefore, the surrender of West Point would have split the country and cost Americans the War.

In addition to this, General George Washington was planning on visiting West Point to inspect its defense on the exact day the fort was to be betrayed.

British spy Major John Andre met with General Arnold the night before.

Andre then left, dressed as a civilian, to return to the British lines.

Providentially, some American sentries spotted him in the woods and stopped him.

With unusual curiosity, the sentries searched him once, then twice, and just before letting him go, they decided to search his boots.

There, in the heel of the boot, they found the folded up map of West Point with instructions on where to attack.

The American sentries arrested John Andre and immediately sent word to General Benedict Arnold, who was waiting for General Washington to arrive for breakfast.

John Jay, serving as an aide to Washington, arrived first, but found Benedict Arnold had already fled, as his plan was now known.

Arnold escaped to the British ship HMS Vulture, and, joining the British ranks, he later fought and killed Americans.

After the British refused an offer to exchange Andre for Arnold, the Continental Army hung British Major John Andre as a spy.

General George Washington wrote September 26, 1780:

“Treason of the blackest dye was yesterday discovered! General Arnold who commanded at West Point, was about to…give the American cause a deadly wound if not fatal stab. Happily the treason had been timely discovered to prevent the fatal misfortune. The providential train of circumstances which led to its discovery affords the most convincing proof that the Liberties of America are the object of divine Protection.”

On May 8, 1783, Yale President Ezra Stiles stated:

“A providential miracle at the last minute detected the treacherous scheme of traitor Benedict Arnold, which would have delivered the American army, including George Washington himself, into the hands of the enemy.”

The Continental Congress issued a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1780:

“In the late remarkable interposition of His watchful providence, in the rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the moment when treason was ripened for execution… It is therefore recommended…a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer…to confess our unworthiness…and to offer fervent supplications to the God of all grace…to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth.”

John Jay, who was later appointed by George Washington as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, stated September 8, 1777:

“This glorious revolution…distinguished by so many marks of the Divine favor and interposition…in a manner so singular, and I may say miraculous, that when future ages shall read its history they will be tempted to consider a great part of it as fabulous… Will it not appear extraordinary…like the emancipation of the Jews from Egyptian servitude.”

Become an insider!

Sign up to get breaking alerts from Sons of Liberty Media.

Don't forget to like SonsOfLibertyMedia.com on Facebook and Twitter.
The opinions expressed in each article are the opinions of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of SonsOfLibertyMedia.com.

Trending on The Sons of Liberty Media