Arnold, Benedict, Continental army officer and traitor

Autograph letter signed ("B Arnold"), 1 1/2 pages (8 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 227 x 185 mm), Penzance, 16 January 1782, to an unknown correspondent [? Lord Germain], with integral blank bearing reception docket; center fold separating body of letter from the blank. 

Autograph letter signed ("B Arnold"), 1 1/2 pages (8 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 227 x 185 mm), Penzance, 16 January 1782, to an unknown correspondent [? Lord Germain], with integral blank bearing reception docket; center fold separating body of letter from the blank.
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Arnold in England. After the failure of his plan to surrender West Point to the British, Arnold was commissioned a brigadier general in the British army and led marauding expeditions in Virginia and Connecticut. He sailed for England with his family in mid-December 1781, and this letter, covering the delivery of dispatches from Sir Henry Clinton, must needs date to shortly after their arrival. "On the 15th Ulto. a Fleet of one hundred & twenty odd Merchantmen, under Convoy of the Robust & James sailed from New York, for Portsmouth. a few days after the Fleet sailed most of the convoy parted in a gale of wind. on the 25th the Robust sprang a Leake & bore away for the West Indies. on the 27th Lord Cornwallis his suite, & a number of Officers who came Passengers in the Robust left her, when Capt. Corby requested me to take charge of Sir Henry Clintons Dispatches for your Lordship, which Capt. Ramsey will have the honor to deliver, to whom I beg leave to refer your Lordship for particulars." Clinton, who had earlier secured Arnold's treasonous alliance, had resigned in May 1781 as commander of the British forces in North America.

The letter closes with Arnold's comments on the effect of the winter sea voyage: "Mrs. Arnold being with me & both her & myself much fatigued prevents my doing myself the honor of Delivering these Dispatches for myself." Arnold was consulted about the conduct of the war and argued for continuance of the conflict. However, when the party of North and Germain, under which he was induced to defect, went out of power, Arnold found himself increasingly unpopular in England.  He spent the rest of his life between Canada and England with a foray into outfitting privateers during the war with France, in which he lost more than he gained.  Arnold died a broken man in 1801.